78 Zuke GS750 Build, or how I'm spending the winter - Page 5

**Henryinva** · 01-02-2010, 10:47 PM

Drilled some plug weld holes in the frame and the front downtubes. Cut the front downtubes to length. Made a couple of plugs and welded the downtubes in place. For once Im putting something on instead of cutting something off.

**Henryinva** · 01-03-2010, 09:47 PM

Found some 3/8" steel plate, layed them out and machined two rear axle plates today.

**Henryinva** · 01-07-2010, 09:28 AM

Off work for a week, well see if I can get something done!

**Henryinva** · 01-07-2010, 05:15 PM

I trimmed the neck clean and got it ready to go. Cut and fit the backbone and welded it up to the front downtubes. Trimmed the backbone for the neck and tacked the neck in place. Its out there just a tad. Still need to make a cross bar for the front downtubes and a tube from there to the lower neck. If I get time, Ill do that tonight.

JunkyardDog · 01-07-2010, 06:53 PM

Cool. The part I don't understand, and one of the reasons I would not try this myself, is, how do you get everything perfectly straight? I always assumed that professional frame builders used jigs or fixtures of some kind, to make sure everything lined up. Of course, a lot of "custom" frames are also built on assembly lines, including the ones for the boutique brand choppers. Jerry.

**Henryinva** · 01-07-2010, 09:18 PM

Well Jerry, I layout centerlines, string a centerline and have a boatload of levels. You'll note that I havent actually welded the neck in place yet, its just tacked on. When I get the frames hardtail trimmed, fit up and tacked in place, thats when the centerlines are rechecked, leveling redone and the trammels come out. Everything is checked (what seams like 20 times) before I actaully nail the neck and axle plates down. I get a little nervous at that point. Weld a little here, weld a little there, stop and recheck everything. DO that about 20 times before its actually finish welded.

And, if I elect to build another bike, yer right, I will have a jig. But its hard to justify the expense of building a jig for doing a couple of bikes. Storage space is hard to come by in my garage and that is my other prime reason for not have already built my own.

Anyways, welded in the crossbrace and toyed with a lower neck tube. Im not sold on that look just yet.

**Henryinva** · 01-08-2010, 05:31 PM

Earlier I said Id be using the stock swingarm. Today it went back on for the last time. Its serving as my alignment fixture for my rear axle plates. Thats a 4 inch stretch. Ill be fitting my hard tail tubes to those.