Update! Been working every other day on the bike, typically at night after I get home from work. The weather is getting nicer here in the Twin Cities, which has enabled me to work in the garage without dying from exposure (we had one of the worst winters here in terms of temperature in a long time). I had the master cylinder, front caliper, gas tank flap, gas cap, muffler bracket, and side covers bead-blasted this past week. The rear Lucas-style taillight arrived, and new mounting holes have been drilled for it. Both front and rear fenders are now at the metal shop to have the old holes filled in. The front fender is also being welded back together after the 6-inch chop. Once they come back, I can ship all of the color parts off to the painter's for some atomic orange.
Bought a 5-gallon polyethylene pail and 2.5 gallons of kerosene, and then added a can of chlorinated brake/carb cleaner solvent from Gunk to make a parts soaking/cleaning bucket. The carb cleaner will help make the kerosene (a mixture of longer-chain hydrocarbons) more soluble in water so the parts can be cleaned up afterwards. I dropped most of the rear hub components into the solvent for a few days and then took a toothbrush to everything to really get the grime out. Man, that kerosene/brake cleaner solvent works miracles. It's nasty as hell, and I strongly recommend running a high-velocity fan next to your work area, but it's completely worth it. Very little effort required to fully remove (or least loosen) just about any carbonaceous build-up. Check out the rear hub flange below.
I sent off the brake lines and pipe to
Spiegel's to have them fabricate new custom lines for me. They needed the caliper pipe piece in order to determine a replacement fitting for that section. I'm going with chrome banjo fittings and smoke-colored tubing. I really like the style of their fittings, with the swivel joint to prohibit twisting.
The master cylinder components, brake caliper housing, and rear axle sprocket plate will be sent off for black powder coating in the near future. I've chosen to go with
vapor blasting to clean and prep all of the engine parts that will eventually get powder-coated, as well as the front and rear hubs. I'm just really impressed with the way things turn out from that site and others here on SOHC4 after vapor blasting, so I'm giving it a go. I just need to pull the cylinder studs from the upper crankcase, as well as pick out some pass-through seals to get it ready for shipping. I've spent a lot of time cleaning and preparing the various aluminum cover parts via wet sanding with a Scothbrite pad, hot water, and a little dish soap.
The front and rear wheel rims, fork lowers, valve breather cover, valve cover end caps, stator cover, and the front fender support bracket have all been sent off to Brown's plating in KY for poilshing or re-chroming. The rims and fender bracket are steel and so will be re-chromed while the others will merely be polished.
I've decided to powder-coat the front and rear hubs, as well as the rear brake cover, instead of polishing them to a mirror-like shine. I figured these parts are going to get the most abuse most rapidly once the bike is on the road, and I'd rather have something that's a little easier to clean and perhaps more durable. I am undecided about what color to go with, however... I'm debating between the stock engine/aluminum color, matte black, maybe dark gray/smoke... ugh. I can't decide. The wheel rims are being chromed, which I think will give a nice look against the shiny black tires. Spokes could be stainless steel. Since my frame is metallic silver (see below) I'm leaning more towards something closer to black, which will fit the theme of splashes of black here and there against a sea of silver, chrome, and aluminum. I'm trying to envision it and I just can't determine if I like it or not. What to do, what to do...
Poll: what color hubs to use to match this frame? Black, smoke, polishing aluminum, engine-color aluminum?
