Oil Tank and Kill Switch

Recalled an old petrol tank that I originally donated to mr bobcat and gave it a clean up with the scotch pad



I intend to use it for both the oil bag and electrics holder by compartmenting it to house the electrics.

I picked up this killer button and surround a while back. It's gotta be a kill switch for this bike. I intend to put a kill switch behind it in the compartment. I turned up this holder for it tonight so I can sink it into the tank



And this is the holder I turned up....



I'll weld the holder flush into the tank once I have worked out how to mount the switch and welded it together to a waterproof seal.

Front end done

Shaun lent me some tools to get the forks back together. I didn't realise that you had to use a threaded section to pull the stantions back up to be held with the yokes.

Unfortunately the tool that Shaun lent me had the wrong thread on it, so it wouldnt screw into the ends of the stantions.



I improvised and turned up some nylon to screw into the stantion.



Worked a treat....





Really pleased with how they are looking!

Also made a quick headlight mount...



Had a nice headlight in the stack, had to scotchbrite it to dull down the chrome, and it's looking ace!



The only issue I have is the front wheel spacing. It's very tight between those skinny forks, and with it being a twin leading / trailing shoe (delete as appropriate) this is about the only place it will sit. This obviously doesnt give me the right angle for the torque arm...

Mini Apes - Take 2!

Worked out the forks, with a light shined down the outer tube, there are 2 slits to insert a tool into, which can be twisted to allow the fork to be broken down. I haven't got any tube the right diameter to make up a tool, so will have a look in the week.

A productive, yet wallet lightening morning in Newark today. Got loads of little bits and bibs that I needed for both bikes.

One of my bargains, 3 sets of bars for 8 quid! Got home and had to have a crack at re-making my skinny apes...

Kept it simple by only cutting the middle out, and slugged with 80mm of 16mm steel I turned up.

Checked them in the yokes, and were looking grand!



Flattened them out on the bench prior to welding ( surprising thought how out they were compared to the eye) and en welded them up. Fitted a cheap set of pit bike levers I got at a previous auto jumble, and the biltwell grips I got from sumo. I cut the ends down a bit as they were too wide...

I'm well happy with them!



The pics aren't great, but with a bit more of a clean up, they will be spot on.

Wet weather forces shed time....

Bit of a bummer today, I was supposed to be working on the relic to get it wired and fired up, but it's pissed down all day. This alfresco building ain't all it's cracked up to be!

It did allow me some time on the rotter though.

First up I welded all round the tank, really happy with the weld I got all around.

That just let the petrol tap, I used a bend from a chopped set of handlebars, and the old tap, and made this little neck



I used the old hole for the tap, just widened slightly..



Pretty happy with how it looks...



Next up was the bottom part of the forks, they needed the scotch pad treatment to clean them up..




The spindle on the one leg was about 10mm!!!!!!!!!!!



So I had to drill that out, using the drill bit in the lathe and the tailstock to keep it all straight and level...



I actually drilled it out to 18mm, then turned up a little shim for the inside to take the 15mm spindle...



I mocked up the front end, and it's looking good to me!!!!




Gotta work out how the innards of the forks go together, so I'd better get reading up!

Rotter tank....

Thought I'd have a bit of fun with this old bantam tank I got cheap...


Cut the middle out to get the skinny look i'm after...



Taped it together, then tacked it at rough 2 inch intervals making sure the metal seams lined up as well as possible.




The metal wasn't too bad, so seamed the top up, only 3 blow through's where there was deep rust spots...

I had bent up a tunnel over the handrail the other day on the steps outside my house much to ross's amusement.



Cut trimmed and tacked it in place, and then started welding up the seam...




Had a mockup on the nice bike to se how it fitted...




Fits like a treat!

The Rotter....

Well its bloody raining AGAIN today - so not ideal for wiring the relic. I had a couple of hours spare late on this afternoon, and had a cracking headache, so I decided to get in the shed and do some stuff to sort myself out!

The rotter mark 2 is coming tomorrow, so I thought I'd have a little potter about with bits for that..

Finished the bars off - I made it hard for myself in the way that I did them, and actually found it pretty hard work to get them somewhere near symmetrical. there is a slight rise in one side of the bars compared to the other, so I'll have to see what they are like when I put them on the bike, maybe they can be a template set to make another set from...

 The bars will be narrowed to fit the grips and levers at a later point....



Next up was the top yoke. Normally handlebar clamps are at the back of the yoke to give a pulled back style.




what with my length and the style of bars I'm after I decided it was time for a little modification...



Then started grinding the stumps down




you'll see them more complete later on...

the old forks from the original bike will be used to put on the running bike



I love the fork shrouds, although they were more than a bit tatty, plus I didn't need the headlight mounts...

I'll share you the boring bit, basically I tried nitromores, which only took it back to the red original paint, so I then mounted them in the lathe, and used the angle grinder to take the worst off, then used a scotchbright pad in the die grinder to clean the grinder marks and remnants of paint off..



its not true what they say - you can polish a turd!

Got the pair of them finished and a bit more on the yokes before calling it a night!

The Rotter

Got a nasty old trumpet frame with the bolt on hard tail welded on! I'll probably utilise the hard tail to graft onto the BSA backend. There are a number of mounts that will need to stay, and the bottom frame rail has a kickout on it which will need to be maintained...

Black frame is a spare c11 one...