Tonight I hit an interesting milestone: the front end of the bike is completely disassembled. I removed it from the frame last week and tonight I got the wheel and tire removed from the front axle, front shocks pulled from the forks, and the brake housings torn down. I should have pressure washed the bike before I started this, but I was worried about damaging it more. So the progress has been filthy.

I think I can save the wheel hubs; they're actually in pretty good shape. I have had no luck finding any replacement wheels, but a these ones are definitely shot. I was really hoping to avoid lacing my own wheels for a few reasons: First, I've never done it before and wheels are a critical component on any vehicle. Second, the outfit that sells the kits is a Taiwanese operation that ships rim and spoke kits as "AWESOME!  EXCELLENT!" I just don't know if I want anyone riding around on wheels assembled from those kids. We'll see.

With tonight's progress, I have two more body parts ready to go out for sandblasting, powder-coating, and paint: the front forks and the fender (once I buy a replacement fender, since this one is beyond repair):

Another new part arrived in the mail today: a set of ignition points to replace the rusted-out points in the bike:

Here are tonight's documentation shots:

While the last post celebrated the first new part involved in this project, this post winces at the first injury resulting from stupidity. I brought the table lift into the garage and was excited to get the bike up in the air. It's still fairly heavy, and while I was loading it onto the table the kickstand folded under and the bike rolled forward, crushing my left index finger between the bike frame and the table. It hurt but will be fine.

Stepping back to do this right, I decided to remove the front end. This cuts the weight by about 25%, and shifts the center of gravity to the rear so that the bike will stand upright with just one wheel and the kickstand. The forks are connected to the neck of the frame with an odd metric nut that requires a spanner wrench to remove. I have very few metric tools, and no spanner wrenches at all. Dad's metal fabrication abilities solved the problem. I sent him some conservative measurements (standard approximations as that was all I had), and he had his metal shop up in Kirkland machine me a part. The credit goes to Willow Bay Manufacturing, Dad's shop. The process of milling a tool out of steel is interesting, and I got this video from Dad today showing how the milling machine runs a small high-speed bit through the metal to carve out the teeth that will remove the nut:

With a large bolt welded to it, any normal crescent wrench can be used to remove this nut from the neck of the bike:

With the help of some penetrating lubricant, the nut came right off. This could have been a lot more expensive than it was (free)! Now that the front end is off, it was easy to get the bike onto the lift and safely strapped down so that it won't go anywhere.

I'm going to completely disassemble the front end next. The brake drum needs to come off and the rotten wheel and tire must be removed form the forks. After that, it's time to pull the engine! Here are the bread crumb photos from this phase...