FrankenHiggins is FrankenFinished

[hammer mechanic]

Here is my BOLEVEN entry. This is the JC Higgins that started me down the Rat Rod rabbit hole. I purchased the frame and a bunch of mismatched parts from a guy, but never built the bike up. The big dent in the top tube had me scratching my head on how to fix it. I think I have a plan now, we'll see.
I'll admit, I had several frames that I was considering, but was laying back to see what had not been entered yet. I saw several Spaceliner/Flightliners (all cool), and even some Silver Kings (just as cool), so I settled on the Higgins frame.
Anyway, here is my entry. No real plan other than a skip tooth setup, fat fenders from who knows what, and some truss rods, since the front fender already has notches in it.
Wish me luck and thanks for looking.

 

[Georgeediii]

I was hoping you would jump in the ring.

 

[Fv2]

Like that frame

 

[G-Matt]

Hard to layback and just watch when the creative juices are flowing & you have a pile of parts . Welcome aboard the madness [emoji106][emoji106]


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[Big Ape]

Love the colorflow/jetflow frames! I'll be watching.

 

[kingfish254]

Love the colorflow/jetflow frames! I'll be watching.

DITTO
A ratty CF tank sold recently somewhere.

 

[Pookie42]

These are cool frames for sure... So many different directions you can go when customizing I'm always changing mine up... Nice to see a jc Higgins in the mix...


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[hammer mechanic]

DITTO
A ratty CF tank sold recently somewhere.

I just purchased a ratty tank but it is for a Shelby.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I just purchased a ratty tank but it is for a Shelby.View attachment 23560

Like that tank!

Luke.

 

[OddJob]

Good to see ya in it again! I like the frame, rat worthy!

 

[hammer mechanic]

Thanks, haven't really got started yet. One of my sons are getting married this weekend so I have been busy with that.

 

[hammer mechanic]

Finally got some time to work on the bike today. I Found a crank that would work and added my skip tooth sprocket.

Then I did some fit up work on the rear fender. No good pics here.

Will need to address this hole in the right seat stay.

I plan on using this JC Higgins air cooled hub.

Here is the frame with both fenders mocked up. Will probably lose the ducktail on the front fender to get both to the same level.

 

[Chad T]

Looking good. Love how the guard fits with that sprocket. Cool looking frame too.

 

[hammer mechanic]

Looking good. Love how the guard fits with that sprocket. Cool looking frame too.

Thanks, the guard and sprocket were easy since they are Higgins items, or at least Murray. I had a lot of runout on the sprocket that I fixed with my rubber mallet. I don't know what the fenders came from, but they fit with just a little trimming. Of course, I haven't tried to mount any wheels yet.

 

[hammer mechanic]

Maybe time for a frame switch.

Just kidding. With all the Silver King frames, I was feeling left out.
For real, I did some trading with Kingfish254, and came up with a cool triple tree fork for FrankenHiggins. The 1 1/8" fork works with the Higgins head tube with just a little filing inside.

Need to come up with a proper threadless headset and stem.
I will need to decide if I am going to use this fork or the original style Higgins fork. I like this look, but I like my fenders also, don't know if I can make them work with this fork.

 

[G-Matt]

Looks good that would look cool with the triple tree & a fender . You never see that , I'm sure you can make a bracket .


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[The Renaissance Man]

The fork looks great with the frame. Very aggressive looking!

 

[hammer mechanic]

I haven't forgotten about this one. Just working and sleeping, not much else. Still debating between original fork and Triple Tree. Now I have a third candidate: Full on Klunker. I found this Diamondback Response Comp on CL yesterday for really cheap. I thought it was worth it for a few parts, but then I got to thinking, why don't I use all of it?

Has anyone done a rear disc brake conversion? or would I be better off cutting the whole rear triangle off of something else?, or stick with one of my other two options? I guess I will go check out some yard sales and think about it.

 

[OneHorsePower]

nice buy ! if you could just swap the hubs or wheels, and have dual diskbrake on the oldie without going all out klunker, that would be sick!

 

[hammer mechanic]

I broke down the back wheel today. The tire came off the hard way:

Tore down the hub and noticed that the sprocket was hooked pretty bad. No luck getting it separated from the driver.

Guess I will have to study up on how this comes apart. Either that or find another driver with sprocket installed.

I did also work on getting the nasty dent out of my top tube. Seemed too big just to fill up with JB Weld.
Before:

After:

Just need to plug these holes.

I did come up with an idea for a tank today. It must have been the new RatRodBikes shirt that came in the mail today.