poop's tuscaloosa dumplin'!

[Poop]

so disregarding tunnels and fillers, my tank (left) and the borrowed tank have similar profiles.



however, my tank is way wider at the back, and it doesn't seem to compliment the lines of my seat very well at all, or look very skinny. so i made some nip/tuck designs on 'er, and tried to imagine what would give it the taper i wanted, for a waspish waist.



i was playing around with the idea in my head of a straight cut back, versus a curved one, and what different shapes i'd end up with when i made 'em meet.



first cut: remove the bottom and tunnel. fuck you if you have any jokes on my breathing protection. after all of the crap i was pulling out of my nose those days, i had bad images of what it might look like in my lungs.

[Poop]

so here she is after cuts. a little sanding down with a flap disc, and i was ready for a few tack welds. (that i could handle... almost.)



and here she is after those tacks. i'm happy with the shape, just as i imagined.




okay, so check out that little blowout further towards the bottom, and you can see why i said i was only almost able to handle the tack welds.

there were some cool flip filler caps that were being advertised in the mags those days... and they were pricey. lo and behold, i had a pretty sweet one sitting in my garage, on the parts bike. surely nobody would shed a tear if i just plunge cut around that one and lifted 'er over to this tank i'm working on. so that's what i did, and whacked the original filler neck off with a bandsaw. a new hole for the new/old filler cap, a little hammering of the sheet metal around it to fit the curves of this tank, and what's old is new. now i can list the filler cap among the items on this bike still stock.





and with a nifty key lock to keep the commies from contaminating my gas! well, the commies that we didn't already elect into office, i mean.

[donald branscom]

That headlight mount is very creative and looks great!
That is the kind of parts that really make a chopper a chopper.

[Poop]

somewhere around this time, before i cut the filler cap from the other tank, apparently, i borrowed a photographer friend's camera for a day or so and snapped some pics. i got a few strange ones from my garage. they're in my gallery. i'll throw up here the ones of this scoot, as an intermission.

[Poop]

Originally Posted by donald branscom

That headlight mount is very creative and looks great!
That is the kind of parts that really make a chopper a chopper.

thanks, donald!

[Poop]

[Poop]

after it sat like a shell on my scoot for a long time, i took the tank to brad at gypsy choppers to have him make a shallow tunnel bottom (gives a little room for wires, who knows what i'll need) and weld 'er up for me. for any of y'all finding yourself in the vicinity of waynesboro in virginia, i recommend stopping by to see brad's shop. he's a really nice guy with TONS of knowledge. if you want something done right by a guy who knows the difference, he's your man.

along with me i brought two site gauges and the appropriate bungs (these were british standard parallel pipe thread, not an easy find, luckily these came with the gauges), and a 3/8 npt coupling to use for a bung for my spigot-type gas valve, originally purposed as a fuel truck valve for test samples. for some reason, i've always been a little worried about whether it would leak or not, but it has done exactly as it was intended to. i'm very happy with it, kinda unique among chops, but not as foolishly misused as it somehow seems to be. i just put that in there, so nobody makes the mistake of thinking it's a garden hose spigot, and trying to use one of those.

brad cut four closed bungs for mounting the tank, at the bottom.








my mounting system, which i had not as of these pics fabbed on the bike, is simply four pieces of flat bar (1 1/4 x 3/16, i think, or maybe x 1/4), using standard gas tank mounting grommets with the steel inserts. the steel inserts in the grommets are important, so that the clamping action of the mounting bolts is not all absorbed by rubber. you need a tighter clamp than that to keep mounting bolts tight. the rubber helps to isolate vibration which can cause so many problems for everything on your scoot, especially welds in thin metal. since so much pull can be involved welding tabs on like that, and the slightest would make threading a bolt into blind holes a real hassle, i welded up the tabs to the backbone before i drilled the holes for mounting the tank.

speaking of which, the metal on this tank had gotten worn pretty thin in spots, particularly where i'd hacked at the top. after welding, brad strongly suggested i line the tank, and suggested red kote. after waiting so long to get around to following his suggestion, i finally struck a deal with a local radiator shop that was having trouble locating copper pop rivets. locating odd hardware is what i do for a living, so a proper deal was struck, and i trust the tank was lined better than i might have done myself. turns out that radiator shop uses red kote, as well. another friend of mine, an aircraft mechanic who restores old war birds, said the red kote product looked and smelled exactly like a product they use for the same purpose all the time, called cherry juice i think. fwiw...

[Poop]

i should probably stress at this point that often when i say i welded something, it just ain't the truth. i had plenty of buddies come over at different points and do a little welding for me, some out of exchange for product, others because they're just good damn friends. i always made sure i had a clear idea of what and how shit needed to be done, and everything was shaped and beveled and drilled and prepped for welding, so that all the welder had to do was execute, not design and prep. that made the most efficient use of their time, things went quickly, and they usually didn't mind the idea of doing something for me again next time at no cost, because it rarely took too much time.

of course, that's not to say a couple of friends didn't spend a lot of time once or twice, helping me work out a solution i was a little stumped on.

[Poop]

now onto the fender mounting, which is something i'm really proud of. i think i came up with a pretty good solution to a common problem with that.

but first, i needed to set up an anvil, so i could stop fucking up old giveaway vises that i was pounding on.

i have a childhood buddy who is a member here, though he rarely comes around anymore. he owns the little suzuki chop i referenced earlier, and i think included a pic or two of. sweet orange candy tank. anyway, will is always getting concrete wedge floor anchors from me, and occasionally hilti-type bits for concrete. so i knew he was the man to help me install a stand for my anvil.

i grew up holding horses in the barn for farriers who made custom shoes on the spot. i never paid too much attention to them, until i realized how much there is to shaping metal. so for a year or so, every time john watkins came out to the barn, i asked advice on certain projects, or why i was having such-and-such occur when i was trying to shape something. when i picked up a cheap ass anvil from northern tool one year for christmas, i noticed it didn't have any bolt holes for mounting. john explained that you were supposed to chain it down, and have tension adjustments for the chains, and described some of the ways to do it.

i cut a piece of an old treated 8x8 rough cut gate post, that had been pulled out of the ground after a decade or two of service. it was seasoned, and still weighed a freakin' ton. instead of chains, i figured i'd use some of the ratchet straps that i had lying around. will came over on a saturday and spent a couple of hours getting that bitch straight. most importantly, the farrier reminded me, was to mount it at a height so that when i strike, my hammer handle is at about waist level. it was a very key note, especially if you remember the pics of my retarded ass climbing the workbench to try and get a good angle to hammer on the piece of 1/8 for my headlight bucket repair.

[Poop]

my apologies for the chinese product. i was poor, and in no condition to properly support our domestic economy. unable to pick up a quality used anvil from the trading post or whatever, i put this $25 bit on my christmas list.

so anyway, now i had some fender supports/mounts to make. the fender i'd decided on (yes, i ditched the armor-dillo!) was a thin-as-shit honda front fender, from a late '70s cb750. it was a free score, and was easy to manipulate to fit my wheel. to widen the fender / tighten the overall radius, all i had to do was pull it apart with my hands over and over across the length of it. it was very easy to manipulate, plus this stiffened it a bit from the working of it. the big drawback to a fender like this, though, is that it is prone to cracking from welding and/or vibration, and prone to crumpling if anyone sat on it. no problem, as far as passengers. and as for the weakness of the metal, i had a good solution.

first, i would mount the fender at six points, to reduce harmonic vibrations singing through it and tearing it up at the mounts.

second, instead of mounting bungs to the fender, i'd use straps to go underneath that could be bolted or riveted to the fender. the straps would come out from the side of the fender, and there i could weld bungs for mounting.

like this:

[Poop]

that was easy. knocked out two more in about fifteen minutes. not bad for a total fucktard.

[Poop]

i think this was the first welding i did on the scoot that i depended on holding a part together permanently, rather than just long enough for someone else to do it properly. damn, i must be a freakin' genius.

that behind me, i realized there would be plenty of small things i could trust myself to weld.

[Poop]

i damn sure hope someone ends up reading this. this is taking a while.

[EscaladeSteve]

I just look at the pictures...lol

Dont worry man, it's being read

[manser]

Originally Posted by Poop

i damn sure hope someone ends up reading this. this is taking a while.

Hang in there Poop - we're here with you

Great build thread!