Mr Tiki Bars wild ride

So, Mr Tiki Bar made it down to Westport WA for the CWC and was used as our chapters 'display table'. He was gingerly loaded into a truck, strapped down tight and arrived without a scratch. I was really happy to see him there and seems he was happy too. Then, he managed to end up in Bellevue, then in Everett, before he finally decided to come home. I really need to get those red 'rope lights' behind the head to light him up. A lot of people were really impressed by the combination of rusted and polished steel, the fiddleback maple top, the vintage beer labels, pinup playing cards, flying boat pictures and the PBR ad varnished onto the wood.

Clean Water Classic

So, I've been preoccupied because I've been hanging out with our local Surfrider Chapter here in The Ham. We volunteered at the Clean Water Classic surf contest in Westport, all the chapters did, include the Vancouver Island chapter. We had stellar weather and I got SO sunburnt holding one of the 'timing flags' for the Saturday series. Yeah, that's me holding the green flag. I scored a great deal on a used Quiksilver wetsuit. sixty bucks, nice 4/3 and it worked great. It was really nice to be back in the water, even though it was WAY colder than the water in Maui. 58 degrees, encased in neoprene, paddling out in nasty brown/green water really made me wonder 'WHAT am I doing in here'. Huge change from surf shorts, 78 degree blue water in Maui. once I paddled out though, it was good. Even caught a few waves, but got really worked.

Long time no blog...

So, been busy lately with non-related artsy stuff. Picked up a new toy - actually a guilty pleasure since I haven't owned a car in quite a few years (the Freaky Tiki was an exception). Found a nice little Subaru Impreza RS, slightly used but still nice. Not sure why I'm blogging about this, but still. I was finally able to use another one of my Maui Built stickers and it's perfect. I used the black diecut "Slow Down, this ain't the mainland" on the rear bumper. Works nice with the silver, tinted windows and black interior. Sure is a fun little car.

Another art piece

So, these past few weeks Kharma has thrown some really nasty poo piles at me. My application to grad school was rejected, found out I was essentially 'hung out to dry' by the faculty person I had been working with since August, two cars that I was seriously interested in purchasing we sold while I was testing driving them, my Yoga instructor is moving, ugh.....

The Dalai Lama was just in the Seattle area and my little brother along with two other people I know (one my Yoga instructor) went to see him. I told the other friend about my grad school issue and she says 'the Dalai says to spin around 21 times'. So, later that afternoon, I spun around in my office 21 times. At about spin 16 I was thinking 'this is dumb and I'm getting dizzy'. Then it occurred to me that I knew 3 people that saw the Dalai, and 3 into 21 is......using higher math....SEVEN!!! Hhhmmm?!?! Isn't 7 a lucky number?? Sure as heck is......

And that is what inspired this interpretation of a Lotus flower and a heart on the ground aluminum panel. I finally used the metallic purple and thought the red heart fit well into the bottom of the flower.

The Cycloptopus

Used some leftover aluminum from welding class for this one. I showed some of the 'scratched' aluminum panels before with the Testor's modeling candy red paint. I tore painters tape and then sprayer white over that, the tape peeling back and showing the 'torn' effect as well. The cycloptopus is just a taken on the Simpson's alien characters, because I like them. The Simpson's too.

Not sure who I'll give this too, some unsuspecting character I'm sure.

"Salsa del Diablo" dispenser

Well, finished up the gold leafing and striping this weekend. Turned out pretty good and hopefully Mari Kemper will let it be displayed at the Chuckanut Brewery here in Bellingham, WA. It's slated to open on Memorial Day weekend, fingers crossed. It's hard to see the 'process blue' stripes outlining the flames, but it's the same paint scheme as the hot rod wheelbarrow I did last fall. The gold leafing is red tiger verigated and looks pretty good with the black outlines.

Mixed Media

No, not watching TV and listening to the radio!!! Using the other piece of Fiddleback Maple and a plasma cutout of the Texas Longhorn. Found the metal at welding class, someone actually threw it out!!! So, I ground the sharp edges down, salt sprayed it, and let it rust a bit more. Then used some gorilla glue to adhere the steel to the wood. This is a gift for a friends 40th birthday.

I hope she likes it.

Salsa del Diablo dispenser

Well, a new brewpub is opening here in Bellingham, the Chuckanut Brewery Mari and Will Kemper. I've been working with them on a sign idea, but was able to pick up this old fire extinguisher from their site. They're doing a HUGE remodel in our Old Town District. I emptied it, sanded it down, primer and put the base layer of flame colors on it. I'm going to do the flame outline with fine line tape, the spray it with black, and then do blue pins, just like the wheelbarrow several posts ago. Then I'm going to use the red tiger verigated goldleaf for "Salsa del Diablo" along the bottom. We'll see if Mari might hang it in the pub area of the brewery. I think she will.

Piston Install Update

Well, she's all buttoned up and running like a scalded cat!!

Lessons learned - two extra hands are nice to have around, four extra hands aren't. You only need a little tiny bit of Ducati bond on the mating surfaces, you don't want to clog any oil passages. I didn't, but I think I'm lucky. Ground the ECU and the PC3 on the alum/metal plate under the ECU. Patience is a good thing. Coors and Girl Scout cookies are a handy snack when you get frustrated. JD, Dan Kyle and David are Ducati Seattle were fantastic with Q and A's. The Bearded Wonder - Marty - at Ducati Seattle spent MORE than enough time talking with my and making my custom map on their dynometer. We ended up with 75bhp and 56ft/lb (with a 13 AFR). For those of you that care, add 10% for comparable numbers on a Dynojet dynometer. Marty said I'm running 190lbs of compression, which is kind of high for a street motor, typically these 2v motors are running about 145-160lbs. I've never ever felt the bike act like this and she's a screaming beast. I can't believe how fast she spools up and I can't imagine this bike with a lightweight flywheel and some lightweight wheels.

These are all shots of Ducati Seattle's new dyno room in a secret back alley underground bunker location. Marty treated her to a firm but gentle flogging while he created a custom map for the Power Commander. I will NEVER EVER go to the dealership that's 25 minutes away from me. I'll ride/trailer my bike the 1.5 hours to Seattle to David/Marty and work her over.

Now for some pics.

New 'art' piece

Had this piece of 'fiddle back' Maple from my tiki bar laying around. Sanded it down, few layers of polyurethane and the grain really pops. I think having the 'live edge' still intact really lends to the earthy feel. Anyway, I had a great day snowboarding with a friend at Mt Baker, came home, picked up the new issue of SURFER magazine, and found a drawing that inspired this design. A few hours later here's the finished piece. I plan to give it to a friend for her birthday. Although I'm really tempted to keep it. I've never really done anything like this, but I'm sure there's more where this came from.

Monster of the time cont'd.....

Then a new gasket and some Ducati bond and we're back on the way to reassembly. Everything was hooked back the way it was, no extra parts left over, but son-of-a-gun she would turn over or start. Long story short, we needed to have the ECU grounded (thanks to David at Ducati Seattle for taking that call) as well as the Power Commander module (thanks to Dan Kyle at Kyle Racing for helping with that one too). Lesson learned here, remember what wires hook back up to what and understand what it means for something to actually be GROUNDED!!!

Now she's running and I've heat cycled her twice. Weather is still crap here in the PNW, but I'm anxious to get her out for a ride. Hopefully down to Ducati Seattle and let Marty have his way with her on the dyno!!

I'm hoping to get about 10bhp and 5-6ft/lbs of torque increase. Which would really make for a some rides. It was previously dyno'd with 73 and 56, so......fingers crossed.

Monster of a time....

Had the opportunity to pick up some high compression pistons for my Ducati Monster from JD at Hord Power in Ohio. Solid Midwestern guy that was patient and answered a TON of questions. These pistons would give my little baby a bit more OOMMPHH. Scary thing it was going to require me to completely disassemble the motor. I can barely even get my lawnmower to start, so what am I even thinking about doing with my bike?? Well, one thing lead to another and my friends Denny (Dr Speed on Truckblog) and Matt decided that it was a good thing to pull the bike apart. So, off came the seat, tank, battery box, airbox, throttle bodies, heads and cylinders.

While the heads here off I thought it would be a good idea to clean all the carbon build up after 24K miles. They were pretty gunky, so I VERY gently scraped the stuff off and used a scotchbrite pad and some 2000 grit wet/dry paper to really smooth things out.

21 gears to 1 gear - Part Duex

After about two hours of masking and watching Storm Chasers on Discovery, the singlespeed conversion was ready for some metallic purple paint. It's always amazing how long it takes to mask and how little it takes to spray. Labor of love this one is.

After the tape came off I did a bit more wetsanding to knock the edge down on the paint, then sprayed the whole thing with clear. Like on my friend's bike, I left the nicks and scratches in the original paint so the bike would still be weathered. Then added some sublime green stripes around the metallic purple. This was really hard as the tubing is just so darn small. Even with a Mack brush cut down to about 000 it was still hard to hold a consistent line. I tried my scrolling brushes too, and it seemed to work ok. This was again, another great learning experience.

Time to ship it out!!!

First real ride of the season.......

Got the Duc out with two other boys today. Matt on his Triumph T-Bird Sport (fresh fork rework and carb tune - she moves now and sounds like a P-51 Mustang) and Scott on this new Yamaha R6s. It was a bit cold, Chuckanut was PACKED, but we still have a great time just being able to ride. Hoping the weather finally breaks for us. 40 degrees and raining just isn't cutting it anymore. The Duc is running great, but I need to get her down to Ducati Seattle and have Marty tune her up on the dyno. Just ordered some high compression pistons and am anxious to get those installed. I think I'm ready to pull the trigger for a set of lighter wheels and front rotors. Once "Angelina" (named after the Louis Prima song - not Brads wife) she'll be the hottest thing on two wheels.

Man I just love this bike.

Birdbath Stand and candy panels - update

One of the birdbath stands is finished and ready for delivery. The semigloss paint helps bring out the backtwisting to the square steel, but should detract from the rhubarb leaf 'bath'. I think it came out nearly as good as powdercoating, but powdercoating adds a softness to the pieces because of the baked on layer.

Those red panels are 'testers' for a sign idea for a new brewery coming online. I followed an idea in one of my striping books about texturing aluminum and clearing over it with candy paint. I bought some Testors model paint in candy red and sprayed it over the freshly ground aluminum panels I had laying around. The texturing is pretty cool. I'll be adding some white pinstripe designs to this soon.

Striped a panel the other day with polar white, have one in gold too, but no pictures yet. The second birdbath is done too, and delivered.