When I first saw this bike on craigslist, it wasn't much to look at, all the exterior had been stripped, but the motor was all there and it had a title for $130 so it was a perfect candidate for some moderate changes.
I did some sketches and started hanging bits of metal off of it to see what was possible. I've recently fell in love with the mad max, rat rod/bike look and wanted to try my hand. But first I had to make sure it would run as it had been sitting for some time.
This is what it looked like when I drug it home. Someone made a custom intake manifold and put an old Rochester carb from out of the 50's on it, but none of the cabling had been made. The starter was frozen. Exhaust plugged, speedo and tachometer missing, dash cluster damaged and some of the wiring harness was missing, fuel pump was made unusable. On these bikes the tank is below the seat, so a fuel pump is necessary.
I was able to get it to fire up on the Rochester after fixing the starter, but that carb relies on long pulls to properly atomize fuel, instead of the short pull these cylinders could do; so gas was just dumping down the intake. found a carb set from a wrecking yard in Oregon, they stated it was laying in the dirt and would need rebuilt. I carefully took it apart and cleaned it up the best I could until the rebuild kit came in. This worked fairly well and I was able to drive in our neighborhood to test it out (got some puzzled looks, but I think my neighbors are used to me by now).
Since this was a good contended now was to start the mockup. I have a pile of old headlight buckets, this one might have been from a early 1940's 2ton Ford truck. had to make a new inner ring to hold the LED light in place. this would be the area to hold the custom computer and some of the wiring harness later.
1954 Buick tail lights, 1936 Ford spare tire carrier and Model A rear axel bearings (muffler bearings -visual joke)
first cut down of the stock seat.
much better
Star trek anyone?
better with license plate holder
Those cow horn handle bars have got to go.
Mezzetta hot chili peppers for the over flow jar.
Hover cycle?
Sitting on new rubber
Fake tank tin getting formed
turn signals, why not.
It works, not completely happy with the signals. And yes those are the stock lenses for an 83 Goldwing
Access to the gas tank opening I guess is kinda important
Side skirts formed on the plenishing hammer. I left it kinda ruff as the look I'm going for. Also you can see the begging of the radiator cowl. Those are 1954/55 Buick fresh air intake vents.
coming together nicely.
The fins are for the radiator cowl are an old PC case cut up and formed.
Experiments in making Rust. try this: Vinegar, salt, and hydrogen peroxide, spray or let the metal soak, rince lightly and spray with Krylon's rust converter primer, it has a nice look.
into primer.
Writing the code for the Arduino mini computer that will control the turn signals and break lights. this had to be custom because there is no middle break light or a control switch that can handle the break cutout like a car does. As a bonus I added some code to quick flash the break lights 10 times when the break is first applied to get the attention any drivers behind me.
Put a ton of layers of paint on and wet sand it down to get the old rubbed/wore look that I like.
The shield above the headlight was added to protect the gauges and lights, kinda looks like a skull
I've driven this bike now for almost a year (minus winter) to get the remainder of the bugs out before putting it up for sale. This next weekend it will go to car show (Union Gap, Fullbright park, 4/22) for the old steel car show. Asking $5,000. I'll keep bringing it to different shows (central Washington) until it sells.
I got more projects lined up and this needs to go, and this one has gotten too reliable for my taste. My exact comment to one of my best friends about a week after it was on the road was: "well now I'm board with it."
If anyone is interested in the electrical diagram and code for the Arduino computer, let me know and I'll make a post.
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