I've Been Busy

I've been staring at these dumb cases for a few months now and recently touched them. It took some time to cut the hole out being as I don't have a mill, so a hand drill and die grinder had to do. Once it was cut out there was a large gap between the intake plate and one case half so I had to mix some JB Weld to let run into the gap. I hate the idea of JB Weld inside an engine, but the bulk of it is underneath the intake plate so I don't really see it letting free. Top plate looks ugly, but it will be sanded and refinished before it gets put together.

The Hodaka is getting there. Just a few loose ends to tie up. Top end and reeds added, pipe built, and most of the electrical has been finished up. I replaced all the spokes front and back, so the wheels need a little more truing up before I can mount tires on it. I don't have a photo since it's in a storage unit. ughhh

Also I moved out of town and lost my garage. My life is in a storage unit right now. UGHHHH

...And what's the deal with Vespa paint?!

Vespa must have used the greatest paint ever applied to any object ever in the 80's because I can't take it off. Sandblasting it hardly breaks the surface. I've tried aerosol paint stripper and brush on stripper for water and oil based paints with zeeeero results. I've just about got it all down to bare metal now, but only after taking an air sander to it and hitting it with 3 coats of aircraft paint remover for what I couldn't reach. Sandblasting will have to get the nooks and crannies. Why do I need it totally bare you ask? Because this bike was being built for my girlfriend who wanted it soft pink and white. I built a powdercoating oven from an old gutted fridge and an oven I picked up on Craigslist. I had already started tearing into stripping it when we broke up. Hmm... Welp! I'm still building it this way since I already have the pink and white powdercoat and a Malossi reed case/Malossi crank/Malossi 43 already built that's just waiting in a box.

Big things poppin.

Not really. Just some moped stuff. The current project is a Moby 50V with the bottom half chopped off and the bottom of a Jawa Transistor 40 welded in its place. It'll have a Jawa 207 engine with a reed inducted cylinder with 210 sleeve, Pug/Tomos reed, Puch head, vm18, and other odds and ends. The swingarm was extended 2" to accommodate for  17" wheels and I welded up a nice little handbar intake. Should be Fun. I really like Jawas so there will probably be a lot of that going on here. They're unappreciated bikes fosho. Here's a few pictures of the current progress. (The 210 cylinder was more or less practice, and the final result will be the 207 cylinder.) I will try to keep this blog up to date with any big updates.