Krossthread Kustoms

I may need to find a different sidehack tub

2011-11-11T09:27:00.003-05:00

This almost looks like more fun...

What a neat barn mascot!

2011-10-17T06:31:00.005-04:00

While at a fundraising auction at church today, I just couldn't resist picking up this little beauty.

This "Flying Dutchman"(I know.. how could I NOT buy it)was an advertising display (solid copper) that would have been found in a Moline Plow Co. dealership. I would estimate it to have been made around 1890 +/-. Originally, he had wings and held an ear of corn in his raised arm.

This statue for reasons nobody knows was stashed under a stairway in the church years ago. It had been sitting outside the back door for the last few years.

Here's an old print ad with a better image of what he looked like originally.

When I finish painting the tool room I think he'll look good on a shelf in there.

Nice ride on the holiday weekend...

2011-07-04T08:28:00.002-04:00

I really need to get the MGB out more often. Often, I let it sit long enough that it needs a battery charge before it can go. It still cleans up pretty nice...

The Shovel Lives!

2011-06-21T06:07:00.003-04:00

The shovel came off the lift Sunday as was fired up for a lot ride. The 98" motor runs STRONG. Compression is ridiculous. The stock starter only occasionally rolls the motor and kick starting is a major chore.

Sure sounds nice, though...

2011-06-19T11:12:00.003-04:00

Read a passage today that I think I have written in my own mind or maybe told this story after a few beers to people that probably didn't want to hear it. It's amazing how insightful we think people are when they think like us...

"Every machine has its own, unique personality which probably could be defined as the intuitive sum total of everything you know and feel about it. This personality constantly changes, usually for the worse, but sometimes surprisingly for the better, and it is this personality that is the real object of motorcycle maintenance. The new ones start out as good-looking strangers and, depending on how they are treated, degenerate rapidly into bad-acting grouches or even cripples, or else turn into good-natured, long-lasting friends."

~Robert Pirsig

Looking More Like a Motorcycle

2011-06-18T08:16:00.004-04:00

Made some more progress adding things that casual observers more commonly associate with motorbikes. Tanks on, seat on (although not feeling the buddy seat love just yet)...

Finally found some pipes that fit

2011-06-10T07:03:00.003-04:00

Messed around trying to find some cheap drag pipes for the shovel. They wouldn't have been my first choice but I wanted to get something on quick to run. Well, the cheap pipes I thought would fill the bill came and didn't fit. Toledo Craigslist to the rescue. I found some new tru-dual headpipes and if you know me, you know there's always a few fishtail straights in a pile in the corner...

Brake assembly mocked up

2011-05-29T17:44:00.004-04:00

Even the higher dollar re-pop stuff is getting all Taiwan Teddy on me. A forged in the USA hammer and a bad attitude brought it all to heel.....

Turn signals relocated on the shovel

2011-05-17T22:14:00.001-04:00

on a new bracket I hammered out for the fender from Doug...

Sled changed color unexpectedly

2011-05-17T22:06:00.003-04:00

After buying the Black Widow, a sinking feeling of too many projects crept up my spine. I found a clean low mile 800 Mountain Cat and unhooked from the widow.

Thanks for letting me welch, Geoff....

I decided I didn't have enough going on...

2011-04-17T16:21:00.004-04:00

Got my replacement for the grenaded Powder Special

2005 Arctic Cat F6 Firecat Black Widow

Of course you know by now if I buy anything that new I wouldn't buy something that doesn't need work... Unfortunately, those pictures were taken before the last ride of the season.

It's not as awful as it looks. It's all unbolt/rebolt stuff. No tunnel or plastic damage. If I can figure out how to add reverse it's quite a step up for me.

Who can help a Luddite with Honda Wiring?

2011-04-10T14:40:00.004-04:00

Can anybody guide through the haze on this goofy honda. I believe it's a 1978 Twinstar 185. I have a new battery in it (6V). I have absolutely nothing working. If I jump over the lugs with a screwdriver on the solenoid the starter rolls, but that's it. No lights, no horn, no turn signal, no ignition. Is there a master fuse in here I'm not finding? Last year I took apart all the conections I could find to clean and reassemble. No change. My neighbor wants his bike back that I told him I would fix two years ago.... ;^}

Let their be Juice!

2011-04-03T17:39:00.003-04:00

Service entrance cable pulled into the tool room today. 100 amps of Alternating Current to the west end now. Let their be chips!

We don't need no stinking computers!

2011-04-02T12:41:00.001-04:00

"When technology assures that no skill is required to do something, then it destroys it, for skill is the very least that is required to make art of any merit."

Shop work

2010-12-13T19:41:00.003-05:00

From time to time, it is necessary to take a break from the projects in your shop to deal with the shop itself. I have been deferring updates lately to the building due primarily to the overload of projects within.

I have refocused to attempt to tighten things up a bit ahead of winter, 2010-2011. As it turns out, it's 6*F tonight and the work isn't done, so I appear to have missed my deadline.

Two rooms on the west side of the barn, one which will be my "tool room" containing the South Bend Lathe and Bridgeport Mill and the other which will alternate between storage and an additional shop area are the subject of the conquest.

Doors have been installed on the entrances created with the handiwork of my shop buddy and neighbor Gumby. Insulation and OSB walls are following. There's a ton to do, but progress is being made!

Rest in Peace, Doug...

2010-12-05T10:06:00.002-05:00

I have known a few as charitable and helpful, but none more than Doug "Dragon" Drake, upstate FLA. A walking encyclopedia of motorcycle knowledge, staunch advocate of constitutional government and a dyed in the wool "the south will rise again" proud southerner.

I am better for having known you and you will be missed. Godspeed, brother....

Some progress on the mighty 394 Olds

2010-11-28T11:47:00.004-05:00

Not long after Phil bought the 1964 Olds 98 (with a bad motor) we found a suitable replacement on the Detoit craigslist. It was an S code 394 with slim jim (roto-hydramatic), the same motor/tranny combo as original, but the high compression version that was an option in his car but more commonly found in the hi-po "Starfire" application. Fetching it is probably a story in and of itself, but suffice it to say it was an adventure and we got it home for a song.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we pulled it out of the corner and proceeded to remove the slim jim.

After a successful separation it's on the dolly ready to go to the quarter car wash for a bath.

Three bucks in change and a can of Wal Mart degreaser later it is starting to look a little more like something worth going through.

I have no more knowledge of these things than the man in the moon (same seems to be true at a lot of tranny shops), but I'm confident we'll find someone to freshen it up a bit. Supposedly it was a functioning tranny when pulled so hopefully with a cleaning, band adjustment and some seals it will be ready to go back in.

When you are trying to motivate 19.5 feet of real Detroit Iron down the road the equipment needs to be up to the task...

A stale project sees the light of day for a minute...

2010-11-27T09:23:00.002-05:00

Had to rearrange for some work in the barn so we pulled the 27 T out yesterday. I will start this project someday....

So yeah, I'm a Luddite... what's it to ya?

2010-09-13T19:17:00.002-04:00

I know a number of people will pay the long dollar to put one of these in. I just couldn't feel it.

Now let's get that goofy thing outta there...

I think the good lord intended for centrifugal advance in shovels...

I like the looks of these a lot better...

It seemed somehow disingenuous to hide electronic crap behind this point cover. I feel better now...

Shovel on the lift....

2010-07-28T14:14:00.004-04:00

The "monster shovel" is on the lift for a little work to get it on the road. The 5 gallon tanks custom painted by Isaac are off to be returned and the new speedo is on.

Here's the "new 3.5 gal tanks that I picked up from cuppy at Wauseon.

Isaac's neat tanks ready to return...

And some sweet old FL fenders from Doug. Rear may go on soon, but I will probablt wait for winter to go FL with the front end.

Shop is still a mess, but it's my kinda mess...

A fresh project....

2010-07-05T19:35:00.001-04:00

I had some frustration getting a title and some other issues with my purple FLH. I sold off the sidehack and then once I finally got the title I dumped the bike. Cool old bike, but we weren't meant to be.

Picked up the bike I should have bought in the first place. BarryW's 70 FL with a new 98" S&S shovel motor . Virtually a new 40 year old motorcycle.

I'm pretty excited...

Baby Steps

2010-06-20T15:06:00.003-04:00

Getting closer to doing something on the sidehack for the Moto Guzzi. The FLH is off the lift and the hack tub is on. I need to turn two little holes into one bigger one.

There was a couple looking at this tub when I was still in Davenport. She wanted to have her guy buy it and make a sidecar she could take her two dogs out in. That would have been such a cool idea I would have sold it to her. Apparently it looked like too much work to him.

Needless to say, on the surface that guy appears to be much brighter than me.....

Beginnings of a new chore

2010-06-04T18:37:00.003-04:00

Who doesn't love Craigslist? Scored some wire wheel axles for the MGB locally. The guy was even cool enough to drop them in my yard for the price. I slipped him a twenty for the trouble. Too cool....

Just taking a minute to regret...

2010-05-22T13:12:00.003-04:00

As I struggle with the mechanical problems and legal misrepresentations from the previous owner of my current project, I will just take a minute to deeply regret selling the FLH I had that I never should have sold. At least it went to a very cool guy...

SU Carbs...

2010-04-24T12:38:00.003-04:00

The old 1976 MGB used to get a lot of love around here.

Lately, it has been relegated to the back stall and hasn't really been run for several years.

The carbs had gummed up pretty good so I figured it was time to clean them up a bit...

I spread them out on the bench and found them to be in great condition other than being pretty dirty.

They're all cleaned up and reassembled with new main jets ready to go back in...

I just love old HS series SUs. They are elegant, simple little things...

Pretty Lazy About Posting Lately

2010-04-17T13:17:00.002-04:00

Been awful busy getting the yard in shape. (Note to self... get less than three acres to mow when you buy your next house).

The Day the Bridgeport Came to Live With Me

2010-02-27T13:28:00.003-05:00

The lengths we go to to feed a cobbling obsession. Dale and Bob brought the Bridgeport down from the northside of Detroit and David and Dan rigged and offloaded it.

The elegant little Logan looked good next to it but it was replaced shortly afterwards with the 14.5" swing South Bend...

Snow- NW Ohio Style

2010-02-06T13:20:00.003-05:00

Nothing messes up an old barn with a northern exposure more than a Northeast howling wind and four or five inches of snow in NW Ohio. Five foot drifts and no snow at all around 'em... Gimme the UP any day...

And the Hacks Keep Coming...

2010-01-18T18:33:00.002-05:00

So after all the rest, I stumbled onto this one. I was looking for a decent cone shovel for a regular rider this summer and quite by accident stumbled onto a 1980 FLH with a factory hack. The color and the hack mural fuzz the line of dopey, but overall things are promising. I was just loosening up a little room in the barn too. Oh well....

So Did I Ever Mention I like Sidecars?

2010-01-17T11:47:00.005-05:00

To date, I have only ever had one sidehack bike (bringouturdead-see top picture) licensed and on the road, but I have started and stopped several projects. I bought a hack from Alex in New York that was to go on the original '70 Goose. I sold that to Brad and bought a newer velorex 562 hack from a local shop. Then to finance the Indian project everything was sold. Last winter I picked up the '71 Ambo and later at Davenport bought what seemed like a great body for a hack. Just this fall I snagged another old Hack for it also.
That's where I was up through the weekend. Then yesterday I travelled with Tommy up to the NW Detroit suburbs and came home with a rather unintentional '80 FLH Harley with an OEM hack. I'll give that its own entry after a blast from the past on current hacks and hacks of yore....

This Doesn't Happen Often Here...

2009-12-18T16:46:00.002-05:00

I can tear stuff apart but it isn't that often one goes back together. The Chief is pretty well a Chief now...

The Powder Special Rides Again!

2009-12-06T15:38:00.003-05:00

After burning up the motor in my 99 Arctic Cat last winter, I finally got around to getting it running again this weekend with Tom's help. The most integral part of the help I need lately is a boot in the butt to get something done. Tommy provided that along with a ton of project assistance along the way.

So to the chagrin of tree-hugging, hand-wringing environmental do-gooders and much to my delight, the Powder is once again making blue smoke for everyone's enjoyment.

Good news for the machine tools!

2009-10-18T18:31:00.002-04:00

Getting my mill fired up has been on what seemed to be a permanent delay as it waited for me to find or build a phase converter to run the 3 phase motor.
One appeared on the local Craigslist and I scooped it up today.
We may get this thing going yet!

Here I thought it was just a trinket

2009-09-30T21:58:00.003-04:00

Turns out I didn't just buy any old cement statue. Ended up being St. Windowlynn of the Pane... the patron saint of barn windows.

I had been searching for the last five years for replacement windows for the barn. I have eleven old tilt-in Star-line windows that all had marginal sashes in them. Three had actually fallen apart and been replaced with hunks of particle board to keep the snow out.

I have been meaning to have someone build me some replacements, but my Dutch nature has steered me away from spending 50-75 bucks a copy to have them made.

Well... not three days after bringing the new barn buddy home, I walked into Menards and found windows the exact correct size (I have looked there before and there was nothing close).

I brought eleven brand new ready to install windows home for $15 bucks a copy.

Thanks, St. Windowlynn....

New Garage Companion

2009-09-27T20:20:00.005-04:00

Season end sale at the farm market on cement ornaments and a pair of sunglasses Don left in my barn 5 or 6 years ago when we were working on his MG...

Yeah, I'm a spendthrift.

and easily amused...

Earlier in the process

2009-09-24T19:12:00.002-04:00

Just a picture from earlier in the Chief build up. Not much progress this week, but I did find a bad plug wire which was causing the rear cylider to barely fire. What's weird is it still idled better than any Harley I've owned on just one cylinder. Oil seems to be flowing well now too. Back after it on Saturday. I have to help Gumby sweat some copper pipe tomorrow night. He's getting his house ready to sell...

Looking for the prime

2009-09-15T23:46:00.004-04:00

Well, the manual said it would be there and it didn't lie. The front end check ball had not been removed as recommended by most all contemporary builders. If you look at the diagram, the check ball actually has to be drawn open by the feed pump to allow oil to feed. OK if you never lose your prime, I guess...
Got it out and the pump back on. I'll prime and re-fire tomorrow night.
On a positive note, I can get the distributor in and out blindfolded now...

Fire in the Hole!

2009-09-14T19:14:00.002-04:00

Well, we're getting serious now...
The Indian is pretty well back together. I tried to fire it Wednesday and the kicker arm reared back and spanked me like a red-headed stepchild. The timing seemed set right, but things weren't advancing/retarding like they oughta. I pulled the ignition all back apart, found my rookie mistake and reassembled it. Thursday night, after three prime kicks at full choke I found a compression stroke, clicked the key over clicked the choke back a notch and on the second kick I had a garage full of blue smoke ( I had oiled those cylinders down pretty good) and the damnedest clatter and roar I had heard in a while. She immediately settled into a nice cadence and we were on our way. I am not comfortable that the feed side of the pump is fully primed, so I shut it down and will confirm that before running it again, but after two years, I finally got off my lazy backside and got a rattle out of the old girl.
It's all downhill from here!

Parts is parts...

2009-09-06T15:13:00.002-04:00

It's all there.... Who could imagine how much without seeing it?

Davenport '09

2009-09-06T15:05:00.002-04:00

What a blast. You just can't go anywhere else and see all this stuff in one place...

Had a beer with a chopper god (my universe... my gods....)

2009-08-29T18:39:00.002-04:00

Ran into Ron Cupp ("Cuppy") at the Eagleson run today. I beg off the run. It is basically a bumper car parade of drunks. I waited until the pirates had left town and I snuck in and had a beer with a guy I wish everyone could have a chance to know. Ronny has built and forgotten more bikes than most of us will ever see.
He posed for a picture with a rigid sporty he built for his wife a few years ago. He nearly died a couple years back and they are raffling the bike off to offset medical bills. You're the man, Cuppy!

Everyone needs a long term project

2009-08-27T21:42:00.003-04:00

So we've established that I can't say no to a project regardless of how good a job it has done proving itself to be a dead end deal. Old Fords hold particular sway with me.
A few years ago, I tried to buy a 27 Model T touring car from my friend and neighbor, Don. He had actually owned the car since the early sixties when he and his car club buddies had bought the car for a little of nothing and used it for knocking around and local parades, etc.
After they had thrashed it out, it spent some serious time waiting for its new hoorah in the corner of Don's barn. I looked at it politely and talked about what a great car it was for several years. Finally, I couldn't take it any more. I had to quit circling and go for the kill. I asked Don if he would be interested in selling the car. He was very polite, but told me he just couldn't sell it.
Time passed, and then one day he stopped by the house with a proposal. He suggested that we take joint ownership and restore it as a joint project. It made sense somehow and shortly thereafter, the car ended up in my barn.
Work, keeping up around the house and time with the kids has kept me from making any serious progress on the T, but it's here, it's safe and I will conquer it one day....

Gumby sighting

2009-08-26T21:38:00.002-04:00

Found Gumby. He is NOT a figment of our folkloric imagination. He exists and I will prove it beyond reasonable doubt at Davenport in short order...

Had the Goose out tonight

2009-08-25T19:37:00.002-04:00

If you can listen to one of these motors wind up and snarl into a shift and not shed a tear, you can't have a soul....

My First Bike

2009-08-22T09:05:00.003-04:00

I'm don't know exactly where it came from, but I am pretty sure that time spent at farm auctions and antique stores with my Dad as a kid twisted my perception of what was cool towards old, broken stuff, forsaking new and shiny stuff. He adjusted my focus to see a beautiful restored antique platform rocker (now sitting in my living room) while looking at a grubby old chair in a pile at the dump. It got me looking at cars and bikes in the same way. I have never been particularly impressed with pretty motorcycles, preferring basketcases and ratty old bikes with a soul over sleek, pretty, new boringly reliable stuff.
It was with that perspective that I selected my first bike in the spring of 1982. I was a junior at Michigan State reading my favorite periodical, the "Wheeler Deeler", a local free classified rag in the Lansing area. My eyes locked on an ad for a 1941 Indian Military 741. The guy wanted $750, a ridiculous amount in my estimation, but it was close by so I went to check it out. Once I saw it, I could see it was clearly going to need some work, but it was so damn cool; Flathead V-twin (albeit a little small), spring mounted solo seat and a foot clutch/tankshift set up.
After a little dickering, I peeled out $450 from my student loan funds and I was loading it in my friend Ron's pickup. Once it was home, I gave her a valve adjustment, filed the points, installed new carb gaskets and a wrong-sized m/c battery from Meijers. Much to my surprise, while following the starting instructions in the manual, it fired up almost immediately.
Although a 30.50" flathead is no asphalt burner, I put a bunch of miles on that bike. It was very cheap to own. Anything that needed to be fixed was easily accomplished with a very basic set of tools and just a few bucks.
It all ended on a humid August 25, 1986 night while riding home along with my buddy Rob on his 73 Honda 350-4. We were in "Deadman's curve" on Charlotte Hwy. between Mulliken and Portland. As we cut into the curve, I caught some loose gravel and went down and over the handlebars into a guardrail. As I laid there wondering what just happened I realized the old Indian was laying there on it's side, still running. I think Rob shut it off and stood it back up. As I sat there trying to regain my composure, I realized something was not right with my right shoulder. Rob assured me it was probably just dislocated, but I wasn't buying it.
I decided I needed to go to the hospital, so we did what any pair of clear thinking 25 year old males would do. We left the scene of the accident riding double on Rob's Honda and rode back to his house where he could take me in his truck to the hospital. There is alot more to the story that I would love to tell, but of course afterwards I would have to kill you. Suffice it to say my collarbone was broken into three distinct pieces and at my wife's behest the bike was for sale the next day. I sold it to an older guy from Ohio wrecked for $1,200 and patted myself on the back for being such a shrewd salesman. I won't tell you what these bikes are selling for now....

Bringouturdead

2009-08-07T00:34:00.002-04:00

Bought and sold this summer. This thing was an absolute hoot. I had real mixed feelings about selling it but it went where it belonged. I'll bet if I ask nice I may even get a ride in it again down the road...

More Chief Progress

2009-08-03T02:39:00.004-04:00

Primary and tranny lubed, wiring just about done. Something is causing a short but the layout is stone simple.. I'll get it next session. I had to quit to go for a ride in the Buick.
There's a cool new glow out in the barn though...

Stretching it out with the '50 Special

2009-08-02T20:04:00.002-04:00

Wonder what the po' folk are doing today?.....

More Progress in the Last Six Hours than the Last Six Months

2009-08-01T19:18:00.003-04:00

The motor has been gone over and all retorqued. Oil pump primed. Valves are adjusted and points set.
If time allows tomorrow I will finish buttoning up wiring and add an oil and fuel tank.

I could be cussing this thing as it doesn't start as early as tomorrow!

I Still remember that Rumblin' sound....

2009-07-30T21:29:00.004-04:00

One of the simple joys of life for the dirty fingernail crowd is the first sound of a freshly rebuilt motor coming to life. You spend considerable time and money trying to make something of a tired old lump. After finishing the work, the fear of the unknown is palpable. It can be cut with a knife. You recognize the real possibility that despite the time and money invested to freshen up and enhance the motor it is just as likely to sputter and hammer as it throws one of the new rods that you have yet to finish paying for.
When a fresh build does start, I think it is probably about as close to the triumph of childbirth that a guy can come.
Steve Earle's tune, Copperhead Road has a line that makes me think of that process every time I hear it. It is probably a throwaway song all in all, but this verse makes the hair stand up on my neck every time I hear it.

"Now daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound"

If you have ever had the privilege of being involved in a big block rebuild, you know what "I still remember that rumblin' sound" means. After all the anticipation, if you actually get it to fire there is a sound and a feeling that is almost impossible to duplicate any other way. There is a subsonic rumble that tears at your gut like a bass amp in a 70's Foghat concert. The acrid wind from the fan carries the smell of fresh curing engine paint and an oil film that blows up as you listen for those clatters you hope not to hear as everything finds its seat.
As things settle into a rhythmic cadence, you reach for that room temperature half empty beer with the greasy thumbprint on the label and smile as you revel in the triumph that the fresh engine brings. The oil leak from the rear main or valve cover that you haven't seen yet will spike your blood pressure later, but right now, all that matters is that the motor that was an anemic stinky puking old weezer a few weeks ago is now idling with a staccato authority that induces a euphoria that few things in life will ever duplicate for those of us inclined to this pastime.
The Government will sell you a car if all you want is a new one. If you want to feel inclined to do a fist pump and feel like you were put on this earth to do something besides take oxygen that could have just as easily been used to keep something cool running, take a summer sometime and freshen up an old V8 and fire it up now and again when the world is getting you down.

Ain't nothin' like it, son....

Girding the Next Generation to continue the fight

2009-07-29T18:53:00.005-04:00

So we march on into the teeth of an educational establishment, a large contingent of government types and a compliant media to spread the gospel of compression exceeding 9:1, leaky rope style rear main seals, 100 octane fuel and manual transmissions content to top out at 1:1 insted of .75:1.
This is our fight. To help those left to represent us in the future to understand that computer chips, hybrid motors and airbags are a something to be tolerated, not something to asprire to.
We need to let them experience why our generation and those before us yearned for the open road.
You can't pack enough Car Czars in a Prius to make it cool. It can only be a wimpering, pitiful substitute for what inspired us to come to this point.
Don't pass on the opportunity to show someone a little younger than you why full size sedans and motorcycles with (GASP!) carburetors are something to be adored, not the raw materials for the overseas manufacturing of cool, shiny pedal powered vendors' carts to peddle a vegan menu lunch to an expanded legion of EPA employees in a city far away....

Where it all started...

2009-07-28T23:00:00.013-04:00

In 1974 I was just a normal gawky nerd kid who played in the Junior high band, got good grades and delivered my newspapers every afternoon after school. Yeah.. that's right. I was the kid people were standing in line to beat up for no particular reason. I was just the perfect target. Along with the normal things 13 year old kids think about, I had an unhealthy obsession with old cars. I would dream of owning and doing a ground up restoration on an old Ford... preferably a Model A.

That summer, while I was away at band camp (I know... now you're thinking about beating me up too....) my folks, who were very tolerant of my geek nature, schemed a surprise for me. When I returned home from camp, I found in the garage a ratted out 1930 Model A pickup. I was absolutely beside myself with joy over this thing. I am sure the only person happier that day than me was the wife of the guy that sold that rattletrap to my Dad for a song and got it out of HER garage.

This was to be a Father/son project, but due to my obsession with the car, I had the old rig stripped to the bare frame before my Dad knew what hit him. You see, I was already sure I knew what to do. Prior to getting the 'A' I spent much of my spare time reading restoration guides and shop manuals. I swear I knew what was behind every inspection cover and in every corner of that machine before I ever touched it.

We got the chassis back together and running good that next summer. I would start that thing up and back it up and down our driveway dreaming of the day I get to drive it out on the open road. I recall a few visits from the local police scolding me to keep it in the yard. While I didn't have the guts to venture too far, I was often out in the road in front of our house. They never bothered me too bad... I think I just had a geriatric neighbor or two that were convinced I was up to no good and the cops felt obliged to at least be seen talking to me.

I wish I had saved more pictures of the car, but while a number were taken,there are only a few to be found anymore. Someday when my kids are cleaning out my attic for the estate sale they may find a few more.

That old Ford was the start of a lifelong obsession with internal combustion. Cars, 4x4s, motorcycles, snowmobiles, boat motors, you name it. I could care less. If it would get me greasy and smelling like stale gas, I was up for it. I'm 48 now and it has only gotten worse...

My Kingdom for a little Motivation...

2009-07-28T21:15:00.010-04:00

Back in the fall of 2007, I begged, borrowed, stole, horsetraded and all but sold my soul to acquire something that in many peoples' estimation is in the top five contention for the Holy Grail of motorcycles... a postwar girder front Indian Chief. It had been taken meticulously to the point of final tin work, paint and final assembly by my good friend Terry at Terry's Customs in Latham, IL. He was ready to make some room and I was ready to ride an Indian. I sold my 71 FLH, a 70 Moto Guzzi Ambassador, a 69 Triumph hardtail project, a Velorex 562 as well as a garage full of other stuff to have a crack at the Chief.

Once I got it home, I got right after making plans to finish the restoration. That next summer, I got all of the tin tweaked and painted. Jason in Arlington did a beautiful job laying down the color. I chose to go with Black. I toyed with lots of other options. I thought red, but you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a red chief. I seriously considered the seafoam blue option but I just couldn't pull the trigger on that. Once the tin was back from the paint shop, I knew I did the right thing.

After the sheetmetal (less tanks) was reinstalled, the project just kinda floundered. A busy summer combined with several weeks away for continuing ed for work and too many other projects kept me away from the bike.

While all of this has been going on, I bought and traded off a rigid sporty project, a Triumph Speed triple, a Guzzi Ambo with a sidehack and another 71 Ambassador (which I wisely hung onto).

I have a bad habit of volunteering with little or no prodding from friends and neighbors to tackle their old car and motorcycle fix-it projects, effectively keeping me from my own stuff. This summer that project has been a petrified 78 Honda twinstar that needs everything that my neighbor's kid wants to use to commute to school. How can you say no to a kid that wants to have his own bike to ride?

I'm hoping that by getting this story up to read to myself, it will give me the motivation to say, "Man, if that bike were in MY garage, I would so have that S.O.B. on the road!" Hopefully, now that the goose seems ready to take to Davenport for the AMCA meet on Labor Day, I can concentrate on the chief and get the silly thing on the road before fall settles in too hard!