Top Fool

[GuitarlCarl]

Hehe, I redid my seat and chain stays 2 or 3 times...
and it still looks like monkeys welded it.

Carl.

 

[Psychographic]

I almost did something without screwing up.

I was looking for something and found the brakes I took off a girl's Varsity. I held it in place on the front fork and it looks like it was made to be there. It tucks into those big tubes and isn't very obtrusive looking.

I used the rear mount and the front arms. The rear mount fit perfect on my brace, I had to switch the arms as the girls bike has the cable come from below.

How did I screw up today? I broke a bit, when it went through the tube and into the plug I have in the brace.

I'm running out of things to build.

 

[Psychographic]

Hehe, I redid my seat and chain stays 2 or 3 times...
and it still looks like monkeys welded it.

Carl.

Was it Magilla?

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

That front brake is clean looking, happy accident there!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Psychographic]

It has now been ridden by two people, and it didn't kill either of us! It's nice to see someone riding it, you get a much different perspective of how it looks with someone on it.

On flat surfaces its fine, but does bottom out on bumps fairly easily. It has a 2.25" tire on the back and I plan to go to a 3", that should give me a little more clearance. I thought about adding a skid plate, but that will leave me with even less clearance.

I'm waiting on my seat brace to show up, it just cleared customs. As I will have to make up two more brackets, I may redo the spring mount to give me more clearance.

Time to start thinking of paint and graphics.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Remember that you'll only be gaining half of that 3/4 of an inch, if that. I'm sure there's a formula to figure out radius of radius plus radius. Hopefully involving multiple pieces of pi.

 

[Psychographic]

Remember that you'll only be gaining half of that 3/4 of an inch, if that. I'm sure there's a formula to figure out radius of radius plus radius. Hopefully involving multiple pieces of pi.

It's probably less than 3/8" as not all the additional size will be in height of the tire, some gain has to be lost to width too. But every little bit will help.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Ya that's what I meant by the double radius, subtract part of the height for width, and more for the height. Should have said something like "radius on top of radius" or "in addition to". I started thinking about pie. Mmmm.

 

[Psychographic]

Ya that's what I meant by the double radius, subtract part of the height for width, and more for the height. Should have said something like "radius on top of radius" or "in addition to". I started thinking about pie. Mmmm.

All that is way above my pay grade!

 

[Psychographic]

What is this idiot doing now? Teaching himself how to build a wheel, and hopefully making a cool looking one at that.

I've had this idea of engine turning the wheels on the Fool, hitting them with adhesion promoter, followed up with candy gold. Before doing anything I trued up both wheels to be sure I had something worth working with. I taped the spokes together, so I can study it and understand it before I disassemble, and clean the hub and spokes. I also think I would like some contrasting colored nipples.

I sanded a small area with 220 wet, when I was down to bare metal, I then used my thumb to spin the sandpaper, creating the engine turn.

It's hard to photograph, but you should be able to see it. It will really be noticed on the wheels as the light reflection will constantly be moving.

 

[RustyGold]

If you haven't heard of them, look up Cratex rubberized abrasive rods...they aren't that expensive (you can get them on amazon), and they are what is used to produce a nice engine turned look. Stick one in a drill motor and with some practice you'll get a very uniform result.

 

[Psychographic]

Thanks for the tip Rusty, but I'll stick to the sandpaper. I am not looking for typical engine turning that has hard edges, I want soft edges like a nicely spun gold leaf job. The way I do this is incredibly fast, once the original finish is removed.

 

[RustyGold]

Sounds cool

 

[OddJob]

This 'engine turn' finish looks cool. Maybe a vid or couple more steps on how to? Another mold breaking idea here, Psycho-G!

*Edit - I just re-read your description. I think I get it now. This would be extremely cool on a really wide rim too. Will you use the Dupli-Color Metalcast paint for this like I did with their Smoke on my chrome parts? If so, pick up the Enamel Engine Clear as a final coat, it really brings out the shine!

 

[Psychographic]

I'ts really hard to take pics while I'm working, two hands just aren't enough. The process is very simple, sand the metal clean, then using your thumb to hold a small section of 220 wet paper, spin back and forth about 5-10 times. Make sure you only rotate your thumb and keep it centered in the same spot. Move over so you just slightly overlap, repeat until you are done.

If you have to sand the surface clean before starting as I have, it would help to sand with a finer grade of paper than you use to make your turns. The reason for this is you will most likely be using more pressure to sand the piece clean than you will to make your turns. This will leave scratches that you will need remove doing the turns, a shallower scratch (finer grit paper) will sand out faster when turning with a courser paper.

I hope that made sense. I'll take some mock up pics later.

As for the paint, I've read way too many complaints about the gold Metalcast looking green. I'm going to stop at my supply house and see if they have any transparent gold toners that look good, if not I'll be using HOK Aztec or Pagan candy gold for color.

 

[OddJob]

That ^ makes a lot of sense to me now. The finer grade first, under the swirl technique to prevent deeper scratches.

I'm putting this one in the 'ideas file' for future builds!

 

[Psychographic]

I'm going to have to do more sanding than I thought.

I got tired of sanding through that thick layer of grey paint and went to get some paint stripper. After two coats and some work with a plastic razor blade, it was down to primer. After sanding it all down, I notice deep scratches all along the lip of the rim. They are deeper than any paper I'm using so they must be from the factory. I don't have the patience to get them all out, but I've got one side looking decent after about an hour of sanding.

 

[OddJob]

I'm going to have to do more sanding than I thought.

I got tired of sanding through that thick layer of grey paint and went to get some paint stripper. After two coats and some work with a plastic razor blade, it was down to primer. After sanding it all down, I notice deep scratches all along the lip of the rim. They are deeper than any paper I'm using so they must be from the factory. I don't have the patience to get them all out, but I've got one side looking decent after about an hour of sanding.

 

[toro1978]

If you still plan on using a 3" wide tire in the rear I have to mention that I couldn't fit one in a fully's rear triangle - it rubbed against the seatstays. Mine was a 24" wheel with 57mm wide rim.

 

[Psychographic]

I should have plenty of room for a 3".

What is a Fully?