Introducing “Huffy, No Puffy”
I started with a 1969 Huffy that I found at a garage sale for 30 bucks. It didn’t have the fenders or the head light but I really liked the lines and the angular tank.
I basically planned to build the bike around the tank but I had two problems, the missing headlight and a two piece tank that couldn’t hold fuel.
Head light - Problem has solved when I found a rectangle shaped light on eBay. It’s a nice glass lens Hella light that was listed as a bike light but I think it’s really an old fog light meant to be mounted on a car/truck bumper. The outside measurements of the light and the tank were nearly identical so I just needed a way to transform them into a single unit. I mounted the light to the frame and cut down a thin cardboard box and with a little trial and error came up with a template. I wandered the local hardware store looking for the right material and found a thin steel “Beware of dog” sign worked great. I laid out the template and cut to size and bent and painted. Then, how do I attach it to the bike? Perhaps second in greatness only to the invention of Duct tape, is the creation of Velcro. I wrapped the outside of the tank and the outside of the light with loop sided Velcro and the inside of the shell with the hook side. Bingo.
Tank - At first I was going to try and find a small plastic weed eater gas tank to fit inside the two halves of the tank but eventually realized that it would be more trouble than it was worth. I couldn’t use the tank the bike had and I didn’t want to bolt on the gas tank that comes with the kit on top of the bike’s original. Solution? A stealth tank.
I found an old vinyl saddle bag that would do the trick, mounted it to the rack with an old license plate inside the bottom and bolted in pocket bike gas tank. The black fuel lines to the carburetor kind of blend in with the flat black frame paint. (I still need to paint the petcock and fuel filter) I ran a fake fuel line coming from the original tank filled with bright electric yellow/green antifreeze that draws your eyes to it to complete the illusion.
I originally planned on hiding the CDI in an old large rectangular RAYOVAC type battery that was used in the old fashion boxy Boy Scout type flash lights. While trying to track one of those down stumbled upon this Firestone box. It’s a hard rubber reproduction of a car battery with a hinged lid that was a giveaway to Firestone tire dealers in the 40’ or 50’s.
After my stock chain tensioner was pulled into my spokes, (Hmmm…happen to anyone else?) I found misteright1 99’s link under “Spring Return Chain Tensioner" and copied the basic idea. I show what I did on that link.
I went with flat black after seeing a few rat rods that I liked. Things I’ve added/replaced
White tires
Whizzer style handle bars
Huffy speedometer
New wheels
Rear kick stand
Bend seat post
Pocket bike gas tank
I started off this project thinking of going for a board tracker look then, switched to a kind of rat rod style.
I ended up with…The Motorized Bike Of The Future!…if you built it in 1950.
I started with a 1969 Huffy that I found at a garage sale for 30 bucks. It didn’t have the fenders or the head light but I really liked the lines and the angular tank.
I basically planned to build the bike around the tank but I had two problems, the missing headlight and a two piece tank that couldn’t hold fuel.
Head light - Problem has solved when I found a rectangle shaped light on eBay. It’s a nice glass lens Hella light that was listed as a bike light but I think it’s really an old fog light meant to be mounted on a car/truck bumper. The outside measurements of the light and the tank were nearly identical so I just needed a way to transform them into a single unit. I mounted the light to the frame and cut down a thin cardboard box and with a little trial and error came up with a template. I wandered the local hardware store looking for the right material and found a thin steel “Beware of dog” sign worked great. I laid out the template and cut to size and bent and painted. Then, how do I attach it to the bike? Perhaps second in greatness only to the invention of Duct tape, is the creation of Velcro. I wrapped the outside of the tank and the outside of the light with loop sided Velcro and the inside of the shell with the hook side. Bingo.
Tank - At first I was going to try and find a small plastic weed eater gas tank to fit inside the two halves of the tank but eventually realized that it would be more trouble than it was worth. I couldn’t use the tank the bike had and I didn’t want to bolt on the gas tank that comes with the kit on top of the bike’s original. Solution? A stealth tank.
I found an old vinyl saddle bag that would do the trick, mounted it to the rack with an old license plate inside the bottom and bolted in pocket bike gas tank. The black fuel lines to the carburetor kind of blend in with the flat black frame paint. (I still need to paint the petcock and fuel filter) I ran a fake fuel line coming from the original tank filled with bright electric yellow/green antifreeze that draws your eyes to it to complete the illusion.
I originally planned on hiding the CDI in an old large rectangular RAYOVAC type battery that was used in the old fashion boxy Boy Scout type flash lights. While trying to track one of those down stumbled upon this Firestone box. It’s a hard rubber reproduction of a car battery with a hinged lid that was a giveaway to Firestone tire dealers in the 40’ or 50’s.
After my stock chain tensioner was pulled into my spokes, (Hmmm…happen to anyone else?) I found misteright1 99’s link under “Spring Return Chain Tensioner" and copied the basic idea. I show what I did on that link.
I went with flat black after seeing a few rat rods that I liked. Things I’ve added/replaced
White tires
Whizzer style handle bars
Huffy speedometer
New wheels
Rear kick stand
Bend seat post
Pocket bike gas tank
I started off this project thinking of going for a board tracker look then, switched to a kind of rat rod style.
I ended up with…The Motorized Bike Of The Future!…if you built it in 1950.
