Manx Club

Other than teaching my 15 year-old son to drive, I haven't done anything to the Sportster since I bought it. Today, I power washed it, cleaned the canvas top, rubbed out about half of the oxidation, and tried to shine up the existing patina in hopes of making it at least a little shiny.   I sent out some stock five-lug rims last week to Pico Wheel . . they'll widen the fronts to 6" and the rears to 8" then powder coat them white.  I wanted to use General Grabber AT2's all around, but, while the fronts (205/75R15) are in stock, the rear (30x9.5x15LT) ones are on back order everywhere!  So, I may have to use BF Goodrich TA Radials instead.   I also bought some stock '64 bug seats that I'm going to rebuild and recover in dark brown vinyl next week.   That's about the extent of the modifications I'm going to have done before taking it to Mammoth.   Eventually, I'll paint it a vintage VW color, either Dove Blue or Agave Green, I just can't decide which one.  Here's some pics!

This is how it looked when I bought it in May of this year


Once I took off the tire cover, I found the original EMPI orange color on the spare rim.


I thought this was pretty cool - the original Denman spare tire





Here's the seats I'm recovering - Waiting for the upholstery kit from TMI



Here's just some pics of the somewhat buffed out paint . . I still have a lot of work to do here!





I've taken out the fiberglass bucket seats it came with - I think the stock seats will be better loooking (And, I might even fit in them!)

Looking good Scott.

Luv that SurePop spare tire. What do you think maybe at least 30 years old?

I see it has the 59 and earlier gas tank. Is the reserve fuel tap still on the bottom of it?

How loud is that cop calling stereo exhaust system?

VW seats are comfortable. Only problem I know using them is bouncing up and down while off roading your shirt will ball up on your back.

Hey Joseph!  Yeah, the tire is really cracked and has to be over 30.   Funny you should ask about the reserve tap, I crawled around underneath it today just to find that out.  Unfortunately, there isn't one there anymore, but I could easily add one and have the kick bar come out inbetween the front seats.  Actually, the exhaust isn't all that loud, and because of the pancake engine, I don't think there's any other exhaust configuration that will work.  I'm going to use the stock seats for now, but will probably switch over to the PRP or RaceTrim lowback seats next year.

See you in Mammoth Joseph!

will see you there