Nightster Winter Makeover
Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 114
Likes: 0
From: Canada
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Ok, thanks guys for the compliments and the continued interest. Yes, it's been a busy couple of days. Unfortunately, a lot of the time was spent dealing with the powder coaters. The frame had to be redone once because the first time it ended up with a big scratch on one of the downtubes. Then, I picked it up yesterday morning after they redid it, got it back to the shop and discovered a series of short scratches almost in the same spot as the first scratch. So I packed it back up and returned to the powder shop. The scratches weren't too deep, and one of the guys spent an hour going back and forth with some 800 grit paper and polishing compound and got all of the scratches out. But that put me back at the shop about 4pm and I didn't have time to do anything. Overall, the frame/swing arm looks great.
I got to the shop about noon today and started in on reassembly. Pulled out the newly coated triple clamps and began putting them together. First problem was that the stem hole on the bottom clamp had been powder coated and wouldn't let the stem fully seat. So I had to spend time with a dremel cleaning out the hole. Got that done, started assembly and discovered that the notch in the stem that engages the fork lock wasn't machined large enough at Vulcan and it wasn't in the right spot. We had to set it up in the milling machine and enlarge the hole slightly and extend it up about 1/4". That fixed it and after packing the bearings with grease I got the triple clamps in place. Oh, they also got powder in the holes for the fork locking clamps and I had to clean them out with the dremel. All that took about two hours.
After that, we had several guys in the shop so we decided to just get the damn motor back in the frame. We padded and wrapped as much as we thought we could get away with and four of us wrestled/shoehorned the motor into place. It took awhile. A lot of stress. A lot of grunt work. But we managed to get it in with only one minor scratch on the rear of the engine. What a relief. Slapped the shocks on it and here's the way sits.
Because of all the work Ozzie has been doing on the bike, and we've been doing all the work in his shop, it's really a shop build. So I contacted Figure Engineering in Virginia about a custom points cover with the shop logo on it. I emailed them on Monday and talked with Loren. He got back to me almost immediately. Sent him the logo and basic layout and I received the finished cover on Thursday. By any standard they are fast and the quality of their workmanship is fantastic. The cover is beautiful and is a great addition to the bike. It is now an official Variant Fabrication build.
I am very pleased with the way it looks so far. The blacks along with the little bit of chrome and polished stainless go very well together. I'm out of town all next week so the next time I'll get to the shop is next weekend. It's going to be a long week...
I got to the shop about noon today and started in on reassembly. Pulled out the newly coated triple clamps and began putting them together. First problem was that the stem hole on the bottom clamp had been powder coated and wouldn't let the stem fully seat. So I had to spend time with a dremel cleaning out the hole. Got that done, started assembly and discovered that the notch in the stem that engages the fork lock wasn't machined large enough at Vulcan and it wasn't in the right spot. We had to set it up in the milling machine and enlarge the hole slightly and extend it up about 1/4". That fixed it and after packing the bearings with grease I got the triple clamps in place. Oh, they also got powder in the holes for the fork locking clamps and I had to clean them out with the dremel. All that took about two hours.
After that, we had several guys in the shop so we decided to just get the damn motor back in the frame. We padded and wrapped as much as we thought we could get away with and four of us wrestled/shoehorned the motor into place. It took awhile. A lot of stress. A lot of grunt work. But we managed to get it in with only one minor scratch on the rear of the engine. What a relief. Slapped the shocks on it and here's the way sits.
Because of all the work Ozzie has been doing on the bike, and we've been doing all the work in his shop, it's really a shop build. So I contacted Figure Engineering in Virginia about a custom points cover with the shop logo on it. I emailed them on Monday and talked with Loren. He got back to me almost immediately. Sent him the logo and basic layout and I received the finished cover on Thursday. By any standard they are fast and the quality of their workmanship is fantastic. The cover is beautiful and is a great addition to the bike. It is now an official Variant Fabrication build.
I am very pleased with the way it looks so far. The blacks along with the little bit of chrome and polished stainless go very well together. I'm out of town all next week so the next time I'll get to the shop is next weekend. It's going to be a long week...
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Hey scald, thanks man. Those are 12" Street Glide air shocks that I had cut down to 10.75" by the guys at Phoenix Customs.
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Much more than most would want to spend for that little cover. More than I wanted to spend, but I also wanted something that fit the look of the newly painted/powder coated engine, engraved with the shop logo with a quality finish. Figure Engineering has a great rep around the forum. They charged me $145 shipped. It's a one off, two color powder coat job they completed and shipped in three days. It was exactly what I asked for. I think it was worth it.
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Tourer
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 347
Likes: 2
From: South Central PA
Hey scald, thanks man. Those are 12" Street Glide air shocks that I had cut down to 10.75" by the guys at Phoenix Customs.
