πŸπŸ—πŸ‘πŸ• π”π§πœπ₯𝐞 π’π­π«πžπ­πœπ‘ 𝐂𝐨π₯𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐗𝐋𝐖𝐁 - BO17 Build Journal - Finished in 3rd Place - 1937 Uncle Stretch Colson XLWB

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No more work on the bike, but went on a good exercise ride yesterday. Trying to make a good weight for my annual physical weigh in this week.

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I seem to keep finding cool off road vehicles lately. There was the 1953 FUBAR Jeep the other day. Then a couple of days ago this Hummer Punisher while on my 2nd Rockabilly ride of the day.

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Then I saw this I.H. Scout on my ride today.

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I also found this cool building that they have been peeling layers off while restoring it. Looks like it used to be a used furniture store

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Here is what it looked like just a few months ago There were entire windows and doors that they had stuccoed over.

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Wasn't planning any bike stuff today, but after chatting with @OddJob and @Dr. Tankenstein , I felt guilty and new I needed to at least think through some things like the tank and maybe a headlight.

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First up to mock was this little missile like doodad. Way to small. It gets swallowed up by the bike.

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On to the headlight. Gotta thank OJ for reminding me of this. He was talking about his headlight and a LIGHT went of in my head. I had mocked this a few weeks back, but it's been in a corner ever since. It looks good enough to dig into it a little bit and see if it can be made to fit the mount.

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I love the cycle of life some of these Rat Rod Bike forum parts have. I got this light (along witht the set of fender skirts on this bike) in a trade with @Machine Age Victim about 8 years ago. I've never used it yet and as I opened it up to swap out the mounting bolt for something smaller, I remembered that this was a light that he had LED-ized years ago. I'll have to dig back and see if he documented it on one of his builds. Searching around it is a KD894 spotlight (that is what the handle is for up top).

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You can see where MAV had cut the back of a sealed beam headlight for this.


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I was surprised at how little corrosion there was in the cool little rubberized battery pack he had.

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With some wishful thinking, I sprayed everything down with some CRC Contact Cleaner and put some new batteries in. Nothing lit up. But there is hope. The hard work is done.

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I need to start making the tank more than just a taped together mockup. I decided to work on the nose piece first.
I had thought of slicing it so that it would match the diameter of the bat, but I kinda want the option of it being removable, just in case I have time to put some lights or a horn inside.
So, I decided to make some slices to the vented slots and then initally roughly bend the tabs in a little to see if my idea would work. It shows promise.


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I need to start making the tank more than just a taped together mockup. I decided to work on the nose piece first.
I had thought of slicing it so that it would match the diameter of the bat, but I kinda want the option of it being removable, just in case I have time to put some lights or a horn inside.
So, I decided to make some slices to the vented slots and then initally roughly bend the tabs in a little to see if my idea would work. It shows promise.


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This tank and build gives me a good β€œJetson’s” vibe! Vintage space age!
 
This tank and build gives me a good β€œJetson’s” vibe! Vintage space age!

Well supposedly, little Georgie Jetson was just born 18 days ago somewhere on the planet.
 
Looking back at the recessed nose cone, it got me thinking about the jet intake nose cones for jets, dragsters, batmobiles, land speed vehicles, etc
I wonder if I can find a fan from an old PC that has the diameter of the baseball bat?

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Don't know what happened to my post where I mounted the light to the bike. I must not have clicked POST REPLY or something.
Anyway, after I tested the light internals, I knocked out the mounting bolt and put in a smaller one to mount it to the FlyingMachine springer bracket.
This is a keeper. I really like how it fits the scale and vibe of the build. The spotlight handle is awkward, so I'll drill out the rivets for it and remove it.

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At this point there are so many huge photographs on this thread that it stalls my wire, and I just give up pages before the end.

Of course it loaded the stupid Beef-a-Reeno picture right off.

Sorry folks, I’ve got things to work on. No time for memes

I guess I’ll wait till the final finished bike posting to see what it looks like.
 
Awesome progress, love the lines of the fins and chaincover.

Tank looks good too, would love to see some fins or canards on them, but that is a personal guess.

The lamp looks great too.

The earlier pictures with the MIG, trains are great for inspiration indeed, many ideas going through my head. Too little time πŸ˜‰
 
You can probably choose to not automatically load all pics, and then just click on the ones you do want to see (new ones) one at a time.
By the time I get around to this thread there’s four dozen new pictures.

But last night was bad because Apple and Microsoft were both pushing updates, so my wire was hot all night long.

I did get to see the pictures with the tank nose this morning.
 
Awesome progress, love the lines of the fins and chaincover.

Tank looks good too, would love to see some fins or canards on them, but that is a personal guess.

The lamp looks great too.

The earlier pictures with the MIG, trains are great for inspiration indeed, many ideas going through my head. Too little time πŸ˜‰

Thanks for the input.
I love how the fins and chainguard look as well.
Just getting started on the real work of the tank. Have to see what time I have and what it tells me to do. Fins have been in my head for it at different times, but my general thought is that they won't make the cut.
I'm excited with how the headlight is looking with a temporary mount. It is staying for sure. I just hope I have time to make it operational as well.
It was fun pulling those intake inspiration pics together. We'll see how that idea pans out. The tank is so small in the bigger scale of the bike, that it can't really look like a jet engine for the bike. But I still may draw some styling cues from those pics. We'll see how the tank progresses.
Time is definitely a factor with only two and half weeks to go. :D
 
By the time I get around to this thread there’s four dozen new pictures.

But last night was bad because Apple and Microsoft were both pushing updates, so my wire was hot all night long.

I did get to see the pictures with the tank nose this morning.

Glad you were able to pull up some pics eventually.
 
I dig that headlight, looks a lot like a Bates on vintage Triumphs. I seem to recall the thread when it or one like it was built. A possibility for mounting it could be making an under mounted swan neck from a chrome water supply pipe.
 

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