The tail piece is fabricated out of steel sheet. First card stock patterns were cut to lay it out on the sheet steel. I then made a run to my bud Jim at Marquise Auto Restorations to use the shear and box and pan break. The seat pan was done in one piece and the round tail, in two. One hour and the two tail sections were shaped on the english wheel, trimmed and ready to be tacked together. The seat pan was pretty much done on the break, I just needed to tack and weld the cuts. A hump had to be put in the front of the pan for some clearance for the frame, visible just behind the tank. Next the round tail and the seat pan were tacked in place and final welding was done. As a finishing touch, I ran the lower edge through a Pexto bead roller to stiffen the assembly and define the bottom of the tailpiece.
I wanted to slam the pan as low as I could against the frame, following the contour of the frame. So far Im ok with how it looks. Its coming together as a "look" with the modified tank. Right now I have an 18 inch rear wheel temporarily on there to make it a roller, and my brother says I gotta keep it. The CM400 had a 16 inch rear wheel which does look stupid in this case. so I will probably stick with the 18 inch rear. Tail lights are always in issue/decision with a cafe bike. Im really not sure what I'm going to do with this one. Possibly a little 2" red dot in a sheet metal cone contoured into the hump. but the hump has a beauty left naked. That's for a later day.
