I have some photos to share, a couple for this build and a few more for others. Over the course of this winter I intend to jump around from one project to another as I want, doing things that either particularly interest me or are suitable for indoors work in a pretty confined space in my aging trailer house (1957 Spartan Royal Manor) which is far from royalty and is the smallest manor house in the world.
I recently ran across an auction for three 1920's Indian head nickles (cost me $5.00). I don't recall how they came up but when I saw them something clicked and I saw one becoming part of my Indian Hiawatha build. On my American Flyer I had experimented with soldering a quarter with the American Eagle side facing up to a brass gas cap and it looked pretty good, so I figured I would do the same with this old Indian. On the first cap with the quarter the solder was kind of goobery around the edges of the quarter as that's how I soldered it... along the circumference.
I wanted to give this old Indian some respect and see if the solder could be hidden. First I drilled a vent hole through the gas cap, then cleaned up the brass at the center with steel wool. I cleaned up the buffaloe side of the nickle the same, then dabbed a bit of flux on each cleaned surface and heated up first the brass cap and gave it a bit of solder. Then the same to the nickle. Once I could handle it I centered the nickle on the brass cap with the Indian head facing up, so in other words there was a dab of solder on the cap and on the backside of the coin in contact with each other. Then I put the torch to the nickle and gave it heat. Once hot enough I could tell when the nickle settled down into the molten solder. Once cooled I could see there was a good bond and no solder showing. Just what I wanted. Cleaned up the flux residue with brass polish (Wizard) and I'm pleased with the results. I drilled through the nickle for the vent, continuing the whole already drilled in the brass cap. It is admittedly a small detail, but I know it's there and that's what matters most to me. This build is not just a nod to the Indian Motorcycle, but in my private thoughts is a tribute to the American Indian and in particular to Hiawatha who gave us our basic form of government which inspired our founding fathers to model our constitutional government on the Indian's Iroquois Confederacy. So anyway, this is another bit of Americana and more Indian stuff. Woohoo!
Also pictured is a new copper fuel filter (#3) which is my best one yet I think and will be used on the "kindalikeawhizzer" build.
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=49177&highlight=kindalikeawhizzer
The copper filter uses fine stainless steel wool inside as the filtering medium and it utilizes water pipe fittings; two end caps and a section of 1" copper pipe. The inlet and outlet are 1/4" wee sections of copper tubing as would be used in propane lines (soft copper). A little refinement is my cutting tiny grooves into the tubing so that the rubber fuel line can better grip the copper. As fuel filters go I think this beats plastic ones by a long shot and should do a good job of keeping crap out of the carburetor. I really like this one. The main body is 4" long, but can be made to suit of course.
Last is an ugly duckling spotlight I found in a junk shop. The lens says GE on it (not made in China) and it is quite heavy. The bulb will get changed over to a 32 LED unit. The tag said it was removed from a Ford F-100 pickup, so it must be in the range of 30 some years old. Under the crud is absolutely stunning chrome with nary a pit or spot of rust. It is going to clean up beautifully and with the hardware removed and mounting holes drilled it will become a teardrop headlight for the American Deluxe Hybrid Trike... and will look fantastic, in my opinion. Four bucks made it a real find. The Harbor Freight dune buggy light I had made over for the trike will now go to the "kindalikeawhizzer".
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=47993&highlight=American+deluxe+hybrid+trike
That's it for show and tell. Other things I'm working on are a copper art deco headlight for the 34 Elgin Velocipede and I picked up some half inch conduit to make curved fender struts (is that what you call them) for the Indian Hiawatha tri-car front wheels.
Building in the hunt and peck manner keeps me interested in what I'm doing. If I have to wait for parts I can go to something else. A little of this and a little of that will help to pass the winter and bring the builds closer to being done.
My ratcheting brace arrived and I am in the process of grinding a ratchet extension to fit the brace. I tried it today on the engine and it will make a dandy hand crank engine starter for the Velocipede. Pretty cool!.
SB
I did wonder if that strange object with the pointy end was a steam flash boiler, but if it is it's been placed in a not entirely comfortable position for the rider. Perhaps the idea was to encourage the rider to greater feats of speed in an effort to get away from the thing.
