Final Assembly

Parts are starting to come in from my painter - Mike Wilson Auto Body (the same one that did the Dyna paint job) and they will be going on piece by piece. The paint color was a bit of challenge as I wanted to keep with the dark look of the original XC due to the lines of the bike, I think it is very Darth Vadar looking! - I know I'm aging myself with that comment!  So I looked around for something dark but something that had some 'color' too instead of just stark black. I was reading a speed magazine (shocking!) and found a report on the Hennessey Venom GT, (the worlds fastest motorcar)  and as I looked at the gallery of photos, the color just came alive to me and.... well that was it!

The color was called "Dark Knight Grey", how fitting to my Darth euphemism...

I decided to add a bit of my own splash to it and used a HOK black base coat and then a HOK Anthracite Metallic Grey candy and layered it until it had some depth. It came out sweet as pie!

At night or in the shade it will look almost near black and when in the sunlight, the metallics pop and the grey comes out as vivid as the sun itself. It screams beauty!

STEP 1 - I needed to get it 'rolling' again so the first order of business was to get it back on two wheels and have that part all done. I decided to reuse the stock OEM 10 spoke sprocket, but I had it polished and then had the spokes painted the same color as the body of the bike to give it some contrast. I think it came out perfect.

The new rim is a billet Arlen Ness Evil 7 wheel that is now wider and larger than the stock wheel. It is a 17" diameter x 6.5" wide to handle the new Shinko 005 Advance 200mm rear rubber. 

With the new rubber and the new wheel all installed on the bike, its ready to come off the jacks and set its print on the ground once again. It's gonna feel good to burn all those 'new tire whiskers' off that brand new tire!!!   

Next will be the front end, getting all the new shrouds and front grill onto the bike, the front fender, the headlight and all the turn signals and wiring completed. Then back to the rear. 

Next Stage to Begin...

Well all the pre-construction mock up work is done at this point. The body parts are going out for painting now, the color is going to be a Titanium Grey Metallic with some Cherry Maroon highlights in it. The one-off custom seat is off being upholstered and the exhaust parts are off being made into a new custom stainless steel 2-into-1 header with a shorty megaphone.

I think the bike is going to come out pretty nice and although it will resemble some other models, it will be mostly different from anything else out there. I didn't want to stray too far away from the norm.

Here's some update photos: