For a long time, I’ve wondered about how to heat my VW Bus. I can now consider the problem solved. Purchased a wood stove from Riley’s in Townsend, MT. Picked it up in the ‘factory’ from Riley himself. Each stove is serial numbered and hand made in MT, pure American quality.
Next stop, Butte MT. We get to work with the fabrication and retro-fitting with the help of our good friend and carpenter.
One of a kind and good times ahead.
This bike was painted by its previous owner with an unimpressive metallic red paint that with dissolve in gas. Really lame. I taped off a single stripe along the back and sprayed it down with aircraft remover. Scrape, repeat. I’ll leave the steel bare and either rub in some beeswax/oil or let it corrode a bit. Regardless, I think it looks great.
Just before I was going to torque down the top end, I ran into some problems. It seems as though the machine shop that did my valve job fucked me. It’s unbelievable that they would return it to me like this… there’s no way that seat would come close to sealing. Good thing I decided to pull apart the valves and check their work. Always check everyone else’s work, people.
They took the head back and told me they’d replace it promptly. Sucks, the bottom end waits patiently…
Note the upgrade I made to the tenisoner: That’s a Z1000 tesnsioner sprocket and axel from Liska Racing - using some drill bits and patience you can remove the cracked, worn out, hardened stock rubber wheel and install this one. It should outlast any other part of the engine.
I’m really at a point where there isn’t much I can do without being able to get the bike together, with the motor in, to tack together an exhaust system and exhaust mounts. Hopefully I get that head back asap.
The buffer really eats ‘em up when I’m working with small parts.
This is what it looks like when you sell and ship your motorcycle to California. Oh god… I’m feeling a tinge of regret… At least it’s traveling comfortably between two Ducatis.
Took what will probably be the last ride on my ’73 650, following my new ’81.
I wanted to get some more work done on the 160 today. I’ve been hitting random aluminum parts with the buffer during spare moments in the garage, but nothing major. However, today was the first really cold day of the year. Maybe it’s winter now, I don’t know, but it’s fucking cold and I didn’t do a damn thing.
