What's Black and White and Red All Over?

[Chadsquats]

I really like the profile of the bike with the plastic cut off:

It does, however, expose a lot of the rear suspension when viewed from above and behind:

I may try to figure out a way to cover that up down the road, but I'm not gonna worry about it for now. I think my project for next winter is going to be removing the swing arm and re-painting it.

[Joram]

looking good. Keep posting the progress pics

[goddarddr]

Thats it, how about a pic of the bike without it.
Oh. there is one

[goddarddr]

I looking forward to seeing how the exposed swing arm looks after your fender and seat is on. Alley Rat had a pic

[Chadsquats]

I got my seat today. I think it's gonna work pretty well. I'm kinda going for the old panhead look where the seat sticks out off the back of the frame like a diving board.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get going on the fab work for mounting the fender and seat this week. I'm getting itchy to get this thing rideable.

[goddarddr]

Good Luck
I'll be waitin see your pic"s

[goddarddr]

How's the fender and seat coming?

[Chadsquats]

All the pieces for the fender have been made. All that's left is welding them all together. It looks like it's all going to come together nicely. I hauled my bike over to a friend's shop for the fab work, and forget to take my camera with me when I go to work on it, so I don't have any pictures of the progress. We won't get to the welding until early next week, so I should have some pictures posted by later next week.

I ran into a snag with the seat. I stripped the threads out of one of the holes in the seat pan. I got carried away and forgot that the pan is aluminum. I'm going to try to epoxy the stud back in place. If that holds, I just need to get some braces made up for theback of the seat and I'll be good to go. I got the rear turn signals and the brake light wired up the other night, so I'm actually getting close to roadworthy.

With the weather getting nicer, I'm thinking that once I get the fender painted I'll hold off on any other work until after the end of this riding season. I want to do some stuff on the front end, but I think that I'd rather be out riding than sitting in the garage listening to all the bikes go by. Plus, that will give me a few months to get my thought together on the next phase of the project.

[goddarddr]

I know what you mean. the weather is for riding now. I 'am curious to what your fender mounting is looking like? I ordered some seat springs. thought I would try to level up the seat some. I felt like I was slippin off. I thinking about moving the electrics to side panel like you did. cut off the plastic. any advise on that other than what you have posted? Dave

[Chadsquats]

any advise on that other than what you have posted?

I think the main thing is to be methodical about it. Unwrap the harness and separate the wires so you get an idea of what needs to go where. When it's time to start cutting and splicing wires, do them one at at time to avoid confusion. Try to stagger your splices as much as possible to keep bulkiness down. One thing I would have done differently was pay closer attention to the wire lengths. Re-wrapping the end of the harness in the side cover was a little tricky because I had a bunch of different lengths of wire. Good luck if you decide to go for it. Have you decided if you're going to paint your forks?

[goddarddr]

thanks. My springs came. thought I would work on them today.What you think about VN Henry's pic's on show off your bobber thread? after moving electronics, he fabricated a piece behind and under the seat covers everything. I am eventually going to paint lower legs, tree's, head light, turn signals, tail light, switches,

[goddarddr]

The springs didn't work out. much too high for me.and mounting wasn't solid. I do want to riase the rear of the seat for comfort. I'm thinking on mounting a bravket on the existing support for a riser to mount the seat to.
How you going to mount yours?

[Kim Oestrup]

Hello to you all, is there any of you who know what model / brand exhaust is on this VN800 Bobber.

Best regards
Kim

Originally Posted by jeffs99vulcan

If you're going to go full bobber, then yes, I can see a springer seat being a great accent. Have you seen billymac's bobber yet? He doesn't post on here much you you don't see it very often, but definitely worth taking a look... He's got a version of the rear fender you're talking about.

No prob about the light bar, but if you ever do decide...

billymac's 800 bobber: (the rest are here)

[Chadsquats]

I got the rear brackets for the seat made this afternoon. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I started out by taking a piece of 1/4" flat bar, heating it up, and then bending it around a large diameter pipe. That gave me a nice round piece so I could come up off the rear seat support to the studs on the seat pan. The plan was a good one, but in reality, it didn't work at all. I needed something with a tighter radius in more of a flattened out "S" shape. So, I stuck a piece of flat bar in the vise and beat the crap out of it until it looked right. I used a piece that was 2" wide, so that once I got the right shape I could split it in half lengthwise and have two identical brackets. I still need to drill the brackets and mount them on the bike. The bike is still over at my buddy's shop, so still no pictures. And he's been sick, so no welding yet. Hopefully by the end of the week there will be progress on both fronts

[goddarddr]

Kim, private message the owner at billymac814/ He has given me some info about his seat mounting this week.
Chad, sounds like you will be riding soon. looking forward to the new pic's.

[Chadsquats]

Well, it looks like no welding is going to happen this weekend. I think I will try to get over to take some pictures tomorrow, though.

[goddarddr]

Did you get your seat mounted? are you using springs or a solid mount?
Whats the weather doing in Salem? Nashville alot of rain =
"Can't Ride, Modify" (

I did make a mock-up solid mount out of slotted angel steel and it put my seat in a more comfortable level postion than I had. I'll get some pic's.
Dave

[Chadsquats]

The seat is not mounted yet, but the pieces are ready. I just need to do a little drilling and welding on them. I'm going with a solid mount. I'm hoping to get some pictures taken today.

The weather here has actually been pretty nice up until yesterday. There's been a lot of bikes out, which provides a lot of motivation to get mine road ready. It's supposed to rain a lot this next week. If all goes well, maybe I'll get the welding all done this week, and ride the bike home across town next weekend- weather permitting, of course.

[Chadsquats]

Well, I swung by and took a couple of pictures today. Here's the bike with the seat mounted to the front bracket, and sitting at about the elevation I want it:

Here's the pieces I bent up the other day:

I started out with a piece that was two inches wide and cut it in half after I bent it so that both halves match up. I rounded off the ends, just to doll them up a little bit.

Once I get the two pieces mounted, I'll weld a piece between them to keep the pieces from racking. Tomorrow I hope to get holes drilled in them and bolt them up so it's ready to weld.

[Chadsquats]

I got the holes in the seat brackets drilled today. I bolted it all up and test rode it around the shop (It's a very large shop and it was raining outside). I really liked the feel and position of the seat.
The fender, however, is a different story. I've never been very pleased with how we planned to mount it to the swingarm. After staring at the back of the bike and walking around it for awhile, though, I came up with a plan that I feel much better about. Unfortunately, it's going to require the ordering of some parts, so there won't be any progress on the fender until at least the end of the week. I'm taking solace in the hope that it's going to be worth the wait.