Hot Rod Hawthorne

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Busy afternoon today, even dragged out the ol' miter saw for a groovin' good time.
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What? Why a miter saw? Because I figured out how to set the depth stop so I can dado a few slots for....


Cooling fins?!?!!!
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And a custom chain guard too!
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The fins are still rough hacksaw cut, bu. t will soon have their ends rounded over. I wanted to do speed holes, but that's already been done in this build-off! LOL
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Nice work on that chainguard-fender fitting!
 
I decided to take a tip from Kingfish and go on vacation during the build-off!
Italy is above my pay grade though, so we're going to visit my wife's kinfolk deep in the heart of beautiful western Arkansas.

As Willy would say, "On the road again..."
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Not seen many old bikes. A couple of European(?) cottered crank bikes at the local flea market, but no balloon tire bombers. Did find this old metal Daisy 880 pellet rifle there. Had to get it. New seals and it should be a fun plinker. A real Arkansas built Daisy makes a great souvenir. LOL
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Maybe I should make a scabbard for the Hawthorne to carry a pellet rifle. Ought to attract a lot of attention riding through subdivisions back home! 😀
 
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I hear Mac and Don use only meat from the back legs of the chicken, too. They say that's the best.
 
Back home again in North Carolina! It's always nice to visit family, but it's always nice to go home too!
Been working on a shift lever a bit since getting home.
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I like to do the inletting first since it's the hardest part.

It's also time to get busy on making a drop stand. That will include a run to Home Depot today. Need some water softener salt too.

Gratuitous Grandbaby Picture Alert!
Our first grand daughter. Been resisting the temptation to post her picture, but as the Borg is known to say, "Resistance is futile."
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More work on the shifter.
Some "magic fingers" to hold the lever in place and a cover smooth it all up
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Test ride went well, except for the occasional metallic clatter of parts falling off onto the road.
Had backtrack and find all my not glued in yet "cooling fins!!" 😆

Now it's time to purty up that 2" slab of aluminum into something akin to a vintage motorcycle shift lever.
 
Shifter is getting there. Lot of work with the hacksaw in that thing. A lot of filing too. Figured one piece would be more structurally sound and better looking than scabbing two pieces together.
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Oh my, almost dropped to page 2!

Figured out my chain tension dilemma. Original screws looked like maybe #12 fine thread, so since #12-24 is all I can find, I bought a #12-24 tap and rethreaded the frame slots. Seems to work fine.
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Couldn't use the BMX chain tensioners. They would have interfered with the big project of the day, the drop stand!
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I know the original drop stand would have been a big hunk of heavy steel C-channel. This is a hot rod. Hot rods need to keep weight low, right? So I went to Home Depot (local rat bike parts store) and bought some poor man's billet aluminum to build the drop stand. 😀

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I think I described the situation wrong. The whole rear triangle leaned to the left. The dropouts are parallel. I used a turn buckle to spread the dropouts, similar to using the all thread method. I cut a piece of 2x6 to fill the gap between the dropouts and laid the bike on its left side and stood on the frame and bounced a few times! Like I said, not perfect, but much better and I didn't want to tweak an 80+ year old frame any more. Or risk falling and breaking any 50+ year old bones! LOL
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There are great examples from the wizard Sheldon Brown of using 2x4s through the frame to allign the different sides back into the proper planes. I think I had to do that with my Western Sizzler frame a few BOs ago.
 
Killer tank, oil tank, shifter, fender, work on the bike.
The drop stand looks great in it's functional position, but it kinda detracts from the hotrod vibe flow of the bike when hiked up to the bobbed fender.
 
Killer tank, oil tank, shifter, fender, work on the bike.
The drop stand looks great in it's functional position, but it kinda detracts from the hotrod vibe flow of the bike when hiked up to the bobbed fender.
Yeah, I was sort of bummed about the look of the stand in the up position. Need to do some refining on that.
 

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