brat bonnie

camera ready

2011-08-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

we showed up to a tv shoot and happened to run into a photographer that was fortunately happy to fire off a few shots and chew the fat about the build.

almost there...

2011-06-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

this past weekend, he put a few of the finishing touches on me. he polished up my salvaged fender. applied a set of tank pads from a '66-'67 bonnie. and last but not least, took the steel wool to the side covers, converting them to a nice satin version of their formers selves.

malibu bound

2011-05-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

sometimes, close is close enough. sure, i need another round of polish on the tank, some rust knocked off my old salvaged fender and i'm still waiting for a new pair of tank pads from a '66 bonnie, but today, i'm going out.

we're rolling up to the 'bu and gonna to park it right up front at the rockstore...

stripped

2011-04-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

we're so close i can taste the socal asphalt. thanks to 5 rounds of paint stripper and a few hours with a powerdrill, my tank is naked. it has yet to be polished, but the old paint is gone and the badge screw holes are filled (courtesy of marsh weld-craft).

tomorrow morning scott is dropping off the seat pan and foam and if all goes well, we'll be wrapped in less than two weeks.

the shop at marsh weld-craft.

going over the work.

buttons on the suit

2011-03-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

scott has been on his computer ripping through color configurations like a fat kid through a bag of double-stuffs.

here's the latest. i can see myself wearing this suit.

tank
• metallic ceramic coated, with a slight brushed finished
• knee dents- black
• badge- "triumph" in futura bold, chocolate color

front fender- gloss black
rear fender- metallic ceramic coat

he loves it. but he also loved vintage auto green idea for the past 3 months.

seat-less at sunset

2011-03-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

glamour shots

2011-03-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

wiring is done. turns are mounted (although not in this shot). here are the only things that stands between us and a shake down run in the malibu twisties.

1. tank paint
2. front and rear fender paint
3. new seat

some more weekend progress: sunday

2011-03-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

we're soooooo close. after a quick test fit on the rear fender, the next thing i know, he's got it mounted up. my front fender was reshaped and mounted and the turns hung (roughly) in place to test the lighting system.

some weekend progress: saturday

2011-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

i'm starting to believe. scott was pretty sure we'd be wrapped up by april, but until this weekend, I had my doubts. it's amazing how quickly things came together when he returned with a box of stuff sporting a shiny new powdercoat finish.

here's a quick overview of the weekend's progress.

1. re-install forks (new satin finish and fender mounting tabs removed)

2. re-mount headlamp and new headlamp guard

3. install ignition relocation

4. re-stall gauge bracket with new wrinklecoat finish

5. install indicator led bulbs and new covers

6. install new throttle cables and new braided brake line

7. rough-in wiring for new turns and taillamp

posh grips and a new bar

2011-03-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

the end of this week was a busy one for scott. so, there was limited progress. he was, however, able to sneak on the new grips and fit the new handlebar. it's definitely working.

seat - part III

2011-03-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

back to the seat for another multi-hour battle.

today, scott cut the seat pan out of a sheet of 3/8" hdpe plastic. the goal is to maintain stock mounting points, add rigidity and create a clean even edge along the frame to anchor the new seat leather to (something you can't do with the stock pan).

first, he cut the pan.

next, he test fit on the bike.

and finally (at least for part III, cause we've clearly got a long way) he married the new seat pan to the oem seat pan. so far so good.

forks

2011-03-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

sunday, march 6. fork overhaul day.

after much internal debate, he decided to do a fork refresh, rather than buy anything new.

first, he removed the fender mounting tabs. and ground them down to match the profile of the fork.

the top fork is still sporting the mounting tabs. the bottom one has had them removed.

next up, crack open the forks. replace the stock springs with a pair of ikon progressive springs. cut down the spacers to around .5". re-assemble forks. and respray in satin.

brushed carb caps

2011-03-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

in between knock-down, drag-out battles with custom seat pans and modified forks, scott likes to sneak in a cosmetic upgrade here and there. you know, just to make him feel good about himself. here we have a little carb cap refinish.

it was cheap chrome before... now, it has a brushed finish and looks... less like cheap chrome.

recycled fender

2011-03-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

scott made a trip to visit yoshi at the garage company this weekend and came home with a new, uhr, previously loved fender. ok, loved is an overstatement.

it's a 5" steel vintage number and he's still debating whether it's meaty enough to house my monsterous 4.5" rear tire. we'll see.

the last shot is a test fit of my new taillight.

powdercoat run

2011-03-03T23:38:00.000-08:00

he pulled together the next round of bits to be powdercoated. the headlight bucket and outer ring, the gas cap, the gauge cluster bracket, the fort brace and the headlight braces. vegas has set the odds of these coming home powdercoated black, at even money.

seat - part II

2011-03-03T23:31:00.000-08:00

today, he cut the cardboard template for the seat pan. that's it. it's not a big deal or anything, but it's something. fyi, imo, it took faarrrr too long. but, if you want a custom seat that perfectly follows the lines of the frame, it's gonna take some time.

re-deconstruction

2011-02-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

it's true of many things in life. sometimes, you've got to take a step back before you can move forward. so, after sitting quiet in a dark garage for an entire week while scott visited some family, that's just what we did today, took a step backward. after it was all said and done, i'm feeling a little less confident that i'll be bombing the pacific coast highway by spring... but that's just me.

first up... remove the ignition from the headlight bracket and pull back the wiring harness in preparation for an ignition relocation

next... test fit the new headlight brackets (courtesy of lloyd's vintage). the first pic shows the comparison between the stock brackets and the new ones.

and then... we yanked the forks followed and removed the gauge cluster. why? scott's dropping a set of new ikon progressive springs in the forks and he's powdercoating the gauge cluster and updating the idiot lights with super bright led's

and just for shiggles... he popped on the new ngk plug wires. don't know why. doesn't make sense. i don't even have an ignition right now. but that's just the way he wants it to go.

lastly... here's the latest shot of the box o' shit that's come off of me since we started, along with a shot of the "progress" we made today.

seat - part I

2011-02-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

he knows it, you know it, the whole world knows it. the triumph bonneville seat, my seat, is just too big. if i’m going to make the transition from stocker to brat-tracker, we’re gonna need to do a little surgery. the goal here is to replace my bubble butt with a low, gel-core, black suede number finished in a diamond quilt stitched finish (the photo at the end of this post is spiritually what we're planning on).

here’s how we’re gonna get there...

remove about a hundred staples and pull the old cover
pull the old foam core.
cut back the seat tray back so that it very closely follows the lines of the frame.

next up, we’ll create a polyurethane seat pan brace that the factory seat tray can bolt too. the reason? to create a nice, clean tight edge between the new seat and the frame, and to create some stability for the new seat, while retaining the factory connection points.

wheels!

2011-02-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

ya gotta admire his dedication. scott made his third hour-long trip out to buchanan's in azusa and, this time, came home with a pair of beautiful new wheels.

here are the specs again...

front: 19" x 2.5" excel rim, 400-19 coker diamond tread tire, stock hub
rear: 18" x 3.5" excel rim, 450-18 coker diamond tread tire, stock hub

new buchanan stainless steel spokes and nipples

he cleaned up the new tires, polished off the rims again and mounted them up. dig it.

elbow grease, weight loss and big cardboard box

2011-02-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

things are starting to happen. today, scott came home from work and locked himself in the garage until midnight. polishing, cleaning, removing, replacing... that kind of stuff.

elbow grease

• drop swing arm, remove chain, soak chain, polish chain, lube and replace chain
• replace loose intake manifold clamps
• remove rear brakes, clean swing arm, clean and re-grease brakes, clean
• carb and engine exterior clean

weight loss

• remove headlight (i still don't know if that's the one that's going back on)
• remove front and rear turns
• remove tailight
• remove rear fender (in preparation for replacement)
• remove front reflectors

what's in the box?

i got a big box of new stuff today. (actually, 1 big box and 2 little ones.) here's what was in the box. he already started putting some of the new stuff on. like the clutch arm dress-up and rear shocks.

• new stainless manifold clamps
• new yellow ngk plug wires
• new headlamp mesh guard
• new ikon adjustable rear shocks (lowered 1")
• new ikon progressive front fork springs
• new vintage style tail light
• new mini bullet turns
• new led dummy lights
• new posh vintage style natural grips
• new rear wiring harness (for new turns and tailight)
• new superbar handlebar (note: i don't like it and fortunately scott doesn't either. it's going back and we'll continue the search for the perfect bar)

what's the plan?

2011-02-13T00:21:00.000-08:00

what am i going to look like in the end? i know you're wondering the same thing. where indeed, sir and or madame, is this going? well, one of the advantages of having an owner who's a designer is that he can try out some ideas on the computer before he dives in head first with the credit card.

here's a super rough shop job of the direction we're headed. and a list of the intended mods required to get us there.

• black powdercoat, black wrinklecoat and black paint 99% of the shiny bits

• drop the front and rear with ikon shocks and springs

• drop the secondary air injection

• chop the airbox

• new ceramic coated headers and sleeper exhaust

• replace fender with a 5" rolled edge

• new vintage tailight

• new bullet turns front and rear

• 19" front, 18" rear wheels with new excel aluminum rims from buchanan's

• vintage diamond tread coker tires

• new high-rise tracker bars ( http://tinyurl.com/5smmfn5 )

• debadge tank, fill badge screw holes and finish in late '60 automotive green metallic paint (exact color tdb)

• headlight stone guard

• details: new ngk plug wires, clutch lifter cover, brush and polish all exposed metal, vintage gum grips

• custom low profile 2-up gel seat, diamond pattern black suede finish

• several cases of ice cold canned budweiser

fresh baked hubs

2011-02-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

after a few days of waiting around for my hubs in the brutal 75 degree california winter weather, they finally came back from the powdercoater.

from what i hear, scott usually takes his stuff to embee coatings for this type of work. but in the interest of sanity, he decided not to make the trek all the way down to anaheim. this time, beach cities powdercoating got the call.

here's the rear hub reassembled with new all-balls bearings pressed in.

rubber!

2011-02-12T23:21:00.000-08:00

he ordered me up a set of vintage rubber from coker tire in chattanooga, tn.
400 x 19 front
450 x 18 rear

coker specializes in vintage, industrial and military tire patterns and sizes with modern rubber compounds.

the rear came in today... the front is soon to follow.

off with my wheels

2011-02-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

it never really made sense to me either. a 19" front wheel and tire with a clearly undersized 17" rear. just look at me... strange. like a fat guy with a tiny head. now google "1965 triumph bonneville"... that's the way it should be.

time to strip off the old in preparation for the new.

old wheels off
mirrors off
badge off

didn't hurt a bit

2011-02-12T22:28:00.000-08:00

i know what you're thinking. my fender is too big. it's like a tuxedo with tails. you just wanna walk up with a big pair scissors and chop it the eff off. so that's what we did. we just chopped it the eff off.

the only problem is, i don't look any better post-op. but what would look better on me is a nice, 5" vintage fender with a rolled edge. (this is called foreshadowing)

it didn't take long

2011-02-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

from the minute i got here, i suspected i might be getting a bit of plastic surgery. plastic, stainless steel, vintage rubber, black powdercoat and polished aluminum surgery to be more precise.

turns out... i suspected right.

the first order of business, more power (that and a chrome-endectomy). thanks to british customs, I got a new ceramic coated header and sleeper exhaust system. we yanked out my old airbox and replaced it with a pair of big lung k&n filters. and since i can handle a little more juice, we rejetted the carbs with a 140 main jet and a 42 pilot jet. that's better.

now i sound all vintage-y like i should and I've got a few more ponies in the back pocket.

the roads here are way more interesting

2011-02-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

as part of my indoctrination to the california lifestyle, my new owners thought it'd be cool to ride up to malibu, the day after christmas, for a little brunch run. it doesn't suck here.

i'm moving to cali

2011-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

alright, quick background. i'm originally from england. born in '06, but technically considered a 2007 model, a 2007 triumph bonneville black. i was shipped off to texas and spent the first 4 years of my life there. honestly, i was a bit neglected... then just before christmas my previous owner got a call from a guy in california. a couple phone calls later, a transaction here, a signature there, and next thing i know, i'm in the back of a trailer on my way to sunny socal.

what a sweet way to start the new year. a new life in california.