Monday, April 16, 2018

Say It Loud, It's Black and I'm Proud.


Sidecar frame is painted. You can't really tell in the photo but it looks very professional hanging there with the fresh, shiny black paint job. Rather proud of what I've made so far.

I figured I'd just stick a couple of things in the end of the tubing to hang the frame up with but after giving it some thought I figured I'd better have it fairly secure, just in case, so I took a couple of anchor bolts I had in the "shorts" bucket and made a quick wooden piece to fill up the space inside the tube and then bolted them on using the nut that was welded to the bottom of the frame to secure the lights. I didn't want to take a chance on dropping the thing after I got it painted and booger it up. The hooks I put in the ceiling to paint the motorbike frame came in handy.


After I finished painting I took a look at the wheel and I think I've got a plan for a hubcap to blank off the brake drum that will look decent. I should have looked at it a bit earlier and added it to the list of material I bought the other day - would have saved me some money on shipping charges, plus I had a 20% discount code. I thought I had a piece of stock about right for my design laying around here but I didn't find it. I'll take a better look and maybe I can find something in house. 

I'll start cleaning up the wheel while the paint is setting up. It's turned cold again, so I'm going to let the frame hang a couple of days to make sure it's good and set before I take it down. I still need to decide on what I'm going to do about the seat on the bike. I'll get that figured out and that should about do it for any welding on the frame. I can then strip it down, go through the motor and get the bike itself painted and re-assembled. Making some decent progress on things now.

Tax Freedom Day here in Indiana, by the way. From this day forward you get to start working for yourself, having theoretically met your federal and state income tax obligations for the year. I'm inclined to think you never get out from under the tax burden, however. Buy gas, pay tax; most any type of merchandise, either locally or on the internet, pay tax; renew your license plates, pay tax. In fact, you'll pay excise tax as long as you own the vehicle. So when I put the 900 on the road, in addition to dealing with the lousy gasoline and all the potholes, I'll have to pay my tribute to the state. At least it will be the minimum due to the bike's advanced age. It is nice that Tax Freedom Day coincides with tax due day - might ease the pain a bit.

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