Progress Report

Photo From Here

Maybe I should consider making an Earles type fork if I'm going to go "full Monty" on the sidecar rig. That could be a project for next winter, I suppose.

I painted up the front fender to see how I liked the color. I'm pretty happy with it. Hard to tell the true color under the fluorescent lighting, however. I had a '71 Olds Cutlass that was a metallic brown - Burnt Sienna I believe was the color. Always liked the looks of it. If I decide to get the wheels powder coated gold, should look nothing short of regal. Or garish. My mother's saying about all of your taste being in your mouth may apply here. The fender paint isn't as glossy as I expected it to be. I could clear coat it. That would make it shinier and a little more durable as well. 

I'm starting to work on the front end. Shouldn't take too long there. Of course I thought taking the forks in the photo apart would be easy. The procedure is relatively simple. Clamp the fork tube in the vise using soft jaws, pull back on the lower leg, then zap the bolt in the bottom with the impact wrench. Except when I went to use the impact, the trigger was frozen in the on position. At first I thought it was literally frozen due to some condensation that froze up. After warming it up, still no go. So I had to take the wrench apart and fix it before I could take the forks apart. I probably haven't used the impact in a three or four years which in all actuality is probably a good thing. Impact wrenches and hard work normally go hand in hand. I don't know how old the thing is. I got it used from someplace. Auction, garage sale or the used tool place that I used to frequent before they closed up. It's been so long I don't remember. It sure doesn't owe me anything, though. 

I thought I had a pair of new dust seals for the top of the fork lowers but didn't see them in the box of parts. Surly got most all of the bike parts organized, so if I had them, I should be able to find them. Since I didn't, I ordered them. I also ordered some parts to rebuild the calipers while I was ordering things. I'll have to jerk the engine out at some point and get the frame blasted and powder coated but there really isn't that much left to do. I'm pretty well convinced I need to build a sidecar for it, however. That'll add a bit to the completion date but this thing's been on the back burner for at least 25 years. What's another month or so at this point?