778 = 88

778 holes = 88

I'll be painting tomorrow. Still deciding on the final paint design.

But it'll involve BLACK and GOLD LEAF.

 The colour is brighter than I'd imagined but I'll pop them on the bike and decide from there.

I used a really coarse grain of sandpaper to get the scratch effect.

PUNCH IT!

I've sanded the oil cover and it's down to its bare bones ready for the next stage.

So now that I've stuck with the number and font I like, designed it and marked everything up

it's time to get punching.

I'm using a tiny 1.5mm drill bit and a hand drill to punch these holes. A rough estimate is about 400

per number, if I punch 1 every 10 seconds, it should only take me 50 years to do the first number! :))

After getting my feel for the drill and how to get as accurately a punch as possible I slowly 

started to get underway. . . .

Although 2 minutes later I pressed a little too hard and broke the first drill bit.

Luckily it came in a pack of 2, loosened up and drilled on...

389 holes later....

 

Quick little QC helped me to see my job wasn't over just yet!

Mark it up....

I just received the oil cover today and started doing some sketches for

the 88 work I'm going to be doing.

Side note: I bought a pair of compasses and protractor set today to aid in the design work.

I haven't had one of these sets for 20 years!!! :))

GRIND IT!

Q: How do you solve the problem of expensive parts??

A: FABRICATE YOUR OWN . . . ish!!

I bought a grinder to help make a few bits and bobs out of existing parts.

I was going to buy a small welding machine too but I'm not at a stage where I'm

doing enough to justify it.

So the grinder will be my weapon of choice.

Side Note: When I was a kid I used to spend hours in the garage making things out of 

stuff that was lying around. I made a clock out of an old tree stump, I stripped and sanded my moutain

bike and  repainted it.

But my pride and joy was the CROSSBOW I built.

It wasn't very accurate but it was deadly. A ton of power . . . although most of the time it would

veer way off course and actually became too dangerous to play with.

I even made my own arrows out of delrods and the bolt (Sharpened) from a door hinge. 

My first project is a pair of footpegs. I wanted to get a pair of offroad footpegs with the 

sharp teeth but couldn't find any other than the RSD ones. RSD parts are 

beautiful but when someone says to me "Yeah, I customised my Harley" and all

that's happened is you've taken £2000 and stuck a few "Bolt-On" parts on it, to me,

that is not a custom bike. To me, that's simply putting your stamp on it.
Both I think are equally good but I'm gonna get my hands dirty!

Right... High horse...Dismount...

So I'm thinking something like these:

Solution: Take a pair of slightly scratched HD Iron footpegs and start grinding.

The Result:

 

Now I am pretty proud of these and considering I've never used a grinder before, I'm Stoked!!

Now all I'm going to do is file and sand em down and then decide on a colour.

B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!! :))))

Tracker 88 Tank

Video of my latest Harley Davidson creation.
This is the tank mod for the new bike.

TRACKER 88