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| Chopper Heaven Club |
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| http//devoted.to/chopperheaven |
| The Story So Far |
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| Thursday 27th June 2002 Nosey though I can be, I guess that this day it REALLY and Seriousley paid off. It was 2:30pm, and I had been working in my kitchen, then for whatever reason, i happened to glance up ad out of the window, what caught my eye, was something i had chased after since i was 12, aPURPLE CHOPPER, i decided to follow the lady who was wheeling it out on two flat tyres, i waited patiently, and hoped and prayed she was about to make a dream come true. she DID, she LEFT IT FOR THE DUSTMEN, so i dashed towards her asked if i could have it and i was granted the bike with her BLESSINGS and FREE OF CHARGE !!! WHO SAID CHRISTMAS DOESNT COME EARLY ?? !!! OK, now i had it, my main concern was wether or not it was stolen, having spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone to the police, i was finally given the all clear, after replacing the receiver it was all i could do to let out a very loud yeeeeehaaaaw of excitement, i had my dream and i hadnt paid a Dime for it ! First thing i did was take it out after inflating the tyres, and boy, can this beast FLY, i was pulled by a copper for SPEEDING IN A 30 MPH ZONE, i was clocked doing 38 miles an hour !!! not hard to imagine if you ever see me ride a bike. |
| Monday July 1st 2002 Having Removed the chain guard i decided that it was time to get on and get it resprayed. Drill in hand, armed with its wire brush, I preceeded to get down an dirty and get it done. Sure enough, ten minutes later, the bare metal shone like a new shilling. Having an understanding partner, will help greatly at this point, if, like me you pre heated your oven to 60 degrees Centigrade, ready to place in the chainguard. Now, at the time, I wasnt thinking and I placed the bare metal guard in the oven, an hour later I removed it, took it outside and sprayed it. To my pleasure, the undercoat was applied and stuck like glue. Having heated up the metal, it meant that the paint was drying almost as soon as it was applied. After a generously thick coat,it again was placed in the oven to bake the paint dry. Again an hour later the guard was removed and another generous coat of primer applied, and returned to oven for 3 hours to harden off, by which time, the paint would be dry enough and the metal warm enough to apply top coat colour. After top coat was applied and had dried off, it was better than factory finnish, flat without any "orange peel" effect on the surface, THE SHINE and FLAWLES finnish was unbeatably BETTER THAN ROLLS ROYCE OR JAGUAR !! |
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| You see, it's like this, im a PERFECTIONIST ! if there is one tiny minute mark, i will strip the part back to bare metal and start again, no matter HOW long or how much money it takes, I MAKE SURE it is done properly, as my father always sais, "BOY, if a job is WORTH doing, its worth doing WELL !". I think i take it a little TOO far at times though, having made the mistake of OVER doing things when restoring my old Posty Cycle (http://www.geocities.com/PashleyPosty) Although, having said that, at a local show I scooped the CONCOURSE shield for best cycle in its class, against 40 others, some, Choppers that had been PROFESSIONALLY painted, chromed, etc etc, then rebuilt. |
| MONDAY JULY 29th 2002 |
| Having offered some help to a fellow club member, I FINALLY established the date of manufacture of my Chopper through the frame number, through the prevailing Conversation. As it turns out, the frame number indicates what most 2 Letter frame numbers do, but in a slightly different way. Now, using the method explained to me for this type of frame number, my CHopper dates as a 1971 transitional period MK 2. By this i mean the period when MK 1's were faded out and MK 2's brought in. |
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