DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

My son and I are spending long hours stripping paint off old motorcycle parts with Eastwood's Dekote stripper. I think I mentioned earlier that we bought seven little, early '60s Hondas in "basket case" condition.

When I see a fender or tank with old paint or old Bondo, I tell my son use the stripper to take the paint off and then wire brush the Bondo off. He says, "But dad, we have another fender and tank on the red bike over there; we can just replace those junky ones with the red ones."

Not in my book. I don't replace something I can fix with just a little extra work. I paid for seven bikes. One was just a frame. So there are six to build, but only five have the right engine. So my goal is to make FIVE good bikes out of the one frame and the six complete bikes. That will give us one bike for me, one for my son Jesse and three to hopefully sell and get our money back (or even make a little).

If I save every part, I can build five bikes. If I toss parts that need a little work, I can only build four bikes. That extra bike will pay for a lot of the parts we need.

We may have different perspectives, but I'm financing this project. It's true that Jesse is going to "work off" one bike and the parts he needs, but I still bought the bikes. So I think my "old-fashioned" way is going to win.

What do you think?