What's All The Hub-Bub,Bub?

I brought the VW home the other day. I had built a towbar for a buddy of mine years ago when he was drag racing his Camaro and I had a piece that I had made years ago for dragging my old Plymouth around with said towbar, so I borrowed the towbar and took both it and the Plymouth part over to school to see what I could do. As it worked out, no cutting or welding involved, just had to run home and get some longer bolts (thanks Dave for the suggestion) and sandwhich the Plymouth part between the nerf bar/bumper and the VW mounting brackets.

Once I got it tucked away at the house I decided to see what I had for parts and to get some idea of where to go next on this thing. Through a random selection process I pulled the turn signal kit out of the parts box and decided to work on the steering column and wheel. I've got a steering wheel that I bought years ago for my Plymouth but, of course, that project's been on the back burner for something like 30 years now. The wheel would look good in the VW but the adapter hub doesn't quite match up with the VW steering shaft. The splines are right but the inside diameter of the hub is a little small so it won't go on all the way. Next rainy day I'll chuck it up in the lathe and open up the bore. Once I've got that done I need to machine up a collar with a support bearing that will slip over the outside of the column and hide all the ugliness that was the stock ignition switch/steering lock. I get that taken care of then I can build the dashboard. It's never simple, is it?

In the meantime, I'm still debating what to do with the 900. Surly says he's got another post coming up at his site as to what I should build. I found the top photo at the Airtech website and that got me thinking back along the roadracing lines, rather than the dragbike lines. The seat is like the ones that were on the Team Hansen "Green Meanies". Kaw 750 two-stroke racers - think Gary Nixon (#9 above). The seat is about $130, the tank $600 and the fender $60. I can't see me doing $800 worth of plastic, but I sure like the looks of the bike. I think I'm good enough to make an aluminum tank like that but that would really set the project back. That looks like an old Yoshimura header on there. My brother John had one of those on his 900. Once you pulled the baffle out of it, not much more than a 3" diameter straight pipe. Always sounded good. I made an aluminum collector already that I was planning on putting a Supertrapp insert into but I like the look of the steel pipe in black. And the Nixon bike has the gold colored mags that Surly has been quacking about. If my rear mag was a WM6 instead of the skinny little WM3, I'd be sending them out to get powder coated gold tomorrow. I'll wait and see what Surly comes up with but I really need to pull the trigger on this thing. I'm going to be riding something next spring come hell or high water and it's way, way past time for me to be riding  something that I built.

Next up, however, is the front step project. I'll get some material and plan on working on that over the weekend. Looking like rain in the forecast but I should be able to work most of it in over the three days. But if it rains three days straight, there'll be a hub on the bug's steering column.