Made some decent progress this weekend thanks to Cory. He was able to correct some of my inaccurate deductions, such as the location of the battery and how the tank mounts. He also sent me a vid of his bike running....it sounds so nice.
First things first, Cory was kind enough to share some of the instagram photos from the walking dead build that I had no idea existed. This actually shows how the tank is mounted. The stock tab is cut off and a new bracket is welded on.
So I welded on some flat stock, you can see there is a big difference in height. According to Cory, the stock tab interferes with the seat being mounted, so it has to go.
New tank bracket welded on
This shot shows you about where the tank tabs in the front lay. I have to wait until my front end is done before welding in the support cups. I need to make sure that the forks clear the tank.
I also got the rear end welded up.
So it looks like I misidentified the location of the battery. What I thought was the battery in the reference photos turned out to be the CDI box. So here is the correct location, the back side of the swing arm.