Cruiser News
Not much to see- except a bare frame. The motor is pulled and sitting in the parts washer. The swingarm is apart and the nice thing is that all of the linkages and pivot bearings are nice and tight. So it is mostly a matter of cleaning and painting. I Read more…
Well, the bike is almost all in pieces. The wiring harness is a mess since the bike was raced and some of the wires were cut. I’m sourcing some original stuff and will have to make some. After the engine is out, the frame will be painted back in the Read more…
So, the front end is apart and we are making good progress. Front wheel is painted gold… the rotors are cleaned up and centers painted, forks are painted, all the handlebar switch gear is painted, master cylinder is painted, upper clamp is painted and the upper stay will be bead Read more…
Well, I’ve always wanted one of these so when a friend (the guy who owns the RZ500 and the Hejira) told me he knew someone selling one I pounced on it. This bike is a Canadian model that has a race history so the engine has lots of upgrades. It Read more…
Here are the finished tank and rear fender. We cut off about 3 inches and relocated where the new taillight will mount. Great colors- antique gold and dark teal. The gas cap was is terrible condition so I stripped all the corroded chrome off of it and painted it in Read more…
After getting all the bodywork finished, the next step is to put the base coats on. In this case, we are using an antique gold and dark teal. We put the gold on first so that it can be masked off easily to put the teal on. Taping off the Read more…
This was a fun small job that I did for the guy who bought my Triumph Street Triple R (which I now regret selling!). He is doing a cafe style semi-restoration on the 360 and so we needed to paint the bodywork. We picked a good classic/retro color scheme of Read more…
Well, the paint is all finished on the cafe style bodywork. It really looks great. I’m looking forward to seeing them on the bike. We still have a set of full race fairings to paint that will be used with the same tank and tail. So, they will also be Read more…
Here are a few pictures of the progress- the red is on and the graphics are on. The Hejira decals that Tapeworks.com made for me are far better than the original that we had to scan and work off of. It is going to look great. The red/white/gold is a Read more…
A few pictures as I get ready to put the red on… here are the parts with the panels taped up- so, what is under the tape is the polar white we sprayed on a few days ago. Laying out and striping panels is pretty time consuming. Lots of hours Read more…
We’ve made some good progress- after some final sanding and finishing, the epoxy primer was applied and then we went back and touched up some areas with spot filler and block sanded everything. One of the biggest decisions to make on a 50 year old bike that has a hand Read more…
The filler and sanding is more involved than it looks… you need to put the layers on thin, then sand, then another layer until you have the shape and contour you want. Lots of hand sanding and block sanding. It is pretty time consuming. Here, we are getting close to Read more…
The upper and all the fiberglass is media blasted and as you can see in pretty tough shape. The upper has been patched together in a previous life and all the edges, corners and gel coat are very nicked, chipped, etc. I’ve laid new glass in certain areas to reinforce Read more…
Well, I’ve media blasted all the parts and gotten down to the aluminum on the tank and the gel coat on the fiberglass. The tank was in pretty rough shape with several large dents that had just been filled with (lots) bondo. So I cut the bottom out and pounded Read more…
If you’ve never heard of Hejira before, don’t feel bad. I know bikes pretty well and I had not heard of them until one of my clients called me and said he had bought one in England and wanted to restore it. Hejira’s were custom built race bikes mainly in Read more…
Here are a few pictures of the FZ1 that I painted in that beautiful Lamborghini Orange Pearl… The color and shade change dramatically depending on sun and shading. The logos and graphics are done in 3M carbon fiber vinyl and look awesome with the orange. You can kind of see Read more…
Working on a 94 Ducati 916 that had some fairing damage after some tabs broke from old age and stress and the wind tore the panels off the bike as he was riding… Matching the color on a 19 year old bike can be a challenge since it fades differently Read more…
All cleared and buffed. Looks awesome- cameras are really bad at showing metallic and pearls but you can get an idea form the pictures how pretty it is. The pearl changes shades and colors depending on how the light hits it. I should get some finished shots after the owner Read more…
Today was the orange day… the base color is a Lamborghini orange and then I custom mixed a pearl to go on top. The pictures are not very accurate due to the florescent lights- the color is more orange than it looks in these pictures but not as dark as Read more…
This bike has an interesting history. The current owner bought it a few months ago with only 250 miles on it. It was a “barn find” but had some cosmetic damage- dented tank and scratched fairings. Since it needed to be painted, they decided to paint it orange. It should Read more…
Here are a few more photos from the Barber Vintage Festival… There were some awesome bikes there- This SL350 is just like the bike that my friend Jerry and I restored a few years back.
The 8th annual vintage festival concluded today and by all appearances, it was a great success. The weather was great all weekend and the crowds were huge. My only big complaint was that after paying for admission, you had to pay again to get into the Ace area- so we Read more…
Don’t’ miss this years Vintage Festival at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL if you are anywhere close enough to come. This is an awesome yearly event with shows, exhibits, racing and great cool fall weather. The swap meet alone is worth the trip and can suck up hours of Read more…
Actually, I’m not sure what bike these are off of… originally grey and the owner wants them green and black to match his new bodywork. So, I am obliging him.
I just finished clearing the helmet I painted to match the Lions Hayabusa I did last month. Obviously the same scheme with the Ruff Riders/Lions logo on the side. It’s not a high quality helmet but I think it is mostly a display prop and not really for riding. Here Read more…
The VFR is finished and looks great. The wings on the fairings are pretty ghostly- they are only really noticeable in direct light and even then you need to look for them. We also put red LED’s inside the fairings to light it up at night. VFR’s are one of Read more…
The upper is all reassembled and installed. Hopefully I will have finished pictures by the end of the day.
The VFR is progressing- the wings are on the side panels and tank and everything is clear coated. The wings are just one shade lighter than the panel color so they are really ghost wings. At night, they won’t be visible at all. We will put some LED lights inside Read more…
I sprayed the base coat on today- after several days of bodywork, sanding, more sanding, priming, more sanding, etc. As you can see from the picture of the turn signal opening, it is really critical to get every edge and corner painted or you will have the original color peeking Read more…
This happened during a closed course rally in W. Virginia. The dude was pretty tough to get right back on the bike and continue the race. Deer are a huge problem for motorcyclists who ride on rural roads. I’ve almost hit a couple here in Georgia and I’ll admit, the Read more…
Here is the first photo I’ve seen of the bike all assembled with the wheels painted. It’s a great color that changes shades as the angle and sun change. I should get some more pictures soon…
I’ve just started on a 2003 VFR800 that was lightly crashed when he ran off the road. Since every panel on the bike was damaged, it would have been totaled by the insurance company. But we are going to fix the bodywork and paint it a dark gray metallic with Read more…
This is one of those entertaining videos that really means nothing. Kinda like the supercar vs. fighter jet match-ups. But it is entertaining- and a bit too long for a simple drag race.
I found this video on YouTube… this is the bike that is the inspiration for the R6 I just finished. Great video of KR riding a demo lap at Laguna before the MotoGP race last year.
Here are a couple of shots of the bike all finished. It really looks better in person since you can see all the detail that pictures tend to miss. The scheme is inspired by the 84 Yamaha RZ350 Kenny Roberts replica bike (see picture). Painting the rear hugger and cleaning Read more…
I’m currently working on a Blue/Silver CBR600RR that got dropped and and needed some paint work. The owner wanted a complete color change to all black so that is what we are doing. Here are a couple before/after shots of the body work with the black base coat. Base coats Read more…
Here are a couple of shots of the Hayabusa taken on a cell phone… Why they didn’t roll it outside and take a couple of decent pictures is beyond me but it is supposedly scheduled for another photo shoot in a couple of weeks. Moto Limit did the mechanical and Read more…
More photos are coming tomorrow but here are a couple of the tank and seat cowl ready to install…
I’m currently working on a Hayabusa for client who used to play for the Detroit Lions. The black/silver/blue scheme is right off their uniforms. Here are a few shots of the panels in basecoat with the graphics applied. The graphics were custom made by Tapeworks who I highly recommend if Read more…
Well, here it is almost all reassembled. I’m still waiting on the windscreen and I need to fabricate a rear plate bracket but the scheme looks great.I’ll post some more pictures when it is all finished.
Here is a quick picture of the upper in the sun so you can see the yellow pearl. The base color is Viper yellow but I mixed a pearl coat to go on top that has diamond white, orange and red pearls in it. With all the different pearls, it Read more…
To get a really slick “dipped in glass” look, you need at least 4 coats of clear. So, I wet sanded the tank and upper with 400 grit and sprayed a couple more coats of clear on. Next, it will get wet sanded with 2000 grit, then 3000 grit and Read more…
Well, the bodywork is all cleared and looks great. You can’t see it in this picture but the yellow pearl I mixed up looks awesome in the sunlight. Next up is some wet sanding and buffing and then final assembly.
Here are a few of pictures of the bodywork with the graphics installed and the tank stripe painted… it’s going to be a cool looking bike.
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Even after filler and hand sanding you will find some small defects that need to be spot puttied and resanded. After that, we are ready to put the base color coat on- in this case I’m using Viper Yellow. You really need to use white primer for a light color Read more…
So, I’ve been working on this 08 R6 that needed a complete repaint… It was originally blue but had been painted solid black after a crash- and done very poorly, probably by a car shop. I’ve found that while car shops will paint bikes for guys cheaper than someone like Read more…
This article over at MSNBC spotlights a big problem for US motorcyclists. With recreational and commuter use on the rise, motorcycle deaths and injuries are a big problem for everyone involved- the gov’t, manufacturers and of course the families of those killed. I fix a lot of wrecked bikes here Read more…
BMW has been on a roll recently- lots of new models and their sales show it. 0.04.2012 11:36 Best first quarter of all time for BMW Motorrad. Husqvarna Motorcycles 36.2 percent up compared to last year. During the first three months of 2012, BMW Motorrad had its best 1st Read more…