Ne'er-do-well *Deluxe*

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So, I was thinking my saddle was kinda boring and could use a little sprucing up. The seat is a 50ish Troxel and I decided to make it a long spring with parts from a 30s wimmins Messinger. And add some bullets. And actually mount the crash bar. The lucky seven seatpost is from my '37 LaSalle. It ain't going to win any concourse bike shows, that much is certain.


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Well, that seat has been relegated to the "nah" pile, too cartoonish for what I'm trying to achieve. I slapped a white glitter and rust stained seat on and it will stay. I also tried another set of bars and stem, the jury is still out on them. It's getting closer to paint.


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*GULP!* 'Paint' ?!? :doh:
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This bike is a beauty as it is already! I wouldn't paint it if it was mine, but (unfortunately) it isn't mine... :grin:
 
*GULP!* 'Paint' ?!? :doh:

Yeah. This build seems to be in a perpetual state of mock up and paint is being considered. This is a photo I swiped from the net that is kinda in the direction I'm thinking about.

Also found my one and only spare tank and magnetted it on. It will take some doing to mount but there is still plenty of time.

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Love how that chainguard came out. I just got my set in the mail today. I have a few ideas now i need to work out. Like i wasn't far enough behind already.
 
I haven't really made any decisions about it yet. I first want to try a few mock ups with different parts in my stash and try to get an idea of how the finished bike could look. Tonight I will bring the frame & fork out of storage for some staring at it time, to get an idea of how it can evolve. I have a self imposed rule that 92% or more of this build has to come from what I already have on hand.
That's exactly how most of my builds start out.. I may buy a smalls or two, but most of the parts come right out of my cache of accumulated parts.. RaToN....
 
Tonight I worked on a fiddly detail. I came across a batch of Mr. Gasket tribar air filter wingnuts.
View attachment 193343
They used to sell these as the El Toro wingnut. I used them to hold the side covers on my 76 KZ900. This is a fuzzy photo from 1982, but there they are on the custom side covers.
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Then about 2005 I put some on my current motorcycle. They hold the air filters together. There’s a 9 inch filter on each side of the engine. I had to tap them out for metric threads.
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I think I'll strip the primer off the front fender & fork and roll it outside to get a good look at it. At a minimum it will need a few coats of mat clear because the humidity here will have it rusted up proper in no time if I don't.
BLO might look great on your ride. In Bali it is quite humid and the BLO coat on my bike is holding strong, although I'm happy to re apply once a year!
 
Love how that chainguard came out. I just got my set in the mail today. I have a few ideas now i need to work out. Like i wasn't far enough behind already.
Dimpled speed holes have a long hot rod history so they fit in pretty good with rat biking. They add rigidity to a panel while lightening it. Lay out and spacing is critical to get right because they are kinda permanent .
They used to sell these as the El Toro wingnut. I used them to hold the side covers on my 76 KZ900. This is a fuzzy photo from 1982, but there they are on the custom side covers.
View attachment 194706

Then about 2005 I put some on my current motorcycle. They hold the air filters together. There’s a 9 inch filter on each side of the engine. I had to tap them out for metric threads.
View attachment 194707
Tribars started out as wheel knock offs on sports cars and found their way onto several other applications by hotrodders. Very traditional touch to add to a traditional style build. May they never go out of style.
BLO might look great on your ride. In Bali it is quite humid and the BLO coat on my bike is holding strong, although I'm happy to re apply once a year!
I have a couple of my rustorations in BLO and may try a product called Gibbs metal Protectant for this build if it stays raw. It's claimed to be long lasting and they say you can paint over it later if the urge hits. The boys at The HAMB swear by it.
 
Dimpled speed holes have a long hot rod history so they fit in pretty good with rat biking. They add rigidity to a panel while lightening it.
The dimple makes a big difference. I did speed holes with a only drill, and the integrity of the parts were severely compromised
 
Spent a little time this morning trying out some other junk I have laying around. A goal I have set for myself is to just use parts from my stash. If I can get this build done with buying nothing more than some rattle can paint and a fresh tub of bearing grease then I done real good.

First up is a lucky 7 seatpost and a really boring white seat. I added a crash rail but it needs to go away. I have couple wimmins long spring seats that might get their sproingy parts added to this seat.

Next up are the bars and stem. Stem is a low rate vintage BMX part but it's red so how can I say no to it? Bars are from a 1989 SeaDoo personal water craft. They are heavy wall stainless with some deep knurling. The grips are grips and they are red. These parts will stay.

Next next up I swapped out the wheels for a different other set. They need to be ratified and probably will stay.

Next next next up I swapped out the sheet metal for a set of peaked fenders and a big honkin chain guard. I could maybe punch this tin chock full of dimpled speed holes to get it looking proper and add an element of making more work for myself.

'Nuff prattling, I took some pictures! 🛠️


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What are the bars off of? They do look familiar but their hard to place.. Great looking bike so far... RaToN.....
 
I just bought a 3 foot length of 5/8" rod to make up a couple of home made lucky sevens, but have to find a torch to heat and bend them to shape... Good luck and looking good...
 
What are the bars off of? They do look familiar but their hard to place.. Great looking bike so far... RaToN.....
They are from a late 80s Seadoo XP personal watercraft. They would have had dense foam padding on them. You have to use a BMX stem to mount them.
 
Using a strap on the seat tube to bolt the chain guard to just wasn't cutting the mustard. I confess that the urge to weld a tab on was pretty powerful, but rules, blah, blah, sportsmanship blah, blah, blah. So I put on my Jr. Engineer badge and went to town. Using a small piece of aluminum angle iron, 2 fake fender rivets, a spring nut, a screw, and a shiny new acorn nut I whipped this up. Nice and solid, clearance achieved, no rattles, and finally, ready to move on to the next puzzle.


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