It's Going Slowly

There hasn't been much in the way of forward progression on the bike this week, I've decided if a Harley is called a Hog then mine will be called Bacon from this point forward.  I had big plans to get down to work last weekend in hopes that I could at least have the wheels and handlebars on the bike so I would then focus on getting the engine on when it came in.

Last Friday I forwarded my offices phones to my cell and got out of here about an hour early in order to get some work done.  I had all the parts ready to go.  They were labeled, unwrapped, and I'm sure they were as eager to do their job as I was for them to do it.

Of course this is where I commonly run into trouble.  When I begin to attach the forks to the frame of the bike I notice that the nut that holds it into place won't go past halfway down the stem.  I look closely and find that the stem has been stripped flat on one side for about an inch.  I was stuck.

Did I mention that my frame and fork set are 44 years old and were only made for 1 year before the design was changed?  That was going to make things hard.  Bacon is a 1968 Honda Mini Trail K0.  There are some of these bikes out there still in mint condition with all the original parts that sell for close to $10,000.  Finding the correct fork by itself was going to be hard.

In 1969 Honda began producing the K1 which is identical in almost every way with the exception that they added a battery and a light.  The forks had brackets welded onto it to hold that headlight, and the frame had a place for the battery and the wiring.  Mine of course had none of that.  This design wasn't changed for almost 10 years, so a fork from one of these bikes would be much easier to find.
Luckily for me I had a place I could turn, The World Famous Wheelie-ing Elvi.  I sent out an SOS e-mail to the group and was flooded with ideas.  Most of them, while helpful were difficult and expensive ideas, but on Sunday I received an e-mail from Elvi David Mo.  He had 2 extra K1 forks lying around that we would part with cheep that I could use until I was able to locate an original K0 fork.  I told David I would be right over.

I headed up to Denton to David's house and he took me back to his "workshop."  Now I say "workshop" with caution because I don't know if that word really does David's set-up justice.  This is a 2 story air conditioned space where David has an amazing area for working on his bikes.  That's right bikes.  Plural.  David has no less that 10 running bikes and numerous others in various states of repair.  He also has the ability to sandblast, powder coat, and weld.  It was mini-bike Mecca.  To top it all off David was an extremely nice guy (as are all the Elvi I've spoken to thus far) who was willing to show me his collection and give me all the advice I could absorb.

On Monday I headed right back to Top Koat in Kennedale and Joe got right to work getting that baby sandblasted and powder coated for me.

So here I sit ready to put it all together.  I think I have all the parts, if only I had the know-how...

Why Kennedale is a Magical Place

So here I was ugly old frame in hand. When I really looked at the bike I realized that I wasn't going to be able to save anything on it other than that frame/fork set and the wheels, which meant removing the old handlebars, brake lines and tires. I set up this thing with a furious vengeance using screwdrivers, my amazing socket set that my Dad gave me for Christmas a few years ago (I'm serious, it's amazing. Check this thing out) and even occasionally a rubber mallet.  There was over 40 years of rust on some of these parts and not everything wanted to come off easily.

The bike as I bought it

After an house or so I had the whole thing taken apart with the exception of removing the tires from the wheels.  It seems after 40 years steel and rubber can become one.  I knew that before it was powder coated it was going to need some welding, and before that it was going to need to be sandblasted to remove the original paint and rust.

The frame after being sandblasted

Now I didn't know anyone who did powder coating or welding personally, but I knew where I could find someone, Kennedale.  Now if you aren't familiar with Kennedale, TX it is a small town that borders Arlington, Mansfield, and Fort Worth.  At one point I had heard that Kennedale had more junk cars per capita that any other city in the world (I can't find any facts to supports that, but that's the rumor).  Aside from junk cars Kennedale has an abundance of paint & body shops, welders, tire shops, auto parts dealers, used car lots, salvage lots, etc.  I knew that I wouldn't have any trouble finding the right guys for the jobs.

A quick google search for "powder coating Kennedale" and the top match was Top Koat less than 5 miles from home.  I loaded up the parts and headed that way.  There I met the owner Joe Galvan who was a little curious about the project and what I was bringing him.  I explained what I was building and he got the sand blasting started.

Joe called me the next morning, Friday, and said the parts were ready to be picked up and welded.  He sent me about a mile down the road to Riley Machine & Welding who did a top notch job on the areas I showed them, and even found a few others that needed fixing.  I expected the job to take 48 hours or so, but I got a call the same afternoon that the bike was ready.  It looked solid so back I headed to Top Koat and Joe and I went over the colors and what needed to be done.  I left my new baby in Top Koat's very capable hands for the weekend.

Joe Galvan the owner of Top Koat in Kennedale with my powder coated frame

Monday afternoon Joe called and told me he was done.  I dropped everything and headed that way.  Man was I impressed.  These guys did great work at a very reasonable price.  I'll be back to Top Koat again for sure.

So now that the bike was back from the cleaners it was time to figure out how to put this thing together and what I needed to do it, but more on that next time.  Here are the pictures of the bike after getting powder coated.