71 Norton Commando Fastback

This little guy hasn't seen "running" in quite a number of years. After some multiple tinkering and still tinkering actually, it is running and pretty well. I have it up for sale actually. I've fallin more and more for the Cafe' style classics. As you see below with the Honda. There is most certainly a difference with the English bikes. Took me awhile to get used to the right hand shift and left brake. Like the riding style and to my slight amazement it was a good handling ride despite very old tires. It is a very spirited ride to say the least. Not bad for a 750 thumper. As true to the Norton heritage and genetics, problems arise at just about every other turn. The Lucas electric has long since already struck it's  dark hand onto the head lights which I did manage to figure out and fix. So far my fingers are crossed and there is still light. I hand machined the shifter lever assembly for a GP style shift pattern. I've gotten a bit more used to it so now it's not so bad. My buddy Collin Metz came out last Saturday and helped me do some filming. So here is what we came up with. Hope you like.

This is a classic English Bike To say the least. It's pretty fun to drive and keeps with the cafe' style no doubt!

1977 Ducati 900 Super Sport

So this old scoot was fun to paint. These Ducati's are one to be had for sure. Classic lines and styles of the Italian motorcycle architecture. I filmed and edited the video. I've known Craig, current owner, a few years now and he's quite an avid collector. He frequents the Mid America Auction particularly the one in Las Vegas every year in January. Notably one of the largest for the year of strictly Motorcycles of all years, makes and models. He ended up with two of these rather iconic and cool old Ducati's. The paint is Chroma Base DuPont with the colors best depicting and is as close to the original as can possibly be matched by a skilled paint mixing master. Not me actually. I layed down the paint but not after a butt load of sanding by Craig himself. Surface prep is 90% of the paint job in my book. Or damn close anyway. So here's the video that better depicts how well it came out.

Or you can watch a high def vid here   http://vimeo.com/31922427

Honda in Blue, almost?

As work continues so do the ideas. When you have such a template to work with all sorts of thoughts poor into our head. The oil tank, in this case, was all Mikes ideas. He went to our local Surplus City and found a fire extinguisher and hence forth and now, oil tank. Since him calling the side, original, oil tank a "colostomy bag", that pretty much did it for me to get it the hell off there. Ok, there was some aesthetics in mind over that as well, but still. So far no paint in mind, or it might, or who knows what. That's the beauty of all these kinds of projects. Now were kicking around a turbo for the future. Since that's one of my specialties. I think we'll just get her running first drive it for awhile, maybe enjoy whatever the hell is left of summer and tackle that one later! Fortunatelly, we have great weather here and by god, we take advantage of it. It do get cold here as well. So this posting is just a bit of an update and how it's coming along. I think we have a good balance going with the fenders where the wiring will get cleaned up as well. Hasta for now. Be sure to click on the pix for mondo larger viewing.
Watch a short video of the build:
http://vimeo.com/33324909

Proto bike...almost

As with all things, it takes awhile. With this thing, it's taking forever! Now working on lots of electronics as you will notice on the video. Hoping July will see it running and on the road for the dog and pony show. Here's a link to my other blog discussing more in details about whats behind this and more.

Transformation

  Transformation continues for this old 1977 Honda 750 Four. Yes it was a putrid yellow and then we painted it a House of Colors Tribal Blue. It's build is somewhere earlier in this blog somewhere. Now it has a new owner who found that a Cafe Racer was more his liking. Mike, his actual name, (yea, sometimes ambiguity has it's place, but not this time) a long time motor head and extremely familiar with British cars, has a new hankerin for a "Rocker" mobile. A "Mod" is not his style, which if your not familiar with the term, well then "plug in man".  So now it's cuttin and grinding time and more thought going into it than I would ever thought imaginable. Unlike most of my past race car or street rod mod, this actually isn't a bunch different. Other than I'm liking the smaller dimensions! I've built so many big 4x4's this is a great change! The motor on this little dude is getting new slugs in larger barrels, some chamber work and some needed overhaul goodies. We're cleaning up the frame and it will be blue as well. We may add some flair to the already existing paint, but we'll see. It's all up to the Hefe' and a little collaboration from me. We keep coming up with new ideas as we go, I guess that's the norm anyway. Obviously lowered and having some typical Cafe expectations with maybe a hint of Bobber as well. Yea, I know I wasn't going to do this anymore and I have plenty to do...but damn it's a lot of fun.   ps: when you get down to the end of the blog click on "older posts" to see other projects. Also you can click on the photos to see rather large renderings!

Well, that's racing...

I decided since I'm not really doing much work in restorations at the time that I would make this blog a reference to a bit more of all the other "stuff" I'm doing. I won't bore the readers with the Math modeling I do for my inventions, but rather the more fun stuff. Although, math is fun for me. There is still much about motorcycles and go-fast autos which I'm still into. Mostly motorcycles these days. Like me on my 8th birthday and my first hmm, bike. Note the riding position. Still the same today, just a bit more cc's.
It's been a long year working away at building the prototypes. I can't leave well enough alone and keep changing things. But I feel better about where things are now with 7 devices and two I call systems. Nonetheless it's been an interesting year.

So aside from my faux pas of hitting a guard rail at 50 ft per second, which I've mostly recovered from, I have friends who have had similar incidents and "feel" my pain!
For those who have followed some of my projects, undoubtedly you will remember the 1970 Boss that Paul just finished getting together this summer. Well Paul has managed to take his prize possession and put in on it's top! Racing at Sandia Raceway last weekend has given him more work for the winter.  (pictures forthcoming). Here's a quick video link of Paul's Mustang shortly after getting it running.
Be sure to look under "previous posts" to the right for viewing all the past projects we've finished. Also you can click on the pictures for larger viewing. Actually upcoming projects will be Mike Veesarts Honda 750 Four Cafe Racer build. Currently I'm getting the motor ready for rebuilding. We'll be adding some ponies through some head porting for a little extra flow which should make it boogie pretty nicely. Looking forward to that.

Update... Boss 302 up and running

I can't tell you how awesome it was to see this car with wheels on and all together like it should be. It has taken Paul and his friend Vic over a year to get it all put back together with the numerous modifications that had to be made. They were also being very careful and meticulous I might ad!. Man does it show. This car quite frankly, is the quintessential definition of Bad Ass in relation to muscle cars of those awesome days. Right off the bat, a Naturally Aspirated 400+ horse power 302, 8 point roll cage, 4 speed gear box from the day, classic Ford bullet proof 9 inch rear end plus a ton of goodies to numerous to list here. He had a decent placing for his first time out with the car at Sandia Raceway on the road course pulling up over 5 cars. He's a seasoned Road Course, Vintage and SCCA race car driver. Simply put, Paul has been a gear head and enthusiast since day one and an obvious Ford man. In fact Paul has over 10 books to his credit related to Ford published by larger auto book publishers. This was a dream car for him and so realized.
I was also happy to hear the many compliments about the paint and body work. There were lots of modifications and welding that can be seen in much earlier posts in the blog site. Now seeing it in bright ass sunlight was also a sigh of relief. Proof the paint laid down even as hell. No streaks, blotching, puddles of color, etc....but then again, I don't do that! Still, nice for the validation. It really is a great popping color! This also being a street legal car, puts even more of the "fun" factor on the table and even better for the showing and or showing off! Bryan, my son, who also put numerous hours in to this guy, got the thrill of getting a ride in it. With the cam profile in that engine, was glorious music to his ears. Something about ultra stereo phonic sound of exhausting gasses pumping out the sides of the car, under your ass that you just cant beat. With no carpeting or crap to deaden an otherwise glorious sound, well, you get to hear all the mechanical workings of a tight, smooth working drive train. Did I forget to mention how well this machine handles, it is designed for the track you know! We welded extra support for the shock towers in the front and widened the fender wells to fit the meats now harboring underneath. Professional designed suspension components and installation are the muscle keeping it from ever twisting. The tires showed serious track day wear that Paul could be quite proud of! Nothing like bringing back to life one more classic and keeping it out of the crusher. (As always you can click on the pictures for larger viewing pleasure. Also the mouse icon will have a magnifying glass so that you can click again for even larger viewing)

1976 Honda F-750 Four

Since I don't do much of this any more this was more of a specialty job. Mostly I did this for a friend of mine. This bike is on its way to South Portland Main to Kim (Kimmy to me) Chesterfield. This was a pretty cool gift from her pops Butch. He's our local Coffee shop owner whom without him and his wife's awesome java in the mornings, we'd basically suck for the rest of the day! So we're pretty sure she'll dig this old school classic. It was her choice actually. We found this classic just up the hill from where we all live from someone who was very cool and took good care of it. He parted with it for a very fair price. Hats off to straight shootin no bs people like him. My buddy Bill Kelly put the coon toon (ZZ Top reference) to this Honda and got it running great! He was quite helpful running parts and helping assemble this little dude. Here's a link to learn more about the F model 750 Four http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_cb750f_76.htm I was quite pleased with how well it handled actually. Great slight cafe racer look and good breaking with discs on both wheels. Real decent riding position, for me anyway and it flat boogies on down the road! The paint is my usual House of Colors line and the clear is Chroma Clear DuPont. I use the Meteron Grey Metallic for the base with Apple Red Intensifier over that for a more Burgundy red look. The blue scallop is Cobalt blue over Sun Gold Metallic. All under Chroma Clear. The seat was covered by Al Sena whom I've used on most all my motorcycle jobs So far. He's done a great job for a lot less than some others around here. Kim will have plenty of riding time even though this Honda's headed to a much colder climate for the winter. I chose a heavy oil base black for the frame for some extra protection as it also doesn't chip as easily and has more flexibility. Takes a while to cure with better adhesion in some cases.
As usual you may click on the pictures to see them larger. Also to see more paint work and resto's, click on "previous posts" or in the "archive" starting in 06 for many more vehicles located to the right of this post.

Magenta on Radian

This little guy is a Yamaha Radian 600 from 1986. This would be my wife's new ride since selling off her little Suzuki 250, which was a little scary to ride on the freeway. This has a bit more horse power than the 250. Of course we had to make it look decent. This is a House of Kolors Magenta over Saturn Gold Metalic. The Blue tribles are Colbolt Blue also HOK. I buried the tribles in clear to sand out all the ridges with a finish cut and buff. Now we need a little warmer weather. We actually are not fair weather riders!

356 update..

Well this one took a long time to get to this point. Lots of unseen work has gone on as described in the prior posting. This paint was a mix of our own utilizing a BBC Midnight Pearl, with a Dupont Chroma Light Blue, and Black. The layers of clear are the final batch of Duponts 7900S. So it's vibrant without being to bright but soft. The panels came out pretty straight which was nice! The top is back on for the long haul as are the rest of the exterior necessities. Next is to get-er back running with a 12 volt system instead of 6. Electronic ignition instead of points and a single carb for more low end torque. Then off to get the rest of the leather upholstery done. Final pictures will be posted when it gets back from Albert the upholstery guru. As usual, you can click on the pictures to see them large!