After 30 years of riding rigids my back finally said enough, so have to go the swingarm route, after  lot of fucking around putting off the inevitable  went with a kraft tech softail frame, thanks Walka for answering stupid questions about them. Pretty fucking impressed with the quality of the welds etc.

Have a spare evo motor from the rigid to go into it, made my 16yo pretty happy told him the rigid is his once i finish the softy little fucker hasnt stopped smiling for a week.

Thinking of a 23" front wheel on one of the vpw 5 degree rake front ends and see what and how it takes shape after that, will throw piccys up as i get it together.

i love getting new toys.

the spare motor

nothing too radical, 3 5/8th bore, stock stroke, ev 46, mild headwork, basically spare bits laying around.

Happy to help, you carn't go wrong,,, I wish I had a spare Engine just sitting around

unfortunately its limited to a spare engine, seat,headlight, tailight, oil tank and rear belt set up, so i guess ill be calling you on a regular basis for other bits

new frame arrival was a good excuse to work from home the rest of the day lol

ill grab the 23 off you and the 18" rear as discussed the other day as well as the front end just waiting for bucks to roll in.

Some progress

Walka sent me a lovely black stilleto front end.

Decided to paint frame rather than powdercoat it,( 3hrs of prep before primer) some pics of before and after primer, on my u beaut frame stand

and no its not acrylic its spray chief black epoxy urethane 2 pack primer. Good quality Aussie made and manufactured paint.

Hopefully get the colour on tomorrow.

Keep them photos coming

colour and clear were put on last night, will knock it down tonight and throw another couple of clear coats on.

Colour is hard to see unless in direct light its a deep coke red black candy pearl

when i get to painting the tanks and guards will be doing the same colour with flames done in copper leaf and perhaps a silver stripe to set it off,

for those interested a quick how to:

http://www.gildedplanet.com/howtocopperleafwithwatersize.html

no mods i thought ahead with this and should be straightforward, will try to get a better pic of of the colour

but if i do need to mod anything its easy enough to touch it up 

getting some stuff done

so Krow i have started  doing a build with the same frame and my dilemma the the moment is wether to powder coat or paint the frame , so i was wondering how hard wearing is the paint you put on the frame ?

hi hdbloke

powdercoat is definitely a tougher finish and better wearing than paint.

I just wanted full custom colour so that included the frame, you cant really see the colour in pics its one of those bastard black candy pearls you need full sunlight for, but it comes back to the clear coat, im using spray chief urethane clear which is a pretty  hard top coat and resistant to stone chips.

Another alternative is marine 2pack clear that shit is tough as nails and has a nice shine.

it comes back to personal choice do you want a finish that will remain relatively no maintenance go powdercoat, or are you prepared to do some touch ups now and again go paint.

if you go powdercoat make sure they have done frames before and use silicon plugs for all the bolt holes etc hardened powder is a real cunt to get out of threads.

if you do go paint use thick bandages or several folded sheets of newspaper wrapped around the frame to stop assembly scratches.and dont assemble anything for 7 days on the frame after baking it takes 7 days for the paint to fully harden unless you cheat like i did and use an accelerator in the clear.

if you are using the same frame make sure when you put the swingarm bearings in that the circlip side of the bearings is inside the swingarm facing each other if you put em on the outside like harley do theres no clearance for the spacers, i had to learn the hard way and then pop em out and reinstall i shoulda asked walka first lol

i think you have made my mind up and will go powdercoating , just find a place that does a good job , thanks for thetip about the bearing to

my big decison now is belt or chain rear????

have both in my spares box, decisions decisions

chain about 4mm shy for 1"belt

i got my wheels on friday and my motor should be here tomorrow cant wait

im building this mainly out of spares i have laying around prolly spring for new wheels from walka and a few other bits but motor drivetrain electrics all stuff i have collected over the years, keep me posted on yours if you need any help sing out