Happy Birthday Lukey!

I totally forgot today is Luka's 3rd birthday! Happy birthday buddy!

Time Keeps On Slippin'

Today is my birthday. I am 33. It's crazy how fast time just starts flying by. This next year is going to bring a lot of new challenges, but I'll take those as they come. Enjoy the pictures.










































:)

Needs More Bacon

I don't know what happens with this time of year but I begin to lose track of time and my blog. I wake up, it's dark. I go home from work and it's dark. I can see daylight out my office window, but it's almost a dream. Rainy season hasn't started yet, but when it does, I will get even more wacked-out as it rains for 3 months.

Thanksgiving was good, even though it was just us. I made my mom's famous yeast rolls, but accidentally used bread flour instead of regular flour, so they were a bit chewy. Lori made her grandma's cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and an amazing bacon wrapped pork loin. It was unbelievable.

I've been getting a lot done on tne CB750. I almost have a rolling chassis. Next year I can start on the engine. We're heading to Argentina soon for our honeymoon which will be the bees knees. Other than that, not much is going on in the ol Hooper-Friend household.

Spirit Of '76 El Cheap-O 1976 CB750 Build

"Back From The Dead" would also be an appropriate title. I bought this bike almost exactly 3 years ago for the purpose of going on long distance rides with Lori easier. It was really snotty but ran. Once I took it home it became clear it had some issues. I tore open the forks and discovered no fork oil, just sewage water, and I swear, old leaves. So began a complete disassembly. I started working on it here and there, but we moved a number of times and the project just became forgotten.








I finally had enough and started diffing right back in.

I cleaned the engine up




And popped the top. I'll be replacing the cam chain, roller assembly, new rings, new gaskets, and lapping the valves. But that will be later after I get some more money.


Right now I'm concentrating on the chassis. I got the frame down to metal and painted.




And I cleaned the tires up. Elbow grease, WD-40 and 0000 steel wool do wonders.




I'm on a fast track to get this done, and for as cheaply as possible. Stay tuned for weekly updates. You can see all the pictures of the last few weeks here:
http://vorhese.com/gallery/album230

Halloween Spooktacular

I haven't posted in a while because I done got married! But I'll save that for a lengthy post. Today is all about HALLOWEEN! The yard is fully prepped. The graves are up, the cob webs are flowing, the lights and strobe are ready, the speakers have spooky music, pumpkins are carved, and Henry is in the Desoto. I'm just waiting for my first victim. Lori had to fly home to Arizona again so I'm doing this all myself this year. It's just not the same.

Dirtbag Challenge

Yesterday I spent a few hours outside washing and waxing the Desoto. It needed its yearly wax job. The paint is starting to get covered with pinhole surface rust spots and the bottoms of the doors are bubbling pretty badly with rust. Not much I can really do. Someday I'll spend some more money and get new window rubber. It's bad enough my exhaust is hanging with coat hangers.

But the big event of the day was The Dirtbag Challenge in San Francisco. Every year there's a low buck chopper contest (no Harleys). Build a bike for under $1000 and do some burnouts. That's about the gist of it. Every year I say I'm going to enter and I never do. Maybe next year.

My Numbs Are Thumb

I made it to Jimmy's sans the wife, she had to stay home and finish up some wedding crafts. This was the maiden voyage of the Desoto after all the brake work. I took Luka and met up with our friends F + L and their 51 Plymouth and found a spot. Holy Jesus it was cold. The longer the day went on the colder it got. We checked out some cars and, after a lot of searching for a lighter, fired up the grill. We were huddled around the teeny propane grill for the little heat it gave off. We also met up with D and his 64 Impala. All in all, cool cars, cold weather, high entry fee. I may not go back.

On the way home the dust cover on the front right wheel flew off. I could hear it *ping* on the street as I drove. Coming home on the highway things were good until my exit, where the front right wheel started whining then screeching horrible. I pulled over and saw grease oozing out the axle and smoking. Guess I tightened the nut a wee too much. Hopefully I didn't cook the bearings, but if it was making that much noise I probably did. It's going to start raining so it looks like the Desoto maintenance weather is over. We didn't even get a summer, it was so cold all the time. Here come the rains.

Here are all the pics from the show.

Jimmy's Bound And Down

I busted my ass and my knuckles this weekend to finish up the Desoto. I feel like I ran a marathon hustling to get everything done. I got the drums back on, brakes adjusted, and Lori helped me bleed them. I need to do it again as they're stull squishy but they'll work for now. We'll be making it to Jimmy's Old Car Picnic in Golden Gate Park after all!

Poor man wheel painting


Scrub down with purple Power and coated with Mop N Glow. Ah, trade secrets.


One of the things that always bugged me was my tail lights were missing the center red reflectors. I found these blue dots on Ebay. they didn't fit. Some snipping, grinding, and Epoxy later they do. I also cleaned up the insides.




Those center dust caps didn't fit either, but some grinding and pounding made them work.


Before


Style points