Help me un-pimp the chopper.

So I got caught up and bought this stupid thing. Never had a rigid, never had a fat tire bike, never even ridden one before the test ride. I love the stupid thing. Its fun and was dirt cheap and I could not even get a rolling chassis for what I paid. For the limited amount of time I get to ride its just about the most fun, even getting coffee is an adventure. 

But its a shop assembled "custom" that has less then a couple hundred miles on it in the last 15 years, it sat in a bar for most of its life as a slot machine prize, then someone got it after they closed down and they rode it just long enough to scrape the exhaust and screw with the tuning to make it sound cool but not run right. I swapped all the fluids, fixed the carb, made a cheap intake, added texture to the pegs so you don;t slip off with a grinder.  I have been trashing around on it for fun over the last two or three days. Every mile the bike gets happier and happier. 

So I own the thing and obviously I can do what I want to it but it does have some value as what it is, a custom bike built in the mid 2000's with all that entails. So custom derby covers and axle plates that have the shop name and the hideous bar name on the tank.  So how do we feel about chopping up the chopper, strip the paint off and do something metal flake, or relic the hell out of what is on there. I feel like its breaking down a old 90's custom billet everything car and making it into a rat rod though. Never going to be real, its not a home built bike, its not a OG Harley its never going to have that sort of soul. Is breaking it down into something I want it to be what should happen or kept as a reminder of what not to do again for other builders.  

So in that vein. 

• Leave it as it is and just keep riding it even though I hate the aesthetics but love the actual riding part as a reminder of how bad the chopper craze was. 
• Strip the paint down to bare metal and ruin a 4-5K custom paint job and start from scratch with something nuts like a metal flake job. 
• Relic the hell out of the bike with all the old parts I have around and have tons of fun stripping the paint down with a sander and making a rat bike. Podwercoating things black when appropriate. 
• Dirt cheap rattle can job over the top of the good paint
• Sticker bomb the thing
• Spend some money and time layout out a good flake job over the tank to hide the bar name and then tie it into the fenders.

Any other ideas, again I like the thing and in the long run if I put a cool ironhead of big twin drivetrain in it I would still be well ahead of the game in terms of fabrication and cost.  

Can you wrap over the nice paint well enough to remove later?

My vote is to keep it as-is for a while and enjoy it.  If it becomes a long-term bike, then I think that plan will become more clear.

Wrap the tank in white vinyl, leave a pack of markers on it at bike night and see what happens.

Failing that. Sticker bomb it. Cheap and easy to deal with down the road if you get tired of it.

johndej said:

Can you wrap over the nice paint well enough to remove later?

Easy enough to wrap, no concave surfaces would only take a day or so in the garage to do the whole bike. Been thinking that or stripping the tanks down to bare metal and then clear coating them best of both worlds at least I can paint it when I know what I want to do. 

Vinyl wrap.  Paint the vinyl.

berkeley it. I am stripping all the paint off tonight and will brush finish the raw metal so it looks cool and seal it. My painter can get to it in anther 8months or so. He says he can do a single color flake job on everything with no pinstripe for about 300$ as a favor then if I provide the materials and they are ready to spray. Likely going to go Aztec or Inca gold with heavy flake in the paint and pearl over that to give it a 70's sot of look. 

May wrap it after a month or two but I cannot stand the flames and the black paint. a

Easy Rider paint, heavy flake american flag motif

So this happened. Painter friend had a look we tried to cut the water slide decals out after we poked around the tank  they were not coming off  we ground down into the bottom of the tank to see if we could determine what it was painted with l. No dice but the pain was laid on thicker then anything we have ever seen.  
 

so yeah now there is no paint on the bike  

That escalated quickly.

I do not understand how this bike fits into your life.

I probably would have bought new tin before trashing what was on the bike. 

Should be interesting to see where this ends up. 

I'd put a candy clear of my favorite color over that bare metal and call it a day.

Those look painful to ride, or is that the mystique of them? 
Is a soft tail conversion in the plans? 
 

I have a softail this is just to screw around with. 

As it sits now mostly. I dyed the logo on the seat black, started blacking out the revtech stamps on the motor and just cleaning stuff up. 

Paint will be this or something close with gold not blue but I like the semi asymmetrical look to it. Months out from doing it but the bike now fits the style I like a bit more then before. 

Gods above, that looks so much better than before.

I like that.

Almost has a Russ Mitchell sort of look.

Interesting looking bike but with all the trails near me I'm a lot happier on a dual sport. 

Massive improvement so far; keep up the good work!