Trike done. Bar next. Starliner after that. Then movie.

Man, that was a TRIP! I probably should have passed on the trike build but it's Shige's 20th and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to show some respect and love to the Shige-san and Mooneyes so goodbye sleep, hello hell. Oh! Where to begin and where did it end? As far as the last post goes, that was two days before delivery. I was able to get everything done but starting and riding the night before delivery. Poon, Grant and Drews were nice enough to join Rodney and I for the first kick. It lit but started flooding pretty bad so after a while everyone split and I buttoned a few things up and figured I would take care of the starting and riding before I loaded it in the net day. Carlos let me borrow his truck in the a.m. and we got Drews bike in the back and delivered no problem. We then shot over to Rodney's place and I put new oil line clamps on all of the lines and tilted the carb up a bit and tightened it down. One kick and it lit and idled like I had never changed a thing. (Ralph at Mesa Cycle had recently done a full split-case rebuild and I had not fired it since it went back together) The thing was idling sooo nice and then BAM! An oil line was resting against the pipe and I didn't see it. It burst all over me and the stuff behind me and jesus. I jumped! I shut it down and ran to the hardware store for some more oil line and replaced it before loading it in. It looks like I'll be riding this one for the first time again in Yokohama behind the Moon Cafe the day before the show. Sometimes, that's how things go. I put the word out to the Japanese homeboys that we'll be wrenching the day before and they're stoked to have a hand in it and I'm stoked that it's coming together this way. I get a kick out of finishing something like this but to share it this way with the guys who live and breathe motorcycling like we do but on the other side of the earth...sheeeeit. THAT is cool and that is what it is really about. The photos are of Drews and I the day of delivery.

jesus will I finish this?

roadblocks etc.

Holy crap. Here's some good info for those of you who plan on taking a servicar rear end and mating it to a big twin motor. Sheeeeit. I split the rear end apart to chrome it and forgot to pull the races and bearing out of the ends. (the races are huge, fine threaded and spin out) I figured the chrome plater would silicone the shit out of them but no luck. chromed and frozen bearing in one and plated race in the other. I got it back and ground the bearing out. Rodney got the race out somehow and I went and bought a slightly undersized bearing with the same original inner diameter and master Rodney made a race for the race. It looks like it may work. I'll be putting the rear end together tomorrow night and hope to light it up by the weekend. I better since I have to deliver this bike on the 26th. I have to wire it, set up the oil lines and clutch and work out a master cylinder still. And also the brake pads may be too big for the drums now that they are re-lined. Eh. 5 more days. No problem.

Building the trike in ten days.

I have begun putting the trike back together and it is looking really cool. The paint job by Jose and Maestro is really stunning in the light. I picked the color from a color book of new paint options for hondas and fords. The color is Jade Metallic and it is one of my favorite colors.

Tran and the red interior

Tran came in today and knocked out some seating for me. There are now three half booths and one full plus two very long benches. It's hard for me to believe that all of the interior was free and fit perfectly.

hola crapola there is progress

Mason and I put a day in at the Hook Up and a DJ booth appeared. The floor is a foot off the ground and we used a fiberglass form as a radius that I picked up in the big wood recycle I got behind that warehouse around the corner. The trike is coming along also. Here are some shots of the frame and tank.

stained spruce facia

I have been working on installing the front wood on the bar and finally finished but it looked like a wild west saloon with the untreated spruce standing out like a sore thumb. I bought and returned five or six pints of stain before enlisting the help of wood stain guru and all around good guy Ross Morgan of Morgans Woodshop for some faux treatment consultation. I began with a watered down pail of white kilz paint and rolled that on. I let it dry then watered down a water-based black paint and brushed it on for that 'old' look. Thank you Ross for the direction. I am very happy with the results.

New exterior shot

I have almost completed the spruce exterior and will probably just install the wood around the door and paint the door red. Ross suggested I do a silver "wash" of black and white paint watered way down and rolled onto the wood to mimic the silver color it will turn as it ages. I can't wait that long. I want it silver NOW. I have all of the booths and will go purchase the vinyl for the bottoms that I am missing and some shiny red vinyl for the inside panel on the door.

Seven new HEATHENS videos

While trying to master the video editor, I put together seven new Heathens videos for you to enjoy. It's FAST humor. http://www.youtube.com/user/chmediagroup

Hook Up sign night view and bar wall construction

Here's a photo of the completed sign after Ky installed today. Next is the installation of the spruce facia and front bench fabrication. Mason and I built about half of the bar yesterday. We will build the radius that leads to the other wall tomorrow and possibly the bar top. There's only about 27" between the front and rear beer coolers for the bartender but I guess I don't need much distance to move around back there anyway.

Trike seat fabrication

Here is a photo of the bike with the rear seat structure. Rodney and I put a small grab bar in front of each seat for safety's sake but there isn't much safety for the riders of the Pleasuredome, that's for sure. Tomorrow we mount the headlight and taillight/license plate bracket and make a battery box.

Making a new sign for the bar.

First thing you do is pick a name, measure the panels for the signage, design a panel and take it over to your local sign guy, mine being Sharp Signs in Westminster, CA. Ky at Sharp Signs has fabricated all the signage I have ever designed from the Avalon arrow to the church cross neon to the Charles Todaro Gallery sign and all plastic signage in between. Here they are laying out the panels...

Yokohama trike coming along smoothly.

Rodney and I have been bending up the tubing to mount the rear seats and oil bag and it is looking like a real bike now.

How to buy and build a bar in 60 days.

The Monroe Club was, I am told, the last true dive bar in Huntington Beach, CA. The last owner was running hookers out of it....rumor has it, of course...not a week before I got it. I have known about the bar for the last four years and stopped by weekly to talk to the property owner to check status. In June, the owner mentioned that the lease holder was in arrears thirty days on rent going on sixty. From that day forward I carried six grand in my back pocket and stopped in to the property owners office every morning at opening time. Eviction was begun and the Sheriff was expected to post the eviction at any moment. I could then sign a new lease and get the place. Up until the moment the Sheriff tacks the notice up, the lease holder has the right to pay his back rent and continue his lease.The owner had it on the market for 125k and couldn't come to agreement on price. He then turned his electricity off which constitutes abandonment. He did that on a Tuesday night, I was there on Wednesday morning at 8:30 signing the new lease and twenty minutes later the old lease holder is arguing with my locksmith in front of the bar while holding a check for 11k to pay the back rent and penalties. Too late. Gotcha on a technicality. The new bar is called The Hook Up.

When building a bar, you want to cut costs wherever you can. I have taken to scavenging behind local warehouses for wood. Here we have Mason post load up of the 1" ply, 3/4" ply, built radius corners and moulding I got from behind an abandoned warehouse off of the 405 and Goldenwest. That wood ain't cheap. Mason says it's worth at least 400 bucks if I were to buy it from Lowes. This should build the bar back, bar top and armrest plus the raised dj booth. The last photo shows the giant beams stacked near the pile we pilfered from. Holy crap those were big trees!

1960 Ford Starliner body and paint completed

The galleon is almost completed and it is looking very nice. Maestro, my 125.00 a day bodywork friend and I knocked out the 'to the metal' bodywork job in two weeks of eight hour days. As we worked, I had my friend Tran stitch up a full show interior in white naugahyde covered in diamond stitch pattern, which I am fond of. (see interior of panel truck) I am cloning a car that I had many great memories in...Joe Kennedy's 60 starliner which he called 'The Galleon'. Joe, Pokey and I were coming back from somewhere in Huntington Beach, up Beach Blvd at about Talbert when a car full of women pulled up and told us to pull over. We pull over, they pull over, a couple girls jump out and jump into our car and off we go. We didn't even talk. It just turned into a make out session down Beach Blvd. That happened on Beach and Slater once when I was on my motorcycle. I'm glad Russell witnessed that. That shit only happens in movies.

Da Bomb!!

I guess you need to be in the know to know what this is and how it relates to me. Whatever you do, DON'T eat the whole thing in one sitting! Nervous breakdown!

Clear Outer Primary

Scott Craig and I put our heads together and, with the help of an aircraft windshield maker friend of mine, hand vacuum formed 12 of these clear big twin outer primaries. This was a fun project but sadly I got the short end of the stick and only ended up with one for all of my effort. I still have that one cover in the garage. It was fun working with that machine and cutting out the forms on the bandsaw. They turned out great: that I remember. We took them to Japan and I don't think we sold even one there. We were sure they were going to be a hit. (kind of like the lighters! Ha!) They eventually ended up at some shop of Scott's in Echo Park where they got lost or were stolen or something to that effect. Either way, it was a cool experience with a cool product for the scene. I wonder where they all ended up?