I haven't updated in a while due to us moving and all of the work that went into that. I have still made progress on the bike though.
Tank Emblems
Here is what I was starting with, there was almost no paint left on these. Originally these were chromed metal badges that were painted in most places.
They do make reproduction badges, but they are close to $100 a set so I thought I could refinish what I had. I soda blasted the badges and masked the raised letters for painting to do the white and then re-masked for the black inlay and painted that. I think some of the problem with the missing paint stems from them being on the gas tank and getting splashed with gas from time to time. To try and help this I also applied some engine clear coat and baked the emblems to get it set. I did find that baking the clear coat like you are supposed to did cause a slight yellow tint, but its hardly noticeable. Here is the finished product.
Here it is on the cleaned up tank.
I thought I was going to have to repaint the tank, but when I cleaned it up and polished the paint it looked pretty good. There was just a scratch in the decal on one side so at some point I may replace the decals. So here is the reassembly so far.
I also managed to redo the seat which was much more damaged than I originally thought, I will do that update soon. Once it warms up here I will work on the last few things and try and crank it up for the first time.
Tank Emblems
Here is what I was starting with, there was almost no paint left on these. Originally these were chromed metal badges that were painted in most places.
They do make reproduction badges, but they are close to $100 a set so I thought I could refinish what I had. I soda blasted the badges and masked the raised letters for painting to do the white and then re-masked for the black inlay and painted that. I think some of the problem with the missing paint stems from them being on the gas tank and getting splashed with gas from time to time. To try and help this I also applied some engine clear coat and baked the emblems to get it set. I did find that baking the clear coat like you are supposed to did cause a slight yellow tint, but its hardly noticeable. Here is the finished product.
Here it is on the cleaned up tank.
I thought I was going to have to repaint the tank, but when I cleaned it up and polished the paint it looked pretty good. There was just a scratch in the decal on one side so at some point I may replace the decals. So here is the reassembly so far.
I also managed to redo the seat which was much more damaged than I originally thought, I will do that update soon. Once it warms up here I will work on the last few things and try and crank it up for the first time.
