As always, click on images to see the full-size versions.
Curt Kicklighter and some of his projects
By Rob
This week's newsletter is all about Curt Kicklighter from Villa Rica (that's vill-uh-rick-uh), GA. A good friend and long time customer, Curt has been ordering quality, custom graphics and logos from Tapeworks for almost all his projects over the course of 2 decades now. As an ex-Mechanical Engineer, ex-Suzuki motorcycle dealership owner, Curt has reduced his employee overhead to just himself and has been doing some awesome paint, fab, and restoration work. He has been rescuing some old bikes from the bone yard and performing Kicklighter Engineering magic from the ground up. Along the way he has sent us many emails and pics: RZ500, RZ350, Kawasaki S1, Honda CB750, Bultaco Metralla, Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger.
Curt like rimstripes, too! As one of the original Kickstarter backers of the Stripe-It-All Tool, he has been using the tool to install rimstripes on everything from hubcaps to car wheels to motorcycle wheels.
I think you will thoroughly enjoy reading what Curt has to say and seeing these Kicklighter results!
This is a long email and is only a selection of the 57 photos we've hosted on the full article.
Click here to see the full article
Honda Civic Hubcap
Shortly after receiving one of the first Stripe-It-All tools and a set of rimstripes, Curt sent us this email,
"Playing around with my handy- dandy tool. Took me 60 seconds to stripe this wheel cover."
RZ500
"RZ500's are iconic bikes from the 80's and this one is special- it has the Japanese aluminum frame and all sorts of performance upgrades. When we went through the bike, we had a new tank custom made from aluminum with the oil tank built into it. The customer wanted it painted in the scheme that the last Kenny Roberts factory bike had so we did the best we could considering the bodywork is obviously not factory race stuff. The 4 cyl 2-stroke is
probably the angriest sounding motorcycle engine ever made!
RZ350
"The guy who owned the RZ500 called me and asked if I wanted a RZ350. Well, yes. It was a good running bike, Canadian model with the better brakes, swingarm and suspension. But it was "well-worn". I was just going to ride it but I took the front wheel off to fix a leaking valve stem and it didn't get put back together until it was completely restored. Oh, well, it happens. All the graphics and stripes were custom made by Tapeworks."
CB750
"Barn find with 12K miles on it. It looked better in the pictures than in person. Never could get it to run right, so the engine came out (needed valve guides) and from there it was a street tracker project. Still big and heavy, but fun to ride. Rob duplicated the "750 FOUR" badges in decals for the side covers and the paint scheme idea came from a GT40 race car."
Curt was inspired by this silver and orange Ford GT.
"Here are a few pics of the bike during buildup and finished. It draws attention wherever I take it."
Rimstripes ... of course!
"Put the stripes on the back wheel since it was off the bike... used my lazy susan turntable thing- pretty easy like that."
Rob thought it reminded him of the American Airlines Boeing 707 from back in his youth. Ahhh, the good old days of noise and air pollution!
Kawasaki S1
"The guy told me it was an S2- because it had an old S2 side cover on it but it was really an S1. I should have walked away, but S1's are rare. I still should have walked away. When the exhaust pipes were removed, water poured out. You get the idea. After the rebuild with 1mm over pistons, it is a really good running triple. Not fast, but it sounds great. No way to make the bike original since there was too much rust on everything so I went with a Scrambler style. It was a big hit at Barber last year."
"Runs great, sounds great, I think the carb leaking problem is fixed- I hope! Started at 32:1 for the oil and now down to 40:1. Probably settle at 50:1 later. Still need to fabricate a front fork brace and small fender."
Check out a video of the S1!
2-color rimstripes on this baby. First Curt installed 1/4" rimstripes. Then he re-assembled the tool, swapping out the 1/4" spool for the 1/8", readjusted the bumper to center the 1/8", and installed. We couldn't have done it any better. And it looks wonderful!
"Nice... I'm taking the CB750 and the S1 to Barber this weekend, so maybe I should have brought a few tools to sell. I do get people asking me how I got the stripes on so straight so there is probably business to be had with the café/ACE crowd."
Bultaco Metralla
"This customer has about 20 bikes and 10 of them are Bultacos. The Metralla is a super light 2-Stroke from the 70's and is really fun to ride."
"The bike came out fantastic and the customer was just giddy when he picked it up."
2015 Ford Mustang
"Definitely an impulse purchase because they are really great looking cars. The rimstripes and fender badges were just enough to give the car a factory custom look. Sometimes, less is more. Reflective Red Rimstripes - Day and Night."
 
Click here to order 6017 Reflective Red Rimstripes
2017 Dodge Challenger - Yellow Jacket Yellow
"The Mustang proved to be less than reliable and less than comfortable as a daily driver so she didn't last long. The Challenger is a much bigger car. So big, that the 20in wheels don't even look big enough but the rimstripes really make the black rims pop. Just an 1/8 in stripe is all it needed. I get comments everywhere I go- "are those factory? That looks great!"
Nice work Curt. Thank you for letting us share this with our customers.
To see more of Curt's work, or if you have a bike needing to be rescued, you can contact Curt here:
That's it for this week!
As always, Tapeworks welcomes your photos of your bike or car! Just a couple things - please tell us what your bike is and what you put on it, and send a few high-resolution photos of closeups as well as wide shots of the whole vehicle to [email protected].
And please send us some testimonials! They can be good, bad, indifferent... did we help you beyond your wildest dreams? Did we kick your dog into an abandoned granite quarry? We'd love to hear from you!
Tapeworks Graphics/Stripe-It-All
1-800-232-8273
|
