So we have been plugging away at Tevan's Resto-Mod build, and decided we wanted to make a sweet cafe' style tail section for it. We thought about buying an off the shelf tail section, but thats not how we do things around here. We thought about laying some of our own fiberglass down, and I decided against that for no real reason other than I hate messing with fiberglass...
So we looked around the shop for some sheetmetal, and happened to remember we had a set of HD tanks sitting on the shelf that might be suitable to cut up... Sounds perfect!
The Donor Tanks:
We eyeballed what we thought would look like a nice shape for the tail section, drew out some lines with a market, and then gave ourselves a bit more room to shape afterwards...
Make some cuts...
Do some grinding, shaping, hammering and welding and you should end up with something like this:
Match up the left and right halves - I like to use my Eyecrometers for a job this tedious.... You'll notice we welded in a flat panel on the bottom of this section, as the stock HD tanks look like the surface of the moon for whatever reason...
You can also see that this tank had some kind of liner in it previously, we had to scrape/grind/chisel that crap out of the areas to be welded to keep from contaminating the welds...
We tacked the section to the frame, just to get a good idea of what it will look like. Once we have the position just right, we'll make some real mounts for it.
I think Tevan approves, its kinda hard to tell really, he has this look all day long here in the shop...
In the next few days, we will be modifying the swingarm and building a set pan... Stay tuned folks!
Nice fab work... but whats with those pants!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I gotta give the boy a raise, so he can get some new jeans - haha!
ReplyDeleteSo since he's not finished with that yet; does this mean that he's still grounded?
ReplyDeleteAs a BUELL owner you're not going to get anything but hate from me when it comes to HD. I'm glad you found such a fitting use for the tanks... and what a fit it is! Well done, gentlemen. (And you've reminded me that my own XS project is not going to fabricate itself, so I'd better get cracking.)
ReplyDeleteBigJimmy - Yeah poor old Tevan is still on house arrest until he gets this bike done!
ReplyDeleteDavid - I own a Buell too, I think I'll cut it up in the spring
That is really outside the box thinking - looks really good too! Buy that boy some jeans - he's gonna burn himself with grinder sparks ;-)
ReplyDelete