77' XS360/ My first build!

[JWright]

Ok so thought I would start posting some pics of my progress on my first ever bike build. A little history on me. I grew up riding and working on motocross bikes but have very little experience with anything street related.
My brother who owns a motocross parts and accessories store got me intrested in the bratstyle bikes after he had a couple customers and friends come into his store to purchase aftermarket parts for the bikes they were buliding. We started looking at sites like wrenchmonkees.com and bikeexif.com and decided to find a couple bikes and give it a go!
So this is what I ended up finding to start my first project. Shes ugly I know but I am determined to find a sweet looking little bratstyle bike in there somewhere!
I picked it up for $380.00 off craigslist. Felt like that was a pretty good price but after taking apert the top end to have a peak inside I my have paid to much. Oh well I do know how these projects have a tendency to snowball so here I go!

 

[drewpy]

welcome to the forum.

looks mighty clean, I'd say your half way there already

 

[JWright]

So here is a picture after getting her stripped down and the top end taken apart for inspection. The previous owner told me " just has a blown head gasket, replace it and you should be good to go" Well after checking things out a little closer It was clear that I wouldnt be happy without having the cylinders honed and new pistons and rings. Now I will know for certian I am starting with a solid motor.

 

[JWright]

Before reassembling the top end I spent a few hours getting the parts cleaned up and polished a little.

 

[JWright]

Here is a pic of the motor after cleaning and reassembly, and a pic of the sprocket cover after drilling some "go fast holes" in it. Just needs to be stripped and polished.

 

[JWright]

So the tank had a pretty good dent in the side so I stripped the paint with aircraft stripper and took it over to my friends hotrod shop and had him babysit me while I took a stab at the body work. Thank god for his help, I never would have got these kind of reeults on my own. The pics show the steps and I now have it ready for one last sanding then paint!

 

[JWright]

I ordered up some baffles for the exhaust and took the pipes over to my friends exaust shop and had him make me some sweet little shorty mufflers.
Across the street from the exhaust shop was a cycle salvage yard so I stopped in and found a rear fender to use for $20! I cut it to length and it should work perfect for the look I am after.

 

[frwinks]

moving right along and looking good

 

[JWright]

So the previous owner had already axed of the rear of the frame to make a shorter seat. And I say "axed" cause it looked like crap and it looked like he actually used an axe to chop thru it!
After some cosideration and thought I decided exactly where I wanted to cut it and carefully used my grinder with a cuttoff wheel to clean up the previous cuts.
I also started detabbing all the extra crap off the frame I wont be needing and started a cardboard mock up of the electronics tray!

 

[JWright]

Here is a pic as it sits right now. I started playing with the stance a little. In this pic I have the fork tubes slid up in the triple clamps about 1 1/4" and the rear of the tank raised up about a 1/2". I think I like the look, kinda levels everthing out and lowers it just a little.

So I have never really learned to weld nor do I have all the right tools for fabrication. But I do have a friend who is kinda handy in that department so I have turned it over to him to fix me up with the electronics tray, the rear frame loop, the seat pan, and mounting the rear fender. I am excited to see it when its done but also kinda nervous cause I have a picture in my head of what I want it to look like. I hope he and I are on the same page and I did a good job explaining to him what I wanted. I should have it back this weekend.
When I get it back I will be stripping it down and sending the wheels and frame off to powdercoat!
Cant wait!
More to come

 

[riotten22]

Nice build you have going !

 

[xschris]

Looks good so far

 

[JWright]

Thanks guys!

Hey riotenn22, I checked out both your bulids! Very nice! The CB is sweet, cant wait to see the XS when u get it done!

So I thought I would post a couple pics of the bikes that got me so excited about building these things!
The CB was built by Holiday Customs in Oregon. It was purchased by a friend of my brothers and it is sitting in my brothers shop right now for people to check out!
The XS is one of my favorites, it is a Classified Moto bike, somewhere out of Virginia I think.

 

[OleDoc]

good start man

 

[JWright]

well it took me awhile to get all the fabrication finished on my frame etc. but now I am making progress fairly quickly again!
Here are some pics to bring my projrect up to date. I am getting excited because now I am getting a better idea of what the finished product is going to look like!

 

[JWright]

here are a couple pics after getting my frame and wheels back from the power coating and painting my brake drums

 

[JWright]

So the reassembly begins! The fun part!
Started with relaceing the wheels and getting my 4.50X18 Cokers mounted up! I love these big fatty tires. I think they look sweet!

 

[JWright]

replaced the fork seals and got the wheels on the bike

 

[JWright]

So here is how it sits right now. Starting to take shape!

 

[drewpy]

wow, that looks good. those wheels just fit it!