So that happened

If you are really wanting that deep clean, you know the one where your car feels factory fresh, you might as well go for the full monty!

Somehow, through dumb luck or maybe the red dirt preserved them, I only broke two body bolts and both left enough to grab with vice gripes. I whipped out a handy hole saw and the drill, then got to the back of the cage nuts to spray them from the backside with PB Blaster for a few days before I put a torch to them, they came out smoothly.







And Voila!





Now I can really get in all the nooks and crannies!

The destruction, I mean deconstruction of a project

This is where the project starts spiraling out of control or something along those lines, that depends on your outlook on car projects. Those who know me say otherwise, they say that this was only a natural progression, that it was willed to go this direction.

Eh, who am I to challenge that?

Parts started falling off the car and you can see the dash put up a fight but lost





While the floors were clean overall, there was a little rust, luckily floor pans are available. This is a common area to rust with the heater box leaking and the catalytic converter heating the are to make a swamp











More dirt, eeeww



So I can start work on this.....



A grinder with a wire brush soon becomes my best friend.......

And so it began

So the forlorn 1978 Malibu up for inspection when I drove up



Unfortunately the 78 on taillights were gone but it came with these ragged 79 models with blue dots.




Really I bought it from this crappy pic proving you shouldn't judge a wet car by it's picture, looks reasonably clean.



By the way it was outfitted I am guessing it was a "drag car" and I use that term loosely. It had air shocks, 14" Keystone Klassic front wheels, obligatory dash mounted tach, and that awesome Demon Carburetion sticker on the door panel.

Unfortunately these cars are getting harder and harder to find so I didn't pass on it, I towed it home, pushed it into the garage, and examined my purchase.



Not sure what they were trying to accomplish on the hood, they used a grinder of some sorts to remove paint and most of the edges through to the inner structure. It was scrap







With the look around apparently somebody is operating a dirt quarter mile somewhere in the Texas panhandle. This thing was plastered

Not so much rust as dust.

At this point my OCD was approaching a level that was unheard of, it needed a dirt exorcism in the worst way. The only way to accomplish this.........

After a brief hiatus...

I am back at it again but this time I am getting to work on my long term project now that all others are out of the way. The Road King has almost met the end of it's modification cycle, just the new rear fender and fat tire that started the mods for 2016, I will be waiting until it's cooler out to tear it apart though. I have a bunch to post on a trip to PA but haven't received the photos yet.

I will now focus my time and effort on this.

Which is a 1978 Malibu purchased for the princely sum of $750 in 2013 as it was mostly complete, looked rust free, and will be the fourth one I have owned. This pic is right before we loaded it on a trailer for the ride home from somewhere around Childress Texas.

The last one I built started back in 1999 or so. A 1980 Malibu Classic Landau minus the vinyl was bought from a buddy and soaked up a bunch of money but was a ton of fun. This was the day I sold it in 2005 or so. 

I hope to take all that I learned from that build and make this one even better, 

Now I will play catch up on all the work done so far so hang for a ride.

Motorcycles, ADD, and oooh, look at the shiny kitty....

Yep, sidetracked again after my last post. Work needed done, more motorcycle projects, wait, when did I order those parts?

I had a couple of "new" parts at the painter and had been in paint jail since early July but with my annual trip to the Poconos coming up after labor day I really would like to have them, "them" being the front of my Reckless fairing and a king tour pack. The fairing would make some difference but the tour pack would be key, I threw my travel bag of 6 years in the garbage after the last trip, it had served it's purpose well but was getting a little long in the tooth with the waterproof coating starting to flake away.

This last week I pressed the painter a little more and received my parts. WooHoo! And in true fashion, "while I'm there" I may as well replace the sticky throttle cables, but if I'm doing that longer ones aren't that much more expensive.....I have been thinking about going to 16" apes......the hell with it. I ordered new Wild Ones 16" apes along with braided throttle cables.

 In for a penny.......

Old 14" bars


New 16" mid install with inner fairing


Front fairing and new bars





With that finished the last project was assembly of the tour pack, one thing I had been dreading because of the blind rivets used. Well the first problem was the Chinese made ebay rack for the top, I'm guessing they don't put these in a form as only two of the bolt holes lined up with the stock Harley lid. That's okay, a little persuasion with a long wrench moves them around to fit and the welds held! After ordering new weatherstripping and new latches I should be set.

But next up was rebuilding the factory hinges, the pivots were shot, I figured I could knock them out and replace them with a bolt of appropriate size and a lock nut. That may have worked "if" I hadn't got heavy handed with what I thought was a stuck pivot pin, nope just an asshole with a hammer and a few beers. One hinge jacked up. Well I had been eyeing the premium hinges at $60.......and they don't require those stupid rivets.

Off to Adam Smith Harley


I have to say I enjoyed the radio but what I enjoyed more than anything else was the calm, cool pocket of air behind the fairing. I bet I could smoke a cigar behind it and not even catch an ash in the eye.

New Pipes

Before I write part two I decided two things needed to be done, get it cleaned up from the ride and replace the RCX slip ons that I decided were too loud. After hours of research while my ears quit ringing I decided that I would go with a pair of CVO mufflers and then swap out the baffles to Fullsac baffles if needed. Of to Craigslist I go and an ad was listed late Sunday and the guy had three pair, by the time I texted him he had one pair left and I snagged them! I decided I'd get them mounted before washing it.

And all cleaned up

Four Days of Riding, Days 1 & 2

Back last night at 8:25 from 2000 miles of touring!

My buddy JV and I left Wednesday morning and headed for the great state of Colorado for some mountain riding plus some good beer.

First day plan was to slab it to Colorado Springs from Dallas via 287 with a stop in Dalhart, TX for some food with a friend. Well those plans were dashed when running at higher speeds killed our gas mileage and a poor decision to forgo gas while leaving Amarillo lead to me running out of gas in the middle of nowhere south of Channing, TX. JV ran out to grab some gas and ended up in Hartley while I napped on the side of the road in 100* temps while everyone passed up the dirty biker on the side of the road. Shout out to the Hartley Co-Op for sending JV out with free gas and can, even offered to follow him back to me if he couldn't carry the can! Love small town hospitality.

My solitude.


JV catching it for posterity while pointing at the can of shame


We missed our friend but did get a glowing recommendation to try XIT (10 In Texas) for good grub and beer.


After a "few" more uneventful hours we made it to home for the night in Colorado Springs and this was the view from Amandas Cantina while we sipped margaritas.

JV is somewhat of an avid "photographer" risking life and limb to document our trip while riding a motorcycle, a few shots while riding up Pike's Peak

And the view from the top, beautiful morning with no clouds




We rode back down and headed north on 67 stopping for lunch and beers at Deckers Corner, great little place to eat. I highly recommend the breakfast scramble and when they say the hot green chili sauce is hot, they mean it! More beer cured the heat.


Out of there we headed up several more small back roads with great scenery and then stopped in Evergreen at Little Bear for more hoppy refreshments



Out of Evergreen we headed North then west for Central City, neat little main street town but the turn onto Central City Parkway off the highway was strange as they had a cow crossing next 8 miles sign. Actually they might have saved some money to just put "look out for and all animals" signs at the Colorado border, seems as though they have a sign for every animal imaginable.

Next Refreshment stop, Dostal Alley Casino & Brew Pub



Our next stop was Nederland which was confirmed to be a cool place by this guy

So leaving out of Central City we turned north onto 119 and ran all the way to Nederland, home of the Frozen Dead Guy Days and another great place for beer and pizza, Crosscut Pizzeria & Taphouse. Tons of good beer on tap and great staff.

Our last run of the night was to head back towards Boulder and down to Louisville to call it a night, almost. We headed over to another brewhouse to end the night and our staff member Elizabeth put up with us without kicking us out.