Stripped

The next step was to take everything off the frame and have it sandblasted. This will show any damage that might have been covered over by bog/bondo and would show up any cracks in the welding.

I had it sandblasted down at Harleys Sandblasting in Sunshine.

It came up well and showed no signs of stress or cracks, just a gallon or two of body filler blasted off to reveal some good solid welding on a well built frame.

The workshop is starting to take better shape as well. The bike in the foreground is a Victory Hammer "S" that the Victory had loaned me for a few days. This bike is incredible, goes hard, stops great and attracts attention wherever it goes.

Harley Riders hate it.

What exactly do I have here.

After I got it back to the shed, it went up on the stand to see how it lloked, how the rake and stretch looked, how the parts that had fitted, what condition they were all in. The motor aside, the the frame was in good condition, as in it wasnt dented or bent or it didnt seem to be any way.

I took some pictures of it and sent them Jim Brownlee, who ran Sonic choppers in the 70's and asked him if it was indeed one of his bikes. It had the frame number stamped in the steering head. He certainly did remember it. He still has the paperwork for it!!

He built 150 frames for Honda 4's over the years that Sonic was active.

The wheels had a lot of rust and would be rebuilt, the front forkes had plenty of rust and needed repalceing and all the chrome as blistering, the motor didnt turn over and the paint job was shot.

no doubts about it, the whole bike was a basket case and need to be completely stripped.

next,

The bike was in pretty ordinary shape when I picked it up. It was rusty, dusty and lots of parts where missing.

The seller, Johnny Pap, pictured, was reluctant to let it go, but he had owned it for several years and it was gathering too much dust and it was time to cash up. He didnt know if the motor ran and had lost track of the former owner and didnt know where the rest of the parts where.

It was obvious that a full rebuild was in order, not just bolt it all back together, but strip it down to the last nut and bolt and start again.

The SONIC number plate wasnt a part of the deal. Johhny Pap, the seller, thought that it might be worth a lot of money one day, so he kept it. I didnt care either way, I had a new chopper project.

Some people questioned the choice of a Honda 4 chopper. I had a Harley Davidson FLHX Street Glide at the time and most people thought I would have gone for a Harley chopper.

99 percent of people building choppers at the time where building Harleys and I was able to choose the Honda and not be a part of the Harley pattern.

Besides, I loved the old Honda K4 when I had it and I was looking forward to putting my stamp on this new bike.
This isnt the first bike I'd chopped. Back in 1980 - 82, I built a chopper out of my Kawasaki 900 Z1B.

That was another great bike, and maybe another blog some time down the track.

Here is a pic of that Kawasaki 900

The blog starts

I had the thought that I would start a blog, to show some kind of time line for the build of my Honda Chopper. This will be limited to the amount of time I have to keep the blog updated and the amount of work that I can get done to the chopper that will, actually count as work done.



This a picture of the bike when I bought it on April 17th 2008. it was advertised on ebay but the guy who had it at the time, wanted more than anybody wanted to pay. I eventually negotiated him down to $2,500. It was an old Sonic Choppers bike, built using a 1974 K4 SOHC Honda Four.

I had actually owned a K4 back in the old days, it was my second road bike, after a Yamaha XS 500 8 valve twin.

The old Honda was a pretty good bike but came to an end when my mate at the time Phil Smith, came a gutzer on and it was sold to the Brisbane wreckers for a $100. Phil, who was pissed at the time, actually crashed it into a car driven by his next door neighbor. His wife Linda, just happened to be in the car at the same time. Phil and the bike ended up stuck under the car. I forget exactly how it happened, it was 30 odd years ago. Phil was pretty badly damaged and had steel pins in one leg. I havent seen him since then.