Shelby Hiawatha Arrow 'Regrestoration'

[The Renaissance Man]

Finally got back into the fiberglass shop with both the tank and rack mold making process.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Stripped most of the paint off of the frame today. With the bulk of it gone, the media blasting will be easier.

Messy work.

 

[RustyGold]

Nasty.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I finally took the mold apart. Everything looks good at this point. It just needs a little fine tuning and it will be ready to start making parts soon!


Of course there is still a lot of work left before having a complete tank. This is just the first step, but it's a big step!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The frame is bead blasted. I'll finish up with a Scotch-brite pad before it's ready for primer.

 

[SpikeFC]

The frame is bead blasted. I'll finish up with a Scotch-brite pad before it's ready for primer.

It looks super sweet without the paint...

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I know! I love seeing all of the brazing for the first time in over 80 years!

It made me wonder about the worker who had his hands and eyes on this as it was being made. What was going on in his life? What was on his mind on that particular day? Etc, etc.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The rack is seperated from the mold. So far so good!

Still some work to do but I'm very happy at this point.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

This past weekend I focused my attention on finishing the tank mold.

The first thing was to sand out any imperfections. I started with 220 grit on the worst places and worked my way up to a final wet sand with 1000.

I didn't stop to get an action shot but next I used polishing compound and followed with 9 applications of mold release wax. That took most of the weekend due to allowing an hour to an hour and a half between applications.
Here's the result:

Yesterday I took the finished mold back to the fiberglass shop for gel coat.

And this is how the day ended.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

After the gel coat cured overnight, it was time to start laying some glass this morning.

And this is how it looked at the end of today.

Tomorrow the first tank will finally be ready to come out of the mold!

 

[Brian macumber]

As always awesome work.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I've been looking forward to this day for a few months now! The first tank is out of the mold!

Everything seems to be working as planned at this point!

 

[léocwc]

beautiful work.
have you ever thought of making wide gothic fenders for cwc roadmaster? it is very difficult to find a reasonably priced pair.

 

[Starnger]

beautiful work.
have you ever thought of making wide gothic fenders for cwc roadmaster? it is very difficult to find a reasonably priced pair.

Me and a friend of mine were thinking on how to get a profile like that, thinking over building a rear reflector. Actually if you just take a 100mm wide fender available at the market, cut out a stripe from the middle and weld it back, you may get a profile very similar to original gothic
Though i would be happy to see them too!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

beautiful work.
have you ever thought of making wide gothic fenders for cwc roadmaster? it is very difficult to find a reasonably priced pair.

I'm staying focused on the Shelby parts right now. Still lots to work out.

______________________________________________
Back to the bike build.

Been sanding the frame with a Scotch disc getting it ready for primer. It's in very good condition.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I know it isn't going to be clear coat, but those brazes... So gorgeous, the craftsmanship... That frame is industrial art.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The rear fender was pretty rough to start with.

After media blasting the crusty paint it was already looking better.

After some carefull massaging, it's ready for primer!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Back to the blasting cabinet!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

This is a strange little oddity.

Two of the three Shelby front fenders in the parts pile had very similar extra holes in them.

After much discussion with @Freqman1 and some detective work it seems that both apparently had suffered the same fate. It looks like the original slotted hole must have broken away leaving a washer size hole and then someone 'fixed' it by drilling a new hole about an inch behind to bolt through. So wierd, they look almost identical!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

My first thought when I saw the picture was a basket mount. My wife had a basket up on the front, and it left a similar dent in the fender.