ORIGINAL: IsurvivedNMU

One last Question.. The skull tank badge shown here


Is that a harley part... Might you have the part number.... I likey!

ORIGINAL: crock921

i did not think there was anything on the bottom of the speedo. i thought the leather was an accessory.

ORIGINAL: chops
As far as bolts, I use SS polished, but do my own polishing initially. They look like chrome.
I haven't had very good luck with chrome bolts, they rust in no time for me, I suspect due to the thin plating.

ORIGINAL: MisterB

Mister B
How about addingBraided Cables? The ones with the plastic covering!!

ORIGINAL: fxstbharley2008
That's a good idea. I did that on my last bike. Bought Barnett stainless cables all around, and installed them myself. It was a pretty involved project, and wasn't exactly cheap, but I did like the results. My front brake worked better, and the other cables just looked better. The only thing is, that bike was totally chromed out. Seeing as this bike is more blacked out, I'm not sure if I want to replace the black cables with stainless ones. Then again, I didn't black out the bolts and went for chrome bolts, and I like that look- so who knows, maybe it'd look cool. Are there other options out there that have the performance of stainless, but have maybe a carbon fiber look, or something else?
Thanks

ORIGINAL: crock921

guess i will be swapping that out..what do leather strips run, $300? lol

ORIGINAL: Citoriplus

Being in Ft. Lauderdale, FL probably has a lot to do with it also. I used to live on the south shore of Long Island and except for during the winter, the salt air and humidity of summer could easily make short work of any chrome bits and pieces that were not properly cared for.
Being out in Utah I doubt he's going to have the same kind salt andwater exposure we get. So unless the chrome gets damaged or isn't really put on well a little bit of TLC, like carefully drying things off after running in the rain or a washing,some good wax should see him through fine.
I'm curious to know what your using as a polish for the SS parts. I'm in the process of making my own acorn headed bolts for the fender support rails and can't find any nuts that are polished already.

Here's a pic of a couple thatI'm in the process of making.



I start with a long (6”) stainless steel carriage bolt and use a hacksaw to cut piecesthe right size. You can get 3 or 4 from one bolt that size. Then I use a bit of JB Weld, enough to make sure there is NO air inside the acorn nut and drive the threaded piece into the nut. If you turn it in till its tight and wait a minute for the glue to ooze out a bit you can keep turning the nut on till it eventually bottoms out. Then just wipe off the excess, wait for it to set up and you have a home made stainless steel acorn headed bolt. I tried to pull off one of the nuts once to see if the JB Weld would let go,it took a 1/2"breaker barwith an impact socketand a large vise to get anywhere with it, and allIsucceeded in doing was twist the threaded part around till it finally snapped. So I guess its more than strong enough to handle some of the lesser stressed jobs on the bike, like the fender support rails.

I have heard a couple of different things about them. Seems that some are made with teflon coating and these "seem" to work out OK. BTW the teflon ones are standard equipment on Big Dog MC's. But ones with cheap plastic can sometimes turn yellow after a while.

You can get braided stainless in black too, andif I'm not mistakenBarnett is the one you want to see about them.

ORIGINAL: MisterB
Cool deal. I'll check out those braided lines in black.

By the way, I noticed you're a Vietnam vet. I respect the hell out of you guys. Thanks for your service.