License Plate: update

Ran to ACE Hardware today and bought some stainless steel nuts and bolts to replace the plate illumination reflectors and the wingnuts on the plate mount. Much cleaner look front and back.

Licence Plate Relo -- part 2

Today I completed the plate relocation by mounting the LED plate illumination unit I had purchased originally for the behind seat mount that I abandoned.

Here's the completed project. Right is daylight and left is nighttime. Not perfect but adequate.

Licence Plate Relo -- part 1

I completed the mechanical portion of the licence plate relocation. I moved the plate from the left rear axle to the left mid-frame location using some existing threaded lugs on the frame. Completed project in first picture.

These two hole were intended for some cover or other. I don't remember exactly what went there, but they are a nice M8 x 1.25 threaded hole. I had a couple of bolts of this size left over from dismantling the bobber and its chrome bits. I only had to cut them off to 15mm in length so they wouldn't stick out the back too far in the belt area.

I reused the old axle mount cutting off the large loop and drilling a couple of holes. The holes are offset to allow the plate to angle "up" a bit instead of being exactly perpendicular. Shiny rattle-can black tidied up the cuts and drilling

I reused the old $15 plate bracket that was discarded after I abandoned the seat location mount. I cut and hammered it so it bends over the plate providing a nice mount point for the license plate illumination unit I had bought for the seat mount point. Again, rattle can paint is used here.

See how it mounts around the plate?

In the next post I'll show how the light mounts via double face tape to the little tab that extends over the plate from from the back side.

This is about how it will look except for the missing red reflectors to mount to the bracket.

Bracket paint dried and now mounted up. You can see the plate mount and illumination mount both bolted up from the back side. I'm less than thrilled by the thumb-wingnuts used to mount the reflectors. I'll most likely replace these with stop nuts and cut off the excess length.

And a close up from the rear of the bike. The reflectors are pretty obnoxious. Again, I may replace the illumination reflectors with just bolts and nuts and keep the two on the plate mount side. Need some reflection from the rear for safety.

First mod up: Exhaust (or in other words, tired of burning my boots on the pipes)

First mod up is the exhaust on the RH side. I'm tired of burning my shoes and boots on the pipes. The wrap will go along way of preventing these type burns.

First step: cut off the exhaust ends flush with each other.  This gives is a nice bobber look: shotgun pipes! A few pix depicting the process.

I used a level to mark a vertical line on both pipes back from the ends to a point I felt was visually appealing (with the ends well back of the rider's right ear, LOL). 

The ends will not be wrapped, just up to the mounting point at the black frame on the right of the vertical line. This will leave about 7.5 inches of exposed metal not wrapped.

Next, covered the bike with an old blanket and protected the underlying metal with some plywood. I cut as much as I could right on the bike.

I made a test cut on the top pipe first and then cut both pipes on the line with a handheld angle grinder. Used a 6" cut-off wheel which is almost big enough to cut through, but alas, not quite.

I removed the pipes and completed the cut by mounting the pipes in a vice. I cut off the remainder and smoothed it all down with a file.

Not shown is rust removal using Coke and a Stainless Steel pot scrubber. That removed the light rust on the ends of the pipes. I then sanded the entire pipes down prepping them for coating with hi-temp header paint. The paint will stop any further rusting of the pipes either exposed at the tips or under the pipe wrap.

This finish is a nice satin black. I will have to cure this paint by remounting the pipes and do the recommended heating/cooling drill to set the paint.  It goes 10 minute idle, 10 minute cooling, followed by 20 minute idle and 20 minute cooling, finished off with 30 minutes of normal running.

Here's a picture of the mounted black pipes. They look pretty good except still have the problem with the exposed pipes melting boots.

After curing (and cooling) the pipes come back off for wrapping.

I won't detail the wrapping process. There are hundreds of YouTube videos on the subject. I picked one that suggested using 1" wrap and starting from the rear which leaves the exposed wrap ends toward the back. There were also videos on how to snug and finish off the stainless steel tie wraps that come with the wrap instead of using a $50 special purpose tool which I don't have. I ordered two 50 foot rolls off of eBay. They were around $15 each.

I started with the longer pipe first and had help holding the pipe free hand as I wrapped it (thanks, Roxy!). There wasn't a good way to mount it in my vice. The shorter pipe I could mount in the vice and wrapped it by myself. They both came out nicely.

I then started the bike and let it idle a bit to burn off the moisture from soaking the wrap (standard procedure to soak the wrap before wrapping) and burn off the manufacturing "starch" in the wrap.

Next modification up will be the license plate relocation. Where it is now I'm constantly bumping it and bending the plate.

90 Percent done; the devil is in the details

Well, I declare the Bobber Project 90% done. Now the devil is in the details.

The core of the bike is complete. New fender and old tank painted. Main components powder-coated black or spray painted black. Final stages include:

Right hand side:

• Trim exhaust ends flush with each other to achieve "shotgun" look.
• Fiber wrap the exhaust to hid the rusty chrome and make the pipes safer for foot and leg (ouch)!
• Fill in the reverse embossed K&N logo in the air cleaner with Bondo to make it smooth and paint it black.

Center:

• Stain the seat brown instead of black.

Left hand side:

• Relocate the license plate to mid frame and illuminate.

Front end:

• Paint the fork lowers black
• Update the front turns similar to the rears but in yellow.
• Add black covers to the upper fork tubes.
• Add black gaiters to the lower fork tubes.
• Optionally, use old fender to build fork brace.

These can all be done as one, two day projects. Goal is to keep the bike running most of the time. I had let it sit too long last time and the carb varnished up requiring me to take it apart and clean.

Long term project is to clean wiring exposed on the left hand side under the seat with some kind of cover, but for now it's fine to be exposed.

Rest of the views:

Tail/turns/stop lights take 3

I completed the new tail/turns/stop light on the bobber. I reused the fancy LED lights and the previous tail/turn/stop circuitry and fashioned a new mounting bracket that tucks under the seat rail. Lights are fully visible with the fender in place.

Off

Tail lights on

Tail lights and RH turn flashing (caught in mid flash)

Brake lights on

I relocated the axle plate holder from the RH side to the LH side and reversed the axle bolt so the nut fits on the LH side. This will make adjustments and changes to the plate holder easier. Still working on how to illuminate the plate without a bunch of wires showing. Not a problem for now as long as I don't go out at night.

And while I had the fender and tire off, I went ahead and detabbed the old chain guard mounts cleaning up the softtail suspension a bit.

When in doubt, throw it out, Part 2

First picture depicts the previous stop/tail/turn/license mounting placement. Once the fender was on, it became PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that the license was totally buried and not viewable at all from the rear. I verified at night that not even the license plate illumination light was visible from straight on from the rear. So this configuration had to go.

Obvious solution is to create a higher bracket to raise plate so it is visibly above the fender from the rear. So I made a cardboard mock up to see what it would look like before I start cutting and bending the stock aluminum plate I have to fashion a new bracket.

After some measurement, I decided I needed to raise the bottom of the plate at least 3 inches higher than the seat frame making it nearly level with the seat back, plus I need to extend it out to clear the rear of the seat.

NOT. HAPPY. WITH. THE. LOOK. So now back to square one.

Plan is to revert to the axle mount for the plate and add illumination bolts to hold the plate and build small mounts to hold each right and left turn/stop LED lights just under the seat frame which will be visible on either side of the fender.

I will relocate the plate mount to the LH side of the bike to move it away from the pipes on the RH side. This opens up the space so the exhaust can flow freely out the back and not blacken the plate, plus I was always catching my foot on the plate when I swung my leg over.

(The primer grey color of the tank and fender signify the work in progress nature of this project. In the 50's/60's wrenchers would paint their body work in primer grey to keep the body work from rusting as they were making progress on their hotrods, so that's where I got the idea for the paint color.)

Old mount with fender in place:

Cardboard mock up mount:

Fender rises with wheel and the distance is very tight. A disaster waiting to happen: