I like the ignition location and the tiny speedometer. Looking forward to more...

Finally finished stitching and gluing the seat base leather today, the seat BASE is finished now, just got to cut and sew a pad to sit on..

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psjoihtl10.jpg

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psq9a3yqzy.jpg

And here's a pic of the overall stance so far...

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psqa8tp3wm.jpg

Quick question though, the tank has no tap, and it has two tubes coming out of it. I'm presuming one will be a breather pipe to the inside of the tank and the other will be fuel?
I'm prolly gonna swill it round with some fuel to clean it out a little, and I'll take note of which tube the fuel comes out of.. Have you guys seen this type of fuel outlet before? I presume (once again) that I'll just need a simple in line fuel tap with a filter before it?

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psywkx2qp1.jpg

Remarkable! Did you stitch the leather on a machine? I want to learn that skill. Please show us a pic from the side with the seat installed.

I would remove the gas cap and fish a piece of wire up through each tube and see where it comes out. That should tell you if one is a breather, or if one is reserve.

Dave just cleaned his tank by soaking it in vinegar, and I've heard that apple cider vinegar is the most effective. After you rinse it out, be sure to blow out as much air as possible, and then slosh some sort of lubricant around inside the tank to prevent flash rusting.

If both tubes are meant to be fuel lines, the shorter one is reserve. You'd either need two taps and filters, or one switchable inline tap and one filter.

Well.

I never in my wildest dreams have expected a "remarkable" from ANY experienced bike modder! Thanks man!

The stitching was done by hand, but I only had to switch one seam, the one that goes up and over the hump on the front edge. I've never sewn a thing before, and I knew it wasn't going to be neat so I made it a hidden seam, tucked away inside out. Then I glued the whole thing down so there wasn't any stress on my stitching!

The other seams were already there on the cushion in the original design.

I pushed some wire through the tank outlets, but it's such a tiny filler hole, you can't see where they come out, and I couldn't tell what was going on by touch. I'll stick a bit of fuel in and see if it comes out of just one outlet, that should tell me something, (although I'm not entirely sure what!

Here's a pic of the seat unit mounted...

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psnofacl4b.jpg

That's genius. You made the original seams work with your design. That must have taken some careful planning.

Rather than fuel, you may wish to try water. I'd slowly fill the tank until water comes out of one of the tubes, and then plug it. Continue filling until it comes out of the second tube. The water that the first tube flowed out of is reserve. As mentioned before, get the tank as dry as possible after and then slosh some lubricant in it.

Thanks for the profile pic; I really like the shape. I especially like how you relieved the bum stop to accomodate the tail light.

Thanks brother weld,

I can't count the number of hours I've spent just stood in the garage LOOKING at the bike and working stuff out.. It's been quite an exercise!

And thank you for the tip about filling it slowly, that makes perfect sense to me. I'll be doing that next as I want to get her fired up again to make sure all is working as it should be.

What sort of lubricant should I use after swilling the tank out?

Not sure what you have available to you in the UK. I would use liquid WD-40, except that it's rather costly. I think that Varsol is another good option. You might also be able to use acetone, because it will evaporate in seconds in the hot sun. The point is to find something that will displace any remaining water and then be compatible with petrol; Varsol is petroleum-based, so I think it's suitable.

I get the process, and how you have to stare at it, visualize the negative space and imagine how you'd like it to look. You're doing a great job. May we see a profile pic of the tank?

You may indeed!

It's still a bit scraggy, I've a lot of filling and sanding to do yet... Open to suggestions on colour though!

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...pssd79aq5p.jpg

I thought I saw knee indents in the tank before. Did you fill them?

BTW, love your Monty Python avatar!

There was ONE indent on the side you can see, the previous owner had tried making his own indent but not bothered to do the other side... I decided I wanted it non-indented so had to fill the thing level!

(btw it's not monty python, it's noel fielding, he's about three levels more insane than python!

I had to look up Noel Fielding. He lists his primary influence as MP.

With that seat colour, I'd pick either a dark red or a dark blue.

orange is the new black! i d go orange, a hue that goes with the leather.

Funny, the tank was originally orange, and I'd been toying with the idea of blue as well, as a contrast.... Plenty to do before that decision......!

I like orange a lot, but to me, the seat would be lost with an orange background. With a dark blue, the seat would be the focal point.

Micro update.

Finally got round to cleaning the tank out, I just swilled some fuel round with some rocks inside the tank to loosen any loose material. Seemed to work, a few flakes and dirty fuel to throw away, ready for the new tap to go on..

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psq5dzxnti.jpg

And had to bodge a small metal bracket to hang the fuel tap on. Found out which outlet was primary fuel and which one was reserve, then decided to just join the two with a 'y' splitter and use a simple tap instead. Reserve is for wimps!

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...pshrwm4ujt.jpg


Also, I gave up trying to hand stitch my own seat pad after two hours of futile seamstressing in the garage the other night. Found a little old lady upholsterer locally who said she'd do it cheap. And she did!

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psrmnxyarw.jpg

Could have done with a line of stitching around the edge of the whole pad really, not loving the zigzagging effect, I might ask her to do that sometime... Seat looks better with a pad on though...

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...pssp2uzfxl.jpg

So here's how she stands right now. Fuelled and a non starter again for some reason. Must've dislodged some electrics somewhere.. 😕

(what does it mean when fuel drips out of the overflow /breather that exits from the very bottom of the carb? It was dripping for a while when I first put fuel in and while the furl tap was turned on. It would stop dripping if I turned the fuel tap off, but if I turned it on again and tried starting it a few times it stopped. Now it's fine. No drips, but fuel tap left turned on. Odd.)

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psq0num7j7.jpg