BOTEN - The Bonneville Roadster FINISHED!

[drabe]

I've been wanting to do a build-off for years but the stars never aligned, so I'm excited about finally having something to enter. Using a Dyno Roadster that had long been abandoned after a failed repaint, I decided to go with no paint!





I tried a variety of methods for removing the paint but in the end found that scraping the paint off with a razor blade worked best!
I was able to save the head badge by 'sawing' through the adhesive with picture hanging wire, worked great!
I also wanted to save the 'D' on the seat tube, just 'cause it's cool looking and leaves a little 'original' color.

 

[kingfish254]

It's always cool when down to the wire builds pop up.
Get to building!!!

 

[drabe]

I used the same stripping process on the fenders and chain guard.
I can't figure out why there are extra holes drilled in the chain guard, but I've got a fix for that.



Looks like I'm missing a few pics but nobody will miss a couple of shots of sanding parts. These will show the results though, I wanted to give it some detail as opposed to having 'just' bare metal. I used 80 grit and sanded 90 degrees to each tube to give it a 'machined' look. You'll see why later.





Jumping ahead a little again, this was around the time I started mocking things up.





I can't tell you how many hours I've got in sanding this thing!
Anybody that's worked with bare metal knows how difficult it is too keep sanding lines straight, flap sanding wheels definitely were my friend!




First mock up. The wheels are original Dyno that a buddy gave me years ago, I cleaned them up and went though the bearings, etc...but they need something, hmmm what to do?
Oh you'll see!


Here's another mock up, trying out tires. I really wanted to keep it all Dyno/Kustom Kruiser but I didn't like the squared off shoulder on these, plus there were too many interference issues.


Moving to the fenders, I worked the dents out, then sanded, starting with 60 grit, then 80, then 120 on up to 320. Man, they looked awesome, practically polished!
It didn't stay that way though, when I cleared the front fender I was happy with the results. After the first attempt everything was looking great!
No so with the rear fender, I had numerous problems with the clear coat after several attempts. On the fourth (or fifth, I lost count) attempt, the first coat of clear went on perfectly, then I bumped my stand and BANG, put a nice big dent right in the crown of the fender!! I was not happy.
So after working the dent out, I decided to stop at 80 grit on the fenders as well, there were just way too many hours working them back to 320 grit and I was sick of sanding at this point.




This is what I used for clearing everything.


My homemade fender paint stand, works best if you tape the inside of the fender to the wheel/tire. Don't rely on gravity only to hold the fender, you'll find out like I did the gravity has other ideas!


After clear coating...(this was at the 320 stage on the front fender).

 

[irideiam]

Looking sweet.. more please.....

 

[G-Matt]

Nice job ! Now that looks polished I bet your happy all that sandier is done wow [emoji95]


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[drabe]

Here's a little tease for the wheel treatment I hinted at earlier.



Moving to the chain ring, I had this one laying around but it had countless scratches and some pitting.



It took me a minute to think of a way to keep the machined look that it originally had, sanding by hand or flap wheel wasn't gonna get it.
So I came up with this, now kids don't try this at home!!

It actually worked perfectly, just ran the sander at really low speed and hit it with some 80 grit. Quick and easy!
This is after a few passes, had to do this several times until I got the results I wanted.

 

[Jake Sensi]

Great stuff. Get ta Buildin

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[irideiam]

Moving to the chain ring, I had this one laying around but it had countless scratches and some pitting.



It took me a minute to think of a way to keep the machined look that it originally had, sanding by hand or flap wheel wasn't gonna get it.
So I came up with this, now kids don't try this at home!!

It actually worked perfectly, just ran the sander at really low speed and hit it with some 80 grit. Quick and easy!
This is after a few passes, had to do this several times until I got the results I wanted.

Beautiful, your attention to detail, is stellar

 

[gigmata]

Here's a little tease for the wheel treatment I hinted at earlier.

Moon hubcaps for a bike cost more than a human baby. Dang! You bad, man. You bad! ..And your bike is supa bad.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool! When did you start work on this?

Luke.

 

[drabe]

I'll try to answer everyone's comments at the end, so bear with me.

Next up was clearing everything, nothing too exciting but the one thing I didn't like is how the metal lost its 'brightness', the clear dulled down the metal a bit and gave it a grayish tint. I had the same thing happen on another bare metal frame after oiling it. Oh well, moving on...

Using my trusty vintage Park repair stand I taped off the steer tube and bottom bracket so I could rotate the frame around while painting. The seat tube I painted last after coming up with a better way to mount the frame.



This shows my 'better' way to hang the frame while painting. As you can tell, I started putting things together at this point.



Gave the seat clamp a brushed finish.



Mounted the head badge with double sided tape just like the factory.



Next was the seat, I had this Dyno seat laying around for years, I just blew it apart and detailed everything.



Before...


After...




By this time I was still trying to find the right tires. My other Roadster has a pair of Kenda Whitewalls that I really liked but knew I had to have blackwalls. The whitewalls just wouldn't work with the look I was going for. Anyway, the tires I wanted were on back order and waiting on them was driving me nuts!
Luckily, a bike swap meet was coming up and my buddy John (Irideiam) had the perfect solution, a set of Kustom Kruiser Fireballs in excellent shape!
He also donated a set of motorcycle drag bars to the project, thanks John!



As mentioned earlier, I had already prepped the Dyno wheels, so everything was ready to go!



Love these tires! But wait, there's more!



I could not wait to install these!!
I had always wanted a set of Moon discs and just had to get them. Pricey yes, but the quality and engineering are second to none! I could not be happier with them!
I was surprised that Mooneyes had them in stock! I called them on a Monday and they were at my door by Thursday the same week.

 

[irideiam]

Dang man, this bike rocks....

 

[The Renaissance Man]

^What he said!^

 

[drabe]

The next issue I had was mounting the rear fenders. The only fender brackets I had hit the top tube of the rear dropout.



This is how they should be (much longer tabs) but I wasn't going to rob these off of my other Roadster (forgive the dust!).



One of my other buddies (Lil' Greg) had one fender bracket with longer tabs.



But it made the fender bow up way too much, back to the drawing board!



So, I went back to the brackets I first used and decided to make them work! I eyeball the length that they needed to be, marked them and went to work with the big brass mallet and vise again.
I marked them so they would be at the same angle as the frame.




Kinda hard to hold a camera and a hammer and the bracket at the same time but here you can see the results, much better fit. I did some additional finish work before mounting them for the final time.




Time for more details!
The rear fender had this hole in the center, for what I don't know, but I had a solution!



I've had this emblem for years, it came off of a '54 Ford glove box door. I had used it as a hat pin for the longest time.



Here you can see a little mounting boss. Rather than grind it off, I decided to use it like Ford intended.



Here's a little trick for drilling a blind hole. First I laid a strip of tape across the fender just below the hole.



I swiped some of my wife's old lipstick (with her permission of course!) and marked the boss on the back of the emblem.



Then just press the emblem against the tape...



And there you have it, now just center punch and drill!



Done!



That's it for tonight kids, but tune in tomorrow! Same Rat time, same Rat channel!

 

[G-Matt]

Looking awesome!!!


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[drabe]

Next up is the chain guard, for some reason there were a bunch of extra holes drilled.





Rather than trying to weld them all up and risk warping the piece, I had another solution. Being an old hot rodder and never throwing anything away, I found this emblem off of a 60's Ford. Turns out the mounting pins fit almost exactly in the two outer holes!



Again, working at a body shop turns up all kinds of tricks for mounting stuff. One of the guys contributed the little fasteners and with the right sized socket I just tapped them home. I also used a piece of double sided tape for extra security.




Done, just like it was made for it!



Now anybody that's built a Roadster know what a pain it is to install the chain guard without scratching everything up. The solution? Tape, lots of tape!



Another little detail is how I mounted the chain guard, since I only had one of the original fasteners...



I didn't want a mis-matched pair of fasteners and after going through my magic bolt box and coming up empty, I went to my local hardware store. This ain't no big box store either, this is an old school 'hardware' store. Luckily, this one (Turner's in Houston) has an entire chrome (real chrome!) rack! Boxes and boxes of just about everything, nuts, bolts, washers, etc...!
But, since they didn't have the exact bolt like the one above, I decided that Allen head 'button' bolts looked the best (plus they're more streamlined).



Next up...grips.
I had several styles of grips around but didn't want to rob any from another bike.
While visiting my good buddy Chuck (ind-chuckz) one night, I convinced him to let go of these...I really like the (real) aluminum detail! Best grips I've ever owned.

 

[Protowrxs]

This is going to be a spectacular ride when done.. already is actually. As an old hot rodder I love the car emblems and feel to it. Great work!

 

[Vintage-Iron]

this build is sick

I could not wait to install these!!
I had always wanted a set of Moon discs and just had to get them. Pricey yes, but the quality and engineering are second to none! I could not be happier with them!
I was surprised that Mooneyes had them in stock! I called them on a Monday and they were at my door by Thursday the same week.

 

[drabe]

Finally back on the ground!



Now the toughest part, choosing the bars!

I've got one set of original Dyno cruiser bars and stem. They look great and make it a very comfortable ride.





But then I've got the motorcycle drag bars that my buddy John supplied. These just are just killer looking and really evoke the land speed racers you'd see, where else?
Bonneville!!

Now to detail this thing and get my finished pics up!
Thanks for looking and for all the positive comments guys!
I'm planning on debuting it on the Houston Critical Mass ride this Friday!

 

[G-Matt]

I would like to see a set of mine ape hangers ... Cool bike man


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