1956 goodyear highway patrol

since my old frame cracked, and my custom frames are waiting on back-ordered steel and dies for the tubing bender, i needed something to ride, so i scored this bike on craigslist for $100 bucks.

the forks are bent, the wheels are rusty with tiny little spokes, but it's mostly complete, except for the tank, and the guy dropped it off at my house, and gave me an extra wheel with a red band bendix coaster brake!

so i'm just gonna use the frame (and the chain guard. that might help keep the cops away!) with new parts. it's a tight fit, but i already figured it out.

if i don't kill the frame before my custom ones are done, i'll put it all back together and restore it, and sell it for double...

i'll post some pics tomorrow when it's motorized, and you can see how lousy it looks with that stupid peanut tank sitting on top of it.

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Nice score bairdco - it looks almost like a worksman! Yeah, as such a "peanut" tank IS gonna look a bit... odd

Very cool bike and the price was right. That has nice lines and you're right, a peanut tank will look cheezy. How about a cylindrical tank behind the seat? I have two of those and neither one cost me anything but the labor in cleaning them up. Here's how I get them... when I go to the dump if I see a lawn mower or weed whacker that looks complete, I pick it up and pass it along for nothing to my local small engine guy, telling him I hate to see good things go to waste and thought maybe he could use them for parts or whatever. He has been very appreciative. Then we chat some about old motors and I steer it to where I want to go... motorbicycles. He's interested. Then I ask if he has any of those cylindrical tanks out back in the dead parts department. I've gotten two so far with no money exchanged. I'm planning to stop in today or tomorrow to see if another has shown up. These tanks are aluminum and if not dented, clean up nicely and shine up pretty well as they are. The second one I got had dents in it, so that one got some body work done on it with JB weld. I think that one is going to be black by the end of the day and will go behind the seat on my Worksman paper boy cruiser (actually similar frame to your Highway Patrol). This will leave a clean look I think.
Nice score!
Silverbear

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Someday when I grow up I will probably lose interest in toys with wheels, but until then...

i was thinking about one of those tanks, i guess i'll have to check some lawnmower shops around here. it is only temporary, though.

besides the straightbar look, it's a lot cheesier than the worksman. it's a "middleweight." the tubes are jammed together and welded inside. it looks kinda scary. i hope it doesn't rip apart on me.

i had a worksman about 20 years ago that i found in a "pick-a-part" auto salvage. it was in the back of a van in pieces. the only thing missing was the chain. i paid 20 bucks for it. it was orange, and had "weapons ready" spraypaint stenciled on the top tube. i found out later it was used at Camp Pendleton. i ended up selling it to a friend. wish i still had that now.

Silverbear, you may want to see if any local welders will tig a couple of those tanks togeather for you and maybe even extend the fill and angle it so you could use one on your worksman.

See if there's anything in the scrapyard they want. lol

That's a thought. They could also be joined together without opening them up so that in effect it would be two tanks with two gas lines going together in a Y union. Run out of gas in one thank and open up the other. How would the filler work? .. cut it off at the base of the filler and weld in an appropriate sized aluminum tube and then weld on to the other end the cut off filler? Would that work?
Silverbear

__________________
Someday when I grow up I will probably lose interest in toys with wheels, but until then...

Exactly! Actually if you don't want to make them one long tank don't even have them welded. Go down to your local home improvement/hardware store and get a shielded "fernco" and just put the tanks together yourself.

What is a "fernco"? I've never heard of that. I recently purchased some welding rod for aluminum which you can supposedly use with just a propane torch. I bought the stuff partly out of curiosity and in hopes of being able to repair things. Also, I live in a vintage 1957 Spartan Aircraft trailer (made by John Paul Getty back when) and in the winters live in a 1951 Spartan Aircraft trailer out east. Being able to make small repairs in the aircraft aluminum would be nice. I have a lot of aluminum in my life, it seems. So anyway, I'm wondering if I could extend the fill tube as said above, by cutting if off, adding a section of aluminum tube and re-welding it together again. I know a real welder with the right equipment could do this without a problem. But you know how it is... there's a lot of satisfaction in doing something yourself with the tools and skills you personally have. I can buy shoes, but walking around in moccasins I made is better. Have you used these aluminum welding rods? Would it work? Maybe I am using the wrong terminology in "weld", maybe it is more like brazing or soldering. But bottom line is, would it work? (Enquiring minds want to know.)
Silverbear

__________________
Someday when I grow up I will probably lose interest in toys with wheels, but until then...

A "Fernco" is a coupler for pipe, you'll see them used where PVC joins cast iron and they range in sizes from 1 1/4" up to just about infinity I think.

The only advice I have for that aluminum rod is practice on a LOT of scrap. I could never get anything hot enough with my torch and remember aluminum is an awesome conductor so getting that little spot hot enough is a pretty tricky task. My package of that rod is still hanging on my tool-board after 4 years and there's a sheet metal screw plugging the hole in my boat. lol

Thanks, Kevlarr.
I kind of thought it might be too good to be true. I'll experiment on something of no consequence this winter when there's more downtime. And now I know what a fernco is. I've seen them before, but didn't know the name. Now my vocabulary has jumped by one. For now the aluminum tank will go behind the seat. I once had several antique brass fire extinguishers about half again as long at the aluminum tanks and about the same diameter. Kinda wish I hadn't tossed them... still have the filler pipe problem, though. Wish I could weld. I can JB weld, but that doesn't count.
Silverbear

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Someday when I grow up I will probably lose interest in toys with wheels, but until then...