Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Cool bike and even cooler project. Your son has a good eye and clearly has caught the knack from you. It is both a blessing and a curse. I caught it from multiple sources, father, uncle, and grandfather.

Love the build photos and now on board for the finished product. Classic cool never goes out of style. It may not be the front runner at the moment, but everyone that sees it, recognizes it, and appreciates it.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Same, after googling them, I kinda want one :lol:

I've finally reached a point where I'm so busy/focused with my own family/life, I literally give zero "trucks" about much of anything outside of keeping up with politics (which seems is becoming way more important than it should :rolleyes: ). New movies or who's famous, new music... couldn't tell you....

Even if they are crap, I think it's really cool him and his friends are assembling engines and blowing them up and rebuilding them. Gives us all hope :)

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Its a sickness alright. Not a bad one though if you ask me.

Yeah, kinda the same thought here. The kids and work don't leave much time for other diversions. I may complain about having another project but truth be told, its been pretty satisfying for me. Heck, a lot of people don't even get time to spend time like this with their kids and Im sure one day he will be busy with his own.

Ill post the remainder of the pics in a minute but he just took off with his "crew" :lol:, made it to the park a few miles away and called asking for me to bring the plug wrench cuz the plug backed out... Told him to call his sister to bring it to him. Im beat!

SMH, I told him to take it out on a couple of short shakedown runs first... We're still working on the patience thing :lol::lol:!

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Finished painting yesterday. Shot the base, mid coat pearl and clear all in one sitting. The base kicks pretty quick. The clear takes an eternity. He did most all of the painting this day. Got a little short with me when I tried to intervene so I just grabbed a beer (or 3), watched and gave a little commentary. He was amused as you can tell in the pic. :lol:

I made it pretty clear (no pun intended) that it would be several days before it would be ready to assemble...

Woke up this morning and he was already after it. Luckily the clear coat had kicked a little faster once the temps dropped last night.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Most all of the touch up to the base and mid coats he did himself. The 4 coats of clear he did all on his own. I only found one run and it wasn't even that noticeable. I think he has the hang of it. The pearl came out very deep and the metalic red laid down super even and pops just sitting there!

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

I almost forgot what it was like to be 15 and have what I thought was every skill necessary to finish up a project....except for patience..

With the clear coat just past being tacky still and against my better judgement, he slapped it back together. There were a number of moments that I just turned my head and cringed expecting to turn around and see a gouge in the fresh pearl frame. Not a scratch but it turned out his chain was too short so he wasn't going out for a shakedown run. It was Easter Sunday anyway....:lol:

The bike got a lot smaller when he actually sat on it. I said he looked like a circus bear :lol:! I guess its tough being 15 and 6'3". I wouldn't know personally :lol::lol:.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

His chain was too short until his "biker gang" buddies showed up after our Easter dinner. They each donated a link or two off of their own bikes that he had helped them build and worked on their own bikes while they were there. These are the kids that we take MX riding when we go. Good kids that are predisposed to knuckle headed moves. (Think pulling someone in an office chair down the street with a mini bike until the wheels on the chair go flying off at around 25 mph :lol:).

Anyway, they all donated to the cause and peer pressured him to finish the bike last night so they could go for a victory ride at 9:00 pm.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

And here are the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday Schwinn Chopper Thrash Fest.

They left at 9pm and I got a call at 10:15 asking to bring a plug wrench to a park 2 miles away. I was wiped out but luckily his older sister brought it to him. Turned out that the plug backed out and needed tightening. Upon further inspection, we noticed that the piston just kissed the plug and closed the gap. Got a new plug today and it did the same thing so I taught him how to index the plug and use an extra washer to get just enough extra clearance. Problem solved. Easy rider is rolling again! :lol:

The kid on the left was the one pulling my son (second to left in the Carhart jacket) in the office chair...SMH

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Pretty cool. Constructive activity with help from your dad and support from your friends. I started with painting, maintaining, and detailing my bikes. Never had one with an engine though, haha.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

When we were kids one of my buds put a 3 horse B&S on his 26" bike but it sure wasn't as cool as that one. Nice work.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

That turned out great! Do you have any video? Curious what it sounds like.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Its pretty funny to watch them all together egging each other on. The next "mod" has turned out to be pulling the packing out of the mufflers :lol: He's been taking hand me down bikes and rattle canning them since he was 6 or 7. This is the first one that he had sprayed with automotive paint (at my urging) which took him into the world of body work and prep. Was tough to keep him patient but I think he did great once he got the hang of it to the point that he got a little annoyed with me trying to help him :lol:.

Time to let him fly on his own a little..

I never had one nor knew of anyone that had one as a kid. We did have a go cart that got old wore out lawnmower engines that my pop would bring home from work. Ended up giving that cart to my uncle and cousin. Uncle was a gear head that worked for Cummins West out here at the time. He cobbled up a vacuum cleaner blower to one of the cart engines as a supercharger. :lol:. That thing went like a scalded cat til it blew the head clean off the engine. Who knew that an old B&S wasn't really meant to be boosted?:lol::lol:

Only video I have is one where he was trying to start it after the piston kissed the plug. Its not that loud right now since the packing is still in the muffler. I suspect it might be in there until the weekend (See the first response on peer pressure ;)). Ill try to get a video. His buddy's bike has no packing or muffler end cap anymore. It goes a little better than before but I can hear him coming over from 4-5 blocks away now. Sounds more like a newer 125 MX bike with a aftermarket pipe now.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

I didn't get started that early, but I was on my own with working on my bikes. My dad was good at building all kinds of projects but not good at helping me with mine. Not enough patience. Your son is lucky.


A makeshift supercharger on a go kart? That is about the coolest thing I've ever heard of.

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

That turned out nice! Cool that you’ve helped him and kept quiet when necessary

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

My father was the guy who could fix anything. My uncle was the guy that could hotrod a peanut butter and jelly sandwich :lol::lol:. Between the two of them, my brother and I picked up a few things.

The "Hoover 1-71" blower was a pretty neat idea that he had. He knew all about compression, boost and forged parts from working at Cummins. We had no idea how to do anything like that. Us kids didn't think it'd work. Couldn't have been boosting much with that little vacuum belt and contraption but Im pretty sure they never found the head. It was funny once we knew my cousin didn't get his head taken off. Scared the bejeezus outta him though.

That was well over 25 years ago. Maybe he'd been drinking' when he thought it up. Either way, when I think about it or it comes up in conversation, I still laugh just as hard as when it happened. Like right now :lol:

Re: Wasn't looking for another project..
 

Very proud of the kid. He did good.

Keeping my mouth shut at the right time....now thats a project Ive been working on every day since I learned to talk! :lol:.