Greetings from the Great White North (xs360 build)

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Started my hand made stacked leather grips last night, and figured I'd post where I'm at with them so far. I got the idea from a couple knives I have and thought it would be a nice touch on the bike.

Layout of tools used.
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I didn't have a punch large enough for the outside circumference so I had to hand cut about 70 discs. My pal Pilsner made the process a little less trying.
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All punched.
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This is a dry fit, and is where I decided to stop for the evening. It will be sanded, waxed and polished with a few other flourishes.
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I need to pick up some brass for some accents. Also, I'm bidding on this piece of jade that I hope to incorporate into the grips.
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That's all for now.
 
So, tonight I gave a go at painting my headers. Since my headers were bare metal, I wanted to do something to them that would keep it low maintenance and looking slick. Pipe wrap isn't for me and high temp paints don't come in a vast array of colours. So here's what I decided to do. I went out and bought some VHT header paint in white. The stuff only comes in aerosol (at least in Canada) so I decided to do a little customization. Release the gas from the can, cut it open, and poured it into a mixing bottle. I live right next to a sherwin williams so I asked them for some tints which they kindly gave me for free. I wanted to adjust the colour of the paint to a cream colour to match my tank, but needed something that wouldn't alter the high temp compound. I wasn't entirely sure how the tints would hold up to the heat.

Here's my tints.
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Headers ready for paint.
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Went to 250°, colour is looking great. Then to 400°, still looking fantastic.
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Cranked it up to the final 600°, and something went terribly wrong.




















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Well folks, back to the drawing board.
 
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Well, you have the first experiment done. Now to establish why they tinted between 400 and 600 degrees, or heat them below that temp for longer...
 
I think even that trace amount of tint couldn't take the heat. I've discovered that Krylon makes a high temp paint in beige rated for 1200°, but I'm not sure it can take the heat from headers. Like most spray paints, it's not available in Canada but I will try, somehow, to get my hands on a can.
 
t's a crazy tire...gonna hum nicely on the rd:thumbsup:

still no bushings eh? They're lost for sure, did you let him know? He'll send out another set I'm sure...
 
t's a crazy tire...gonna hum nicely on the rd:thumbsup:

still no bushings eh? They're lost for sure, did you let him know? He'll send out another set I'm sure...

Oh they'll hum for sure. I'd like to believe it will be soothing..

I let him know, apparently he sent two sets to someone in NY state, so he's banking on that person sending me the extra set. Kind of annoyed at this point.
 
My swinger bushings came in friday after a 2 month wait, so I now have a roller.

Got my headers and SS mufflers in place. Damn, those mufflers are pretty.

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The pipe wrap isn't long for this world, but I needed an immediate alternative to my pastel pink headers. A friend had some extra laying around, so i threw it on there. When I get my shop up and running next year, I'll fab up some SS headers to tie into the mufflers.
 
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that looks great:thumbsup: was wunderin' what you were up to? Are those SS mufflers or chrome?

Yes sir, they are SS. I know I've been scarce in these parts, but those god damn bushings stalled my build for 2 months. Meticulously cleaning parts in the downtime, but hardly worthy of an update haha.
 
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