Unexpected Surprises on the Road to Ridability

Sometimes in the road to life you hit speed bumps, and when doing custom work the bumps are even more frequent.

I was waiting for the drive chain I had ordered from Bikebandit.com ( a good place for blown up schematics for your bike and a decent selection of parts both OEM and aftermarket). Up to this point I hadn't finished my fuel tank. While I waited for the chain I decided to make a push and get everything done on the bike so when the chain came it was a matter of installing it and riding around.... or so I thought. I spent a few hours wet sanding and buffing the tank until it looked really nice. After using the multi component professional paints with urethane clear coats I don't know that I'll ever willingly use anything else. The tank came out looking excellent, I wish I'd taken a picture, but due to what happened next I didn't. The tank was pretty much the last thing I needed aside from the chain to start riding. I lined the front of the tank up with the rubber bumpers and started to lower it into place when....... it stopped going down. The back end of the tank was about a half an inch from where it should have been.

When I was fixing this bike up I decided to swap the stock 650 carburetors for some from a early 70's 750. I chose to do this as the 750 carbs have a mechanical choke and are cheaper to build than the 650 carbs which use a choke cable. I just like the mechanical choke for some reason, just seems more classic to me. In order to do this I had to make some changes that unfortunately put the carbs closer to the engine. I didn't think about it, but turns out this was a big issue since it put the top of the carburetors right under the petcock.

This just wouldn't work. After thinking about my few options to remedy this problem, and saying a few choice words I chose the one option I knew would work, relocating the petcock bung. The biggest problem with this choice was it involved either welding or brazing the tank, which involves a large amount of heat. I knew in advance that the paint would get buggered, but what choice did I really have? Fortunately I learned how to weld thin metal so I was up to the challenge.

I moved the bung back about 3 inches, and didn't mess the paint up too badly.

All things considered I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Unfortunately it wasn't air tight, but some JB Weld fixed that. Ideally I would have soldiered or brazed it but that would have destroyed a lot more of the paint so I settled for this way. Besides I used a sealant inside the tank anyhow so in the end I'm covered. With a little cleanup and some rubberized undercoating it turned out pretty good I felt.

I used POR15 tank sealer so it takes 96 hours to cure before I can fill the tank up. So now it's just the waiting game, once it's cured I'll try and put the tank on and ride the bike!!