Summer time at the workshop

Well, the Californian Summer hung off for a while, but now it is in full swing and boy is it getting hard to work in stifling heat and humidity is up the ying yang right now, feels like I am in Florida to be honest, but the show must go on, I have so much to do but right now I am waiting on some help with my Barn doors to be hung, they are big heavy wooden sliding doors.  But once they are up I can start to organise a little bit more, it is lucky we have a large property as I can store old projects all over the place but need to get it all under one roof soon and be more happier when that does come to fruition.

Like many of you, we are always wrenching on things, for me I have New parts to make or to become a dealer for and of course, I have Motorcycles to build and projects to finish, but as the saying goes, ‘Rome was not built in a day”.

It seems I have spent so many years on my knees but to be honest, I feel comfortable that way, even if the bikes on a lift, I guess it goes back to grass roots or what you grew up with, we had nothing as a kid and made the most of what we had, if we were given something we would cherish it and improve on it, but I still have so much passion in creativity with parts and creations and hope that I never lose that flame for design and ingenuity etc.

I love all sorts of Vintage and classic stuff, from obviously Motorcycles, music, fashion and of course cars or trucks, my recently purchased F250 has been fun but I have to also wrench on that and have changed stuff so far to improve the ride and running, with more to do as this is my parts hauler.

I was at the ceramic Coaters and decided to take the back roads to my place as the traffic was busy and it was 100 degree’s, the old F250 has been great so far as it has not got hot, but the 390 seems to be having carb issues, it has the stock Autolite 2 barrel and to be honest even though jets changed, power valve changed, float level set and cleaned many times, it just will not start after a few minutes, so things will be changing next week to sort that issue out.  But had to pull over and take a pic of this cool vintage sign I saw on the side of the road.

I love Southern California for old shops and signs and seem to see something different every time I go out to be honest and thought that i would share with you as I love Vintage signs too.

My Birthday coming up Thursday and I will not be working that day and enjoy time with my girl Jennifer, we do so much together and the good thing is she likes pretty much the same stuff I do, so we really get each other, she rides to and that makes a huge difference and she understands the trials and tribulations of running a Motorcycle and Automotive business.

Just wanted to say howdy to you all out there and thanks for supporting me in what I make and sell, I love you all.

 

Keep your eye on the website for more parts and bikes soon, just got back from the Post office, sent exhausts to Hawaii, Puerto Rico , New Zealand and Brazil today.

GL500 1981 Silverwing Carb replacement

Busy day and trying to beat the rain storm that keeps on coming in then out etc, but I was prepared for it and got a lot done today, considering this is my first GL500, no books, service tips or much info about on these 22 degree road machines, but the CX is similar so at least a fighting chance at getting the carbs off and new ones put in place.

With the old manifolds removed, I cleaned the intake face area up with Carb cleaner, I made sure also that I dabbed a little grease on the O Ring that seats into the new Aluminum intake and then hand tightened the bolts to see how the angle was for the carb kit to fit to.

I am sure glad that I did take the extra time to clean up all the area that had grease and grime and these intakes fitted like a glove, but now the fun begins as there is not a lot of space inside the frame rails to work with and the carbs plus air filters are going to make it tight to do anything but here goes.

I got the intake manifolds all sorted out, apparently the CX500 is even tighter in the frame and apparently I was lucky I had some maneuvering room to get these carbs to fit.

The trick for me was to put a little grease onto the rubber manifold, to allow the carb to slide in easier and this sure did help as I did try it dry and I struggled, so I was stoked when these plopped into the manifolds.

The same with the Air Filters, pretty tight inside the chassis but with a few curse words, a dab of grease and they fitted up no problem and look pretty cool.

Both these girls are in and I will hook up the new battery, add fuel lines and connect to an auxiliary gas tank that I have on a stand, as the old tank has bad gas in it from sitting for years, but I have not hooked up the throttle cable because I want to try and run this as the carbs are pre set, so they will idle high for a bit until I take both chokes off, so will leave one choke on and see if she runs. I am sure there will be a ton of white smoke coming out of the exhausts as I poured some Marvel Mystery Oil down the bores to lube everything.  Sometimes Piston rings will stick and marvel is great for bores, but it will have white smoke as I also put some WD40 in the bores to and left it for a few days.  I do this with all motors, it cant hurt it and eventually will burn clear.

Cool Miniature Engines

Well, I think we can all agree, the sound of a V8 Motor is something to be admired, and what is even more interesting are these great engineers out there that have built replica motors but to a mode size, all these engines run and work just like the original motors.
I need to take my hat off to these people as their patience is unbelievable and their passion shows through their work.

 

 

I am sure there are many out there like me- that enjoy craftsmanship and attention to detail, and I thought I would post some super cool videos for you to have a look at and of course Listen to these micro motors.
Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

How about this Flathead motor, sounds just like tone as well, awesome job.


This guy builds some really cool engines, not cheap but heck, this is art and engineering combined.


Another beautiful Flathead V8 and sounds just like it should.


These guys really are on another planet, just top quality all the way.

Blown Small block model, at Goodguys show.

Nitro Motor model sounds fantastic.