1941 Firestone Cruiser Done 5/22

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Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser Seat Mounted 3-16

Starting work on the light, may not use this one actually, more on that later.

here's where things start, everything is pretty much siezed up inside these things
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Found some shine under the paint (haven't done the bottom half yet..
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Making new reflector out of the bottom of a peanut butter jar
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it's just about the right concaveness (is that a word?)
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heated up a deep well socket to melt a hole for the led pack
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That works
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Silver paint the reflector. I painted the backside like a mirror but I'm not super happy with the result. Might be a good old fashion do over but maybe I can work with it.
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Here's the new steel base made from some flat stock and a bottom bracket spacer with the tab filed off. you can seee the top to the light in the background after more polishing, it's looking better than the first shot
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Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser Let There Be Light 3-31

Hope you feel better soon :(

Awesome project!
 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser Let There Be Light 3-31

Hope you're a100% soon
 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser Let There Be Light 3-31

thanks guys, this afternoon I'm feeling a little better, compared to Friday when i slept 20hours and only ate a glass of water anything is an improvement.
 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser Let There Be Light 3-31

I finally got to get back to this bike after 30+ builds for my Lbs and several tune ups and overhauls for friends and customers (on top of everything else going on). Unfortunately there is something up with my phone lines so until I get that sorted out I cant upload any photos to photobucket or even an email.

anyway, I got the drop stand all cleaned up, did some welding repair to it and painted it up with the silver hammered finish paint, mounted up the tank with the exception of one headbadge screw that fell on the floor and disappeared, modified the anti rotation washers to work with the horizontal dropouts and swapped out the cranks for a set that clears the chain guard, installed a new kmc chain.

At this point I really need to resolve what to do about mounting the grip shift. there isn't enough room on the bar to mount it ahead of the torpedo grips. I really don't want to ditch the grips and have nowhere to mount (or budget) for those fancy billet shifters. Do I just cut down the torpedo grip and be done with it? This is really the last hurtle before double checking all the nuts and bolts and getting it out of my shop so if anyone has any bright ideas or one of those nexus 7 trigger shifters for a reasonable $$ or trade please shoot me a PM!
 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser The Home Stretch

Mounted up the drop stand tonight, dialed in the Nexus shifter and also figured out as unobtrusive as possible cable routing. I ended up cutting the torpedo grip to fit the shifter. Not optimal but it works. The tank and wrap around badge are mounted up. I've never had such a hard time installing a tank, what an effort to get things lined up. All that is left is the fender light and a test ride. I'll be posting up photos soon of what I came up with to solve the fender light situation as well as some outdoor glamour shots.

 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser The Home Stretch

A truly beautiful build. 8)
 
Re: 1941 Firestone Cruiser The Home Stretch

Several factors led me to use this light instead, multi function LED, waterproof etc. etc. Some custom paint and it looks the part.



Here's what it looked like out of the box


Filled the bottom with epoxy as it originally came with a snap in handlebar clamp


So, this rig is done finally. If the weather cooperates today I'll get some shots in the sunshine of you all. Thanks for your support though another one of my "taking forever" builds. :D
 
Outstanding work! Well done, Walker, well done! 8)
 

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