Done a little spray paint work on the monster. Sprayed the front fork down tubes, rear springs, engine, sissybar, spotlights, front mudguard/fender and fender struts gloss black. Here are one or two photos:
I also clear coated the bullets that decorate some parts of the bike, and stuck a couple of maltese/iron crosses on the fuel tank.
Next job is fitting a set of pannier/saddlebag supports to him – already got them, from the USA as per usual……
Finally….. finally got the headlight unit fitted and connected up – not after a final struggle on it’s part to fek me up though…… 
The 2 LEDs in the top corners are wired arse about face, Black is Positive, White Negative………. feks knows why. In the UK the wiring is Black goes to Negative/Earth. The same for the USA too. I stripped the wiring down twice before wondering if switching the connections around would work. 3 f’in hours!!!
Anyway, he’s almost finished and ready for the road again. I just need to seal around the front clear light lens, to keep the English weather out. Yes I said English – I don’t consider myself British anymore. I’m English!!!!!
The Beast started up ok too – hadn’t run him for a 3 or 4 weeks again, and he caught on the 2nd fire.
Finally finished fabricating the bracket to attach the headlight unit to The Beast. The bracket is made from a single length of steel, which I first partially cut along the seams I wanted it to bend at (using an angle grinder), then bent at right angles in a vice. Then a hole was drilled at each side to facilitate bolting to the headlight, and a larger hole in the centre to allow the whole unit to be bolted to a bracket on the motorcycle.
The photo is of the rear of the unit showing the bracket and the wiring set up. I’ve sealed around all the bulb carriers, and considering doing the same for the 2 LED lights in the corners, and will also seal the front lens the same way. I’ve used a silicone sealant that is resistant to heat so should be fine for use around hot bulbs.
Been working on the new headlight fo The Beast over the last week or so – photos to follow. Finally sorted out the wiring at the back of the shell, and am in the process of fabricating a bracket to afix it to the fork brackets. Need to drill 3 holes and then spray it black. Hopefully going to have The Beast back on the road this week – if the weather holds out. Can’t wait to give him a blast around town etc………
Been working on the new headlight I’m going to use temporarily on The Beast. Sprayed it up black and put on a few coats of clearcoat.
But I thought it could do with something ele to set it off…….
I remembered that I still had the old Vmax stainless steel headlight shroud. I had to flatten it out so I could try it in different configurations, different angles etc – very carefully I might add so I didn’t scratch the newly applied paint. Eventually I decided on the way I wanted it to sit on the plastic cowling – but wasn’t sure what to do with the wings tips – take a look at the photos and you’ll see what I mean.
I’m not sure whether to cut them off entirely or use an accessory to cover them over – such as somekind of light – probably an LED marker light.
I also retained the central old enfield rifle bullet, but augmented it with one set to each side of it on the wings of the shroud.
I’m still awaiting the final piece for the headlight. A low wattage energy efficient main beam bulb. I think I mentioned in an earlier post, that I thought that a halogen bulb of a greater wattage than the 20w supplied might be too much for the plastic lens cover. So I want to be careful and install the low power one before finally putting the whole headlight together for a final asembly
This is the Button LED Marker light that I will be fitting a pair of to the upper left n right corners:
Decided to go with this method of fitting the Tailgunner to the Mac 4 into 1 system. It’s an exhaust expander, comes with 3 different size expander plugs. Just twist the crank using a socket or spanner and it expands and pushes the pipe wall outward, but in parallel, not tapered. This ensures a snug, gas-tight fit. It can also be used to straighten out kinks and dents in the exhaust too:
Ok, I installed the Mac 4 into 1 system yesterday, and I must say, it went on easier than I thought it would. I had initial problems getting the rear downpipes into position, but after trying to duplicate the removal procedure in reverse – eg. slipping them out the side of the motorcycle frame – with no luck, I tried inserting them from underneath the bike which worked far better.
The installation of the front downpipe part of the system was a bit fiddly and entailed positioning and repositioning the system until all the pipes lined up. I then held the front right pipe in position with one nut, whilst moving the system around a little to get one of the rear downpipes inserted. I then supported the whole thing with a couple of bricks so that I could have both hands free to manoeuvre the system around until the front left pipe slipped into place. After securing this with a nut I could then fiddle with the left rear downpipe and get it all ready to tap home with a rubber hammer. It was then just a case of tightening all the nuts up, including the 2 clamps holding the rear downpipes in situ.
All in all it took me about an hour and forty five minutes to complete.
I will now do some work on one of the Tailgunner exhausts to get it ready to install onto the Mac system.
As they are both 2.5″ in diameter at the terminating pipe, I will need to fashion or find an adapter of some kind – or maybe invest in a pipe expander. I’ve found a exhaust specialist on eBay who can manufacture an adapter, but I’m also bidding on a reasonably priced pipe expander too. My thoughts being to expand the outlet pipe from the Tailgunner to fit over the exit pipe on the Mac system. That way I will be able to easily swap the “legal” muffler with the Tailgunner when The Beast needs to go for his MOT.
Done the rear downpipes today. Didn’t really feel up to it, but needed doing. So they’ve been wrapped, tied, trimmed and sprayed up…
The exhaust has now been sprayed up and the wrap ties trimmed. So it’s all ready to install on The Beast…..
Also, the rear downpipes have arrived from the USA. Parcelforce actually ran a Saturday delivery to catch up with the back-log of parcels accumulated due to the recent bad weather conditions. These are from an actual 1984 Honda Magna V65 and because they are from the USA, there is no corrosion. I also think they are off a low mileage bike.
Will try and get them wrapped in exhaust bandage and sprayed up today….
I’ve managed to wrap the exhaust, and spray it with high temperature paint. I originally bought wrap ties off eBay, but then found that my local car spares place had some – admittedly more expensive, but at least I could get on with wrapping the exhaust.
Took me 3 goes to finish it completely including spraying it, so all told it took me about 4 hours. I then left it for the paint to dry thoroughly. This is what it looked like after it had dried off:
and then today I’ve cut the ties down so they aren’t getting everywhere. So it now looks like this:
All I’m waiting for now is the rear downpipes that I’ve orderd from the USA then I can wrap n spray them, and then install the compete system to The Beast……
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