Mike's Bike is (99.5%) DONE!

I completed nearly everything! I have to make one last trip to Home Depot to pick up one more hex head bolt in 6mmx1.00 thread, since I over estimated the length of one of the needed bolts and need to straighten that out. After that, the only thing left is to source to stainless locking nuts, the kind without the plastic locking insert, since I don't want any heat melting the inserts and allowing the battery tray to drop . . . That would be a bad thing. For sure. Let me show you what I am talking about!

Mockup . . . one of my favorite things. Measuring 2xelventy trillion times, cutting/welding/drilling once. It saves time in the long run!

Here's the battery tray (again):

Here is one of the flanges Dave helped make while I was working on something else:

I had to figure out a way to make those flanges stay on and support the battery tray in a secure manner. Normally, I would try to figure out a way to do so horizontally, but given the low profile and also the requirement to make things easily accessible, I chose to use existing threaded inserts in a clever way.

This is the existing threaded insert:

I simply drilled through the hole with a smaller bit (after centerpunching it to prevent the bit from wandering too much) and ran a tap through the hole and test it with a piece of threaded rod I had:

 Poifect! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

Here is the basic idea:

With that settled, I had to move on to figuring out how to secure the seat pan. Due to my design of the seat pan, I really only needed to ensure that the seat pan would not pop off the frame rails. The locator pieces lock the seat pan longitudinally, so I just had to make it so that the seat could come off fairly easily but not be accidently popped off.

Here is a view from the underside to refresh our memories of what everything looked like.

Hmmmm . . . That elliptical hole of the frame bracing looks pretty suspiciously well placed . . .

What if I made a plate to cover that, with a hole in the center that would be large enough to fit a stud through it, which would be welded on to the seat pan and then secured with a wing nut? Oh look! A suspiciously perfect stud ready to get welded to the seat pan!

I also took the liberty of cleaning up the edges of the curved section of the seat pan so that it was even all the way around.

Shazam! I distracted you long enough to have made a nice looking place from some stainless I had leftover from the handle of the charcoal started I had assembled for my father for Father's Day:

Now doesn't that look swanky?

Closeups are always good:

Back to the battery tray . . .

Here is one of the hex headed bolts.

Why did I bother with bolts? Well . . . I wanted somethign replaceable. I have seen way too many bolts get stripped out and if I welded something in place, it would make things a lot harder to replace in the future. With a bolt, you can simply unscrew it and replace it with another one. I couldn't find stainless bolts in the right size at Home Despot, so this will certainly do for now.

Here is a shot of how the bolt goes through the threaded insert and the hole that I drilled and tapped for the bolt:

I marked and drilled (intentionally) oversized holes (to allow for ease of installation):

Then noted that the "legs" of the brackets stuck up much too far:

I used a chisel point King Size Sharpie (thought I'd be done mentioning them, didn't you? HAH!) to get an approximation of how much I had to trim off. I fired up the band saw and got to sawing the excess off, cleaning them up on the belt/disc sander and ended up with this:

And then welded them on to the tray:

Not too shabby looking. Not perfect, but pretty decent. A locking nut will complete the kit when I can find some of those things, or Mike can find them, too. I'm not picky. heh

Magic tip time! I wanted to try something with making a spacer to prevent the seat pan from getting pulled too far down with the wing nut. I cut a small piece of 1/2" aluminum rod and evened up the ends. I wanted to drill a hole down the middle of the short section, but attempting to hold that in my fingers would be finger-a-cide, so I came up with a simple but highly effective clamp that gave me enough leverage to prevent the rod section from spinning.

It took a long time to tap this darn thing. I had forgotten my number drill set (you likely have no idea what I am talking about . . . unless you are a machinist or very familiar with drilling and tapping holes), so I didn't have exactly the right twist drill (commonly known as a drill bit, which isn't exactly correct) size on hand to make tapping through that section easy. But I managed. I so wanted a lathe. I would have been done in less than 5 minutes, including all the tool changes. LOL! Oh well . . .

This is what it ended up looking like:

But my measuring was off:

 Remember that whole measure a lot of times and cut/drill/weld once thing? Yeah . . . But, after testing things out, I determined that it wasn't necessary to have the spacer there at all, since the pan is 18g steel, it barely flexes when you crank on the wing nut . . . Next time, I think 20g will be easier and faster to work with. LOL!

Nearly final battery tray installed:

And the final profile view of the seat pan and battery tray on the frame:

It looks really sleek! I can't wait to see how the rest of the bike comes together! Mike's got some good plans. =) 

New things and projects to come!

Mike and I went out today to pick up the sheetmetal and some other stuff for his bike. He also dropped off this rear hoop that I will be chopping and fitting into place:

It's not exactly the same width, but I will be taking care of that easily enough. 

Boxes can be fun!

This is certainly not a cheap collection of "presents" inside those boxes, though! 

Garrett GT3076R, .78A/R T3 flanged twin scroll V-band outlet turbo and two TiAL wastegates. I have to say, the fit, finish and precision of the TiAL parts is some of the best I've seen on non-Military grade stuff. EVERYTHING from the fittings to the body fits perfectly and is made superbly from quality materials. I love seeing stuff like that! 

This project is going to be VERY tough. The compressor housing is HUUUUUGE. I need to tuck off of that and all the piping as close to the block as possible while NOT making it impossible to get to all the bolts, fasteners and lines (oil and coolant lines) needed to effectively run this setup correctly to maximum potential. I have some ideas, but, once I get the block mounted and a head in place, I'll be better able to visualize what needs to go where. 

This is my new workbench, a Harbor Freight special for $24.99. 

It is very worth it for the price, even if some of the holes were not tapped and I have to wait to get the rest of my tap and die set from home to finish bolting it together. It is actually fairly sturdy except for the really cheeseball "shelves" they give you. I will be making my own of plywood, using the original "shelves" as a template. 

Not fastened on yet, but perched atop the work surface is this amazingly awesome piece of metal:

I got this vise for free. It is likely older than I am. It had (has) some surface rust that I cleaned up and is not functioning amazingly. It weighs as much as the workbench (maybe more). It is overkill, for sure, and I know that the workbench would tip over if I apply too much torque to something, BUT it will work well enough for what I need it for (mostly to hold stuff while I work on it). There is nothing like a quality vise. =) 

LOTS of work done today!

Here's an update on Justin's header:

I got the megaphone tacked on today. It fits together so nicely! It's just really long! LOL! Check out the approximate fitment:

I think that I am almost ready to tack it into place on the header then check fitment. I really wish I had my spare mock-up block at the "shop," as that would make my life a whole lot simpler. I may just have to move it there soon, as I want to get Justin's header finished up so he can have it in time for his big spring debut. This thing sure is going to be a pain to ship, though. . . LOL!

While I was tacking Justin's header, I just noticed how groady the protective covers were on my welding helmet. (It's an older Miller Elite Big Window, with a push-to-turn-on setup, unlike the newer instant on helmets that are really insanely good.)

Just look what I was trying to see through:

That was the original protective cover that came with the helmet. I then realized that I had the spares that come with the dang helmet, toting them around all these years (the helmet is probably 6 years old now) so I dug them out and WOW! I could see again. LOL!

Clean and clear:

By this time I was starting to get on a roll. I tacked up the runners of my own header (well, Chris' header, but my design), and got that done except for one bend, as I forgot to mark the dang position in Sharpie. DUH! While I was doing that and getting settled in with the TIG welder, I took the opportunity to smooth out some of the previous welds around various places on Dave's bike's frame, re-welding some of them with my MIG welder until I ran out of wire (DANGIT!) then finished up with the TIG welder. dave was very impressed with how smooth and everything turned out. Just a little bit of time with a flap wheel will clean the leftovers up, and the body will be ready for whatever else Dave has for it. I didn't grab pics of everything that I filled in and touched up, but, we'll get some eventually. 

I didn't get an "after" of this spot, but, I TIG'ed this over and it ended up being much, much smoother and will clean up better than ever before: 

Dave spent his time prepping some pieces for his body reinforcements. I had some 3/4" square stock he wanted to use for stand offs for the bodywork, leaving room for rubber to dampen some of the vibrations of the bike. I convinced him that we should weld on baseplates between the frame and the standoffs, as that is just good practice, especially when welding anything substantial and perpendicular to thinner sheet metal, just like the plates welded in for a roll cage on a car. 

Once he finished up the plates, I tacked them in place, then laid down this beauty of a weld:

That was the most satisfying bead of the evening. It's not perfect, but given what I was welding on, I won't complain in the least!

Here are both plates welded in place:

The keen observer will note some "hot spots" (Yes, Remo, I know, I know) , especially on the left most plate, the bottom left corner, but, I had to do these welds "Army style," meaning hot as heck to burn the crap out of the area. heh 

The next order of business was to make a platform off the tail for the body to sit on, raised a bit off the patform. The issue was that the angle the hoop comes of the frame. The solution was to mock up a piece of angle (that I also had laying around) at the correct angle, using different thickness welding wire (thank you, Remo!) at the edge to correct the angle of the . . . angle. LOL! We figured out what would work best, and I tacked it into place:

Then we used some 1/2" square tubing and got everything where it should be. 

I made substantial tacks, then Dave and I tapped it into alignment with a big hammer:

Once the final adjustments where made, i ran beads up both sides, then added a third been in the middle to make sure the body wouldn't be going anywhere!

Testfittng after everything cooled down: 

After we got the rear body mount done, we could measure how tall we needed to make the middle standoff. Dave is gonna use 3/4" thick rubber on top of all these points to keep the vibrations down a bit. We got things measured up, and Dave started cutting the 3/4" square tubing to size. He did a decent enough job. We mocked everything up again, checked fit, and took measurements for the top, connecting piece of the standoff. Once Dave finished messing with that (while I finished welding up the last primary for his header), I got the legs welded onto the top bar, and it looked something like this:

Final tweaks didn't take too long at all, so I welded the standoff to the plates I welded onto the frame: 

Some of the welds were don't at fairly awkward angle, so I wasn't as steady as I would have liked to be. The footpedal that came with my welder is more fit for Herman Munster than normal sized people (even me with 13EEEE feet). It was an act of gymnastic ability to steady myself on one foot, control the arc with my other foot (I can do it almost as well with both feet, so does that make me ambipedrous?) feed the welding rod and move the torch, hunched over the frame. So, I'm OK with things not being perfect. More importantly, that standoff isn't going to move without a crapton of motivation, which would just bend the frame since we properly connected the standoff to the frame.

Here is the frame as it sits now:

Overall, it was a REALLY successful day. I had fun, Dave learned some stuff, we made a bunch of progress and I made progress on two other projects.

I've got a job interview this afternoon, too. So, I'm about to get ready for that. I want to make myself as presentable as I can, even if that is a bit of a stretch for my wardrobe at the moment. heh If I DO get this job, I'll have much more financial flexibility. The position is for an overnight emergency dispatcher for campus housing. Basically, any of the calls students or faculty make to housing/grounds/building maintenance are taken by a dispatcher, who appropriately routes the call. The expected call volume is 60-75 a week, more at the beginnings of semesters. The shift is one week a month. The "pay" is reimbursement for your housing costs. So . . . working one week a month, I would be living on campus for free. )(#(*$# yeah! I am pretty qualified for the position (Army emergency training, I worked as a service manager for a heating and air conditioning company (so I know how to deal with panicked/stupid/aggressively douchey  people, excellent communication skills and phone manner), but I don't have a resume at the moment . . . and that is a long story that I am not gonna get into now. heh

TTFN. I should have more updates on Monday, as my muffler came in and Monday is looking like a good day for working outside, or as good as it will get. I have a trip coming up next weekend and I don't want to hear the )(#*(#$ drone in my car on the highway. It is sooooo annoying.

Here's a really quick post about Dave's bike so I can get a couple of pics up.

Crappy cell phone pics!

Bike in progress:

Locking collar idea being welded up: