Progress...sort of

Painted the front end stuff last weekend - forks, trees, speedo mount, headlight ring and headlight. Also prepped the engine cases and rocker box covers for paint. Some of my nuts and bolts from HD arrived yesterday, allowing me to mock-up the front end. Oddly one of the wheel spacers is on backorder. I ran into a snag though, I mistakenly thought that the front axle was 1", but it is in fact 3/4" so I have to swap wheel bearings. Minor setback. Also I have a set of lower fork boots on the way...Soon as the spacer and boots come and I get the bearings swapped I can permanently mount the front end.

The bars will probably be my next purchase, right now I'm thinking about these from road6customs:

Another Craigslist score

I've been all over the map about what to do with the rear shocks, from one spectrum to another including riding struts, road king shocks, cutting down the stockers...one thing's for sure I want it low. As with everything else "Harley" you have to pay to play in a big way. Lowered Progressive shocks are about $300 (can you say overpriced/overseas junk???). Seriously there's a piston and a spring that's it. I was dilligently searching Craigslist and came across these:
They're 10.5" which is about as low as you would care to go on a Sportster (some go 10" but remember I'm a big fella). At $70 I consider them a bargain, now just have to decide how to address the chrome-ocity issue. I'm thinking about smoking them so they look like black chrome, stay tuned. By the way, PASTOR AL and TOM WILLIAMS if your reading this you'll be happy to know these came off a HONDA VTX. It's my peace offering to you Honda lovers. Big thanks to Jessie's cousin Grant for picking them up in Eldorado Springs, MO.


Still waiting on some parts from HD to put the front end back together but here's a teaser shot I took to keep me motivated.

Chasing parts...

Collecting parts is going to be the hardest part of this project. I'm all about the deals mostly on Craigslist and Ebay which saves money but also takes time. The first week I was able to find a take-off sportster front end on Craigslist and I just happened to know the guy because he built me a transmission a few weeks back. So we struck a deal, I traded my ugly old fatboy front end and big seat plus $100 for nearly new forks, trees, headlight, axle and speedometer. Not too shabby considering that's about $1K in crap from the dealer. I also picked up a stock rear fender from EBAY for $36 plus shipping last week. Nice little score considering most go for at least $100. I used a program called snipeswiper for the first time which proxy bid for me at the last minute.

It took another three weeks to find a matching front wheel because they just can't be found and my new forks are for a 1" axle...meaning I had to use a later front wheel. Found one in Oklahoma City from an '05 Dyna with tire for $100. Luckily my buddy Kenny runs through there weekly so he picked it up for me. Last weekend I did this little project with the wheels:

Hopefully I don't regret using rattle-cans on these. I spent alot of time on prep and I am capable of spraying auto paint but it would have been another pretty good investment in materials. The duplicolor wheel paint I used gets some really good reviews so we'll see. I can always have them blasted and painted or coated if I'm not happy.

I took them to get mounted back on the tires today. My back tire is nearly brand new and the one that came with the front wheel has some good life left in it. I got lucky and they are both identical HD Dunlops. I stopped by the dealer and spent $46 on a small handfull of nuts and bolts, mostly for the front end. It was really tricky because the year of the front end is unknown so the parts counter guy had to help me look at every possible year till we found the right one.

This is a milestone because I am closer to getting the bike back to "roller" status. I just have to paint the front forks/trees and assemble the front end and mount the rear wheel and fender. So I'll probably be back when that's done, just have to remember to take lots of pics!

ALMOST FORGOT! Scored a HD service manual for $8 today from some web service. I downloaded it then printed and found the perfect heavy duty binder. So HD can take their $60 manual and go have a bonfire for all I care. It also came with the bonus electrical section complete with all the wiring diagrams. All of the maintenance, assembly procedures and specifications are in the manual with detailed photos and blow-ups. ROCK!

So I'll be back when the front end and wheels are on. Sorry for the crappy formatting I did used paragraphs but they don't post like that for some reason?

Let the games begin!

I made quick work of tearing it down, but I agonized over which direction to take the build. I really like the old-school bobber style however it seems that it's getting played out. Just like rat rods this too shall pass. The lastest family of "dark customs" by HD including the Nighster 1200 and Iron 883 caught my eye. I made the decision to go with and anti-chrome look inspired by these bikes. The theme will be black/black with painted 13 spoke wheels, 14 or 16" ape hangers, chopped rear fender, blacked-out engine covers, solo seat and short LOUD black pipes. The only thing I'm still up in the air on is the seat, no sure if I want a simple solo seat or thin springer type seat. Here's a couple good examples of the look:

Sportster on a diet

Those of you that know me amd my habits are aware that I spend much my "free" time obsessing over "garage" projects. I usually memorialize my car/truck projects on web forums with like-minded enthusiasts but my latest time waster is neither a car or truck. It's a Harley that I traded a truck for and I don't really fit in with the Harley forum crowd, plus I have a few friends who may want to keep track of this one. So here goes, my first blog of any kind.

After trying to sell my '87 silverado for dang near a year I struck a deal with a gent down the road to trade for his 2003 Harley Sportster 883XLH. It was the ugliest dang sportster I've ever laid eyes on but as usual I only see my projects through rose-colored safety glasses. Nothing a little tweak here or there couldn't fix, right? ...RIGHT...!...I rode it straight into my garage making sure nobody cool could see me on this abomination of a machine and promptly relegated it to a frame/engine on a stand and three boxes. So here's what I started with:

This is somebody's attempt at making a "Phatster" which is a fatboy-sportster. They added a fatboy front end/wheel, dyna or "fat bob" tank, sweeping rear fender, HUGE seat, highway pegs and a bunch of other crud that just don't belong on a small bike. YUCK. Ok, so I kind of get it, it's like a big cruiser for a small person. But I am definitely not a small person so this bike's got to be reprogrammed with some MOJO. I had Jessie take a picture of me on it because I knew how silly it would look and boy was I right...just like a cow it a tu-tu riding a tricycle.