Wife called me at work and told me my title arrived in the mail today. I immediately left work, drove home and grabbed the title, and went to the DMV to get plates. I couldn't get them on the bike fast enough. First place I drove was down to my local Harley dealer to show the two parts guys that helped me through the whole thing.

Regarding the title...unlike the Salvage title that I previously had that had "Salvage" written in big letter across the entire width of the title, this new title had "Rebuilt" typed very small, no bigger than any of the other text on the title, in one little area on the title.

Back in the day I had a ninja but this is my first harely. That being said, this bike makes a lot of different noises. I heard stuff in the engine, pipes, primary...and all the sounds made me wonder if I had installed something incorrectly. Long story short, while I was at the harley dealer I had them listen to the motor, primary, etc, and they said that all the noise sounded normal.

They did notice...and I knew this already...that I needed to adjust the timing a little. Now that I'm completely legal I hope to find someone in the area that can help me time this Frankenstein. I doubt many have seen a 96B carburetored bike with a stand alone electronic ignition system.....I wish I knew more about how to time this thing myself....hell, I've done everything else myself.

Anyway, it really feels good to have this baby finally on the road. I have a few other little things to do with the dash indicators and I'll eventually tear it down this winter and get it painted. But for now i'm going to ride the **** out of it before it gets too cold.

Thanks for following my adventure.

 

I decided to install a custom front fender. It's the Wild Card Long Boy fender.

It was recommended that I cut a little of the back of the fender and maybe reshape it a little.

I'm kinda leaning towards just doing a flat cut, parallel to the ground. What do you guys think?

 

How much are you in it money wise so far. Any plans of custom paint job?

 

LOL. I quit counting after $8000. I'm guessing I have somewhere around $10k or $12k. I honestly don't know.

But keep in mind I have a brand new motor, brand new controls, brand new wheels and tires, brand new electrical and ignition system, brand new seat, etc, etc.

I know I could have saved money by buying a bike already put together...but I wanted a project and I wanted to learn how the bike went together. I never had to get into the motor or the transmission, but everything else was installed by me and me alone. The learning experience was worth every penny.

Regarding painting it....I'm actually getting ready for that job. I was waiting until the weather got cooler and I couldn't ride it anymore.

My current plan is to paint the tins a dark solid red, then take it to Jason Sprengel (http://www.sikpaint.net) and have him do some graphics in black to tie it all together.

D

 

Great job man...it's not about the $$$...what you've learned through the process is priceless. The next one will be easier!

 

I just did my softail with candy red base coat and gold flakes in the clear coat. Turned out real nice without breaking the bank. Got inspired by 2014 breakout with black base and silver flakes.

 

Nice! Great work! I miss having a project bike.

 

Nice! I'd like to see a picture if you have one.

 

Thanks man! Yeah, I've already got my next project in mind. My buddy has a 1979 Honda CX 500 that I'm thinking about converting to a cafe racer. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...it's not a harley..but I think it would be fun.

 

Here's the latest thing I've been working on:

Since I don't have an ECM computer, all the CANBUS crap that all the EFI bikes use (like the CANBUS hand controls and the CANBUS speedo and indicators) wouldn't work with my 12volt system. One of the take-off parts I purchased was a 2011 Heritage dash (EFI bike) but as I said, I couldn't use the speedo or indicators that came with it. So I bought a Dakota Digital speedo and just hooked my indicators up to it since it had that capability built in.

The problem was that the indicators on the Dakota speedo were real small. So I got to thinking about how to use stock indicators that came with the dash.

Once I ripped open the indicator housing, I saw there was a computer board in it. I took everything out and was left with the plastic housing.

I ordered some small LED lights and made an aluminum plate to put the LEDs on.

I got everything installed but had problems getting the Neutral indicator working. Since the neutral indicator runs directly from the tranny and not through the thunderheart wiring harness, I was originally not sure how it would light up the LED...keep in mind I'm not an electrician and know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous.

After posting a question over on the HDForums Electrical forum, UltraNutZ replied and got me squared away. Basically he told me to run power to the LED, then run the LED to Neutral switch, then the switch gets grounded to complete the circuit. Seems simple now, but my experience with working with water..and trying to equate water to electricity, was what was screwing me up.

Anyway, I was able to convert the original CANBUS indicators to 12volt indicators by using the stock housing and some LEDs I bought on ebay. Now I can see them a lot better AND the indicators are actually being used instead of just taking up space in the dash.

PS: I took the second picture while the hazards were blinking. That's why both turn signals are on.