Stator in and Frame out for Paint

The new stator and CDI shipped quickly, and as soon as I had them, I began installing them in the bike. Now an expert with the engine, having had it appart and cleaned, this went quickly.  The only trouble I got into was my decision to liberally grease each new stainless steel bolt before replacing it. This was a blunder I would only experience later on.

It was now time to begin putting things back together. since I had the bike basically down to the frame, I decided to go the distance and stripp it all the way down.  I took the frame to a powder coating facility in Oakland, who did the full stripp and powder for $80, it would have been more expensive, but I supplied my own powder.  When I picked up the frame it was a beautiful Settlers Gold, and the company did an amazing job evenly coating it and masking off the important parts.  

I decided to do the fancy work myself, ad took off the fenders and tank, then sand blasted them down at Tech Shop.  The old paint came off easily, and I quickly had raw metal to work with.  Paranoid about letting rust get in there, I tried to do the whole job in one day.  I cut the fenders down to get a little more agressive look, and taped them off with some green heat resistant tape.

In the spray booth, I then liberally applied a coat of white powder, then off to the oven to bake.  With the white on, and the piece still warm, I reverse taped what I had done and sprayed on a glossy cream.  

My first attempt didn't work well, as a good amount of the powder bled into the surrounding white, but my second attempt I was more diligent with my application and it went on smoothly.

In retrospect, it would have been significantly easier to just powder the whole thing white and spray on the detailing.  This method was far more labor-intense and having tried this subsequently, the difference is not noticeable.