Got the new tank today for the CL project –

to OhioCafeRacers.com for fabricating such a beautiful tank – looks great on, can’t wait for paint!

IT’S HERE!!! IT’S HERE!! IT’S HERE!!!

Tank came today   I am super stoked how it came out, 3 cheers to the guys over at OhioCafeRacers.com who fabricated the GP tank.  Really excellent work, looks great mounted up, and hopefully the painter will bee picking it up today to get started. 

 SO PSYCHED!!!

 

Have wanted to post up about this for a few weeks now, just didn’t get around to it. On our trip down to the Gap, while sitting out a rainy day, L8RG8R drove us down to check out the ‘Wheels Through Time’ museum in Cherokee, NC.

Pretty cool place – the owner has a few hundred motorcycles, all American (Harley, Indian, one-offs, flat trackers,board trackers, etc). All restored and running, they give an interesting look into the history of motorcycling and how far it’s come and where it’s been.

I really enjoyed it – the owner restored most of them himself, which is an impressive feat on its own. All of them run, and while you are walking through the museum, the owner walks around, starts up some of the bikes and rips a few burnouts down the aisles – tells a few stories about where that particular motorcycle came from, who owned it, how he got it and what it took to restore, etc. It’s a very personal look into 1 man’s passion for motorcycling, and paints a wonderful history of these crazy 2 wheeled machines.

Those board trackers were nuts – strap on a slab of leather to your head, rip at about 125 mph with no brakes on 2′ wide tires, on a track made of wood, and hope you don’t crash, kill yourself, and send your now-missle motorcycle into the crowd of spectators.

They have a current display of ‘women in motorcycling’ there now as well, with some great pictures and historical accounts of women on motorcycles during a time when it was absolutely taboo.

Early battery powered harley

All of the staff are volunteers, who donate their time to help the owner present the museum to the general public – the town does not offer any assitance, so the guy is doing it all on his own dime. If you get a chance, stop by there and toss the guy a few bucks and walk through the displays – a worthy cause to help keep such a comprehensive early history of motorcycles going.

They’ve got a website: http://www.wheelsthroughtime.com&nbsp

And he just put out another site which shows videos of how they bikes are restored (tough to find a Clymer for a one-off Traub found hidden inside a wall in Chicago ).

http://www.wttthetimemachine.com/front/&nbsp

Been trying to clean up the CL motor – it had a bit of grime and rust from it’s 38 years of road smut.

I spent the better part of an afternoon cleaning off the rust and genghis with single 0 steel wool – but wanted to even up the finish.Had a friend recommend (and give me an extra bottle he had) of ‘;Way 2EZ Polish’;. Wow.

This stuff is miraculous. With minimal effort and about 5 minutes worth of work, it took dingy old aluminum and polished it up to a great finish – is it perfect? Nope. But man, the motor looks 1000 percent better.

I ABSOLUTELY recommend this stuff for anyone looking to beautify or restore some old dingy metal. Can’t be had in stores – but if you call or email the company (L. Beaux Greeze & co.),or grab from their website they will take your order and get you some quickly.

http://custom-wheel-polish.com/
L. Beaux Greeze & Co
Long Beach, MS
(228) 452-7519
(228) 697-6619
Email: way2ezpolish@netscape.net

Motor is out, parts are inventoried and it’s jsut about ready to ship out to the powdercoater – still trying to round up a few small bits first before it goes.