Something new and kinda sorta 100 years old looking

GoldenMotor.com

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
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northeastern Minnesota
Does look copper, doesn't it? Do believe it is brass, though, which should be more evident when I polish it up. Then I'll need to figure out how to electrify it. Mount a little bulb in there I would guess and put a battery pack in a leather bag.
I'd use LED lights in there. There are Cree bulbs you can get for not too much. Where did the light come from? I'm guessing it is old and from a boat. Brass is mighty fine, too. Whatever it is, it will look really good on your bike. Nice find!
SB
 

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
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southeastern MA
I'd use LED lights in there. There are Cree bulbs you can get for not too much. Where did the light come from? I'm guessing it is old and from a boat. Brass is mighty fine, too. Whatever it is, it will look really good on your bike. Nice find!
SB

It's a side light from a Cadillac, I believe from around 1915 or so. They were actually made in left and right versions because there is a side lens to warn side street traffic. Being a side light it is smaller in scale than a headlight which is HUGE.
 

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
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northeastern Minnesota
Interesting writeup on the ebay auction and worth reading... seller inherited three garages loaded with boxes of antique auto parts, autos, black-smithing stuff. Pretty amazing list of car manufacturers represented. There were so many in the early days, just like it was with motorcycles in the beginning... and now our choices are so limited. Nice score on the lamps.
SB
 

fishguts

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Sep 7, 2010
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Interesting writeup on the ebay auction and worth reading... seller inherited three garages loaded with boxes of antique auto parts, autos, black-smithing stuff. Pretty amazing list of car manufacturers represented. There were so many in the early days, just like it was with motorcycles in the beginning... and now our choices are so limited. Nice score on the lamps.
SB

It does sound interesting ... but I've heard so many of these "hidden treasure" stories over the years that I've become pretty skeptical! It could just be a guy with some dusty parts in a couple cardboard boxes in his basement who likes having some attention.

I'm far from being an expert on any of this but do know some of these parts are fairly common and thus, not terribly expensive. Dietz lamps come to mind since the same part might end up on a variety of cars. That makes it easy for someone to say they have parts for "Cadillac, Packard, Peerless, Pierce-Arrow, etc." It's like that with old boats, too. If you search for Chris-Craft parts on Ebay you'll get a ton of stuff that might have been on a Chris-Craft but more likely was on some boat of lesser-fame. Same part, just a more humble origin.
 

fishguts

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Sep 7, 2010
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OK, here we go.

The victim is a Micargi Rover GT-R. I picked this bike because I like the shape of the frame, the price, the heavy tubes and motorcycle-like fork and black wheels and spokes. I wish the top tube was thicker like the Micargi Retro I have, but there's always trade-offs.

First thing I did was cut the ends off the high rise handlebars and bent them open to 22". I think they were about 18" before, between the turn-outs. The stickers came off the bike real easy - just got my fingernail under a corner and peeled them off. They didn't leave any residue. The badge on the head tube peeled off easy, too, but left some foam bits which I wiped off with a little naptha.





Tried on the handlebars and put some white rubber on it.


Here's the shop.
 
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fishguts

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Well, hit my first snag. These wheels have 68 spokes, which I now see means a larger rim on the hub to fit them all and not enough room for the bolts that hold the sprocket. So it looks like I need to buy different wheels.
 

fishguts

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Sep 7, 2010
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Started making a set of 1/2" truss rods. I used 3/8" bushings (gave me some meat to weld to) and drilled them out to 1/2". I'll weld the rods to the bottom of the fork and weld the stand-offs on the lower shoulder of the triple tree. The upper ends of the rods will be threaded and will fit through brackets welded to the upper shoulders.

I don't know what some of these bike parts are actually called, so I just make stuff up. laff Now I gotta find that 1/2" die...

 

BarelyAWake

New Member
Jul 21, 2009
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erm... we delete duplicate threads as a matter of course so it was removed. We can ofc move threads w/e appropriate... but while your bike is defo sweet, it's also definitely not vintage or a boardtracker so it's prolly best here.

Sorry for any confusion :)
 
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Leo Klepper

Member
May 23, 2010
40
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Netherlands
I'm very curious of what the end result will be Fishguts!. Beautiful headlight. Here in the Netherlands you can buy old brass carbid headlights for about $ 30,- Look here.
 

corgi1

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Aug 13, 2009
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Well, hit my first snag. These wheels have 68 spokes, which I now see means a larger rim on the hub to fit them all and not enough room for the bolts that hold the sprocket. So it looks like I need to buy different wheels.
for even sproket placement would be 36+36=72 spokes
xct2