Virago 2 into 1 manifold

Chris started on the 2 into 1 manifold for his Virago.  Made the flanges out of some leftover 3/16 plate.

Cut a U-bend in half and tacked it to the first flange.

Chris cut and shaped the other U-bend to mate the other cylinder.

Once the piece was where he wanted it.  He relief cut the original bend.

Chris TIG welded the whole thing up while Phil held it in place. 

Chris cut the excess and welded the last flange in place to mount the carb. 

Virago is off the lift

Cold enough in the shop that the parts cleaner looks like we punched a hole for ice fishing!

Deuce put his Dad's Virago on the ground.  Looks great!

Knocked the bump stops down just a bit to improve the turning radius.

Deuce picked up some safety wire and the pliers.  So now anything he builds will have speed holes drilled and everything safety wired!

Friday shop time

Deuce decided that some sharpy art was the way to go with his dad's bike.  Chris did some work to the top of the tank and Deuce did the work to the sides.

Deuce put another personal touch with the sight gauge tick marks.  His Father is from Louisiana so the 1 and 2 gallon marks are for towns near where he lives.  This is one of the coolest things I have seen yet!

A play on words with a little Cajun styling.  Deuce and Chris roughed in the seat and will recover it soon.

Phil got the 3rd starter solenoid and Chris felt the need to screw with him.  Chris got dick tapped with a socket and extension later on so it all worked out!!

Zero Fucks given as usual.  Put the new solenoid on the Shovel and it started up and sounded great.  A little more adjusting and down the road we will be.

We finished up the CB175 and Chris took it out for it's maiden voyage.  It was cold as shit but it ran great and actually had great power for a 40 year old 175.

 

It was late, people were drinking and this kind of shit happens!  We pulled out the Triumph to put it on the rack and Chris wanted to see how it felt with a passenger.  It wasn't for nothing because it may have convinced Deuce that we need to tear this down and put it back the way it is.  Nasty 70's Chop!

Up on the rack and ready for tear down. 

Progressive international bike show

Two Hondas and a Two Yamahas

Chris got the rebuilt CDI box in the mail.  We installed it with the new minimal wiring harness and it fired right up.  Still need to adjust the carbs and finish the fabrication but this is turning out to be a very promising investment.

Deuce received the Lithium battery for his dad's Virago.  This thing is tiny and weighs about a pound.

Deuce cleaned and descaled the CB 350 and 175 tanks to get them ready for lining.  The 175 tank wasn't bad and cleaned up real nice.  The 350 tank was full of 34 years of hard sludge that took Deuce a while to get out.  Hopefully it will clean up as nice as the other one. 

Chris took a little Penetrol and light steel wool and got these old wheels shining.

Pulled apart the 350 wheel and cleaned everything up and checked the tube and tire.  Everything checked out so we threw it back together with a little baby powder of course.

Not bad looking for sitting in a guys basement for 34 years with no attention.  She has cleaned up nice.

And now the maiden voyage.  After a little carb adjustments and burning off years of crud, it ran really well and made a couple loops around the neighborhood.  Good day at the shop, we got two bikes running and made some more progress on two others.

Bungs and bungs

Phil continues to make steady progress on his shovel. After continued harassment he took a moment to throw a shine on the scoot.

Deuce completed his first TIG welding project by welding in a new bung for the petcock and filling in the old petcock hole on the Virago.  Not bad at all for for a first timer.

Deuce also welded in the bungs for the fuel gauge.  Again, damn decent job for his first time.

Phil attempting to repair the starter solenoid on the shovel, it didn't work out so well.

Here is the Pingel petcock installed into the new bung.

And the fuel gauge, these add another dimension to the tank.

Chris and Phil tore out the wiring harness on the new Virago and removed all the unnecessary wires.  It is now on the 5 wire program.  Chris sent of the CDI box to be rebuilt since they are asking around $300 for a new one. 

Deuce started mocking up the foam for the Virago seat, we will be doing the upholstery in house.  Looking forward to the finished product.

Chris got a new chop

Chris picked up this 1100 virago for a song. It looks very well kept but has a  bad igniter. Great find.

Check out this sweet paint job.

In an effort to recoupe the bucks he spent on his new chopper Chris decided to clean up some old take off and throw them on ebay.

Last time the FXR was brought out for a ride the starter was hanging up. Luckily it turned out to just be one bolt was loose.

Time to put in that secret sauce that makes the bike run smooth through the winter.

People often ask how we get bikes upstairs, well here it is, our Phil-evator.

We put in time yesterday on the heater but unfortunatly could not get running. So when the tough gets going the I get my cold ass in the house to rebuild some carbs.

When the carbs were being boiled I found a pin hole in one of the float bowls. I checked them on ebay and they were $25...Soooooo, time to do little repair to this one.

My last butane soldiering iron is on the fritz so I ran up and grabbed this one for $10 from harbor freight. For the price I am very happy with it's performance.

There is it. A patched up 43 year old float bowl.