Dyna Makeover 7

FINAL ASSEMBLY

OK... So all the new parts that have had UPS and FED-EX delivering night and day to my little 'shop of horrors' is finally coming to fruition. It wasn't enough that my bike parts barely had time enough to dry in the paint booth and the painter never had a chance to see his final work product before I wisked them away to my shop. It was complete fervor working every night and getting everything together so that I could get back on the road and see my new ride twisting heads from every direction. This Dyna is going to be all that... and just when Harley Davidson decided to stop production on this model... Hmm what were they thinking???

Oh well they'd probably just steal all my ideas and make it into some new 'corporate chopper' for the metro-sexual crowd to try and take credit for in some shape or manner. Ok so I am rambling but nothing urks me more than some Wall Street college boy with a manicure, a pedicure and a "Harley"....

Back to the bike, I've decide to just leave the solid color (great decision) on the entire bike because what ever happened with this paint recipe and the application of it made it come out with so much personality that it would be a crime to cover up any inch of it with logos, pinstriping or any graphics. It is absolutley phenominal how it turned out.

So I made myself up a checklist of the installation steps and started going at it. Step 1-Wiring harness, 2)engine and 3)trans in first and connected up all the stuff.... and so on and so forth.

I got most everything put back together in about 1 week with only a couple hours here and there in the evenings. I wasn't in any hurry because the parts at the chromer would be the final holdup to this whole project due to being so busy. They weren't in any hurry to get my parts back to me. Not really a big deal to them, seen one chromed Harley part I guess you've seen them all. So I had time to burn.

Once the parts started going on and I could see the bike taking shape it was exciting to see. Alot of time was spent taping things up so that it wouldnt get scratched during the process. I used painters 'blue' tape and it works really well. It doesnt leave any adhesives or anything behind when you pull it back off.

Got all the "GO" parts on but came up a bit short on the "STOP" parts. Brakes lines were the wrong length and the fittings to make them fit right were wrong too. Had to re-order some more new parts. Had a shopping list of new chrome bolts and stuff to replace in the end and got it all figured out with my local guys Bruce and Robert at Mid-Cal Cycle.

The front end went on with all new bearings, forks went on without a hitch or a scratch... (Thank you God!) got to the rear end and got all the rear bolted up and WTF!!!! The rear pulley had zero clearance to the belt guard. It's always something right at the end, so I had to come up with different ideas on how to mount it without having to do any cutting or re-welding. I shoulda checked this on mockup but I DIDNT thinking it was no big deal. I got it figured out and actually like it better now with the bolt heads on the back side and chrome acorn nuts on the front. Added a larger wheel spacer and a new chrome axel nut and washer and No more clearance issues.

Wheels on, fenders and tank on, and all looking so damn good mmmm mmmm!

Did I mention that it looks good?????

The rear tailight is just freakin awesome, a company named MOTODYNAMIC makes LED lights for many metric bikes but none for the Harleys... (yet). I love this little bit of attention to detail and it is going to be the talk of the town. The turn blinkers are part of the light and blink with Yellow LED's. That is why you see no turn signals at the back end.

Only problem was with Harley Davidson (of course) designing their turn signal switching differently then everyone else. Can't make it simple and easy, they gotta do things the difficult way. I had to basically remove the turn signal 'smart-module' from the circuit and install a flasher relay instead because the smart module wouldnt "blink" the blinker! HD has some newfangled way to turn the lights OFF when idiot riders forget that they turned them on and it screws with the whole system. I got it figured out though... afterall I am an "E"-lectrician.

The LED lights look so nice and I think they are going to be much safer for bikers in the future. These lights are so BRIGHT!!! Night time aint no time to be messin with the likes of this here LED lighted bike.... White LED's light up the license plate frame too.

The light fixture itself was originally made for (dare I say it) a HONDA!... but I made some creative changes and made it fit my bike. The distributor thought I was nuts when I kept telling him "dont worry about what bike its for, I dont care, I just need one close dimensionally" and I found it. Then with some help from Tap Plastics I made it fit my bike the way I wanted it. Looks sic!!!!

More coming

Dyna Makeover 6

PAINTING

Here are some photos from the paint booth of Dyna with her new paint-job provided by Mike Wilson Auto Body. It doesnt look like much here in the stripped down version but in person the paint looks like it is so wet you could take a bath in it.

The House of Kolor recipe is:

Basecoat: Black
1st Coat: Candy Apple Red Basecoat
2nd Coat: Transparent Candy Cherry Red
3rd Coat: Urethane Clear



This is the frame with the integrated rear fender from a 2009 Softail 200mm rear end.

Close up of the rear fender with the fender struts hidden inside the fender itself. The fender extension has also been customized as part of the fender and now extends to swingarm.

This is the front fender, it is a Paul Yaffe look alike. This came out real nice too.

This is the custom tank that was originally made for a Softail also. The tunnel had to be cut out in the rear and replaced with a square channel to fit the Dyna frame assembly. The rear mount was also added. All the mounting points will be hidden. No gauges on this tank either, just a flat top with a pop-up gas cap.

The other parts that were color-matched were the swingarm, the top motor mount bracket, the horn mount bracket and the custom rear luggage rack brackets that I hand made. The rack part is actually from the new Harley Davidson Rocker FXCWC model.

So this "New" Dyna is going to have multiple personalities from many different Models.

Coming soon.... The New Dyna.

Dyna Makover 5

BODY WORK AND PAINT

Well the bike has been at Mike Wilson Autobody and Paint shop for the past 3 weeks and has undergone the unbelievable.... the idea that you can simply think up a paint color and have it come out as perfectly as your mind contrives it is... TOTALLY POSSIBLE!!!!

The color that my bike came out when it was finally finished was exactly like I had imagined it. I was almost to the point of losing sleep over this paint job because I was really worried that it wasn't going to turn out like I had planned. Let's just say that I'm sleeping very soundly now.


Before the paint got put on though we had some serious body work to complete. We had to fabricate and weld on a fender extension that typically on a Softail is just a cheap plastic piece bolted onto the swingarm. I didnt want a cheap ass plastic part on this bike, it's better than a Harley at this point! I found a donor fender from a Dyna Superglide and chopped it up. I did some pounding out and some welding here and there and it looked like a Frankenstein stitch job for a bit.

Then Mike got creative and did the beautiful body work that brought it all together. What a Craftsmen!. The fender extension now flows right into the vertical frame rails and looks just perfect. He added the continuation of the fender lip from the factory fender onto the extension also. You really cant tell where one stops and the other begins.



The guys at the shop worked some wonders on the other tins and then it was all sprayed out with House of Kolor paint provided by FinishMaster who helped me get the right colors together in a short amount of time.

The Painting Recipe: first we used a HOK Shimrin Black basecoat on everything, then a Candy Apple urethane basecoat, then on top of that we put a transparent Candy Cherry and then to top it off we coated it with many layers of clear urethane.

It came out so sweet I wanted to EAT IT!. I was playing with the idea of doing some graphics over the tops of the fenders and tank with some marbelizing and flames and then pinstriping it all. But... the color just came alive on its own and I didn't want to cover any of it up. So we left it just color only and it has an insane personality all its own with nothing else to distract your eyes away from it.

Pics of painted bike to come.... Final Assembly next