Man that's some good stuff right there.

 

It’s been a long weekend of late nights, but it lives. For what it is, this things rips. I’m very pleased with my decisions along the way. I’ll post some funny stories and lessons learned when I have more time, but for now…

 

looks good

 

Weekend update/story time.

Friday I had a longtime gearhead friend coming down from NoVA to get a little garage time in like the good ol’ days of when we used to build Mustangs, before we had families and real jobs and responsibilities and ****. My hope was to have all parts coated and tools ready to go when he arrived. Well he rides like I do and showed up 1.5 hours early and I still had parts to coat. He broke down the cam chest and hit our first snag. The inner cam bearing tool that he brought was suppose to work on all models, but guess what… it works just well enough to jack up the bearing. I finish coating everything and cleaning up and organizing the garage about 3 AM.

7:30AM Saturday- I take off to grab us some breakfast sandwiches and pass an O’Reily’s with free tool rental. The only thing they have that might work is a slide hammer and pilot bearing tool. Bring that back with me as a back up plan. We eat and decide to take a gamble on the HD dealer. They naturally don’t have the tool for sale and the counter clerk kind of laughs at the question of me borrowing one, As I’m leaving one of the floor sales guys greets me and I explained my situation. He recommended an independent shop about another 20 minutes away.

I fell in love with this place as soon as I walked in. They are rare these days, but it took me back to my childhood. Smelled like gear oil and stale cigarette smoke, the lights were turned off in half the store. I explained to the gentleman my problem. He said “I can’t help you. I don’t loan out tools”. We kept talking and he said let me look in the back and see if I even have one. He found a Jim’s tool, and I told him, I would leave him enough cash to cover the cost of the tool and bring it right back, etc. I had to run to an ATM and I checked the Jim’s part number on my way back and it wasn’t going to work. Walked in and he told me the same thing. He called a friend and they didn’t have one. He then said he had one guy left, but it was an outside shot, because he worked for the Harley dealer I had just left. I threw my new friend a $20 bill for his help and headed to the truck. As I’m backing out he comes out the door to tell me that if I can’t get the tool, he has a trailer I can borrow to take it up to the dealer to have it swapped. This guy will be getting a case of beer left at his door the next time I pass by there, just for being a solid dude.

Went to the service department and I’m waiting to ask for my guy that he called and a cop walks in. We get to chatting and I had helped him with some issues previously through my day job. He knows all the guys in the back, so I asked him which guy I was looking for. He then introduces me to him with a much appreciated “take care of this guy”. So armed with a phone call from one of his friends, and an endorsed introduction from another I was able to do the impossible. I borrowed the HD factory cam bearing tool.

Haul *** home, change the cam bearings and return the tool in an hour and a half, but it’s eaten up a large portion of the day. It’s late afternoon by the time we get settled and rocking. He put the cams in, I worked on the rings and we dropped the cylinders. THEN we did the lifter blocks. That’s backwards and cost us a lot of time. Those four bolts in the back are hard to get to once the cylinders are on, so if you haven’t done it before, learn from my lesson. We worked slow and steady until we realized it was about 5AM and I called it. When we finish that night, I need to install the gas tank, PV Target Tune, and torque the exhaust.

We get back on it about 10-11AM on Sunday and it’s running by 1ish. But I’m glad we took the extra time to nut and bolt it, check fluids etc with clear heads. I have total confidence in the build now.

Broke the tire loose unintentionally with mild throttle input while pulling out to make a turn on the test ride. That was a wake up call! It may not be the fastest bike out there, but it will be 100% sufficient for what I need. If I come back and do heads, it will be out of boredom and needing another project. Extremely happy with the results.

Shout out to Bob at Fuel Moto for getting my piston issue corrected and the SC HD dealer that hooked me up (nameless to avoid any issues) and my new indy friend.

 

That is ****ING GORGEOUS!!!! Did you do the primary cover as well?

 

Thank you sir!

Parts coated:
Primary/bolts
Derby/bolts
Horn/bracket/nut
Horn cross bracket
TB wiring bracket
Battery retainer
front inner shift lever/bolt
Boards
shift lever
Brake lever
Passenger Pegs
cam chest/bolts
lifter block/bolts
pushrod tubes
Hyd. Clutch cover/bolts
starter cover/bolt
transmission top cover/bolt
rocker boxes
rocker box covers/bolts
outside head bolts
front engine mount
Air cleaner
mufflers/muffler trim cap
kickstand/bracket


There will be more, but I tried to limit myself due to the time. I’ll work my way back to the fender supports, bag latches, tail lights, etc. the very next thing will be the dash and fuel door. They are currently in Plasti-dip.

 

I'm doing the same thing (air dry cerakote) to my wife's '21 Tri-Glide in Snake Venom. Lots of work but should be completely worth it to have a Tri-Glide "special".

 

Just saw Snake Venom for the first time at the dealer we got the tool from. Gorgeous color! Can’t wait to see how your project comes out!

 

looks awesome!!

 

Great job and great story! Congrats and enjoy