Rickati Tank

I put a couple of more pictures of the Rickati project on the Flickr page. I've got the seat and fender mounts tacked on. I need to order in some bushings for the swingarm so I can get started on that. I'm still looking for a rear wheel but I think that's going to happen pretty quick. Then it will be footpegs, an exhaust pipe (tubing's on the way) and a gas tank. That, I'm afraid, is going to be the hold up.

I want to make an aluminum tank and have it all polished nicely which means it's going to have to be pretty close to flawless. I've made a lot of things out of aluminum but the flawless part nearly always escapes me. I'd like to have the skill to just dive in and make most anything I want but that takes a lot of practice and determination to get to that level. In order to short-cut the learning curve, I'm thinking about making a low buck die set to shape the tank sides. I need to do a little research yet but I think I could make something serviceable without a huge expense or big blocks of tool steel machined into male and female dies. The die making process might end up taking me as long as it would have knocking the tank out by hand but I could make more tanks if need be and recoup some of my invested time. My busy season is fast approaching with the high mileage car and the Golden Gloves, so time will be at a premium for this project, but I like the idea of an easily produced die set for low production run parts. One way or the other, the bike needs a tank. Stay tuned as I pursue this.