7-24-05
Was a fun weekend. Got a seat pan hammered out early Saturday
morning and went to meet Ruhk, Chance; Skinny/wife, and Skinny's brother for
lunch.
We were SUPPOSED to meet at Bone Daddys but Scoots next door was having a
bikini car wash...so guess where we wound up? Their menu was
greasier than most of the bikers in that bar! Erin and I had the grilled chicken
salad, but even that was a bit greasy?
Anyhow, I digress. We headed to Gonzo's Garage after lunch as
Chance and Ruhk wanted to check on Vicious.
We visited for a few hours and planned a route for the run to HondaShadow.Net's
7th anniversary fist annual
meet in Denver Colorado on Aug 5th-6th. Just ordered 4 tires today for all our
bikes and will have a tire party later this week.
Here is a shot of the seat pan. The seat builder will probably
make his own, but now I can show him kinda what
I think I would like in the shape. This one is pretty comfy as is, so it
shouldn't take much padding to make it just
right. I have to add some rubber isolators underneath it and start fitting the
memory foam to it.
Saturday evening I decided to start on the tail lights. I had
one 3" exhaust tube I had picked up earlier last week.
I fitted the one light and took a couple shots...
I have four lights to install but after looking at this one on
there, I think I may stick with two. I will fit all four and
tack them in place and take more pics. Maybe we can have a poll and vote on
which one looks best....then I can
go ahead and do whatever the hell I like! LOL
Devoid of the three other pieces of tubing, I decided to get
into something a little more drastic. The TANKS!!
Lets meet the players, our donor tank is a turquoise ACE tank I picked up a few
years ago intending to
have new skins repaired and painted that I could swap out with the stock set.
Never happened. Here it is with
the original dent in the side. It still has one good emblem on the other
side.
Next I pulled the Valkyrie tank out of the attic. I placed it
on the Shadow to see what it was going to take to
fit it. Man does that look wicked on there. That is one PHAT tank!! Look at the
difference in sizes. The Valk
tank is only 3/4" longer than stock from mount to mount.
Under the bellies of the tank you can see the Valk petcock
drops through the center of the Valk frame, where
the Spirit tank is on the side.
The rest appears roomy enough to work! I decided to try the
tank on there again. Here is where the petcock
reservoir hits the Spirit frame, where the air intake is running through the
frame.
Here is what the tank looks like just sitting on the bike. As seen, the back of the tank is 5 inches above the mount.
I may, as anticipated, have to move the air breathers down and
forward to finish mounting this tank.
All else seems to accommodate it well, no steering issues lock to lock, mounting
holes accept the same
hardware, etc.
I put this tank on, took it off, put it on, took it off, for
about 45 minutes last night, trying to bring myself to
cutting up $300+ of extra cash I could have if I would just sell the tank.
Finally I cut the petcock out and hammered the tank in underneath and tried
fitting it again. I am now about 2" from the frame in back.
This tank looks frickin AWESOME on the bike. Makes it look
like a much bigger bike than it is. It will be a
good match for the oversized fenders. But the valley isn't going to work on my
frame. Time to start
cutting. I cut the valley out of the ACE tank and here is what the inside of
your Shadow tank looks like.
Ewwww, tank guts....I cut it outside the pinch seam. Next is
to cut the bottom out of the Valk tank
from the inside of the pinch seam. This way I can weld the pinch seams together.
Preliminary fitting
shows the tanks will match up about 80% until it starts rounding at the front,
at which point the Shadow tank
is narrower than the Valk. I will have to patch these together and then do a
sealant treatment on the tank.
This will probably buy my more capacity as well, over the original 5.3 on the
Valk tank. Can't wait for the
first fill up to see what the capacity is....and to check for leaks! LOL
Next time I will get a shot of the tank on the bike from
behind the bike. You will not believe how cool this
looks! Will be another late night in Gonzos-Garage!!
More to come!!
Well, last month didn't turn out like I wanted...I really
thought I would be ready for paint...but it was just too damn hot to work out in
that garage.
If this month is anything like last month, I may invest in the window unit
and set it on the bench....
So last night I got busy on the tank, still putting off the
rear fender. Here is the task at hand....joining the two tanks. There is about
1.5"
to patch at the front of the tank and the seams match up really well on the
bottom.
I started in the afternoon on the 31st actually by putting a
wire wheel on the angle grinder. I found myself constantly
going back and forth between the wire wheel and the grinding disc. I took
all the paint off of both tank seams.
Both tanks were really clean, and the wire wheel brightens them up even more.
Here you can see how clean the seams are becoming. These seams
are where the stock top and bottom met up and were welded.
It is twice the thickness of the tank. When welding the two together, I will be
welding 4 thick to each other (2 and 2).
Original plans were to take the well of the Shadow tank and
attach it to the Valkyrie tank. That would give me the petcock mount
in the stock location. This didn't turn out to be too good of a plan so I wound
up having to weld the valley pan back together.
That is what you see along the left of the picture. At least with this weld I
was able to weld along the inside AND the outside.
Not too many shots in-between before and after, sometimes I
worry doing all the welding and grinding out there with a $1000
camera sitting nearby....so I put it away and get it at stages. Here is the tank
bottom after being welded and ground.
Here is the front after being patched and welded. I spot
welded at the bottom and worked my was to the top, bending the metal
strips I had cut to fit as I went. Worked out much better than trying to bend a
piece to fit and then welding it in place. I had to cut
the mount off of the top of the tank to weld the seams up underneath it...then
welded it back on...
Here is it sitting on the bike. The pictures really do not reflect how wide this tank looks on the Shadow....
I filled the tank with the POR-15 Marine Wash to clean out any
smoke and weld bee-bees, found just a few seeping areas and welded over them
after dumping the fluid. Next was the Metal etching cream and a warm water wash.
I let it sit up for three days and added the little tin of
sealant last night. I worked about an hour and a half setting the tank in
different positions trying to get it coated. Time came to pull the plug
and drain any excess....there wasn't much left to come out.... I might should
have used a pint sized can!! Would have been faster!
Letting it set up for 4 days and I will try to clean up the
outside of the tank a little. Then I will add the stock Valkyrie fuel cap and
trim, and the
Shadow petcock off of the old tank. Will probably be a few more weeks before I
get around to adding gas to it....that will be a hold your
breath moment!! Think I will do that one off of the bike!!
This weekend....finish the rear fender if I can, and add the new flamed grill cover to the radiator.
Gonzo
2002 Honda Shadow Spirit - "Vicious" the Hondian