JaPanhead's Tank - Finally!!!

Back to our schedule of posting about once a month....

Here is the final piece to the entire JaPanhead project - the tank.

Dennis decided he liked the look of this Cole Foster tank at the beginning, but if you look at the early posts on the bike you can see that we modified it quite a bit. The petcocks were removed, the mounting was converted to jap style, and we welded a panel in the front to narrow the opening of the tunnel.

We decided to go a bit overboard with the finishing, so we ground down and reshaped the tank a bit with a combination of body solder and metal fillers, powder coated it, and then painted it. The top of the tank got a coat of Dupont chromabase in black, then cleared and sanded. Next, Dennis spent a good deal of time laying out the striping. Afterwards we shot the white, then more clear - followed by a several stage hand sand and polish.

The last bit was the hand pinstriping done by Pinstripe Chris is blue.

It really turned out great! If you have a chance to swing by the shop, come and take a look!

Everything but the tank....

So it's been another month since we updated the blog....

Here is JaPanhead done and ready for a tank. More on the tank soon!

Finally coming together!

These shots were taken before Daytona this year (yeah, I know...they should have been posted last month). Final assembly of JaPanhead. Lots of attention to detail here. Carefull re-wiring (tucked in the frame), last minute modifications, and so on. One of the things to notice is the removal of the catch can. It turned out great, but we decided to go a different route.

Powder coating JaPanhead's cylinders

In addition to the rebuild of the chassis, the engine got a quick freshening up (and some prettying up). Junior drew the short straw this time!

Frame powder-coating and reassembly

OK, so we had another long bit between posts. Daytona is upon us again, and things have been hectic!

Check out the powdercoating and the start to JaPanhead's rebirth. The plan the entire time was that this bike was going to get some crazy scheme done to it, including the frame. After a ton of consideration, Dennis went with...

that's right, black. You just can't beat a black frame, I don't care what anyone says. Bike looks awesome!

JaPanhead - Stripped for rebuild

Been sick, so no new posts for a while. Here is JaPanhead's frame, stripped down, surfaced rust removed, and cleaned. Next comes powder coating!

Junior's Chopper - on the road!

Junior and I running his bike up and down the road in the cold. It's tagged and insured, and getting some shakedown miles before Daytona. It's a blast to ride, and pretty quick too. I would need to have about 2 inches removed from each leg in order to ride in any distance though.