The Dirty Rotter update #3

Picked up the frame and forks I scored on Ebay - non essential, but for the money they were bloody great. there was also engine plates in the deal too.

I was surprised to have a crudely enamel painted frame the one in the picture was all shiny - think the guy had nicked that pic from somewhere else! thought about telling him to do one, but for £30 it wasn't worth leaving it behind and causing a fuss.

I couldn't resist trying it out with the front wheel I got cheap from Steve. Its gonna need some frame mods and stretching out to fit my stupid size, but the beginnings of a cool little project.




Also a massive thanks to CC for the donor gearbox! I owe you some beer in the hayride sir!

The Dirty Rotter update #2

Right before I get shot down I know I have the relic to finish, and will do before I start this, but:-

IVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!!!

spotted someone having a neb at a thread QM started a while back - http://www.dirtybobbers.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1002.0 

and this is the bike!
 

that bike is absolutely awesome! a few bits I done like - mainly the bling factor and forks - but as a basic muse I think ive got a good idea of where the rotter is going!

scored a spare frame and forks for it on ebay last night for £63 including the engine plates (have to add that the the spreadsheet!!) so its not like its a massive expense to play about with!

Tank Design

I've mainly been discussing all the fabrication and mechanical sides of the bike on here to date, as you guys can guess i like doing all the arty bits too....

I've been thinking ahead to tank painting, and what I'll do about painting it. I decided that I would design some lettering for the tank. The original plan was to silver leaf (or palladium as Scarlett told me I would need to use) on the tank with a painted on outline...

I got a bit arty and hacked out a sketch of something for the tank with a bit of detailing - you all know how i like to challenge myself!!!



This was the basic sketch I put together. I decided that I had to attempt to learn to use illustrator to draw up the lettering in "good" for use on the tank. Scarlett was great in helping me get on my feet with the program, funnily enough in one of my emails to Scarlett i said the reason I didn't have any tattoo's is because I'm fickle and change my mind on things.

True to form half way through drawing up the design I realised I'm not Hispanic - and decided I hated the graphics I had drawn!!! 


I would love to pass on some words of wisdom to help prevent this - but its a Marmite situation - you'll draw something and either love it or hate it!

Plenty more scribbling later and I had found a new design I liked enough to draw up in illustrator!



I didn't actually find it too hard to use - although I have annoyed the hell out of Scarlett the past couple of days on how to do certain things! (Sorry Scarlett!!!)

Feeling pretty happy with myself I sent it over to Scarlett to have a look at for me. a lovely response but in the nicest possible way Scarlett pointed out it would look good on one side of the tank, but look crap on the other side!!! (would look better on the left side of the tank)

with a bit more computer trickery as advised i was able to swap it around to make a pair of images that were similar, but obviously not the same!



Pretty please with the outcome...

HOLD ON - not finished yet!!!

Scarlett quite rightly pointed out that although they looked right, did they actually reflect the shape of the tank?!? (couldn't open the image from you Scarlett) I did a mock-up of how the graphic would look.....



As Scarlett had quite rightly pointed out, the graphics would not work with the shape of the tank,  the upper scrolls would disappear over the top of the tank, and basically look a bit crap!

I'll be sticking to the same sort of theme, but will now need to refine the design to fit the tank shape. oh and due to the fine lines the silver leaf is out the window in favour of 1shot enamel - colours yet to be decided!

Engine Rebuilt Part 2

Hunted high and low for all the boxes of bits that came with the engines and took what I thought I needed over to Toddy's yesterday.

First job of the day was to take the valves out - hadn't done this before either - so watched Toddy take them out with the valve spring compressor. The valves had quite a lot of crap on them so it was definitely needed.

First top tip - write down what valves came from what side and put them on a piece of paper..


The valves needed a clean up - so they were put in a drill and cleaned up, making sure I didn't scrape or emery paper the lip that seals the valve off..




It was amazing the difference between the inlet and exhaust valves, the crap on the exhaust ones was pretty thick. 

While we were doing this we noticed some fins that had been broken that I hadn't seen on the head:-



I nipped off to get some food, and when I came back Toddy had already run a seam of weld on the bottom longer fin which had been cracked:-



Then with some grinding back of the damaged areas Toddy rapidly welded up the fins to get some fins back. I was amazed how fast he did this!!!



Little more welding



Must have forgotten to take a picture of it done and ground back, but it looks brilliant!


Next up was to grind the valves in the head - individually the valves were placed in to the head, and ground back with some grinding paste and an electric drill...



All done and the head was looking in fine fettle!



Next up, putting the head on the cylinder block:-





cam fitted, timing done and the chain tensioned...



Unfortunately we had to stop about here - there were a couple of spacers and seals missing from the head and a bell washer for the clutch. A real shame to not get it finished, but progress none the less....

Etching the Brake Pedal

Spent the morning in Newark mooching about - and felt a bit guilty about not having got anything done on the bike.
Been speaking with Smithgrind as I think he's gonna have a crack at etching. That got me thinking about the forward controls for the bike. I made a brake pedal up with toddy a while back, which has been sitting tucked behind the curtain in the front room. I decided it was time to have a crack at etching it up, having learned from my experiments prior to this...

Normal process, Made up the stencil on the computer and printed it on press'n'peel paper stuff:-



Stuck it in place on the pedal (cleaned / and good quality finish etc...). I had some grief with ironing it on due to the curve of the pedal - never fear - baby blowtorch to the rescue to heat it from the back, the finished it off and smoothed it all down with the iron...



cooled it right down, and peeled it off.

I wasn't a great stencil - but the main outlines were all there



plenty of masking tape  all around to cover the exposed areas:-



touched up all the areas left with some 1shot enamel



then it was off to the shed. My power pack is pretty fubared - so i used a new car battery charger I got recently. for the etching solution instead of the salt solution I used the ferric chloride I had put in a jar from my first try (I remembered that it was dead fast before)

in an ice cream tub with some thin copper pipe as an electrode:-


ferric chloride in, positive to the peice of work, negative to the copper and away to go!








Not sure how long to leave it I checked it after 6 mins:-



this stuff is working pretty damn fast!

being greedy with it and wanting a deeper etch I left it in for another 14 mins (20 mins in total). I was worried when i saw this come out:-



balls - looks like I left it too long and it had blown through the resist - OR DID IT???




Stripped the tape off and cleaned it up with nitromores, then a wash and tickle with scotch-pad under the sink and we have lift off!!!!!




VERY VERY VERY happy with that! the little bits and bobs actually look class around it!

Brake Light Mount

Final job for today - rear light mount.

I thought I may as well stick with the same style as the front mount, but just have 1 wing instead.

This spring proved to be perfect as the loop could be used to attach to the frame.



I then cut out the rings I needed - I halved the big spring first by using the TIG to blast through one of the rings, and then cut back to where I wanted with the angle grinder:-



Welded up the bottom as with the fron to limit movement.




Then I had to bend out the end to allow for the wing to be added (not as easy as it looks!)



Good old sharpie once again to mark out the shape on some 5mm steel



Plenty of cutting and grinding later, and i was reasonably happy with the wing:-



oh - yeh I did both sides....



Offered it up for welding:-



Then welded the bugger in place and ground back



Again - pretty happy with the outcome!

Headlamp Mounted

Posted at length about the headlamp mount in the past, so just a quick one to say ive cut the mount shorter and welded it all up in place.

looks pukka to me - and its a hell of a lot stronger than it was!