[vintagespeed]

aww goddamnit, now i gotta tear my wheels apart... THANKS man!

 

[Cosmoline]

Slowly getting back to work. Welded up the solo seat perches and forward hinge today so I could mount the seat pan. I'm not the world's prettiest welder but at least they'll hold well. The 4" springs shown are too long, I'm going to switch them over to 2" springs instead.

 

[Cosmoline]

Solo Seat Part Deux

I decided that I hated the way the seat springs were set up so I changed everything up. I read that Chevy valve springs worked well so I got a pair of them for a whopping $4.36 and went to work re-tooling the setup. I'm not completely done yet but the pics below show things about 60% done...

First I had to thread the seat perch posts so out came the die...

All done...

Then I needed to weld a washer to the valve spring so I made some cuts in the washer to get it tacked on. I left one area open because the spring didn't hit there anyway...

Clamped the spring to the washer and welded it up...

Ground down the welds and test fit it on the perch. Perfect!

View from top looking down into bolted on spring...

Did the same procedure for the other spring...

Shots with the seat down...

Next, I need to machine a four 1/2" deep cups to capture the top and bottom of each spring and weld some angle iron at the correct angle to the seat pan so the springs hit at the proper angle and can be mounted from the top as well. I'll post more pictures when that's done.

 

[Dan Boy]

Nice work, how does the valve springs ride when you sit on it? Comfy?

D.

 

[Metalman123]

nice work cosmoline

 

[Cosmoline]

Nice work, how does the valve springs ride when you sit on it? Comfy?

D.

Hi Dan, They seem surprisingly good, but I haven't finished mounting them to the seat yet, my machinist is milling me some cups to the following specs...

Once those are on I'll have a better idea.

 

[Dan Boy]

Looks nice, will they be aluminium?

D.

 

[Cosmoline]

Looks nice, will they be aluminium?

D.

No, steel since I may wind up wanting to weld them to the seat pan and/or perches, not 100% sure yet. I don't want to call much attention to them since I'm trying to keep this bike looking somewhat stock so whatever I do will eventually be powder coated black anyway.

 

[Cosmoline]

OK, back is feeling better and lots of parts have come in. Decided to get the front end all buttoned up. The TLS front setup that I bought cascaded the need for a whole bunch of other parts since it's about 1/4" wider - so I needed newer upper and lower triple trees. I also decided that the fork tubes were too far gone and installed a new set. I was able to get the bunged up fork slider threads sorted out myself with a small needle file, a loupe and some patience. My machinist was just too busy and I'd rather have him spend time machining my seat spring cups.

Anyway, I seated the fork seals in the dust sleeves with a big ol 34mm socket. No problems...

I also added an extra black plastic spacer on each fork tube, cut down the springs an inch and a half, heated, bent and ground down the ends for a flat surface, bead blasted, primed and painted them up.

Turned out pretty great I think. Shown here during a test fit...

I also needed to fit the TT style upper fork covers. Comparing them with the stock elephant ears it's easy to see that the TT's are longer by about a half inch or so below the tabs that the lower tree bolts through (marked in blue tape)...

So I put a cutoff wheel in the dremel and lopped the extra off, filed the bottom perfectly flat and chamfered the edges slightly. I also needed to elongate the mounting tab bolt hole so the bolt wouldn't catch but just slightly. Here's a shot of the finished TT cover...

And below are a couple of shots of the whole fork assembly put together. The lower members and trees have yet to be powder coated black. I'm going to leave the dust sleeves stainless. Basically, everything will be black except the tube itself and dust sleeves...

Oh and my custom spoke order from Buchanans showed up today so I can finally drop everything off to be laced, trued, tires mounted, etc. More on that next time.

Have a great 4th everyone!

 

[Cosmoline]

Dropped off my hubs, rims, spokes, tires with Brittech to be laced, trued, mounted, balanced, etc. It'll be a couple of weeks beIn the meantime, I figured I'd rebuild the brakes. Front /rear shots of both. I think I've done it correctly but if anyone spots anything out of place, please let me know - thanks...

Front inner:

Front outer:

Back inner:

Back outer:

Also, I'm leaving tomorrow for a week of much needed vacation at the beach. Later!

 

[Cosmoline]

I'm back from vacation and back to work. Back feels good too.

I still have a bunch of stuff out to various places - machinist is STILL working on those spring cups (what a lazy dude) and my wheels should be all set by mid next week.

In the meantime I figure I might as well start surgery on the old Indian oil tank I want to use. It has a bunch of mounting brackets and clearance indentations that wont be necessary on this build, plus I need to expand it's capacity so I can put at least a couple full quarts in her. I bet I'll have at least 20 hours into this component alone by the time I'm done but the shape fits the area so perfectly that I fell like it's worth it.

Here's what I'm starting with, an early 50's Indian Scout tank in good condition...

I figured out which areas I needed to keep and which I didn't, and marked it off with some tape as a cut guide, broke out the dremel with a cut-off wheel and started cutting...

Now I have two halves. The front filler side and tubes I'm keeping and the other goes into the scrap metal bin...

Degreasing 60+ years of old engine oil...

Once that's done, I'll strip off any remaining paint and start forming the back half out of 16 ga sheet metal. More pics on that later.

A couple other things of note - my awesome girlfriend bought me a cool shop clock...

And I think I've decided on a paint scheme, here's a mocked-up preview - paint will be gloss, not flat...

 

[S.G]

Some great fabrication going on, keep it up

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks SG. Not much of an update today but I did strip the paint off the oil tank and started mocking up where I'll mount it on the bike to get a better idea of the pieces I'll need to fabricate for it.

 

[supercrouton]

That scoot is coming along nicely. I also am curious how the valve springs work out. That oil tank looks good too.
Cheers, Dan.

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks Dan. Finished up the seat pan and seat springs today.

My machinist came thru with the spring cups. Came out perfect...

Marking out the locations...

Because the top spring cups were going to sit right in the middle of the bend in the seat pan, I needed to create a flat surface to mount them to, so I cut up some angle iron and welded it to the seat pan...

Now that I had a flat surface I welded on the top spring cups...

Finished product mounted on bike...

Once I got the seat mounted up I was anxious to know how they would feel. Sitting on them compresses them about a half inch and there's at least another inch of travel left. The seat does not seem springy, in fact it's pretty stiff but hey, it's a hard tail after all and I didn't expect a miracle air ride. The verdict is that I'm happy with them.

That's all for now.

 

[Dan Boy]

Looks great and an innovative way to do seat springs.

D.

 

[4444Design]

good progress!

keep the pics comin' ...

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks guys. Today I installed the tapered roller bearing kit in the neck and mounted the lowered front end. At this point I'm waiting for my wheels/tires to come back and I'll have it back in a roller so I can check the stance, mount everything, do the remaining fab work like the front fender, fender mounts, weld up various tab mounts etc. Once all that is done I'll disassemble everything, send it out for paint/powder coat, and start on the engine rebuild.

 

[Dan Boy]

This build is racing along, nice work.

Cheers Dan.

 

[Cosmoline]

Mounted the headlight today...

Here's a shot of the springer style headlight mounting post and terminals underneath...

Below is a shot of the hole underneath the bottom tree where I'll mount the bracket...

Below is a shot of the bracket I bent up and mounted to the headlight- I just have it functional for now, I'll make it pretty later on...

And here's some shots of the headlight all mounted up. I think it came out pretty damned sweet...

IMHO, perfect size and not too blinged out. Tucks in between the forks nicely, it has plenty of clearance from lock to lock and there's no way anything will hit it even if the suspension bottoms out. Happy with it.

Later.