Barn Finds

My friend lives about fifty miles from anywhere in East-Central Illinois. I went to visit him and looked at some of his good stuff.

This a '66 FLH that he got out of someone else barn.


Check out this weird switch on the bars.


These are cool early saddlebags with suitcase latches and chrome top rails.


They also have these lights added and cool fiberglass eyelids.


Here's the tanks.


Check this wagon.


Binder.


FX roller. I wish I needed a project.


Another binder.


with a Buick motor.


Mini-bike.


928 with busted camshaft.


Early mustang.


It was running until it had a little fire.

Vulcan 1500 / 1600 Left Engine Cover Mod

I have always found it amazing that you have to completely take off the floorboard mounts(attached by super long fine pinch bolts) and both the heel and toe shifter to get the left side cover off a 1500 or 1600 Vulcan. I had to get it off today to investigate an oil leak underneath it. So I decide to fix the problem. The problem is the little loop on the front on low part of the cover.



It really seems to serve no purpose, so will the help of a cut-off wheel it's gone now.



The mod was not quite as effective as I had hoped. The heel shifter still gets in the way of the cover coming off with only four bolts. But you only need to loosen the floorboard mount and pull off the heel shifter and then...


off comes the cover. Not as easy as I hoped but still a time and hassle saver.


Oh yeah, both timing caps were loose so I hope the oil leak is solved, but I may need to reseal the alternator wires later.

Cedar beams don't root and other lies

This beam is looking terrible and it was repainted so many times the paint was peeling off in big chunks.


The plan is replace just the bad part of the beam. So I mark the top of the bad part.


And make my first cut with a stiff handsaw. I will use a 2x6 laid on its side, but the bricks are closer to the front than the depth of the 2x6 (1 3/4 inches). So I can't get as deep on that end.

I set my marking gauge.

Marked the depth on the side of the beam.

Now cut down the line as deep as possible.

Obviously the rot had been a problem before. I had to knock out this filler to save my saw blades.

Now to set my saw depth to the depth of my replacement board.

Again the bricks make this a challenge. I did as many vertical cuts to depth as possible.

And now horizontal cuts.

Clean it all out with a wood chisel. Cedar is soft so that's easy to do.

The beam is 3 3/4 inches not the 3 1/2 inches like a 4x board from the store. My tablesaw is covered up with a torn down Trail 70. Luckily my neighbor cut the 2X6 to width and length on this tablesaw.

Like a glove.

I need to paint and caulk now.

Scooterize a Vulcan 800 Airbox

Here's my take on the infamous Scooterize mod for a friend's Vulcan 800. I'm not going into all the details of fitting it onto the bike, because the Russian Wolf's write-up has all that covered. I've refered to this write-up a few times putting on aftermarket airboxes on 800's, but this is the first time I have mod'ed a stock box. The big things I do a bit different is I didn't cut everything in the airbox flush and use weatherstripping and I made the backing plate large enough to cover the large crankcase port.

So here goes. Okie Smoke donated a takeoff airbox to work on, so the bike down time would be minimized.

Cut off the snorkel part with a dremel and cutoff wheel.



Now the inside ridge(index finger) has to be cut off. Note the crazy cuts by my thumb, oops.


Like a glove, that's why I didn't do any more cuting or use the weather strip behind it.


Tried to sand everything flush on the backside. It ended up more or less knocking down the high spots, but that should be enough.


I got a 26 gauge piece of sheet metal for the backing plate.


The mounting hole on the plate in 15/16 inch, but of course my choices where 3/4 inch step bit or 1 1/4 inch hole saw. The hole is bigger, but that shouldn't matter.


I hit the metal with the sander, cleaned it brake cleaner, and sprayed one side black.


While that dries, it's time to cut up the dog dish cover. I wanted to get creative with this and not do the typical straight cut, so I marked it into quarters.


Bierkan helped me figure how to lay this out. I marked around the dish at 1 1/2 from the bottom edge, the marked a radius from the centerline down the to the edge at all four marks.



I marked the second side of the first scallop by eye.


Then made I template to do the other three.



Time to cut again.



I sanded the edges with the dremel and a sanding drum, once all four openings were cut.


Now for some okie chrome on the raw edges to prevent rust on the edges.


I left the blue tape on, so the paint only went on the edges that had been cut.


The paint is dry on the inside of the backing plate cover, so I'll start into finishing it up.


I pre-drilled and screwed the first screw in to hold everything in place.


I marked the painted side with a silver pen.


I took everything back apart and cut off the excess.


Perfect fit.


I pre-drilled holes for the screws on the edges and rivets across the middle.


Now to put plenty black silcone on the high spots and everywhere. I'll wear disposable glove when working this much silicon next time.


Sealed, screwed, riveted, and cleaned off for paint.


I put a little more silicon on the inside.


More black paint, I know you won't see it, but still.


I like it. Hopefully, I'll get this on the bike this week and he'll like.