The Chopper Compendium

Ok so here is my latest project, It's an 83 Honda Shadow VT750C I picked up for $500.00 from a friend of mine.


I know what your thinking....yes that is my living room, I don't currently have a garage to work in and I wanted to get this finished for summer. It worked out pretty well after I got rid of the couch..

Here is what I ended up with for the final layout, I still have some welding to do and the girder will set back a little further after I make another set of trees. The ones on it now won't allow for correct trail and must be changed.

I raked the neck by cutting the downtubes and stretching them out some to get the 40 degree rake that I had planned on. Then I built the trees and mocked up the girder to see where everything was gonna be located.

Here are some additional pics of the build so far.

Looks like some quality work you did there. Nice Job!

Scott

Like that style..Did you sandwhich the plate together?? Welcome by the way!! Love the workshop

Yes, I didn't have any 5/8" material so I used two 1/2" plates welded together. It's a little thick but since it was my first build I figured it would be a little safer. Im debating the final weld up of the girder, I don't know whether to mig it or tig it. I have used mig for many years and just taught myself how to tig a few months ago so i'm a little uneasy with my tig welds.

Metalbender wrote:Yes, I didn't have any 5/8" material so I used two 1/2" plates welded together. It's a little thick but since it was my first build I figured it would be a little safer. Im debating the final weld up of the girder, I don't know whether to mig it or tig it. I have used mig for many years and just taught myself how to tig a few months ago so i'm a little uneasy with my tig welds.

Looking pretty dam good! Tig might be a little neater looking, but go with what is going to be safe. Remember, it's your ass you're dealing with!
Jim

I'm likin the look, real nice.
i agree with stickin to mig if thats what your more comfortable with,
just don't set the drapes on fire.

Welcome to the site, and nice work. I especially like your design on the links.

Thanks everyone for all the kind words, I am currently working on the slugs for the downtubes. My downtubes are factory original 1.25 outside erw tubing, I made some slugs out of 1.25 x .250 wall DOM tubing. This allowed me to be able to turn a step in the slug to match the inside of the erw and be flush with the outside of the tube. Gives a pretty clean look and it's not just a solid slug, I had read somewhere that tubing slugs were stronger than solid so I hope this works out ok.
here is one of the slugs

and here is the other

This end was just round tubing that slug was easy to make

This was the problem child it was not round so I had to get creative.

I first cut a section out where it needed to be dipped in

Flipped the cut out section upside down and tig welded it back in place

and here it is all together with the end

Hello there, welcome to the forum and nice bike build man. I love the honda shadows sweet little bikes, i feel your pain about not haveing a workshop to work in. I also use spare bedrooms in my house to work in since my workshops are way to full to work in, just got use of a friends huge workshop for my project builds so things will be real good this year when the darn cold weather goes away.

Nice approach to the slugs, new method to me. Thinking outta the box with the compressed tubing also...