Bought a Sporty, suggestions needed

[JenM]

I found you need to really sit down and think about what you want to do. If you just start ordering willy nilly,..............
Or just order one peice at a time when you're sure of what you want.

Definitely. I have been looking at a lot of sites but haven't ordered anything yet. I want to wait until our friend takes a look at it and we see what he has "handy" in his garage that will work.
I'm also a bit unsure on a lot of things, about how they work, what will work, etc. My manual came today so I'm going to dig in and educate myself

I was telling a guy at work about my bike, and what all it needs, and he said, "Who are you going to have do all of that work?"
He would not have asked a MAN that question.

I said, "I AM!"

Dammit...I'm capable. I know that I don't know nearly enough but I am a quick learner and in the end I want to be able to say I DID IT.

[TechTMW]

Nothin there you can't handle, Jen - Go for it!

[Sev]

Worst thing that'll happen is a couple of busted knuckles I bet. And those heal up pretty quick. Make sure to document your mods with lots of pics. While a start and totally modded pic are always cool to see side by side, it's way better with the changes being shown bit by bit.

[JenM]

Ok, I started a very simple webpage, with photos, to track my progress on my bike, if anyone's interested in looking. I started today, taking it apart. It's going pretty well, overall!

Click here.

[sharpmagna]

Great job with the dissassembly! Yeah it is always fun to find out you have to remove this or that just to get at the one thing you wanted to in the first place!!!

[TechTMW]

Great work Jen! If I may make a suggestion, now's the time to get all that mechanical work done before you repaint and replace the tins ... good to get it out of the way so you're not doing anything to hurt the new paint!

[JenM]

Thanks Tech. I haven't decided yet if I want to pull the engine out. I know it would be the smart thing to do - replace all the seals and other goodies.... and it needs cleaned up so badly, all around. I probably will end up doing it. There is some rust in between the fins that would be hard to get to, if I left it in place.

Maybe you or someone else can answer this question - since it's an ironhead, can it be painted? That might be a really stupid question...I don't know. It would look so much nicer if painted a nice shiny black instead of that dull cast iron.

[NorthernPete]

I was under the impression not to paint the fins because it could interfere with the cooling process, I could be wrong. some polishing would make it look purdy though!

[TechTMW]

I was under the impression not to paint the fins because it could interfere with the cooling process, I could be wrong. some polishing would make it look purdy though!

This is also what I understand, though I'm not an engineer to tell you for sure.

[HOOPTY388]

for the mufflers, it looks like it has slip on tips, so you should be able to pull off the tips (and send them to me for the advice lol) and replace them with slip on mufflers which can be found all over e-bay or swap meets ( check with abate of indiana they have some good ones).

I am not positive on the fins but what I come to learn is you can paint in between the fins then polish the outside edges. The inset parts trap the air and the outer edge disapates (ms?) the heat. don't quote me though just my impression