Indian Tadpole

[fasteddy]

Thanks Silverbear. This has been a lot easier than I would have thought. At least so far anyway. Guess the summer bike camp was a lot of help. LOL.

Went to get some 1-1/2" T's that Fastenal sells and the close to me store has moved quite a ways away. So Tuesday I'll have to go up and get the parts.

Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada and the country stops as it should.

Then I went to Home Depot since I found that they had 10' 3/4" galvanized ground rods in the electrical section for $20. The metal/nut and bolt section has 3 foot sections for $18. Want to use these for the arms that will hold the front axle in place and the two support rods that help hold the tube going down from the head tube with the steering rod in it. Don't know how the tubing I bought will hold up since it's pretty thin walled.

Nope! Sold the last two today. Perfect. Now the week end is toast. The other HD is around the corner from Fastnal and with gas running at $6.00 a gallon I'll have to wait until Tuesday. It's about a 20 mile drive with a Dodge camper van.

If I come up with something interesting I'll post it or see you Tuesday.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Nothing to photograph today. Did a lot of creative staring, measuring and holding different parts up to the bike to see how they looked in place.

The one thing that has been giving me fits as what to do, is the gas tank.The seat is too low to get the Camelback look as the original was. It will be close but not quite what the original looked like. After the appropriate amount of grumbling I cut up an old fender and layed up the bottom and the another fender provided the top.
Tomorrow I'll make patterns of the sides and try welding it up.

It's a looks something like Indian not an exact copy I keep telling myself.

I had an old Monark rear fender that Silverbear sent me along with a frame and after sandblasting the fender and adding 2 fender struts that I had bought from e-bay knowing that I would need them I felt it looks good.

I'll be at it tomorrow and hopefully will have photos.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

Like me I think everyone is waiting to see more compleation. I know its going to be AWESOME...............Curt

 

[fasteddy]

Indian Tri-car Build pictures by speedydick - Photobucket

Thank Curt. I'm kind of in the front row to see how it will look as well.

I got a start on the tank today after changing things around. I took a couple of photos with the side panels being the cardboard patterns I'll use to cut out the steel.
Just to give everone an idea of what it will look like. The red cap is where the gas filler cap will go.

Steve.

 

[silverbear]

That's going to look really good, Steve!
SB

 

[fasteddy]

Indian Tri-car Build pictures by speedydick - Photobucket

I welded the tank up today since it was the first dry day in a bit and I weld outside.
I used two front fenders to form the tank. Both 26". If I had them I would have tried a 16" or a 20" fender to see if I could a bit more of a curve to the top of the tank.

The filler was a 3/4" pipe nipple that I welded in. I should have welded in a couple of squares of metal to add to the thickness since the thin fender and the heavy pipe made it very hard to weld in with out burning through. There was lots of burn through.
The tank will need a good bit of tank sealer to make it tight.

The brass top is a garden hose cap that I found at Home Depot. When you have a splitter on one tap to use two hoses this is used to cap off one side so it doesn't leak if you take a hose off.

Not sure just where the gas line is going so I haven't drilled a hole for it yet. I'll solder in a fitting when I make up my mind.

I'm going to cut the sides out tomorrow and grind the seams if it doesn't rain. They were left long so that there was plenty of area to weld to since I wasn't sure where everything was going to line up.
I'll cut out the oil tank that sits in front of the gas tank later. The front end is the next hurdle after this.

Steve.

 

[silverbear]

Boy, is that coming out nice! We're going to have a couple of great looking tri-cars to ride around on next summer. Be cool if we had them both ready for Ely's 4th of July parade. Meeting up with Tinsmith this weekend for a bike ride and planning session for projects in his shop this winter... one of which will be the copper in frame gas tank for my Hiawatha version of the tri-car. Will your gas tank get a decal on the side?
SB

 

[NEAT TIMES]

Steve

The tank is cool. Photo Bucket Slide Show is fast or slow and easy, great viewing!!

Hoping to spend time with you and SB @ Mn Bike Camp next summer! Gettin all my Duck`s lined up.

Ron

 

[fasteddy]

Silverbear,
Thank you for putting the photos up. We will have the two tricars done by the 1st.
I'll assemble yours and leave the tube coming out of the head tube off it until I'm there to get the angle right.

I have some companies that make the decals for the tank and I'll order a set.

The tank wasn't as hard as I thought. Used #023 welding wire to weld it with the mixed gas as a shield and it came out quite well I thought.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Neat Times,
Hope you get up there. We'll take over Ely for the weekend on July Ist. We'll be known as the Mild Ones instead of Marlon Brandos, Wild Ones or we could use my personal favorite Moms Angels. Ya, there's a story behind how that one started.

Steve.

 

[silverbear]

Neat Times,
Hope you get up there. We'll take over Ely for the weekend on July Ist. We'll be known as the Mild Ones instead of Marlon Brandos, Wild Ones or we could use my personal favorite Moms Angels. Ya, there's a story behind how that one started.

Steve.

Thanks should go to Barelyawake for putting the photos up. Now we want to see fresh photos of the tank welded and ground down all spiffy. That decal company, is that the one in Germany? They have nice stuff. I'm thinking about summer already.. not a good sign since winter has not yet begun. Only seven more months til the fishing opener in May. Sigh...
SB

 

[fasteddy]

Thanks SB. Thought you had rescued me from computer Hades.

BarelyAWake,
Thank you once again for the help. I'm pleased that you thought that they were worth taking the time once again to do it.

Off to buff up the welds and see how it looks.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

SB,
The decal companies are in the Netherlands and Britian.

Steve.

 

[harry76]

That tank looks beautiful, i think you got it just right

 

[fasteddy]

Thanks Harry. I'll have more photos on shortly.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Indian Tri-car Build pictures by speedydick - Photobucket

Tried to figure out how to post the photos here but it's late and I gave up.

Trimmed the unwanted tin off with a sabre/jig saw using a fine toothed blade and then ground down the rest with a 40 grit flap disk and an angle grinder.
This tank was very easy to make since there weren't any butt joints. I put the side panels inside the top so it was just resting on the inside lip and welded it up on the out side of the tank. The end panel won't be seen so I set the panel back inside about a 1/4" and that gave me a small area to weld to that wasn't butted together.

As you can see I left the sides long and pushed the bottom of the tank up to meet the ends and clamped it so it was possible to measure the bolts that will hold the tank on the fender and make sure that they were centered between the sides and straight up and down.
I haven't put it on yet so we'll see how clever I was when I do.

Put a square on one side and checked the bottom to see if both sides were even all along the tank. Good thing since they weren't.

When it was being welded I used a thick copper plate about 2x4" that we got from Eastwoods. This is used to put behind moulding holes on cars when you are welding them up. It has 4 magnets to hold it in place. The welding wire doesn't stick to copper or brass.
I just put it on the work bench and the tank on top of it and used it as a heat sink to help stop any warping of the metal and not burn the wood. It worked nicely.

Tomorrow I'll body fill the low spots and clean up the welds and prime it and see if it sits an the fender properly.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

No photos this time. Just a quick update.
After working away on an old rear fender I decided to buy new ones for $28 and the delivery to Canada is $40. Uh no. I'll have them delivered to the mail drop of I have in Blaine, Washington and I'll bring them back on my own. Keeps Big Brown and Fed-Ex from charging me for clearing it through customs at a high rate.

I'll order some front wheels from Worksman at the same time. They have a free wheel on one side their trikes that isn't keyed to the axle.

Looked into getting Sturmy-Archer trike drum brakes but now one in the world seems to have them. There are no Sachs brakes either it seems though there is a chance that Sturmey-Archer will have some around Christmas time. Couldn't find out why there are none coming from the factory.
The tricar will be illegal no matter where I go with a 98cc motor and a two speed trans so it will be a parade bike and swapmeet vehicle and will most likely be sold later next year.
It will take a week or so to get them and I'll post photos of anything I do meanwhile.

Steve.

 

[silverbear]

New fenders makes a lot of sense. I've alreay put a lot of teim and effort in attempting to make the beat up old Hiawatha fenders look decent for my Indian, and there is still a long ways to go. Not counting time and effort, when you add up the epoxy, sandpaper, coats of primer that end of getting sanded off and then the finish paint, a fair amount of money goes into them. And they will never look "new". On the other hand knowing they are vintage and original to the 1939 Hiawatha donor counts for something, I guess. And they are heavy duty, for sure. All that being said, I think your approach is more sensible.

Who would have thought finding suitable hubs for the front end would be such a hassle. I'll follow your lead once you have a solution.

Looking forward to your new tank photos and hoping to mock up my copper gas tank pretty soon.
SB

 

[curtisfox]

I almost bought a Gambles Highwatha at the swap meet but pased it up because I will be lucky to get done with what I have already. A realy nice bike for $90 maybe could have resold it Even had new white wall tires on it just a couple of dents in the fender.........Curt

PS i thought the Clinton lawn mower was more inportant

 

[fasteddy]

When I was working on the fender I figured that since this bike is basically new why waste a nice old fender on it.
Yours on the other hand are old and very unusual and deserve to be saved no matter how much work they need.

Working on the frame today trying to figure angles and lengths.

I'm going to use Worksman wheels with no brakes for the time being. There were no Sturmey-Archer brake hubs available anywhere as I said. I couldn't find out if this is for lack of interest or that the company that owns them only tools up once a year to make them. To complicate matters I was looking for the one sided hubs that work on trikes that are only supported on one side and have a heavier axle.

Not inexpensive but as going fast is always nice, stopping also has it's merits.

Steve.