Tank Closed

Spent another 7 hours working on the tank last night. I now have the whole thing closed back up. Everything is tacked and now I have a TON of grinding and welding and grinding and welding and metal fill to do, etc..

Figure another 10 hours or so and I might have it back to looking "great" and ready for paint.

There is a little issue right now. Looks like I got things a little too hot last night and now have one corner of the tank (bottom right) unlevel from the rest (by about 1/4" or so). Monday I'll have to figure out a way to "Square" it back up.

Longer Tank!

Well we got some more done last night.

The tank is now 5"s longer! I cut the damn thing in half last night. HA!

It took around an hour to strip it down and around another hour to get up the courage to really cut it in half. I was thinking about just skinning it, but in the end, I really wanted that bottom part to meet up with the corbin seat I already have.

In the end my welding is better than my metal forming, so this was the right path for me. That plus I am going with 16 ga cold rolled for the tank, and that doesn't bend "easy"

Now I just ALOT of welding to seal this thing up. Maybe a couple of more nights and the tank will be done.

Here are the pics from last night

Frame Mostly Done

Okay. I managed not to scrap my frame and build a whole new one!

I have the frame mostly done. The 4 1/2" extensions are all welded and cleaned up. The sleeves and shell work great for the bottom bars and the inserted sleeve + gusset worked well for the back bone.

Here are the pics from last nights work.

I have the frame about 70% sand blasted. Since I am waiting on the neck and springer front end I will start on the new mounting for the radiator and stretching the tank.

Too Late Now

Well it's too late to change my mind now! The bike is all apart and the frame is cut in half!

I am stretching the frame 4" (I'm 6'8" and even with the 5" extensions for the forward controls, my legs are always up in my chest).

Then we are cutting the neck and welding in a 1" standard Harley neck for a springer front end. I haven't settled on how much we are racking it out, but it will end up out there a little bit at least!

Plans also include remounting the radiator on the inside of the frame, black out the engine, stretch the tank to fit the new longer frame and a new seat pan.

After all of that, its just bars, brake lines, paint and then putting it all back together!