Kansas Fried Cruiser... more stuff 7/09/09

[karfer67]

love the "paint" tricks really glad to see raw metal becoming cool it leaves nothing to hide. cool bike cant wait to see this one done.

[B607]

Years ago there were a lot of guns that were "flame blued". A gunsmith showed me how to do it. You can get very consistent color if you just barely immerse the part in oil and heat it that way. The oil acts as a buffer. The brighter you polish the part before you heat it the deeper the blue becomes. I've only done screws and not sure if this method would be practical with a frame. My 2-cents. B607

[Ratfink1962]

I definetly had to "play" with the surface, especially the chrome. It seemed like it wouldnt change colors at all unless I roughed up the surface first. plus it took quite a bit of heat to finally get it to turn colors.

The frame on the other hand took a lot less heat, of course I stripped all the paint off and polished it up with a roloc scotch brite on a 90 degree die grinder. You probably notice the "mottled" effect of the color. I wanted it that way, but im sure if you wanted the frame completely blue, its definetly doable with just a torch. Just gotta heat it evenly.

[Ratfink1962]

Ok so I decided it was time to get this sucker done, Well there are still some minor details to take care of, but for the most part it is completed.

On to the pics...

[sensor]

i normally am not a fan of apes but this bike just looks great all around

[aka_locojoe]

Got to see this in person yesterday. Ratfink1962 braved 55mph wind gusts to ride it over to my house. Looks great. The finish stood out a lot more than I thought it would.

[Ratfink1962]

Lol yeah, going TO your house was easy, I barely had to pedal.

But on the way back, I was huffing and puffing but I got er done!

[Ratfink1962]

While I may have called it "done" it really wasnt... I had a few details to complete.

First thing is that I wanted a setback seatpost, so I made this one out of a stem I salvaged off of a girls Raleigh bike.



Then I built a mount for the lamp I found earlier, still need to get the guts installed though.





And finally I decided to get around to building that tank I spoke of earlier. I will end up smoothing it off and painting it.

[aka_locojoe]

Nice work on the tank. That headlight bracket is cool.
Can't see the stem/seat post that well. Is the stem welded to the original seat post?

[Ratfink1962]

I should have took a pic before I installed the seat, but yeah you got it... the stem is welded to the original seat post.

[deorman]

Reminds me of old "glow-in-the-dark" Tiger pipes!

[Ratfink1962]

Ok I finally got the tank all smoothed and painted, I also decided to cut down the rear fender and paint it too, I havent taken any pics but I recently entered the bike in the Art of the Bicycle show, Thanks to Aka Locojoe for the pic...



I need to get some glamour shots and post this up in the gallery

[outskirtscustoms]

That is sweet! And to think I had the same make and model of bike and sold it......Oh well.

[Ratfink1962]

Hey thanks!

This bike was a lot of fun building, should see the looks I get when Im pulling the BBQ trailer with it!

[GreatWhite00]

I would be afraid of the chainguard. Haha.

Nice bike & trailer.