BSA motorcycle inspired first build

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Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

A little update from this weekend. I've pretty much finished the tank. It now needs a good clean/tidy up and some filler here and there to even things out. I also fitted a double kickstand to the bike. I especially like how it lifts the rear wheel an inch or so off the ground :D
stand_view.jpg

I now need to extend that rear brake caliper..any ideas anyone??...It's steel though, so I might be able to weld some extensions to it?
I also tried the handlebars on "boardtracker" style to see how it looked..not sure whether or not to keep them this way?
side_view.jpg

I finished my saddle too! There's more to follow on that though. I had to reshape it and wetform some leather, but don't have the pics at hand to upload.

P.S Thanks for all the positive comments.

Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Maybe weld another brake bridge on, between the seat stays. Closer to the wheel.
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Fantastic work Will! I absolutely love it!! :D :D :D
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

jackdaw said:
Maybe weld another brake bridge on, between the seat stays. Closer to the wheel.

Thanks , I hadn't even thought of that. Too busy dreaming up other wacky ideas :lol: . I tried your suggestion today but unfortunately the caliper still isn't long enough! grrr...i'm now in the process of extending the calipers :roll:
2012-10-06183429.jpg

^ Hopefully this'll work ^
Today I also made up a rear light mounting bracket for the fender
2012-10-06183453.jpg

..and converted the lights to LEDs..sooo much better :D
2012-10-06184047.jpg

2012-10-06184024.jpg

(viewed from above)
2012-10-06184203.jpg

2012-10-06184147.jpg

Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Cool! As soon as your done we got to go for a ride together! Maybe a cruise along the quay side?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Boris said:
Cool! As soon as your done we got to go for a ride together! Maybe a cruise along the quay side?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk

Yep! It's a nice ride along there. The bike's starting to come together now so I'm hoping (fingers crossed) to have it finished soon.

Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Reallyook forward to it! Mind I got to say nights in the garage are as much fun as riding!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Boris said:
Reallyook forward to it! Mind I got to say nights in the garage are as much fun as riding!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk

Haha, they certainly are. Mind you, I have to use my Dads garage though as I live in a flat. At the moment it's weekends only on the bike.
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

A few photos to add of the saddle.

I started with this old Huffy Persons saddle. I wanted to use this mainly because it was pressed steel and I could cut it to shape/weld etc
huffysaddle.jpg

I added some mounting brackets as I didn't want to use a seatpost
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Then i tacked on some steel sheet to give the saddle some extra shape..Cut and reshaped the nose of the saddle.
2012-08-26195958.jpg

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..cut off some of the seat rim to shorten the height
2012-09-01195856.jpg

..filled the gaps around the tack welds (also to give more shape to the seat base)
2012-09-01200949.jpg

sanded smooth (at this point i also primered and painted the seat gloss black)
2012-09-02111924.jpg
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Mad skillz, that thing is gonna be awesome!! :wink:
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

The next step was to form some leather to fit to the saddle.
First I covered the seat in clingfilm
2012-09-06182336.jpg

Then I soaked some hide in water and covered the seat. I don't have photos of this as my phone battery died :roll:
2012-09-09190158.jpg

2012-09-09190207.jpg

You can see from the above photos where the leather was pegged to hold it in place until it dried. It took two attempts to get the leather to form how I wanted. First time I didn't leave the leather to soak in water long enough. Second time I soaked the leather overnight then let it drip dry slightly before forming it. It worked out much better.
Next I drilled/punched holes in the leather and seat base before adding the padding
2012-09-22090116.jpg

The padding looked like eyebrows and a nose so I couldn't resist a photo with glasses :lol:
2012-09-22093029.jpg

Then I glued the leather over the padding, added rivets and a saddle badge in keeping with the BSA theme
2012-09-28182413.jpg

and marked it up for drilling and lacing
2012-09-28192615.jpg

I had to use pop rivets though! I couldn't fit the rivet tool in place to hammer in the nicer rivets i'd bought! grr
The mounting brackets for the frame. The saddle height is adjustable by flipping these either way
2012-09-29104741.jpg

2012-09-29104819.jpg

Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Its been said before on this thread and I have to say it again! THIS IS YOUR FIRST BUILD???? Fantastic stuff and very informative! You give me some great ideas here!

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Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

Boris said:
Its been said before on this thread and I have to say it again! THIS IS YOUR FIRST BUILD???? Fantastic stuff and very informative! You give me some great ideas here!

Haha, well you know what they say, "in for a penny, in for a pound"! Once i'd started I thought I may aswell go the whole hog. One thing's for sure though, my next build won't be as complicated :lol: (and I've already started collecting parts!)

Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

The finished saddle with stitching:
I finished it last weekend but neglected to take a photo
2012-10-07103622.jpg

as my 6 year old nephew pointed out, "it looks like one of those things you play baseball with?" :lol: I guess it does
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

I've just spent most of my Sunday extending the rear brake caliper. At least I now have a working rear caliper :D . Although it does look a little ugly :x
I started by cutting off the mounting lugs for the brake blocks, then welding on some steel tubing before adding the lugs to the ends of the tube. Then I built up the welds on the ends to give more strength.
2012-10-07115716.jpg

2012-10-07115739.jpg

Then basically just ground back the welds and blended them into the calipers with a lot of filing
2012-10-07135922.jpg

2012-10-07135907.jpg

..and refitted the caliper :)
2012-10-07140359.jpg


Will
 
Re: My First ever rat rod build..now I'm hooked!

..and here's a few progress shots of the bike. I feel like I'm getting somewhere now but it still hasn't quite got the look i had envisioned..
2012-10-07142259.jpg

2012-10-07161824.jpg

2012-10-07161546.jpg


Will
 
Well it's been a while since I last posted because I got pretty fed up with the way this build was going. I was never truly happy with how the fake tank looked, and I just couldn't quite get the thing to fit right!..SO (sigh) in a "calculated" fit of rage :x :x I jumped up and down on it 'til it was irreparable :lol: .That way I knew I wouldn't go back to it and it meant I could start afresh with a new fake tank. A couple of weekends ago I did this to replace it:
2012-11-11121148.jpg

I'm a LOT happier with how this looks :D . I was trying too hard to emulate the 1930's bikes I was using as inspiration..and at the end of the day this IS a custom job :D ..

I also finished making a battery box with switch to mount on the frame. As you can guess I'll be wiring both front and rear lights to this, then I can control them via the single switch:
2012-11-11121812.jpg

Last weekend I made a rear mudguard/fender reflector mount using a piece of pipe shaped to the mudguard profile. I used a motorcycle license plate reflector for this:
2012-11-11122720.jpg

The progress on this build has been very slow of late as work commitments have taken over, but Xmas is coming up and I need the overtime pay! :lol: ..
 

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