NGWClub®, Inc.

that might work. seems like the stress of the drivers weight is on the part of the 12mm bolt you have left. not sure about the engine tork stress. I'm sure those who know more than me will chime in.
Keep in mind that frames are reletively cheap and plentiful especially if you don't need a title. I assume you have a title for your bike. It's a simple matter to switch the vin plate to another frame. you could post on here for a frame. might find one within driving distance.

Center drilling was easier than I anticipated. I taped a plumbers level to the side of my battery powered drill, chucked up a small sharp bit, lubed it up with 3 in 1, and drilled a little over 22 mm deep: Then drilled out to a G size and tapped with a taper tap that I discovered I already had. It needed a bottom tap, so I went into our local Ace Hardware (a good metric selection, including chrome acorn nuts and bolt caps) for a tap to cut into a bottom tap (I knew they wouldn't have the bottom taps) and also picked up an 8 x 1.25 x 20 class 10.9 bolt, and 8mm fender and lock washers. A few hours and about $10 invested, but I am satisfied with the fix!

wow good save

taylorsel wrote:snip............ I assume you have a title for your bike. It's a simple matter to switch the vin plate to another frame.

That is illegal. And the frame also has the number stamped in to it on the neck. So the numbers wouldn't match.

Good solid work on that. Impressive

Removing some paint and surface rust from the main frame today. Discovered that a PO had over-tightened the crash bars (Hondaline, I think - just a loop) so much the frame was sausaged by ~1/16" on the inside of both downtubes. Other than that, just using a lot of compressed air and creating a lot of sweat. Hope my little compressor holds out! Using an air die grinder with abrasive pads and wire wheel along with a hand sandblaster. Wondering about primer. I'd like to just rattle-can the primer and then spray the paint and clear with a gun. Almost want a color a little darker than brown primer. Can I just darken the primer with some black and then clearcoat it? I'm not very experienced with painting. Know a few tricks, but haven't spent much time doing it. I can rattle-can pretty fair, but will have to practice on some scrap before aiming a gun at the Hunley. Motorcycle paint jobs are almost always overpriced if you have a pro do it.

The past two nights I've been using Klean-strip Aircraft Stripper to get the paint off of the Hunley's frame. Just a few small spot left. Plan is to knock them off tomorrow, and then get some etching primer on it followed sandable primer, smooth it out some and then primer sealer. That should protect it until the humidity drops enough to let me shoot some base and clear on it.

Quite pleased with my frame color: 4:1 Jet Black to Champagne Gold Metallic Duplicolor Paint Shop lacquer over etching, sealing, and sandable primer. The sun catches the flakes in the gold nicely. Hope it looks even better after clear coating (may be a week or two before I can do that, though - another nice thing about lacquer - over-paint any time!

I shot it on with a Harbor Freight 4 oz. Detail Sprayer. Used 45 psi at the gun reduced from 90 psi line with a moisture separator after the gun regulator. Cleanup was easy with Acetone shot through the gun after rinsing the bowl. You really have to strain this paint, as there are lots of solid "things" in the bottom of the can. I used the Duplicolor disposable strainer in a small funnel for loading the gun. There are a good two coats from top and bottom on it so far, and I have yet to use 1/2 the paint! I set the gun for a small spot pattern with the fan control closed (no air from the outside nozzles) and the paint flow near wide open. This, with the 45 psi air allowed me to adjust the air for best atomization. I could shoot from as close as 3" to as far as ~ 18" and get good wetting and no runs, but of course with something as complex as a frame you will get orange peal from over-spray of one part to the next. Still, I am very pleased for this to be my first real job with a real spray gun.

With the upholstery material in for my seat, and since I already had it prepped, I covered the shelter top door with the tooled-leather look material to continue the theme from the seat on up the shelter: The green that it is laying on is for the back of the cafe-style seat.

Otto should get the removable frame section welded up this weekend or early this week, and I will then finish priming it and but the same frame paint on it. Moving along!

cool!!!

That's enough clearcoat on the frame. Four coats. When the sun catches the metal in the gold, it glints real nice. JB weld on the removable frame piece to smooth it up after Otto welded it for me (thanks!) and a little smoothing on that tomorrow, then primer on that section. I'm thinking that in about a week I'll hang the frame from the ceiling of the garage and let the lacquer cure over the winter.

Looks like a work of art.

Looks like your tackling a major project ... So far it looks great keep up the good work can't wait to see the finished project .

Put the color and clear on the removable frame section today, then hung it all out of the way from the ceiling of the garage until time to get it back down and polish/wax/begin assembly.

This winter I'll work on the seat (preparing it for upholstery installation), motor (still has a leaky valve that needs lapped), prep the motor to paint, wiring harness, and other assorted frame parts that need cleaned/painted. Then prep the fenders, side covers, shelter covers, etc. for paint. Should keep me out of trouble for a while.
The towel is to keep me from wanging my head against it (I'm prone to such things).

Nice start.
When you take that frame down, if you sand and buff it it will really shine.
Wet sand it with 1500 paper
Buff it with medium cut compound
Follow that with a good polish
And then a good wax
After that it should shine like a new penny

Good looking project! I love the tank cover! WOW!