'78K Resto-Mod-"HaCkJoB"

[shinyribs]

 My truck snapped a lower balljoint Christmas day. I was headed over to my gf's house. Started the truck,put it in gear,let off the brake and PLOP! Drivers front just crashed into the dirt. I seriously thank God that it didn't happen going down the highway!Well,once I got into the front end of the truck i realized the whole shooting match was dead. All 4 balljoints and both inner tierods were on the way out.Well,actually the tierods were fine,the crash landing just wasted them when the sway bar shoved them into the ground. It really sucks to be replacing all these parts in the mud. 40+mph winds.Sleet and freezing rain falling.All the while I'm less than 100' from the barn,but the truck cant roll to reach my air tools or concrete floor.Funfunfun!lol  Nice little $400 dollar setback So,I'm broke-but still working! There's still lots to do that doesn't require spending money.


Frame is coated. Satin black and oh,so nice! Chunky did me solid on this one. He allowed me to modify his oven to get her in there. 1/4'' clearance on both sides!


Mirror Black on the hubs. I took about two dozen pics of these and never got one that really did them justice. You can truly see your reflection in these hubs.Standard gloss black powder is 78-82% gloss. Super gloss is 85-87%. Mirror Black is 97%

[Hoosier Daddy]

DAMN!
Like you said, aweful lucky you weren't doing 60mph when that ball joint let go.
WOW! *shudder*

[shinyribs]

Yup,it coulda got ugly. I'm extremely grateful!

I hung the front end on today. I made some rubber spacers to go under the bar mounts. Old bailing machine belt is pretty stiff stuff. Oughta give me a little vibe resistance-not like you really need it on these sewing machines. I gotta say it again:I cant wait to ride with these grips. They felt great just holding the bars today. It's the simple things,right? It was a little tricky getting the bar end mirrors to mount thru them without looking like poo. Lots of careful trimming. I'm happy with the result. Not so sure about these short levers. The brake feels OK,but I'm afraid once I get a good clutch in this bike two fingering it might not be optimum. Time will tell. Gotta head light bucket coming from Mr English so that'll be the next thing to sort out. Does anyone offer 50mm head light ears?

[Hoosier Daddy]

I was just checking out those grips on Randakks myself while I was shopping for my carb O/H kit.
So you likey?

OK, hope this works... Just as an FYI, you can make your own headlamp ears any size you want. Little time with some aluminum channel they sell at the hardware store. This should link you to a How-to a member over on DTT posted. (when you get a couple hours, read that whole "$50 Mod thread"... cool stuff!)

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=6496.msg129207#msg129207

...but in case you can't read his post, these may help.







If I remember right, he wound up cutting some tubeing, pipe and put it over the threads of the pinch bolt, between the aluminum to keep it from drawing itself in too far and distorting the inside flange here...

[shultz_1978]

I had to peak and see how you did your elect's. NICE  I think I will do some thing like that. The bike is looking good. I realy like the front end.

[shinyribs]

Hoosier,I wish I could say more about the grips,but obviously all I've done is glue them on the bar. But they just feel good. Nice and rubbery,not hard plastic or overly squishy. The grooves for safety wire are coll,but I don't see the need for that. I like to ride without gloves too much for wire to be eating my palms up. Thanks for the pics of the ears.Looks like a great idea!

Thanks Shultz.I kinda dig it,too

[Piute]

       HEY ChromeGuy ,
     Was yo truck a HACJOB TOO Just thought I'd ask

[shinyribs]

LOL.Apparently!  That lil deal put a hurting on my scooter money,but I have been lucky selling of a PILE of unused parts lately. Enough that I did make a purchase for this bike. Eagerly awaiting my parts in the mail There's no better feeling than coming home to parts in a box waiting to be fondled.

[shinyribs]

Made a little progress this week.


Powder cleared the s-arm with some 97% gloss That'll make it easy to swipe the chain lube off when it gets on them. Shock painted,serviced and ready to rock. All the bearings in the suspension linkage got flushed and repacked. Good as new!



Rub a dub dub...

...fresh outta the tub.PC'ed satin black and scrubbed clean! Gotta get some new main and rod bearings for this baby. The others are all acid etched from storage.More dollars to spend,but I'm getting closer all the time...

[Piute]

        Looks Sweeet

[alfa750]

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[Hoosier Daddy]

Case halves look AWESOME in that Satin Black!

[TOOLS1]

You know there is an O-ring on that round insert/cover in the lower case half. I wonder how it held up the the heat?
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

I know. It does concern me.I let it sit full of water when it was in the tub and it didn't drip,but that doesn't really prove anything. Any clue on how to remove that plug and swap it out? 400 degrees shouldn't really cook an o-ring,but being from 1978 I'd like to swap it out if i could. Push come to shove,if it decides to leak, I can always clean the powder off that seam and JB weld that hussie up! It's on the bottom so it wouldn't show.It's not Plan A,but it was an option i was willing to take if needed. Either way,thanks for keeping an eye on me! What the heck is that plug for anyways?????

[TOOLS1]

What's it for? You mean you don't know. You can knock it out from the inside with a piece of wood, and a hammer.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Push from the inside. Gotcha
But I.don't have a clue what its for.

[shinyribs]

I'm assuming y'all knocked Gerald's out?

[TOOLS1]

Sometimes I would like to knock Gerald out, "pet the kitty, pet the kitty, pet the kitty..." The other night I discovered he had butchered the wiring I had spent 5 days doing on his bike. However I did knock the plug out.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Ooh,that's gotta suck. Why in the world would he even need to go in to the wiring?

Now,on this plug. What do I gotta do? Beg?

[shinyribs]

Hold the phones! We have rims!

Even more good news. I sorta took a gamble on these predrilled rims. I did what measuring I could,but i really didn't know 100% if they'd work with my hubs. I laced them up today and the spoke length,nipple diameter and spoke angle are BANG ON to these hubs. They are direct replacements for stock rims! WOO HOO! So no need for custom spokes!


Admittedly,they are a no-name rim. I can live with that. The plus side to that is there are no printings or markings on the rims anywhere,which I really dig. Anyway,for $145 each shipped to my door,and the fact that they are a direct replacement for a stock 750 rim,makes me a happy boy today!  

These same-ish rims from Buchanan's are way more. Excel's from Buchanan's run $245 each and polishing is another $90 per wheel. The quality of the rim looks great to me and the polish job is really nice. Not what i would consider show polished,but for a rider I would imagine it's what a show polished rim would look like after a few months. Ebay to the rescue ($$$) again!






In all honesty,the only reason I was able to pick these up is that I've sold off a fair amount of unused bike parts lately. Actually enough to cover these rims and have some left over. So technically they're a wash,but I'll add them to the tab anyway.



Current tab                  $828
Rims                             290
--------------------------------
New tab                      $1,118  <---there's that comma i wanted to avoid