ghost wood

Last weekend, Leigh Anne did the flowers for a wedding out in Palm Springs. It was a great excuse for us to make a little extended weekend trip and prepping everything was super fun.

The super awesome couple wanted to incorporate succulents and natural elements into the tables and I was able to help Leigh get the pieces worked out.

She bought a huge box of pieces of ghost wood which looks similar to manzanilla without the full on tree. From there, I took my trust drill and added depth to some of the natural knots and holes in order for her to add soil and re-plant the succulents into the wood.

finished pieces with the holes enlarged/drilled out

Leigh Anne positions them to see which way they sit best

this one didn't need that much extra drilling

one of the finished pieces all mocked up

this guy looked like an alligator of some sort. wood is good.

if you're ever in need of any florals for weddings or events, I encourage you to hit Leigh Anne up. Check out her stuff here and here .

starwars fan and pet owners....watch

this is a must....

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

thank you TJ for sending this to me

a morning with 70moto

to continue my posts that are not about motorcycles, this one is dedicated to Chris's garage. He cleaned it up recently. Added some shelves, found homes for tools, and proudly displays his fullface helmet fetish.

Chris is making some big changes to his panhead. His goals are to make the bike a bit more comfortable, be able to go more than 50 miles before filling up with gas, and having a frame with some proper cast parts. And for it to be blacker than black.

Out with the old

In with the new (old)

Castings....make all the difference

bar/riser tweakage. some custom 70moto bars will go on the ride.

(not) riding a motorcycle

Is it just me or does that bike look miniature? I'm barely 5'10"... jeez!

but this picture isn't about me riding the sportster, its about roads that are right on the coast through leucadia and into carlsbad...

more pictures to come of the day.

the no more motorcycles post

It has been pointed out to me that "all I ever post about is motorcycle stuff" so this week's posts are dedicated to things other than motorcycles. For example, today I am posting some updated pictures of the sportster and .... wait errrr.....

I could have cleaned it before I took the photos, but I just wanted to take a few pics and post them. the rust on the pipes can go away temporarily with a scotch brite pad, but I just didn't do it. The dust could have been removed from the frame, and my finger prints could TOTALLY have been buffed off the tank.

BUT this post isn't about motorcycles. It's about that cinder block wall that I like to shoot pictures in front of. nice wall, isn't it?

I think that one of my favorite parts of this bike right now is this rear pipe support bracket. Started with a piece of flat stainless and cut, bent, and ground away to shape it. It was fun to make. and I believe that everyone had their input and hands on it at some point to help out. It's the little things...but again, this post is totally not about motorcycles.

Room with a view

The view from our room at the ACE in Palm Springs.

cleaned up and prepped

this morning we headed to the shop with some new bins to do some cleaning and organizing. Our area in the back was starting to get a bit messy and we were in need of getting our shit in order. After about 2 hours of dumping parts out of crates, cardboard boxes and buckets, we had given everything that was going to stay a proper home, made a good pile for the swap meet next weekend, AND added to the dumpster's trash collection. Some true chopper gold was tossed into that dumpster.

(I think I saw Chris just toss a few OG panhead cases and maybe a VL springer as well.....who needs that old shit anyway.........just kidding)

after that, Chris started the tear down of Annie's bike to prep the tank and fender for paint and the pipes for Chrome/Nickel plating. Here he is on the current favorite wheel at the shop, the big natural stone. Its like the miracle wheel for cleaning up welds and removing any blueing or discoloration from parts.

unfortunately, it can also be a bear to work with and along with its siamese partner in crime, the polishing wheel has been known to pull parts right out of your hands and send them on a voyage around the room.

shovels heads rockers covers

this shovel project is really getting underway. Picked up the set of rocker covers that morelands swapped for me since one of my original ones was cracked straight thru. Problem was that these were in need of some old chrome remnant removal on one and some major polishing on both. So to work it was.

This is what I started with:

First, headed over to the soft stone to heat up and chip off the chrome pieces that remained. After that, went to the small polishing wheel to get some major scratches worked out:

Then, over to the big polishing wheel to get a good work out and get these things nice and shiny:

After a little bit, I started losing some definition along the top of the covers, so I asked Pat if he could give me a hand with the trusty air tool to go along the corner of the rocker to get that nice edge back:

After that, I then used Kim's trusty drill with the sandpaper wheels to clean up the inside parts of the covers. I took it easy here, just got rid of the years of gross soot that had collected.

Back to the big wheel for some more 'rastlin':

and finally, viola, some nicely polished shovel head rocker covers. These cast parts were pretty pitted so they still have some surface imperfections that will remain. Just part of the 'soul' I guess:

could they have been done better, for sure. I probably could have spent another few hours with them, BUT its all about function. well, looking good and function, but probably still 1) inexpensive, 2)functional, 3)look good, 4)quick (not actual mph speed).

a weekend gone by

and a few pictures to show by it.

Arrival into Venice Beach with Chris and Annie

Best Floral Shop/Designer business name

The backyard firepit

Pepsi offering life lessons

Pete's Studio garage

I 'heart' CVS tagged in the CVS bathroom TP dispensor

Mr. Headbanger's Ball Ricky Rachtman

Rufus

...and Born Free bound

Done. For now. Whew.

Move that coil

Make that bracket from angle iron!

Side view

Last minute

Bracket connected to coil

up-sweep

busy/late one the other night. I stole this picture from Kim's post all about it. Go there, read it. Fueled by an amazing GnR playlist, we got it dialed.

a few things to note:

1. I still need to clean up all the welds on the front pipe.

2. The final angle is also a *bit* off, but dealable for now.

c. The rear pipe, well, I'm super stoked on how this one came out. and it only took about 1/5th of the time as the long front pipe.

4. Big thanks to Chris, Kim, and Pat for helping out big time on this one. I think that my "git 'er e. done as quick as possible" technique is starting to wear thin at the shop, but they know me by now.

f. Pat and Kim's super late night bracket whip up was amazing.

7. and Chris, seriously, huge thanks for the help with all that whacky welding that I had you do.

Kim has a good snapshot of the time it took here: photo strip time lapse

ALSO, check out the amazing pipes that Chris built for Annies bike. ....upsweeps, hmmm....haha.

I'll give more info about the pipes once I finish them up and post more pics.