tt500 build : part 18

With the seat pan finished it's time to move on to padding. I bought this foam camping mat a while back with a seat in mind. It's rubberish and seems like a better match for riding than the closed cell overly dense crap I'm using on the kz440. I want to say it was around $20 but should be enough to make another seat.



A quick spray of some gray paint I had laying around before gluing pieces of the mat down.



Rough cut with a hacksaw blade after gluing 4 layers on. I should have got out the turkey carver instead as it would have done a much cleaner job of things.



Then I used an angle grinder with a somewhat worn sanding disc to do final shaping.







I got a quote from a local upholstery shop to cover it in vinyl, and it's just not budget friendly for the OMS. So, I ordered up some inexpensive diamond quilted black vinyl and some matching material for the sides. I'll post up my crappy attempt when it all gets in.





Also I want to note that I apparently welded the baffle the wrong direction for good flow. It has since been flipped and finish welded in. Just needs scuffed up and a coat of high temp paint.

tt500 build : part 17

I made a baffle and end cap for the exhaust today. Unfortunately I ran out of wire and won't be able to pick up a new spool until Thursday evening. In the meantime I will shift focus to things I can work on without the need for a welder.

Cut slits in tubing and hammer a screwdriver in the middle of the cut.









Ready to weld in.

tt500 build : part 16

I've been dragging my feet figuring out how I wanted to properly finish the shock mounts. Luckily when a project stalls for a while new ideas pop up that eventually make the cut. I decided to cut some of the old mounts up and re-purpose them on the new section.

The outer shell for double shear, and the threaded internal bung.



All trimmed up and ready to tack in place.



Not bad at all.





And the other side. They have since been tacked in place ready to finish weld.



I then moved on to making a headlight bracket. It still needs some trimming, but I couldn't make much more noise for the evening.



Mounted to the tree.







On to the seat pan. I cut out a chunk of a spare fender, and went to doodling making a template for the base.



Then made from metal.



Now with mounts and a cover for the tank mount. Just needs some foam carved out and covered.







I'm going to get all of the finish welding done, and then start putting everything back together. Hopefully it will be rolling down the road in a week or two.

tt500 build : part 15

Motor is back together.



Time to do work on the frame. I got the welds on the loop nice and smooth. Front tank mounts removed.



Lower triangle gussets tacked.



The cb350 tank just wasn't working out how I had hoped, so I found a decent steel early model xt500 to use instead. Unfortunately the mounts are in a slightly different location for the aluminum tank models. The rear tank mount has been moved forward using part of the old bracket and some 2" flat stock.





Front tank mounts were made with these fancy base mount metric nuts. I sleeved them in some 1/2" tubing and tacked to the frame resembling factory mounts.





Tacked in place.







Mounted up it looks like this.





On to the rear fender mounts. The front mounts are rubber bushings from the help section at the auto parts store. They are sitting on 1/2" tubing stubs.





Then a simple flat stock bracket for the rear mount.



The brake light I got a while back fit the profile of the duckbill just right. I welded it to the inside of the fender, just needs a little bracing to make sure it holds up to the vibrations.





The to do list is getting shorter, just need to do some finish welding on brackets and figure out the seat pan. If I keep at it, this will be my Ozark Mountain Scramble ride for next year.

OMS 2015

This will be the 5th year. Should be a real hootenanny. Go to ozarkmountainscramble.com for more details.