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Ty Henderson

Ty Henderson

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Howdy folks!!
New member here, new to the muscle bike-ratrod-cruiser scene however I've been building track, single speed, and BMX bicycles since around 2009. First a little 'history' about myself, along with bicycles, I've been building '60s - '70s cars and motorcycles since high school... a little over 15 years. I'm a machinist located in Tucson, Az and help operate a machine shop with my father. About a month ago I picked up my first Stingray. I've wanted one for quite some time, but have had a hard time finding one locally until now. Out of over a couple dozen builds this lil Schwinn has by far been the most fun out of all! It's a constant work in process and the combination of this build plus finding this forum has me excited to start fabricating everything from frames to parts. Onto the Stingray:

How I bought it for $30 off craigslist:


About a week later:


I purchased a low budget headlight / tail light / friction generator off of eBay. It came with zero instructions, no wiring and crap brackets. So I fab'd this bracket for the front headlight:


I kinda liked the bullet headlight for the front, but the tiny little tail light that came in the kit was ehhhhh. I had a 1930's blue dot tail light off of an old Harley chopper build and thought it would work perfectly. I'm kinda disappointed in the brightness of the generator lights, gonna try to find some LED replacement bulbs for more light. Custom engraved 'license' plate I made for it as well:


I did a little custom engraving and added some heat color with a MAP gas torch on the headlight bracket, and filled the engraving with some pink:


The repop seat I bought for the build had the mounts far further forward than the stock, pushing the banana 2-3'' further forward than I liked... making the ride a little crunched. So I made some brackets to push everything back and did some more custom engraving. FAR OUT!

... I'm contemplating re-wrapping the banana in a purple flake vinyl

I have an old Huret spedo mounted as well, but need to find a cable and hub mount still.

Here is how it sits now, my camera was being weird... low battery I think, but these last pics came out low res. Here is how she sits now, better pic's later.



Next: Have everything laid out for a wheelie bar, just need to do some final measurements and final fab!
 
Been working on my wheelie bar the past couple nights, bit by bit... but its still not worthy of documenting. Tonight I took a break from it and jumped on the lathe and turned this little shift knob to replace the stock simplex knob. Still in the basic stage... trying to brainstorm ideas on how to fancy it up. Thinking I might hollow out the center and fill it with some purple flake glitter. Y'all got any other good ideas?

 
I like the shape of your new knob! Maybe just keep it simple like that and add the glitter flake inside

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
 
Machined a customers' 9mm pistol slide to accept a red dot sight today... it took a long time and a lot of problem solving.. but I finally got it. These slides are HARD steel! Came out sweet though: *i ignore the greasy coolant finger prints * :21:


But side note over... Jumped back over to working on my wheelie bar. This thing is testing my patience. Started off early this week with some round stock, and the mounting brackets I made:
[

After welding and some rough grinding here is where I'm at tonight: ** Still very rough **


The two top bars are at this stage, still need to get the bottom support bars to this point before I start shaping and making them look pretty. I need to figure out this aluminum mig welding gun better, or get better with my TIG welder... I'm grinding way too much lol. I'm not super happy with the slow progress on this simple project, but oh well. Tomorrow my friend is hosting a hotwheels pinewood derby for his birthday, so looks like progress will have to wait till Sunday, DOH!
 
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Super bummed, The cool shift knob I spent quite a while turning and polishing ended up cracking upon instillation:



In the long run, I suppose its a blessing. Looking at it after the fact it was a little too ''low rider'' and not enough ''muscle''. I've decide to fabricate my own pistol grip shift knob. MOPAR! ;) I have a decent CAD drawing for the rough shape and and will start on that tomorrow I think.

My wheelie bar is kind of on back burner, but still a constant work in progress in my mind. Think I have it figured out.

Today I scored some old skyway's that resemble Harley invader mag wheels, which will go perfect with the theme I'm after... 60's-70's chopper. My plan right now is to scuff them up a bit and paint them a silver finish, I still need to source a proper front 20'' tire. Any suggestions on a classy front tire would be appreciated!


Tomorrow I'm picking up some 4' long stainless to start my front end project.
 
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Ty Henderson said:
Any suggestions on a classy front tire would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Maxxis Miracle would be cool on that:

tyre-image-Miracle_l.png


Is those are original Skyways, you may regret scuffing and painting them, could be worth some decent coin... :39:
 
LukeTheJoker said:
Maxxis Miracle would be cool on that:

View attachment 92425

Is those are original Skyways, you may regret scuffing and painting them, could be worth some decent coin... :39:
Click to expand...

OOOoo I like that tire! Reminds me of the Avon Speedmaster on my Harley:


I'm no skyway expert, but it is a mismatch set I got on the cheap... The rear is a Tuff I, andrear is a Tuff II. Not sure if they're worth anything? Anyone know? I suppose they'll look just fine staying black if they are.

Starnger said:
Quite enjoying those modern BMX 2.4 tires! I used DUO High Street for one of my builds (still in progress). Here how they look on my mags:
Click to expand...

Those look nice! I like the look of those tires, but a bit too modern for what I'm after with this bike. I like those tri spoke mags a lot, I plan on using a set of those when I find the proper build for them!

hamppea said:
I HATE when that happens!

Try transparent aluminum next...
View attachment 92431

..and if you thought it was just in the movie...check again :13:
Formula: (AlN)x·(Al2O3)1-x, 0.30 ≤ x ≤ 0.37
Click to expand...

Right!? Always when you're just about finished too! hahaha.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! I've gotta get my hands on some of that stuff... ;)
 
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Can anyone confirm the front hub spacing on skyways is 100mm? Just double checking before I start making some forks.
 
My new 'goal' for the stingray is to fab a long front end, much like our friend Jaxon is producing. He has been very helpful and openly shared some of his tips found while making his front ends. Thank you again sir! I decided to try a similar project with my own touch. I went to my local metal supply, and they didn't have the size tubing I was after. I ended up purchasing 1'' O.D. with .120 wall tubing and adjusting my plans to fit. It wont be light weight by any means and it might end up looking funky, but thought I'd give it a try regardless. After acquiring the material I went to drawing up the triple tree's. Here is what I came up with:


Next step is to cut out some cardboard and make some mock ups to see if it will actually function correctly. If all works out then I'll program it using Esprit and mill my tree's on the CnC mill and cut my tubing. Making the bends will be interesting as I've never done it with accuracy. I have a cheap-o manual bender, but might have to source some friends who have professional ones if the first one doesn't make the cut.
 

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