The Makeover Begins

The first challenge I put to myself was to create new sidecovers. I really don't like the shape of the stock ones and they don't cover all the gaps and that you can still see the frame under the gastank. Most people I talked to about it said it couldn't be done - I thought to myself it can't be that hard, get metal that I can work with a hammer and dolly plus a small paint can and the edge of the table and I think I created something that will work. The guy that I bought the metal from said I have to turn under the edges wasn't sure I was going to be able to do that but I tried and it worked for all but one complicated turn so I took it back to them so they could do it for me. I get to go pick them up tomorrow. Total cost of two custom sidecovers $120. I still have to smooth it out with a little more hammer & dolly plus some body filler. That is my job for Saturday.



This week I started taking the bike apart.







Tuesday night I removed the saddle bags and took all the hardware off of them. Discovered that one of them has a crack in the bottom and thanks to facebook I will be checking with the plastics place in town to see if they can fix it.















Wednesday night I removed the saddlebag brackets and the rear fender. The wiring of the fender came off with a little assistance from Mark - I don't do wiring! Brought it in the house and washed it down it was a little dirty and discovered the original color of the bike was bright red.














Tomorrow night I will be making an adapter for the jack and removing the front wheel and fender.





Sunday I should be able to remove the gas tank with Mark's help then it will be a week of sanding ahead of me.