Thanks for all the great responses, guys!
Dave, I researched color choices and the best sellers back in the day were the Sunrise Orange bikes; that's how the color was chosen. I've had more than one observer remark on the "'70s vibe" that the flake orange gives off...
Wobbly, Guido, Stev-o, Cal,
et al, thanks for the appreciations. They mean a lot... I plan to keep her in as close to this condition as I can, so it'll be an ongoing project in that regard. Wish I had taken a before shot, but with all of the changes the bike's gone through it just wouldn't be valid (new frame, engine, etc). The opening shot of the thread is as close to a "before" shot as I have...
As far as riding the bike is concerned, that will definitely happen, though it won't be every day. I'm thinking I might take part in next year's rally (if there is one), and there's plenty of other things I'd like to do with her like vintage car shows, parades, and so on (not to mention riding just for the fun of it), so she's not going to strictly be a garage queen.
I write music, perform in a band and have a music studio upstairs, and right now we're in the middle of recording a new album. When we're finished mixing, we'll ship the tracks off to a professional for something called "Mastering". They have all kinds of fancy-schmancy equipment that will take our efforts and make them sound like we spent a million bucks on them. We do the initial work, the pros make it shine.
Once I get the bike running well, I'm going to have it "Mastered" by the pros at a vintage bike specialist in Denver just to make sure she runs as well as she looks. Once I get her dialed in, I shouldn't have too much trouble keeping her going. I'll be making arrangements for that this week and will keep all informed as to how that goes.
Next project? I've been working on a brake thread for a while now, so I'll probably finish that up; and I have a spare engine that I'm leaning toward doing a rebuild on, so that's a possibility but, frankly, I'm ready for a break, if you know what I mean...
For now, I'll be working on the final post of the build thread, which should be posted in the next week or so.
Again, thanks to everyone for your kind words. I appreciate it.