What are your winter project plans?

[6]

Build, fix, paint, break? Bike, car, truck, home?

What are you guys trying to get done over these bitter cold, dark, days, weeks and months we have coming up?

I'm trying to get a game plan together. I have some ideas, but no concrete plans.

Please go into as much detail as possible about your plans so if there is anything in there that sounds fun, I can try to steal it. . . .

I'm thinking of ways to make the shop seem brighter and more daytime'ey in the dark to make it not feel as dark and wintery in there at night.


Anyone have any cool plans?

[rpcraft]

LED's are the best and easiest way for more light AJ. I thought I went a little nutso in my garage at first but aging is not being friendly to my ability to see in dimly lit places. This set of 8 I got off Amazon were inexpensive and fantastic in the dollar per light category @ 50 USD. I had some far more expensive ones from Home depot I put up initially and at the time I thought there were a lot of light but when I put this up additionally it really made a huge improvement.

here are the lights- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Some photos of how I have them setup in the shop. These are the single bar lights towards the middle. They are super light so they don't really need to be in a stud. I just used moly inserts into the sheetrock and some clips that are made for putting zip ties through and then i put the zip ties around the lights. I was thinking about putting a couple of bars on the garage door and figuring out some contact switch that turns them on when open up to help with what they cover up when open but over the next year probably building another work space in the back yard and the garage will probably just be parking and fiddling with running bikes or whatever I have on the bike lift and what not. I'm kind of out of space right now because of all the estate stuff from my Dad's place, lol.


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[69Falcon]

In no particular order:
Find an F2 upper case and reassemble that motor.
Design a frame for that motor to sit in.
Get the motor running on the bike for your son, finish prepping the tank for paint.
Get the main shutoff valve and pressure regulator to the house water replaced.
Swap the front fender on the backup bike.
Strip and repaint my bike.
Figure out the to do list for Ricks Magna so I can finally get it out of my barn.
Start the renovation of the barn.

[eyhonda]

Lots of plans but not sure how much will get finished.

In no order:
- finish the gas pipe for the new gas wall heater. Going gas this winter. Electric was too costly to run.
- finish re-wiring the Hawk and paint the Fabian tail.
- rebuild and repaint the air compressor pump [350cc v-twin!] This is probably the coolest recent project I started. I'll use copper tubing and stainless hardware. Maybe Cerakote it as I still have some left over.
- replace front panel and fender on Vespa, then complete re-spray. Got a new replacement panel from Italy.
- finish tiling the shop floor.
- machine parts for the store ahead of time rather than to order. Lessens the pressure to make parts as I receive orders. Maybe keep one of each popular part in inventory.

I'll upload pics later. Not working where I'm at now.

I usually chip away at each project a little at a time rather than finish one completely at a time. My character flaw.

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[hawkati]

Firstly, since it's more relevant to this forum, I've slung an Africa twin engine into my hawk to replace the engine I fukkered at cadwell. New coils, cdi & rectifier and a second hand wiring loom. Hoping that'll be good for commuting for a couple of years and occasional trackdays.

Secondly - rebuilding the 996 I spannered at Donington. Serious amount of damage = serious money being spent to make damn sure it's all good and presentable to sell. I'll get an 1198s or possibly a V4s because they're even more stupid.

Part three is the unklefukker. A cbr400 with a 918 blade engine. Almost there as a track bike but needs fettling to make sure I'm getting as much out of the engine as possible with bodged airbox & filters. Then I'll sort lights etc out to make it road legal.

[Yoshihns]

Now to spring for me looks like this:

1. Community garage / shop class program move.
Moving into a bigger, nicer building. Have to move and set up the shop class area for kids by monday night. Then start moving the rest of the garage over. 3D Printing new pegboard tool holders to try and keep everything more organized than the mess it is now. Working on a socket holder set too. Have to have a new lounge set up with the bar ready to go by Friday night for an event. Then I get to be the @sshole and force everyone to follow the new rulebook instead of the chaotic free for all that's been the norm.

2. Get rid of VF500C
Rebuilt the engine. It's been sitting on my workbench for 3 years now or something. Dad just buried my workbench with a bunch of his garbage one day, and I've been pissed off about it ever since that I refused to finish it until he cleaned his mess up. Clearly he hasn't, so I never finished it. Rolling frame in the shed, with the rest of the parts in a bin. Don't care about it anymore. Just want it gone.

3. Benelli Tornado Tre. Should have all the parts in before Christmas, assuming I'm not getting screwed on parts for a second time. Have the task list, just need space to crack on and get it sorted. I've already got it running, so just a matter of all the maintenance that goes with exotic italians, and repairing the fire damage. SUPER EXCITED to finally be getting to this one.

4. VFR track bike. Friend did a bunch of work to get me to a solid starting point. R1 swingarm and forks, with forged Carrozzeria wheels. Custom spacers and shock mount. Basically a rolling frame/engine. Have to sort everything else out. Brakes, clip-ons, controls, rearsets, wiring, tuning. If I find I still have a hole in my pocket after the Benelli, I'm going to try and have cams and heads done by a German shop called GW-racing. Last I checked their big-bore kit, cams, and heads was around $2k, more like $3k after shipping, which is still miles cheaper than what anyone has wanted here. And I know someone who had them do all that, and were getting almost 140hp from their engine.

[frinesi2]

Pajero is leaking so I gotta figure that out. Also want to finish a couple loose ends on it, like making a new high mount LED stop light since the current one is irreparably broken and no longer available. Might do one more trip with it if the 2nd half of November warms up a bit.

Just ordered an electric wall-mounted heater for the garage so I can stock messing around with space heaters and propane. With the ceiling insulated it should get things nice and warm, I hope.

I have a Kawasaki ATV that's going to be stripped down to parts, blasted, painted or powder coated, and put back together. Still deciding how detailed we're going to get with the rebuild (i.e. if it's going to approach the "restoration" territory).

Land Cruiser needs a new muffler.

Every bathroom in the house either needs a new exhaust fan or needs an exhaust fan actually installed. Previous owners cheaped out majorly.

Gotta get my buddy to actually start the restoration on his CB350K.

I'm getting a big 240V compressor from a friend that I'm going to install in the garage loft space and plumb up to hard lines around the shop. Pretty excited for that. I'm also going to have a line go outside so I can fill up tires without opening the door and dragging a compressor out to the cars.

Might mess around with the Hawk EFI if the ATV gets done fast.

[D_alexand]

Like most I have too many projects and not enough time, but my top 3 projects from now through winter ...

1. Install a manual transfer switch to power the house off a generator. If we have another snow storm I'll be ready.

2. Finish my enclosed trailer upgrades. I'm making my 7x12 enclosed trailer a little more family friendly so my wife and son are comfortable at the track. I'm adding lower cabinets with built in fridge, upper cabinets, 3-4 outlets, LED interior lighting, tv, roof vent, a/c, and interior paint.

3. Finish the Hawk. It's still in 1000 pieces, but I'd like to finish it by May 2022 for the AHRMA event at Heartland Motorsports Park.

[wildwhl]

Several winter projects in the works.

First - FJ09 - full service including valves, ECU flash, suspension front and rear, etc.

Second - New Hawk project. Finish the one off subframe, one off spindle mods, excessively lightweight one off bits, and come up with final design concepts.

Third - 2013 A6 3.0T - dual pulley mod (stage 1 ECU/TCU tune in place already), rear sway bar upgrade, few other suspension bits, stealth true subwoofer (<50hz), and new shoes

Fourth - new 6.5" coaxial high efficiency open baffle project with 4x 15" open baffle subwoofers specifically tuned and dialed in for vinyl - and just because I can, I'll go stupid on the CNC router table with them.

Fifth - (which actually comes first) drop another 30 lbs off this flabby fat fucker (that's in addition to the 25 I already dumped) and stay sober for at least 11 more months...

This winter is going to be fan-fucking-tastic.

WW/R

[bk94si]

Only small ones this winter. New silicone hoses, thermostat, and coolant in the VFR. Track down an electrical problem in the BMW Roadster.

[Yoshihns]

eyhonda Good luck getting that front hammered out. Had someone do both of mine, and they did a pretty nice job.

wildwhl Pics of your setup? I'm working on mine in the dumbest way possible. Finishing up my scratch build turntable prototype before I finish drawings and make the final version. Then I'll get to the nice speaker setup.

[wildwhl]

[USER="11196"]
wildwhl Pics of your setup? I'm working on mine in the dumbest way possible. Finishing up my scratch build turntable prototype before I finish drawings and make the final version. Then I'll get to the nice speaker setup.

Nothing to really show yet. I've been following some of the GR-Research stuff lately and it has inspired some ideas...

WW/R

[6]

Lots of plans but not sure how much will get finished.

In no order:
- finish the gas pipe for the new gas wall heater. Going gas this winter. Electric was too costly to run.
- finish re-wiring the Hawk and paint the Fabian tail.
- rebuild and repaint the air compressor pump [350cc v-twin!] This is probably the coolest recent project I started. I'll use copper tubing and stainless hardware. Maybe Cerakote it as I still have some left over.
- replace front panel and fender on Vespa, then complete re-spray. Got a new replacement panel from Italy.
- finish tiling the shop floor.
- machine parts for the store ahead of time rather than to order. Lessens the pressure to make parts as I receive orders. Maybe keep one of each popular part in inventory.

I'll upload pics later. Not working where I'm at now.

I usually chip away at each project a little at a time rather than finish one completely at a time. My character flaw.

20211030_201833.jpg


20211030_201910.jpg
20211101_183943.jpg
20211101_183853.jpg
IMG_20210906_145926_01.jpg

Air compressor pump?

350cc?

Is this one of those "forced induction of the front cylinder by turning the rear cylinder into a straight air pump" things? Or are you building an air compressor?

[6]

P

I have a Kawasaki ATV that's going to be stripped down to parts, blasted, painted or powder coated, and put back together. Still deciding how detailed we're going to get with the rebuild (i.e. if it's going to approach the "restoration" territory).

I'm trying to figure out what ATV Kawi made that could be worthy of a "restoration".

Besides a kx500 (if you want to call that an ATV) I'm at a loss. What is it?

[frinesi2]

I'm trying to figure out what ATV Kawi made that could be worthy of a "restoration".

Besides a kx500 (if you want to call that an ATV) I'm at a loss. What is it?

Lol. It's a Bayou 220. They are unkillable. It just needs some TLC, and I have it, versus any other ATV available which I don't have. It will literally cost me more money to buy any other ATV available that runs and doesn't need a bunch of work than it will cost in parts and paint to get this one ready to last another 30 years.