Vinyl is back!

When I was planning on paint I had considered a two tone paint scheme, something classic that fits the way a Road King should look. The biggest thing holding me back was the fact my painter was a factory refinisher, not a custom bike painter, this led me to a single color instead. After paint it seemed plain so I added Street Glide tank medallion. It looked better. It still lacked something though......

So following the current car scene I decided to give vinyl a look. 

*Disclaimer*
Vinyl is verboten to Harley rider's, it's like kryptonite, it's like putting Honda parts on your bike, it's etc, etc, etc. 

Me, I don't care, I do so many things just for my own entertainment that it doesn't matter to me if I would be ostracized from the clan. 

First thing was to head off to the interwebz to shop vinyl. Several site searches later I decided it should be a pearl white and the one I picked was an Avery vinyl in gloss pearl white.Pearl White
Along with a felt covered squeegee and some knifeless tape I was set. Either for greatness or a bundle of wadded up vinyl.

Here we go




Easiest part done! Didn't go bad, not perfect but the only experience I have is Clear Bra installs on several exotic cars, not the same though.

On to a bag.





Hmmmm, moving right along the tank was next, probably the toughest part, line laid out with pinstripe first then the knifeless tape seen in green


Knifeless tape



The only pic, I screwed up this side as I pulled the tape wrong and screwed up the line, it ended up in the trash


Ugh, first setback. Right on, let's do the left side first for the next trick!








Not too shabby. Next, a different line layout for the left side to flow with the bag better




Then back to the right side









After all that it was time to pull the front fender for a little more white. I was at the end of the vinyl so I decided to do the fender in two pieces, hiding the break line behind the fork leg.







Whipped up a paper template to try to recreate the same line for the other side






Back on




Then outside for the finally









After all that I ran out of vinyl to fix the right back so it matches the left line that I like better and I still need to make a design for the fairing.

I didn't read the directions

Which is what men normally do. We know how mechanical things work, how they should go together, how the earth revolves around the sun......

A few months ago I purchased a pair of CVO mufflers with the express intent to install a pair of Fullsac power cores and get rid of the current mufflers, which were too loud for my ear at highway speed[confirmed by my buddy that wouldn't ride behind me;-)].

Craigslist netted a barely used pair of CVO mufflers in excellent shape.

Which I ran stock for a while. They were too quiet so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a pair of 2" Fullsac Power Cores.

 I thought I'd save the money and not get the sleeves and matt from them, who needs it anyway? After pulling out the old fiberglass matt it was off to the internet to see if I could get some local, the original was shot in several places. A quick run down to Cycle Gear netted two new pieces of matt and I wrapped up the cores and stuffed them back together. Sounds pretty good, deeper, not as loud. I ran this way around town for the last few months until this last weekend.

I had time to get it out on the highway to evaluate the amplifier install at speed, which worked great, but the pipes, wow! Too staccato at highway speed! I still needed ear plugs. Back to the house and see what others were saying about their cores and not many complaining. But then I see people talking about changing the sound of them, modding the matt amounts or using steel wool when I ran into my screw up. One guy talks about wrapping them with less matt to increase the sound and mentions that if you wrap the cores tight it essentially makes drag pipes by not letting the sound work through the baffle.  

Doh!

By using their power sleeve you create an air gap between the matt and the core, mellowing the sound. Dammit. Mea Culpa. Beings that I have zero patience I'm off to Lowes to find something that works. Luckily they carry the same style perforated metal I need and for $30 I pick up a sheet of it and back to the house to fabricate.

And voila! I spent three hours and saved $40 to make the pair. I should have just ordered them in the first place. 😂 It did give some much needed garage time over the weekend though.