Abner DONE!

[The Renaissance Man]

Here's an amazing example of a Shelby No-Nose owned by Shawn Sweeny. (See more pictures here.)

Abner won't be this nice though. lol

 

[The Renaissance Man]

One of the problems with reproducing these rare and expensive tanks is getting my hands on an original part. It's not uncommon for an original metal Shelby Speedline tank to sell for thousands of dollars by itself (if you can find one)!

Shawn generously loaned the tank on that bike^ to me to assist in making molds. We arranged a combined 8 hour round trip rendezvous half way between us to hand off the 'No-Nose' tank as I was not about to trust shipping it and risk loosing or damaging it!

 

[Funkme]

I see you are taking it slow and easy... Pacing it out Hmmmmm

 

[Funkme]

One of the problems with reproducing these rare and expensive tanks is getting my hands on an original part. It's not uncommon for an original metal Shelby Speedline tank to sell for thousands of dollars by itself (if you can find one)!

Shawn generously loaned the tank on that bike^ to me to assist in making molds. We arranged a combined 8 hour round trip rendezvous half way between us to hand off the 'No-Nose' tank as I was not about to trust shipping it and risk loosing or damaging it!

View attachment 231348View attachment 231349

Lucky we have you, that is able to do reproductions, of forgotten time pieces. And guess what? They won't rust out... Handle with Kid gloves

 

[OddJob]

Hey Jim, I found this vintage frame, head badge says "American Flyer" in my neighborhood fb marketplace. Would this frame fit your new 'no-nosed' tank?

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Cool find! I believe that is a pre-war Hawthorne.

Would this frame fit your new 'no-nosed' tank?

The short answer is no, it's not a Shelby wishbone frame.
However, at RatRodBikes we laugh at such nonsense. All things are possible with a little creativity thrown in!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Lucky we have you, that is able to do reproductions, of forgotten time pieces. And guess what? They won't rust out... Handle with Kid gloves

Handle with kid gloves is an understatement! I went to extreme measures to do just that. Everything that I did made me draw up along the way!

For example, here's a temporary alignment jig that I made for it. When I was welding it together I placed a wet towel over the tank to protect it from any welding splatter. Just having it in such a rough environment was unnerving!

In the end, no animals or tanks were harmed. After I had everything that I needed, I carefully wrapped them up and hand delivered them back to their owner at a swap meet in Atlanta back in March.

 

[Pondo]

Just having it in such a rough environment was unnerving!

Indeed. You're braver than I. Very cool project though!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The Shock-ease fork requires a specific type of fender that mounts to a tab instead of the center like most conventional forks. I just happened to have such a fender but someone in the past had welded a washer over the large hole that is there for the shock bolt.

So today I did some surgery with a cut-off wheel. Sparks where flying but I didn't have enough hands for a picture. lol

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The fiberglass shop where I have all of my parts made has been shut down all week for their annual open house event. Hopefully they will be able to get back on my No-nose molds next week.

This is where the progress stopped early last week.


First the gel coat.

Next was multiple layers of fiberglass

 

[user 35233]

The fiberglass shop where I have all of my parts made has been shut down all week for their annual open house event. Hopefully they will be able to get back on my No-nose molds next week

I've been thinking about making tanks in the future. I've had luck forming Sintra before and thought next time you're in a spot you might appreciate...

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I've been thinking about making tanks in the future. I've had luck forming Sintra before and thought next time you're in a spot you might appreciate...

I don't think it would work very well as a fiberglass mold but I could be wrong. The resin heats up as it cures and would probably distort the PVC. It might work for a one off but you would need to support it really good.
I do use a vacuform for my headlight lenses though and it works great!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

As I had mentioned, the fiberglass shop has been shut down for the week as they prepared for the open house that officially started today.

Unique Motor Cars manufactures Cobra replica cars and also provides all of the fiberglass work for my TRM bicycle parts. Every year in May they have a 'homecoming' event for their customers to come show and gather at the facility. I usually bring a bike or two to the event since the fiberglass parts were also made in the same building often using scraps of glass cut from the Cobra bodies as they are being laid-up.

It was fun to bring my Shelby 'snub nose' build off bike from last year (no affiliation with Carrol Shelby) to hang out with the other Shelby cousins today!

 

[user 35233]

I don't think it would work very well as a fiberglass mold but I could be wrong. The resin heats up as it cures and would probably distort the PVC. It might work for a one off but you would need to support it really good.
I do use a vacuform for my headlight lenses though and it works great!

Sintra hardens when it cools and requires far less heat than should soften resin but you can copy an actual tank or sculpt your own out of dense foam, skip the molds.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

That's great advise! I'll keep that one in my back pocket for future use!

That probably would've worked for the temporary molds that I made for the side inserts on the no-nose tank. Instead, I used liquid silicone rubber.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Because there is an undercut at the rear of the tank, it will require a two part mold. I've started preparing them for a trip back to the fiberglass shop hopefully some time next week.

For new molds it takes several applications of mold release wax to insure that it will come apart after it's done. I typically wait a minimum of one hour between coats and apply it up to as many as a dozen coats for good measure (overkill). I would rather over do it than skimp and create problems.

 

[ingola]

That's great advise! I'll keep that one in my back pocket for future use!

That probably would've worked for the temporary molds that I made for the side inserts on the no-nose tank. Instead, I used liquid silicone rubber.
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Love that liquid silicone use it to make knobs on vintage audio gear. Find an original (like you hardest part of the process) make the mold pour the resin.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Back to the fork and fender.

The large center hole in the fender is there so that it doesn't interfere with the shock bolt on the fork. After I removed the extra washer from the fender and started to put it on the fork to test it, I noticed that the fork also had another inapt washer placed there by its previous owner.

After some research I learned that not only is there not supposed to be a washer there at all, but also there is supposed to be a specific type of nut used (see figure 3).

I will probably try to make a correct replacement nut at some point, but for now I drilled out a smaller washer that fits just inside of the cove shaped hole for the flat castle nut to rest on.

Now there is no interference between the fender and shock bolt.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

In other news, this little jewel found its way to me this weekend.

More distractions.

 

[JA331]

In other news, this little jewel found its way to me this weekend.

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More distractions.

Organically grown rat. Awesome.