CB2,
You mentioned tucking a coin into a build. On one of my brass gas tank caps I soldered on the eagle side of a quarter... couple of years ago...this was on my American Flyer bike with the canoe sidecar. Wings on the eagle and all. You know. Makes the bike fly along a little better.
I won an auction on three old (1920's) Indian Head nickles (five bucks) and want to solder one onto the gas cap on my Hiawatha Indian tri-car. I think I'll wrap the edge of the coin with copper foil and tin it first... should take better that way. The quarter fought back at the indignity of being soldered.
I also usually find a place somewhere on a build for a feather... not migizii (the bald eagle), but gagagii (Mr. Raven) who is also a great flyer and king of the forest canopy come winter. I believe the feather gives a bit more lift, you know, and helps to speed bear and dog down the road of life. Ha!
Making stuff is fun. I made a copper fuel filter this weekend and am still smiling. It's purty! And pretty soon I'm going to help an old copper pot made in Portugal become a headlight for the 34 Elgin Velocipede. This stuff is such fun, isn't it? Beats golf, I'm guessing, but only played the miniature version once about a hundred years ago. It's too cold to ride here now, but it's never too cold to tinker and day dream. Your gas tank is clever and cool and different.
SB