Filling in more holes

A couple of these actually look like real welds.  Had to grind these and sand them out to make this fender look descent.  This fender had about 9 holes in it.  Mig welding sheet metal with holes was kind of challenging.  I got a lot of practice and learned a lot doing this though.  I put a piece of copper behind the hole and had to play around with the wire feed speed.  Some anti spatter spray would have helped.

Flux core mig weld, on a trailer fender to fill in some holes

This was the fender I was practicing on before.  It had a bunch of holes in it.  Well today I watched a bunch of welding videos on youtube and got myself psyched up to weld up some stuff.  It's not the prettiest weld, but you got to start somewhere right

Mounting a gas tank on an XS650

Here are a couple of photos from last night.  The tank mounting bungs came from Hugh's Handbuilt and the stainless steel hex screws came via egay.  

A broken swingarm bolt grease fitting for XS650

When I was greasing the swingarm for the '83 650 I busted off the end of my m6 size zerk fitting pulling off a grease gun.  Had to break out a screw extractor bit and an adjustable tap handle wrench to back out the broken piece.  Most auto stores carry these metric fittings in packs.   

XS650 Oil Change

I had today off of work, so I changed the oil in the '83 XS650.  Here are a few photos...

XS650 Battery quick connect

Made a quick connect hook-up for my '83 xs650.  Works like a champ

Cleaning up an XS650 front motor mount

Here is a comparrison between the stock and the stripped down front motor mount.  With the mount in a vise, I used an angle grinder with a cutting wheel to open up the sheet metal shield enough so I could get a chissel in to pry the thin outer metal piece off. 

The direction

Here is a couple of update photos.  The bars are from Front Street.  The Hardtail is TC Bros tig welded by the guys at Monstercraftsman.  The tank is a Seven Sins Choppers tank. Hardware is stainless stell.  The seat hinge is a Biltwell stainless steel hinge.  Don't know how many of these I'm gonna build so figured I'd build it like it was the last one.  Anyways I like the direction this thing is going

A trailer fender I was messing around with

Removing tabs from a Yamaha XS650...Frame preperations.

It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the results.  This was my first attempt at cleaning up a XS650 frame.  There are a couple of small gouges left from a cut off wheel.  I might end up filling those spots with a small mig welder, then sand those spots smooth with the angle grinder and a 120 grit flap sanding wheel.  

Here is a before and after comparrison so you can see the work involved.  First, the paint was stripped. Next, I removed some tabs with a cut off wheel and ground off those welds.  Finally I used a 120 grit flap sanding disk to clean those areas up.  This frame is about ready to get a hardtailed. 

Saturday, Frame Paint Stripping...

This frame is going to get hardtailed and powder coated.  First I need to get rid of this old paint.  Once stripped I'll be spraying down the frame and blowing off the water with the air compressor.  Then I plan on checking frame welds and removing some tabs I won't be using.  Here is the basic stuff you need for the paint removal process (not pictured 1 small steel brush).   

Here is a close up of the neck.  This is a slow process.  Don't let the stripper dry on the frame.  Don't scrape to soon either.  I was pretty liberal with the ammount of stripper I put on.  This stuff is pretty strong so wear long sleeves, gloves and eye protection and take your time.

After a couple of hours of multiple coats of paint stripper and scraping here are the results.  I ended up using one can of paint stripper, and trashed a paint brush and wire brush.  There are a couple of surface rust spots that need to be taken care of.  Also I want to get rid of some tabs that I won't be using.

Once the frame was stripped I spent a little time with the angle grinder taking off the neck gusset, speedo cable guides and other tabs that I won't be using.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  This frame is almost ready to be hardtailed.