1949 Panhead

So I got my dad into biking a few years ago, and since then I am proud to say that his taste has developed perfectly :)

He just imported this beautiful 1949 FL Hydra-glyde from Connecticut.

It was restored about 10 years ago, hence all the shiney bits are nice, and the colour is a bit gaudy. It also has some modern modifications - 12V electrics, auto-advance, S&S carb, etc.

I managed to kick it into life for a bit but when it cut out I couldn't manage it again - its not easy to kick over! I am so chuffed though - our first Harley Davidson, can't wait to have a ride!!!

Cheeky Video

Snapped this riding home on the bike last week. Was worried about dropping my iphone but it was well worth it.

Later that evening however, I tried to ride the bike up to my parents and it died and wouldn't start again. The battery also started to die.

So this coupled with the fact that the brake lights aren't working suggests to me that there is some electrical problem that I need to investigate.

I'm back to riding the bandit. To be continued....

The Store...

So those of you that have been reading this blog for a while will know that I sell a few things to aid fellow shed lovers!

Hmm, that sounded a bit rude, but what I mean is that if you are building a motorbike at home - you need to stock up on some Homle Valley Customs essentials!!

Take a look at my online shop - http://holmevalleycustoms.bigcartel.com/

I have recently updated it with everything that I sell - individual components, and cost effective sets.

The latest products for your perusal are my aluminium footpegs;

And the latest and best in modern fashion - the Holme Valley Customs T-Shirt!!

So have a look and see if there is anything you fancy. You want something specific/different/custom - drop me an email and I'll do my best :)

holmevalleycustoms@hotmail.co.uk

Tw@tter

So in the interest of being on point with social media - I have started a twitter account for HVC

https://twitter.com/HVCustoms

Go check it out and add me...follow me....re-tweet.... whatever..!?

Done!

BOOM!

So the last few weeks have seen me put the bike back together. Everything has been cleaned/polished/painted/chromed.

My dad has a compressor so we decided to paint it all ourselves. No problem for the black - easy and convenient. But I will never bother with colours again - its far too much hassle. You spend hours rubbing everything down, and then put a coat of paint on and it fucks up for some strange and unknown reason and you have to start all over again.

Anyways its Ancona Blue and Diamond Silver (my dad has an old Beetle so they are both 70's VW colours!) with a gold pinstripe.

I got the bike back together and took it for MOT Saturday - it passed!! So I will be riding it down to the Trip Out this weekend. Come and check it out!

Engine

*Gleam*

Back at it

Finally got some time on the XS this weekend. Moving into my house and generally living it up has kept me away from the shed - especially as its all located up at my parents place! It was good to be back  8)



So after blasting the engine, I gave it a clean with some Jizer, and then carefully hand washed it with some soap to get any crap off.



Then I left it to dry for a few days and masked it up best I could



Cracked out the BBQ paint and went at it...



I was pleased with how it went on - painted really well! I'll keep popping up this week and putting more coats on / turning the engine round to get into all the fiddly places!

Also my dad has got an paint gun and compressor so had a go with the bodywork...



OOooo!!! That's VW's "Diamond Silver". Cant wait to have it back on the road! but I doubt the painting will be finished any time soon ::)

Polishing

Picked these up from Agbrigg Chrome platers in Leeds, £60. (Other rocker covers included). Turned it round in a week, though he rang me after 2 days to say it was done.



Really chuffed with the result! Cant wait to build the bike back up now I have all these polished and chrome parts. Need to pull my finger out and get painting, though house moving issues have slowed things down alot.

It certainly wont be this month :(

Chrome plating

Picked up my Chrome plating on Saturday. I used Agbrigg Chrome platers in Leeds. The bloke there Shaun is a biker too and so pretty sympathetic to our needs! He said that it would be a few weeks, but it only took him one week!! This was most surprising as I had previously rung Prestige platers in Mexborough and they were talking 3-4 months!!!

I wasnt sure on the level of finish that I needed to have the parts in, so most stuff I had done to a fairly high standard myself. He said most people bring things in a lot worse state so I was OK. He has a big polishing and sanding wheel and gave me an idea of the level of finish that he can achieve there too. I also took my stainless pipes in a pretty rough state, and he cleaned and polished them up to a mirror finish. I was so impressed that I took all the other ally covers off the engine for him to do as well.

There is about 20 parts in this box but didnt want to unwrap everything.



The pipes:



This has certainly pulled my completion date forward - just need to paint everything else now!!

Blasting Cabinet

OK so after initially ignoring good advice I finally got round to building a cabinet for the blaster.

I say "I" but I mean me and may dad as he is a master DIY carpenter! Basically constructed the whole thing out of what we had laying around.



Made a hole in the top for an inspection lamp





And a plug in the bottom to sweep it out.



Ta-da!





It has affectionately been dubbed the "tardis". Its 3' sqaure and 4' high, which is probably too big, but better that than too small. Blasting went well, I had previously used fine glass bead which gave a good finish, though not very aggressive. However I now had some more intense sandy type stuff.. (I have no idea what my dad bought!) and it does the job well, leaving a rougher finish which will take paint well.



Its fairly slow going, but I suppose that's to be expected with something as large as an engine - lots of nooks and crannies to blast at! But now I'm set up I will just keep going in and having the odd hour on it.

Fingers crossed I dont fuck the engine!

Blasting testing

So, I had a go blasting the engine outside, and just like I had been told, I blasted through a whole 25kg bag of glass bead in no time!

I sat the engine on a bike lift, and put the whole lot on a big sheet of plastic with a very crude wooden fence around. This allowed me to recycle some of the sand, but then I kept blocking up with large lumps and rain soon ended play altogether.

Even so, when the things was working properly I was getting good results! Only managed the head and a few fins, but I'm pleased with the results.









So... next task is to build some sort of cabinet that will allow me to recycle all of the glass beads. Also I'm thinking of a gauze type filter to remove large bits of dirt etc...

It was a bit of an experiment, so I'm not surprised by the results. Got a good finish, but needs a bit more preparation for actually using the blaster.

Blasting back

Picked up my parts from my uncle who works at Broadblast in Sheffield. They typically do more industrial type stuff, but throw in the occasional bike frame for good measure. I got him to undercoat the frame, fender, and electrics box.


He used some serious North Sea oil rig 25yr guarantee primer so it will never rust haha! Also blasted up the other bits and bobs;



So now I can sort things for Chrome plating. But first I want to blast the engine. My plan is to basically blast it as a complete unit, so I have been bunging up all the holes etc.



I want to do it myself so I can be a bit more careful with where Im pointing the blaster, so I added this little beaut to the shed;



Its just a DIY 10 gallon tank that you can pick up off ebay, also bought a bag of glass bead that will hopefully give me a good finish! Just need to test it on some scrap now and see what kind of finish I can achieve...

All quiet on the shed front...

I've been fairly quiet on here as I haven't been upto much in the shed recently. Got the bike stripped down and dropped the parts off for blasting this weekend.



Also I picked up a leather side bag that my friend made. He only does this as a hobby so I've been pretty impressed with the quality that he has turned out. Though I dont think I could blag him into making another one anytime soon haha ;)





In other news my buddy Steve was harping on at work about lathes so I invited him over to come round and have a play.

And as you know Sunday was the best day of the year so far (weather wise) but me and my dad where stuck inside working all morning!! But we managed a cheeky ride upto Holme Moss in the afternoon to enjoy some of the sunshine

Good times!

Threaded M10 Bungs

Now in stock! I have beefed up the design of these larger fixing points, to make them more suitable for when a bit more strength is required. Such as fixing a brake stay (torque arm) or peg mounting points.

Simply drill a 16mm hole in the frame and the flanged edge means that they will sit proud, ready for welding.

I am currently selling them in sets of 5 for £20 plus postage. Check them out at the big cartel store; http://holmevalleycustoms.bigcartel.com/

I also sell these in the smaller M8 size and other goodies at the shop.

(Also available on ebay, though they cost more to cover the selling fees)

Odd Jobs

Have been making slow progress ticking things off the list.

Previously I had the electrical components rattling round inside and had tried to stop this by filling the spare space with rags - less than ideal! So now I decided to make something a bit more secure. There are basically three main components to secure - the fuse box, boyer box, and starter solenoid.

Basically I started by jamming the boyer box and solenoid as far out of the way as possible, I welded a little threaded bung inside the electrics box (with some difficulty!)



Then I fabbed up a little bracket to hold the boyer box in place. In practice I will line it with rubber to help with vibration.



Both items fixed inside, on the same mounting point, nicely tucked in the back corner;



This left lots of room for the fuse box, and it needs lots of room, as its quite tall, and when you have got all the wires connected it makes it wide too! For this I drilled some holes in the bottom of the tank, and turned up some spacers so that the fuse box would sit up high.



So I haven't actually tried wiring it all up yet, but I'm hoping that those changes will help. I also drilled a few discreet holes in the actual frame for running wires through, rather than having zip ties every six inches. But I forgot to take a picture of them.

Next on the list was the steering lock. As the triumph tank is so wide, the top of the forks currently just clash when on full lock. After a bit of testing I decided that some 2mm spacers would be appropriate and I welded them onto the frame.





Last off was to weld up the threaded connections that I had tacked in earlier for the exhaust mounts.







That pretty much concludes all of the fabrication jobs left on the bike. At the moments its all stripped down ready for the next process which will be finishing. Painting, polishing, plating. Before that though things need cleaning up (groan!) so my first job is to take as much as possible for blasting, and then it can be sorted for painting or plating.