Let's build a girl's bike: a 1967 Sportster XLH

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Looks very nice, but you cheated and painted the front fender struts. I was hoping to learn how to rivet them back together.

I have found that unless one is restoring or really likes chrome, it's best to leave tight rivets be.

There are heading tools for the rivets. Plop it in your vice and try to avoid destroying anything when you hammer ;-)

[slamiste]

I love candy colors. What brand and what type (acrylic, ...) paint did you use? I've done a number of candy painted bike over the years but it's been a long time since I did one and things have changed a bunch in the last 30 years.

Thanks and stopping at my swap spot at Wauseon. It was nice to meet you in person.

Steve Slaminko

[chuckthebeatertruck]

I love candy colors. What brand and what type (acrylic, ...) paint did you use? I've done a number of candy painted bike over the years but it's been a long time since I did one and things have changed a bunch in the last 30 years.

Thanks and stopping at my swap spot at Wauseon. It was nice to meet you in person.

Steve Slaminko

It was a great meet at Wauseon -- and lovely to meet you as well. Thanks, again, for all the volunteer hours that went into the meet.

As for candy -- yep, I love them too but don't often do them for myself because touch up is so darn difficult :-)

In this case, we sprayed all house of kolor and all in the Shimrin 2 family, which is an acrylic urethane.

The base is Solid Graphic White; second coat is Solar Gold Metallic; and the candy coat is Tangerine Kandy Base.

Everything was sealed in House of Kolor UC35 catalyzed clear. I do over reduce by 10% on the thrid and fourth coats of clear to get a nice flow on metallics/candy.

I hope to sand and flow coat the fuel tank next weekend when the humidity cooperates a bit more. It's deep now . . .but will go a mile deep with a flow coat.

[RickXLGuy]

Chuck, this is a fantastic series on the many techniques and tricks you're using on this bike. Thanks so much for your attention to detail and patience in posting.

Regarding the bubble bags section, I was aware they are made from ABS, as I've had my lids plastic welded and the guy told me a bit about earlier plastics, which mostly were ABS until more recent times. Using ABS cement is another good sounding way to repair those pesky cracks so if more happen I'll try that.
Do you know if the '64 and later plastic saddle bags are also ABS? I have a couple of those with cracks which could benefit from this treatment too.

Rick

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Regarding the bubble bags section, I was aware they are made from ABS, as I've had my lids plastic welded and the guy told me a bit about earlier plastics, which mostly were ABS until more recent times. Using ABS cement is another good sounding way to repair those pesky cracks so if more happen I'll try that.
Do you know if the '64 and later plastic saddle bags are also ABS? I have a couple of those with cracks which could benefit from this treatment too.

Rick

The later xl bags were a type of thermoset styrene, but I'm not sure what composition or what adhesive may be best. It may be worth testing a raw spot on the inside and seeing if it softens on exposure to straight acetone. If it does, polystyrene glues like model adhesive may do the trick. I haven't tried it so take it with a grain of salt, or two.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

The last month saw me working on other projects. First, Mrs. Chuck received a vintage Triumph bicycle from the Wauseon meet. We spent most of August sprucing up the 'cycle for her so she had something to ride while I whittle on the '67.

At nearly the same time; I started helping another known associate piece a 1960 XLH stroker back together from bits. The bike suffered a transmission failure nearly a decade ago. The cases were professionally (and very well) repaired by Tom Shaw of Creekside Welding. These particular cases were shipped by Tom just weeks before his (too) early passing.

But, we didn't totally stop work on Mrs. Chuck's '67. I did little things here and there and viola -- we have most of the motor done and the bike is awaiting it's transmission. Alas, this might be as far as I get on the '67 until November. I plan to button up the '60 XLH for its owner in October, have a Pokey Run with the Badger Chapter, and the fall work schedule. We're also finishing the shop by (finally) installing the drywall!

As comic relief; the owner of the 1960 in the foreground showed up with the powder coated body work for his scooter -- and it's awfully close to Mrs. Chuck's color. We did not talk about colors . . .so it was a real surprise when the tins came out of the truck.

It's not too often these days that one gets to see multiple, stroked sportsters going back together for the road.


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[chuckthebeatertruck]

Well, a few things got in the immediate way of wrapping up Mrs. Chuck's bike.

First, we had our Chapter "pokey run" the second week of October and so we decided to make a weekend of it in Elkhart Lake. It was a great fun time.
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Then, we got back and I finally finished walling and painting the shop. It's nice to FINALLY have the walls done.

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Then, I had to finish the 1960 XLH Stroker for it's owner before the snow flew. Actually managed to finish it up AND get in the break in miles this past weekend when it was nice. This is a 76 inch stroker and basically is just a giant dirt bike. It was a hoot to break in and adjust for the owner.

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[chuckthebeatertruck]

To give you an idea on the 1960 -- these are the before shots:

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The bike lost third gear shortly after these photos and the resulting carnage blew out the corner of the cases. They were welded back together -- but at that stage all the sins of the past wer exposed and the bike needed every single component gone through.

It was great fun to get his one back on the road for it's owner.

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[chuckthebeatertruck]

But, we have completed some work on Mrs. Chuck's bike.

The entire top end of the bike is on -- the transmission is in -- and with some luck I'll do the primary this weekend. With that done, we will be down to wiring and carb. With some luck, we'll fire the bike up for the first time just about one year to the day after it came home.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Over the past few weeks we slowly made a bit more progress on Mrs. Chuck's bike. The big bit of worked involved installing the primary. It wasn't quite that simple.

I wasn't 100% happy with how the transmission was shifting -- and after torquing the clutch basket to make a set with the new trap door bearing -- I was really unhappy. The mainshaft was also "tight" in one spot -- a sure indicator it was very slightly bent. So, out came the transmission and sure enough -- the main shaft did have a slight bend in it. Totally my fault for not checking it between centers. I grabbed a NOS shaft off the shelf, re-set the transmission, and the shifting improved 100%. Yippee. With that done, I moved on to dealing the kicker ratchet teeth. I like to undercut these ever so slightly. This helps the ratchet to "screw together" vs push apart when you lay into the kicker. If you've ever had a sportster kicker slip more the harder you kick -- you know what I'm on about here. The undercutting prevents this. Don't be fooled --it's a 1 to 2 degree undercut, nothing dramatic. Anyways, I use 1" cutting discs in a dremel tool with a foot controller. Makes for short controlled work. With that done, the whole primary was installed and the clutch adjusted. I prefer to do my clutch adjustment before I seal up the clutch basket. This one is running a dry clutch. Raybestos fibres and oem steels.

After the primary went on, it was time to finish rebuilding the prestolite and solenoid. Both had seen better days. The prestolite got new bearings, brushes, and armature. The armature was worn and the gear teeth chewed because the rear most brass thrust washer was missing in the starter clutch assembly. The solenoid got a standard stud and disc rebuild kit. It all snicked back together nicely. However, there's precious little room to hook up oil lines and the solenoid/starter cables and wiring. So, paused and installed all of that before putting in the battery tray.

With that all done, it was time to see if the 2:1 header would fit smoothly. For some reason, many people believe you can't fit the 2:1 pipe (65454-57) to an electric start bike; let alone one with a kicker. The belief is that they will contact the prestolite and the kicker will hit the pipe. However, a glance in the 1967 parts book shows the pipe fits a 1967 XLH. And, it does.

The below photos are of a gasbox 2:1 replica header and muffler -- clamps are also from gasbox. I did have to smoosh the indent for the foot rest support about 1/8th of an inch more. This did tighten the bend for the front just a bit. This made it a tight stretch fit, but otherwise, the pipe just slipped on. The rear is angled a bit more than oem. This means the muffler winds up about 1/4" more inboard and 1/4" higher. This isn't a problem with high road clearance shocks (14.5") but could cause some swing arm clearance issues on standard ride height (13.5"). I understand gasbox is aware of this and has or is adjusting their next run of pipes.

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In these photos, the muffler looks to be right on the backing plate and swing arm . . but it's not. It is close, but remember the swing arm is fully hanging with the rear wheel unsupported. In other words, it can't dip any lower unless the shocks are removed.

I then moved on to rebuilding the timer. The oem advance weight springs were WORN with a capital W. You could see how loose the coils were. New OEM/NOS springs went in after a cleaning and light lube. I cleaned the cam and installed new points. Gapped and lined up, the timer installed without fuss. I gave it a rough time with a continuity meter and will zero it in before the first furn.

Attention then turned to building a wiring harness. I had a fair amount of cloth covered wiring on the shelf, but had no idea if I had enough. An XLH takes up a lot of wire - even more so if you have turn signals. I laid out the various wiring runs and it turns out I had just enough wire and connectors -- but not quite enough asphalt loom. So, I used a very old roll of 3M loom tape. This is the old non-shiny "electrical" tape that was used for eons to wrap wiring looms. It does get stiff in the cold, but pretty much sticks to itself and stays stuck for a very long time. I managed to get everything wired and run to the handlebars. Next up is finishing that hook up and the final piece of the pie is mounting a carburetor.

With some luck; we'll be done with this one just about one year to the day after it came home. In terms of cost; well, we went over budget. The goal was to buy this bike, title it, and be back on the road for around $4,000 max. We wound up just under $6,000 because of all the sins we found. Pretty much everything in the motor and transmission was replaced with spares, but we still had to buy a fair amount of stuff to make up for the crap aftermarket parts that littered this ride. Much of what came with the bike was either garbage parts or ruined by poor installation. In this regard, it's a solid example of an ebay bike. It "looked" good in the pictures but as I tore into it the full extent of the horror showed up. Had I been picking this bike and inspected it before committing to buy -- there's little chance I would have bought it. There simply was too much wrong and at the end of the day it's a bit hard to say what is truly a 1967 XLH and what is a replacement part. As such, this is a totally assembled bike and while titled as a 1967 -- it's really an homage to a 1967.

[craig (DE)]

Great write up as usual Chuck! I like that lift for the Sporty and that would work well for my '77 Sporty. Can I ask where you got that and the name of the lift?

[chuckthebeatertruck]

That is an older harbor freight high position lift. I don't think they sell them anymore. They weren't particularly popular compared to the $299 table lifts. A table lift is more stable, but takes up a lot more room. I also get frustrated having to block up one end or the other when working on a table lift. This high position lift let's me drop both ends without issue, other than balance or strapping.

I also like like being able to roll it outside when the weather is warm and I want to work in the breeze.

[gitguy]

Harbor Freight still sells the lift for $299: https://www.harborfreight.com/high-p...ift-99887.html

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Glad to know they still sell them. I've had mine for at least five or six years now and the only issue I've ever had was when I blew an oring on the jack. Took all of 10 minutes to repair and refill/bleed the jack. I also did some careful assembly when I put it together to deal with the slop that is otherwise in the mechanism. It took a few different thicknesses of washers, but improved the stability by a large amount. And, I've found a bunch of different uses for it beyond bikes. I've used it often to lift heavy parts up to the work bench vs. straining my back -- etc. I sort of consider it a "do-all" tool. But, the one thing you have to get used to is how it moves just a bit. When you really get into wrenching on something -- it can deflect a solid 1/4" which feels very, very strange the first time.

Biggest bike I've ever had on there was a 1,000 pound fully kitted goldwing.

Most of my bikes are 450-600 pounds and I've never had an issue - and this may be the only thing I've bought from Harbor Freight I can say that about!

[craig (DE)]

That is an older harbor freight high position lift. I don't think they sell them anymore. They weren't particularly popular compared to the $299 table lifts. A table lift is more stable, but takes up a lot more room. I also get frustrated having to block up one end or the other when working on a table lift. This high position lift let's me drop both ends without issue, other than balance or strapping.

I also like like being able to roll it outside when the weather is warm and I want to work in the breeze.

I have a table lift but always seemed to have a bike on it when I need another lift for some quick work.