new guy with a wse on a phantom

younggun85 said:

No problem rickenbiker, just some inspirational photos. I really like the light set, the glass on that head light is something completely different from what I've seen before. Like an eyebrow. Do you know who it is made by?
I was planning on going with a fenderlight an removing the d-cell and replacing it with a high power LED or projector light from a car, but I am worried about it not aiming where I want it to.
I like the elctric panel too, I a thinking of something similar, but more like a box between the seat post and rear fender.

What kind of drum brake are you using? Could you add a clos-up of that?

Are you planning on putting a badge or chain guard on the bike?

Click to expand...

I picked up the light set on Ebay. It's NOS from 1945; called "Make-A-Lite". I couldn't resist the cool vintage look, and since my electrical system is magneto only, I wanted lighting to be independent of everything else.

The red and black flask-shaped thingie mounted to the right seat stay is the generator. The taillight and headlights are very light-gauged stampings. It's obvious that the war effort was still on (VE day was still 4 months in the future when this was sold by Sears--the receipt was in the box!), because there was no plating (hardware is black oxide) and the headlight lens is vacuum-formed butyrate, not glass. It's shrunk and yellowed like butyrate does over time. I'm going to pull a vac-form mold from the lens and make a duplicate so the original one can be saved, as it's pretty brittle, and once gone, it's gone forever.

The stampings are very light gauge--I'm gonna say 24 gauge, and the paintwork is very thin. Wire is varnished cotton jacketed. But, still, I gotta say that the quality of "Made in USA", even during WWII, was pretty amazing. The generator itself is so far superior to the rest of the parts that I'm thinking it might be a design for the military--maybe the company had a bunch extra and decided to tool up for civilian lighting as a way to make a quick $$$.

The packaging for this set is loaded with vintage artwork, and the boxes will go on display in my office.

I don't think that a high-power car projector light would be a good idea--they operate on very high voltage and amperage. Even an ordinary OEM halogen bulb draws 7-10 amps.

In truth, I wanted at least one damascened panel somewhere on the bike. Due to the way I've got the clutch cable mounted, there's no room for a box, so I did a quick lunch hour fab of the aluminum panel.

I'm gonna make a laser-engraved brass badge for it (maybe the old "Hennweigh" joke?), and the chain guard is an NOS Wald universal with the same crystal brass finish as the air cleaner and belt guard. Still have to make a bracket for it, and then there's partial disassembly and a trip to the powder coater.

Gun, as far as I know, it's a new Chinese-made replica of a 1950s bike drum brake (maybe Schwinn?). Got it on Ebay and mated it to a new alloy rim with new spokes.

younggun85 said:

This paint scheme, but equipped like the blue one, with painted fenders the feather guard.

Click to expand...

That is nice...looks like the motor is a WC-1.
theres some really nice work going on here.
I'm gonna have to post where i'm at with a project.

Thanks,
Ray

Thanks younggun85, all the polishing was done by hand, 320 dry sandpaper, then with 400 wet. final was done with Blue Magic (Metal Polish Cream), was really pretty easy.

Your project looks to be getting real close, most of those parts can be found at the swap meets, we have a real good one here once a month in long beach.

Thanks again,
Ray

I'll look in the CABE and see if they like the new edition whizzer motor. they like throwing rocks sometimes.

Carb looks like a 20mm, if you uses it put in a #35 slow jet and star off with a 88 main jet, see what your plug looks like, needs more fuel or less, go form there. 22mm carbs are hard to get a hold of. the good one at least are.
i like the canti frames, plenty of room.
whats it look like now?

Ray