It's all in the details!

Finally after many cold winter days the temps rose above 45 degrees, which gave me the opportunity I've patiently been waiting for, which was to lay down some paint on the bike. With this, some reflection and history.
Last year during the early spring I was faced with rust on my gauges from allowing my bike to set out in the elements unprotected. Not good and the left over remnants of this carelessness was evident in the form of rust on my gauges and some nuts & bolts. I took the stupid route and decided to just sand the gauges while they were still on the bike, but didn't protect them with a weatherproof clearcoat coating. Unfortunately in my haste, this was a dumb temporary move on my part and only delayed the obvious.
Fast forward to winter 2012/Spring 2013. Again, I was faced with rust on my gauges. Seeking to put this issue to bed once and for all, I decided to seek a permanent solution. After some research on the internet, I sanded the gauges down using aluminum foil and water, which did a pretty good job of eliminating 95% of the rust on the gauges. I also utilized soaking the chrome & aluminum gauge housings in apple cider too over the course of two (2) days to remove the remaining traces of rust. Overall the end result was well worth the effort with 100% removal of all rust. After wiping down the gauge housings I taped off the unaffected chrome surfaces and glass. I then wiped off and potential dust and residual traces of cider & water and allowed to dry for a few hours.
My bike is pewter blue and black and seemed logical to paint the formerly rusted areas in flat black matte paint. I am happy to report that the black paint was a good choice and complimented my existing OEM paint scheme. After laying down 4-5 layers of paint and removing the tape, I was well pleased with the end result. I then followed up the next weekend re-installing the gauges back onto the Vulcan, in addition to putting the Memphis Shades blue and clear windshield back onto my Vulcan.
In closing while I was working on the Vulcan, my son was working on his trail bike in preparation for Spring. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon turning wrenches with my son in the garage on a chilly winter weekend.
Ride on road warrriors!