Board Tracker/ Moped Conversion

[Nathan2115]

Picked up a 25 dollar 3hp Sears craftsman lawnmower engine and a 25 dollar 26" Univega Grand Cruiser off of craigslist...

 

[Nathan2115]

 

[Nathan2115]

I see lots of custom fabrication in the near future

 

[Nathan2115]

First thing's first, off with the down tube

 

[Nathan2115]

New fork, cream tires, laying everything out to get an idea of how everything's going to fit

 

[Nathan2115]

First problem of many to come: Engine is a tight fit, the air filter hits the seat tube. Solution: fab an air intake to put the filter around the seat tube. Had to use a lot of stickout and argon to get into the tight areas

 

[Nathan2115]

With that out of the way, I get to move on to the fun part! Bending and fitting the new custom down tube. I used 1.125" round steel tube with .125" wall thickness. Bench ground the notching, got an ok fit up.

 

[Nathan2115]

Found some 6" dia. steel round stock to use as a bending form, and yes, the black arm used to brace the tube against during the bend is the old down tube! Fired up the torch and bent away.

 

[Nathan2115]

The finished bend- It turned out surprisingly well, I was relieved that there were no kinks. A lot of scale to clean off. As you can see, the wheels came and I did some wire brushing of the frame to remove some paint. Awaiting rim tape and tubes.

 

[Nathan2115]

Welded! I opted for mig over tig, as the fitup was imperfect and I was low on pure argon, I had a full tank of 75/25 argon co2

 

[Nathan2115]

Built engine mounts out of quarter inch flat stock, welded them in, tacked the gas tank tube (1" round steel tube, sixteenth" wall thickness) in place to check fit

 

[Nathan2115]

welded the gas tank tube in place

 

[Nathan2115]

Problem #2: Sprocket hole pattern doesn't match the brake disc mount hole pattern on the wheel. I suppose stuff like that happen every now and then when buying parts direct from China. Solution: fill in the old hole with weld, face the sprocket on the mill, re drill the holes.

 

[Funkme]

Off to a quick start there. Even better that it has only cost you 50 bucks to start with.
Waiting to see how it looks at the end.
Welcome to the build.

 

[Nathan2115]

Klean Stripping of the rest of the paint

 

[Nathan2115]

Off to a quick start there. Even better that it has only cost you 50 bucks to start with.
Waiting to see how it looks at the end.
Welcome to the build.

Thanks! uploading the footage of the progress I have made over the past month, still lots of work left

 

[Nathan2115]

Update on the air intake, now mounted to the engine

 

[Nathan2115]

And this is just about where I am currently. Note: the fork is in its full compressed state, not to worry, I have about 2" of clearance between the down tube and the front tire, which will increase when I turn a new spacer for the fork to make the head tube angle more slack.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool! Nice way to jump in and make an impression!

 

[OddJob]

I'm not too privy on engines, is this a pedal start set-up, like a moped? Frame mods look good. Big springer bumped out a bit will really give it that 'moto' look!