5. Elbow deep in it.

I dug in, and parts began to fly off the machine. I was elbow deep in the tear down. No matter how long I examined the bike, and no matter from what angle, I came to the conclusion that getting dirty, to dismantle, was the best way to get a grasp of what I was in for.

No matter how small any project starts, it always grows exponentially. This project seems to be no different. As parts went from a complete bike to an empty basket a strange thing happened. When said part was bolted to the complete lot it seemed fine, maybe a bit dirty, but okay. By the time it sat in my hand being turned over and over, it needed to be replaced, or at least refurbished. So different piles formed, replace pile, refurbish pile, the pile of absent parts that needed to be purchased, so on and so forth.

The first off were the bars, they turned out to be Renthal, hard to believe under all of the blue, and purple. Basically all the controls were worse for wear, cables and wires shot, grips in trash can, kill switch dead, throttle rough, front brake gone, clutch useless.

I knew I could refurbish the bars, so off to the shops for sandpaper, shop rags, wire brushes and wheels, rubbing compound, primer and paint. This project is going to be done on the cheap, I could probably challenge anyone to produce as solid and beautiful final product as this on a slimmer budget than I. But, I digress; so off to Helmart for the rags and rubbing compound, Made in China Freight tools for brushes and wheels, Dollar Bush for sandpaper, and Shkunks Auto for the paint.

After doing a bit of research I settled on giving the aluminum bars a sort of anodized look, but with paint. I must say I was a bit skeptical of this stuff, but I went for it, picking up Dupli-Colors METALCAST in smoke color. This was to give a bit of a titanium look, and as I am going for a green and black motif, the smoke seemed like the right color. A rattle can of paint and primer in hand it was time to return to the work shop. Just wait til you see that place.