Starting to look like a bike
Muffler with heat shield
Footpeg
Bike's starting to come together finally. I got the exhaust finished up yesterday. The nut holding the pipe into the cylinder head is kind of rough, though. The nuts were all made from brass with fins ringing the top and unless you had a wrench made for them the standard practice was to tighten them up with a screwdriver and a hammer so you could break the fins off. This one's missing about a third of them so I'll see if I can find a better one. When I worked at the other school we had a CNC mill and I made a couple of them up out of steel. I first turned the OD, built it up with brass, turned and threaded it, then put it in the CNC mill and cut the fins in it. They looked real nice and I machined a wrench up to match the slots and everything. Unfortunately, I didn't save one for myself and I don't have access to a CNC mill anymore. I also don't have a lathe currently that will cut metric threads either so I need to address that issue one of these days soon.
I threw the gear gazer on the engine to see how that looked (that's the shiny thing on top of the motor just under the gas tank.) I made a couple of those up when I had the mill at my disposal and at least I kept one of those for myself. They're really not good for anything other than you can watch the oil splashing around on the bevel gears but they look real cool.
I made up a footpeg mount last weekend to use the original Rickman footpegs and it came out pretty nice but unfortunately, I took one of the pegs off awhile back and now I can't find the darn thing. I made a couple of the aluminum pegs like in the photo a long time back so I think I'll use those and make two new mounts to fit them.
I still need a chain guard, brake stay and some type of piece for the rear brake cable to fit into and, of course, a brake pedal to actuate it. I still need a seat and a couple little brackets but it's moving ahead. I was even eyeballing the Volkswagen the other day. I'd like to hit a couple of licks on that over Christmas vacation. I need to get some rust repair done on the heater channel in order to finish the floor on the one side and I can't do that when the boys are around. Every time I crawl under a vehicle I hear something I can't identify or sounds like mischief and out I come. Oh well, it's not like I never work on my own stuff on company time. Probably wouldn't hurt me to do a little of it on my time.
The construction guys are back in the shop again. I had to move somethings around today so a guy could check out the new heater. Apparently the pulley is the wrong size on the fan and it's running about 50% faster than it's supposed to. It sounds like a jet taking off and it'll damn near knock your hat off in the tool room with the amount of air it puts out. So they'll be back to fix that and they are coming in to paint the trusses they reinforced to hang the platforms on that they didn't hang. The one is right over the top of all the benches and the TIG welder we just moved back about a week ago. I wish they would have kept me in the loop when they were planning all this crap. I would have made a couple of big moves before school was out last year and everything would have been Jake. It is nice and warm in there now though and as Martha says, that's a good thing.
6 comments:
That is looking great, Bro. I like the hardtail chopper thing w/ the shocks! ;-)
Oh, and the footpeg? It'll show up right after you make the new ones. Murphy rules.
To me at least, it looks better in person than in the picture but I'm starting to visualize the finished product - bright red powder coated frame with lots of aluminum shiny bits.
I'm going to make one more sweep of the shop before I commit to the footpegs. But you're right, it'll show up.
do an image search for GOV 132
I had forgotten all about that bike. When I first started kicking this project around, Sammy Miller was the first name that came to mind. The image search turned up several really nice old bikes - some of them just too nice. I just need to keep pushing the rock up the hill. Then maybe this spring, instead of pushing, I can ride up the hill once in a while.
When you said a red frame, I cringed. I had been thinking that your bike looks alot like GOV 132. Keep that in mind. Let the workmanship be the thing that draws peoples eye, not flashy red paint. For this anyway. My $.02
I think Italian, I think red - have to wait and see when I get a little closer to the finish line. The little Harley racer I made a few years back looked pretty good in red.
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