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E X T R E M E D E T A I L I N A K U S T O M R E C U M B E N T T R I K E : |
Battery Cage: 1/16" X 3/4" and 1/8" X 3/4" aluminum bar stock alloy soldered. |
Finger-Grip Brake Lever Extension: Epoxy putty modelled over 1/2" stainless tubing over ground-down BMX brake lever. Bed-liner sprayed. |
Chain-Guard: Bandsawed, bent and fabricated from 1/16" anodized aluminum door kick plate from Home Depot. Holesaw used for "lightening" |
Chainring Cluster: NOS Schwinn Varsity-style 52/40-tooth dual chrome chainring set with ring chainguard and added 28-tooth granny ring. |
Console Side: Clearance for chainguard mounting stud has epoxy putty '57-Chevy-wheel opening-style flared lip added. |
Fender Script: Dave bandsawed a pair of them from 1/8" aluminum plate; filed, sanded, polished to bright. |
Visibility Flag: Silk fabric with ink-jet T-shirt iron-on transfer; clearcoated for weather-proofing |
Dropout Access and Trim: Lip added of epoxy putty; trim bandsawed from .025 aluminum sheet, sanded and polished to bright finish, bent to conform to contour. |
Audio Housing: Plywood coated with spray can pickup bed-liner finish. Seatback finished with Krylon spatter black/aqua trunk paint. |
Chain Idler: Modified skateboard wheel with coverable button "hub cap" on welded, epoxy- putty- faired 1/8" steel lever. |
Headlights: Tribute to Classic Cibie Euro headlight, has lens trim of shortened chrome bullet tire valve cover and finishing washer. With electronically-regulated halogen bulb. |
Filled and Faired Seat Brace: Was bare tubes before adding modelled epoxy putty. It covers welded 5/8" steel tube seat track slider. Locked by 3/8" SS set screw. |
Seat Upholstery: Button-tufted UltraLeather with covered buttons pulled into foam rubber padding. |
Tool Kit: Contains cone, crescent, and allen wrenches, ball-handled dual screwdriver. Unbreakable Lexan plastic cover is secured by stainless wingnuts.. |
Parking Brake Lever: Epoxy putty over 5/8" steel tubing. Sprayed with bed-liner coating. |
Head Badge: Rubber Stamp from negative artwork used as mold for polyester resin casting. |
Control Panel: Switches for lights and audio. Perimeter trim is bandsawed aluminum sanded, polished to bright. |
Steering Linkage: Polished stainless tubing. Polished aluminum turnbuckle for toe-in adjustment has stainless jam nut. |
Kiddy "Rumble Seat": Button-tufted UltraLeather over foam rubber, fiberglass base. Running boards with rubber truck accesory matting. |
Composite Front Fender: Truck clearance light, aluminum name script, "chrome" plastic door-edge trim molding from auto-parts store. This trim molding will follow a tight curve, and could be used on a regular bike fender. Script is a type font: "Top Speed". |
Speedometer Housing and Mount: Fabricated aluminum sheet and plate; sanded and polished to bright finish. |
Key Fob: 2much!!!'s main power switch is a key-activated switch from Radio Shack's security section. Key ignition switches are very popular with children. We sewed this fob from leftover upholstery material, and glued an extra headbadge casting to it. All leather work on 2much!!! was designed and sewn by Jim, who sez: |
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License Plate Holder: Fabricated from 1/8" aluminum plate, the bracket is fitted into an epoxy-putty sculpted fender mount. The license plate was cut from .025 aluminum sheet in standard 3 X 6" bike-license-plate size. The plate was sprayed white on the front side, then an ink-jet-printable adhesive clear film was printed with the license plate art, clearcoated, and adhered to it. Modelled directly to the contour of the fender, the mount is secured by a few drops of epoxy adhesive. |
Any custom-built construction is a collection of details. These provide entertainment value, and make the creation more interesting for the viewer to study. In most cases, detail is not all that difficult to achieve. The main requirement is patience. In the basic desire to finish the creation, it is often the detailing which suffers. In the process of constructing 2much!!!, the sequence of construction was planned so that the details proceeded in parallel with the more basic elements. In this way, everything reached completion at the same time as the vehicle was functional. There was no need to go back and take care of the details. |
Electronic Horn: For a sounder, we decided to use one of those modular electronic back-up warning sounders which are used on trucks. Ours cost $8 at an auto-parts store. JC Whitney has a greater selection, with some at half this price. It was a basic plastic box with an opening for the sound to come out, and a steel mounting plate. We could have tucked it away almost anywhere, but we chose to make it more interesting-looking and mount it up front. We took a bugle-type bulb horn and cut off the bell end at the point where it made a 90-degree turn. We used epoxy putty to bond it to the box, then added more to fair the surface. It was then given a texture coat of bed-liner spray. |
Horn Switch: .We wanted a sturdy switch, as opposed to the usual flimsy items used with most bike horns, which are hardly more than toys. We bought a common doorbell button in a round brass surround. We then bandsawed the sides of the bezel, close to the switch itself. We covered the handlebar with mylar packing tape, which epoxy putty doesn't stick to. The shape we liked was built up with the putty, worked contoured and smoothed, after removing it from the handlebar, and then we gave it a texture coat with bed-liner spray. |
"Upholstery is easy- if you go under two assumptions: 1:A sewing machine is a power tool for joining semi-flexible materials. 2:When making the pattern, act as though the final material will be sheet metal with overlapping joins. That's pretty much all there is to it." UltraLeather is a synthetic which looks and sews exactly like leather, which is the ideal upholstery material. It costs pretty much the same as leather (about $40 a yard), but the shape is much more efficient to work with. We used one yard. |
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