Happy Easter

Old Foto Friday: Chris Kusto's Kustom Triumph

The last Old Foto Friday had a few snaps of Chris' triumph. I've decided to make a mega post about this cool British scoot. Chris did such an awesome job with this bike. To start where I left off here is another shot of the bike before it went through a major change.

The frame received a huge gooseneck and a longer front end. Check out the parts leaning against the wall and hanging from the ceiling. You can just see the old stock tank hanging in the upper right corner.

 Such a great stance!!

As said before Chris must have had a thing for acetylene/marbleized paint jobs. It looks killer.

The bike also went through a green phase and was put in numerous shows. I believe after this it was later sold.

All packed up! Chris took a road trip from Michigan out to NJ to visit my dad. From NJ he headed to south Florida and then back home to Michigan. There's something to be said for taking a 3,000 mile road trip on a bike like that plus riding two up!

 Chris seen here in a photo when he made it to Florida.

Show circuit.

 Its a shame he left this world too soon. The man did some really cool stuff.

Voodoo Child Progress

Lots of progress has been made in the RetroFit Garage lately. We've been moving forward pretty quickly since 47 Mike's Unfinished Bike Show.

The exhaust is going to be entirely seamless so the header clamps had to be bored to slip over the turnouts.

 The old turn outs were only clamped to the stock XS headers. Since we're going with the seamless look, we pie cut the turn outs and pinched them closed to match the XS headers.

 Pictures dont do justice but it gives the pipes a subtle, tapered look.

 For the lower exhaust mounts, we welded some recessed some nuts inside the turnouts and bolted them from behind through old frame mounts.

We also made a new set of highway peg mounts to match the rockers on the springer.  

The model A taillight that originally came with the bike got a bit of a face lift too. We decided to go with a red and amber lens because it matches the original paint really well.

Now for some trick stuff! We scratched our heads for weeks how we would ultimately mount the light and cover the wires and then it hit us. Thanks to an old tank hanging on the wall we permanently borrowed the gas cap... Cant get much cleaner than that!

Then this past week I took a trip to my previous shop in Brooklyn to use the sandblaster on some parts.

 I got all the aluminum covers cleaned up for polishing and blasted the new gas tank. The tank is in great shape, no dents and no holes!

 The stock mounts had to be removed. We're making new frisco style mounts on the backbone. The petcock is getting relocated next.

 Our "Columbia Roadster" chain guard is now mounted. The bike never had a chain guard but we decided it would be better to have one.

 Today was the first time the engine was removed probably since the bike was first chopped.

 We'll be diving into the head next and go through a major clean up.

More to come! Just remember, this bike could be yours!!!

Good tunes for the garage?

I really try to stick to bikes and projects here, but the music you listen to while you're in the shop/garage can be just as important. It sets your mood, it motivates you, it gets the job done, it gets you in a groove and before you know it you set the grinder down and its 3am. You know what I mean... Ive been hooked on these two for the past 48 hours. Spring is damn near here, we're about too loose an hour of sleep and before you know it the suns gonna be setting a 9pm. I'm ready. I'm gone.

Winter has a way

of letting crap pile up... I've been super busy working on the Strange Days bike and my own job, I've had hardly anytime to pay attention to my own scoots. It almost reached 50 degrees today so I dragged the slum goddess out for a quick ride. Ran great then ended up having some idling problems. Either way, I was just too damn happy to be out riding.

 But everything is cleaned up now...

The weekend before Ben took the barge out for a quick run. Surprisingly it fired right up with just a click of that solenoid after being dormant the whole winter. 

  

Doesn't take much to make Ben happy...

Shameless Self-Promotion

I've recently overhauled my portfolio website www.captcalstudios.com and figured I would share. If you need any 3D or graphic design work done give me a shout! More work will be added soon plus some new stuff! The site now has its own blog so you can stay up to date there with new projects.