Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Gone

Well I sold my little Hot Rod Bike last weekend. It was a 1969 Triumph TR6C Tiger that I chopped up and built an old school bobber.






She came to me as a '70s chopper. Molded frame, tiller bars, chrome swing arm, the works.





This would never do, so I started tearing her apart. Pulled the motor, swing arm, and the tins. Bolted on the 4" over 2" drop hard tail. Cut the rear fender. Hung the original tank on the wall (ZigZag Man kicks ass), and built a bad ass seat for her.

I procured a Mustang tank from my good friend Ray.

Painted it up with a beautiful black paint job, and then...

...took 3000 grit sand paper and sanded through it to make a nice patina.

All the wiring was ran through the backbone. The points were replace with a Sparxx ignition and all the remaining dead weight was removed.




The result was an old school bobber, debuting in the middle of the winter.



Pictures from a photo shoot.

I put her up for sale and right off the bat I got contacted by a kid in Elko. He wanted the bike real bad and started digging up the cash. In the mean time I was getting calls from all the "experts" trying to talk down the bike and low ball. 

Wanting the Elko buyer to take the bike home I went onto the online classifieds that I had it listed on and raised the price to detour people from calling, giving the first guy a chance to procure the Triumph. Low and behold, a couple months after first contact he showed up. He was so geeked out for the bike he didn't even take time to go for a ride. I showed him a few of the things you need to know to own a British bike and away they went.

She was a fun build, a good looking bike, and a learning experience. Now that there is some real estate freed up in my garage it is time to think of what is next.

Thats my story.
C






Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Continued

Alrighty, back to the story. The first thing that you need to do after you buy a perfectly good truck out of a field is drive the hell out of it. Really get to know it.

Next, pull the bed off and move the axle from the bottom of the leaf spring to the top. This is not going to be as easy as you think it will be.

Now you will notice that the spring perches are on the wrong side of the axle. Easy fix. Run down to the Trailer supply store and buy new ones. They are going to run you about $2, and well worth it.

Now, you call your good buddy who is a genius welder. I know you think you can do it, but trust me this is a pretty structural part, so call him. In my case I know the manager at a local metal shop, a guy named Dutch, if you know him you too are lucky.

Mark the frame and cut out the section that will be replace with a piece of pipe cut in half.

Cut and weld the outside (leave the bottom attached for now, structure)


Then cut out the bottom.

Now your going to find out that the drive line is too long. So back to the welder buddy to shorten it. This is probably something to have done at a machine shop, but hey your reading a blog from a redneck what do you expect?

Lower the truck, pull it out on the street and admire your handy work.


Bad Ass.

Next time the start of lowering the front end.

C