Author: Buck

I’ve had a productive couple of days off.

Yesterday I fitted the bearing race and bearing to the top of the headstock and applied clear polish to the bits I’d already painted.

Today I polished the clear lacquer on the bottom yoke and got a nice glassy finish. Then noticed on one small section it was glassy over bare metal. The paint hadn’t stuck. It was only a small section so I was tempted to leave it like that, but I’m hoping once the job is done, that will be it. For the sake of another day’s delay it’s not worth years of knowing it’s a bad job. So I reprayed it and added more layers of clear. Hopefully that will have done the trick.

I’m still learning as I go with this painting lark, but I’m getting the hang of it. 90% of it is preparation, the other 10% is patience. You have to have a perfect surface to get a perfect finish. And then you have to apply very thin layers of paint many times. Also, I only found out yesterday, there are different types of clear coat. I had normal clear coat, which gives a nice shiny result when polished, but it seems there is also gloss. I’m hoping that is the final step.

Here is some stuff I’ve done.

It’s hard to make out detail there, but the fork stanchions are in black satin, the mudguard is in black gloss.

I did the wet sandpaper and polish on the mudguard today. As I said, I didn’t prepare it properly, I only roughed it up with coarse sandpaper before spraying, I should have used smooth to get rid of all the scratches. But even so, you have to get within a few inches to see the flaws. I’m happy with that. As long as I do the smooth sandpaper in preparation (and do several more coats of both paint and primer) I’d be happy with that for my frame.

The paint before I started

And after

The world is going straight to hell, but I’m still making progress with the Harley. So, swings and roundabouts. I rode it in to work after my last post. I noticed on the ride home the headlight beam was rubbish. It was projecting in a horizontal line just in front of the bike. I hadn’t moved the headlight, so I was worried it was non-UK spec and I’d wasted more money. I took it off again, to see if I’d fitted it wrong, but there is a groove in the headlight casing into which it can only fit one way, so it wasn’t that. While I I had it out I looked at the two loose wires on the headlight. There is a 3 pin plug that fits directly into where the standard headlight attaches, but also two wires. I ran a wire to them and to a powered line, one lights the headlight halo orange, presumably for indicators, the other lights the halo bright white. As luck would have it there was a taped off power line in the headlight already so I just ran a wire to that. Then I read up on headlight beam setting. 3.8 metres from the bulb to the wall, 50 -110mm lower than the bulb height. Marked the fence and rolled the bike to the correct distance, then just rotated the headlight up. I think that’s all set.

Looks good.

While I was at it I fitted the new handgrips. It’s really coming along.

Mainly just adding pictures.

Spraying the plate has taught me some valuable lessons. Preparation, preparation, preparation. That was my biggest mistake. That and rushing because I was on the clock as I needed the bike back on the road for work. I ground it down and sandpapered it, but I didn’t fill or grind out all the tiny pockmarks in the metal. The paint doesn’t fill the holes in, just highlights it. Also I think I may have picked up dust. I’ve ordered some drop sheets to make a sterile tent in my shed. Another thing is it’s better to spray too little each time, I got impatient and got a drip. I only had engine black paint so I had to cure it in the oven. So, appropriate paint for the job. Possibly add more layers of clear. And finally, be very gentle with the wet sanding. I think I rubbed out some of the clear.

There are some positives. The paint went on. There is a nice reflection of the bolt on the lower right of the picture. Rough as it is, it looks better than the surrounding paintwork, and it was much worse.