Ulu

Soaked in hot brake fluid 24 hrs: Brushed and Scotchbrited: After that I hit it with number 400 and number 800 wet paper to get rid of all the die scratches. But before I continue with that buffing, I’m polishing out the new stainless spokes and chromed white brass nipples for my fat wheel. Those are the old cadmium plated spokes with the rubber band. ($38 delivered, from T&T bikes, unpolished.) I am first setting up to lace & true the fatwheel. It’s pretty hot outdoors so I’m setting up in the office. First I’m going to just polish the hub. What you’re looking at is the mid lift-frame from my mom’s old power lift chair bolted up to the two long crossbars from a ‘96 Bonneville trailer hitch.

Right now I am stripping the hoop for that little brake with old used brake fluid, but I didn’t want to pour 2 gallons of brake fluid in a pan. I drenched it all in brake fluid and wrapped it in a thin plastic bag and put it in the sun in a steel pan. I measured the temperature after it had sat in the sun all afternoon and my infrared thermometer tells me 148°F. Brake fluid does not boil until about 400°F so I may try heating this up with the Wagner heat gun and see if it blisters up faster. The pink paint on this bike was more susceptible than the blue paint, so it must be a different formula. That hoop also had a nice dent in it. I shaped this little piece of hardwood to match and I hammered it out with a rubber mallet. Spoke points to where the dent was. It came out really clean. I need to remove the rest of the rust though. I checked it with the caliper and it runs between 1.295” & 1.325”, So the hoop is within 1/32” all the way around, and there’s no dents or gouges. Anyhow I should be able to get all the paint off today after another hot soak.

Stripping more paint with brake fluid. I soaked it for two days in the desert sun and the paint bubbled off. This was after a quick wipe with Scotchbrite. This bike is finally stable enough I can barely ride it without hands, but it still needs 2° of rake and it needs to drop about an inch towards the ground. I think I’m gonna accomplish all of that with a special sissy bar.

So I could have extra gears, I put two sprockets on the front, but I don’t have a derailer. I have to reach down and change the chain by hand although I’m pretty good at shifting down with my toe. So I have seven speeds with high/low range, and I don’t have to change ranges very often; plus I keep my chain clean, so it’s not all greasy. But I have to live with the rear derailer, and those things are too delicate. If I get the new spokes soon I’ll be able to lace up my 3-speed. Right now I’m rebuilding the worlds tiniest little coaster brake.

Okay, so before the engine goes in, those control tubes have to be replaced. Then you’ve gotta have the throttle cable and the clutch cable hooked up to the pedals, and the pedals have to be screwed into the tunnel. At some point you have to weld that tunnel up without screwing up those control tubes.

The engine was nearly ready for installation about a year and a half ago. Are the controls ready?

This one is a 3-cross And it was the front wheel on the mongoose. I bought a Sturmey-archer fat bike three speed hub kit and I am going to convert it to a rear wheel. Unfortunately I had to order new spokes and they will not be here for a week. . . . Which is not a big deal because I don’t have a frame for this yet. This will go on a custom built frame.

Here it is all buffed & assembled. I don’t know if I ever showed you guys my DIY buffer. On the other end of the spindle is a 6 inch disc sander and there’s a tailstock and a steady rest and it converts to a small wood lathe. Everything is clean and ready to go. This is called a 2-cross lacing pattern. On larger wheels they usually cross three times. The first cross is right at the hub so it’s difficult to see. The bearings and axle are all back together now, and the wheel is trued up with a dial indicator. It was hot enough in the garage that I decided to build the wheel in my office.

I got my Mrs out for brunch on the bike today.

Stripping spokes for a small wheel. Hot brake fluid destroys paint. It turns rubbery and peels right off. You can see a little pink still, in the threads.

I’m afraid they catch so many people without chasing, that they don’t “have time” to chase people down. I can’t imagine how much time they spend just hauling intoxicated people off the street.

Every forum has a couple rats. But I found much help at the Samba.

I suggest this. Join The Samba VW forums Check the buggy and kit car room Check the sticky thread titled “EMPI Sportster Roll Call” And if you are brave enough, post pictures of your car there, and they will tell you exactly what I said. In spite of any disappointment you might feel, be happy that you joined the finest Volkswagen forum on the Internet and will be able to find out anything you need to know about your car.

And for god’s sake get the fuel line out of the tunnel before you weld on it. I don’t want you to die just because I don’t like your car.

Oh, I hate to do this, but I just can’t support this delusion. It is so much easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been lied to. Paul, this is not an EMPI. This is the consensus when I posted up your car on the Volkswagen buggy forum. Not an EMPI. Never was. Virtually worthless. You think you can make a profit on this car, but it is because you have no concept of how much work it still needs. I tried to start writing a list of everything it needs to be roadworthy but it’s just so long no one will bother reading it. In my opinion, and probably the opinion of everyone knowledgeable on this forum, you should be working on the Plymouth and Dodge, which were vehicles engineered by people that really knew what they were doing. The best engineers in the business built those vehicles. You are Wasting the last years of your life, working on a car built by a total hack who couldn’t weld worth **** or even afford a tubing bender. If you think it’s somehow fun, well that’s your business. As an engineer, you must understand how I feel.

You’re gonna have to pull up some of the wiring to weld the chassis. Also, I don’t think you should put the engine in until you get those control tubes and cables straightened out.

It used to be the motorcycle polishing was one of my stress relievers. I didn’t have to deal with anything but a brush and a rag. But arthritis has taken that away. I don’t want to do it anymore. Just putting my motorcycle back together was a pain in the finger joints. At some point it becomes a serious pain and I have to stop and change tools or pick up a tool And switch hands or something. Anyhow I think it’s time to sell the Nomad. Maybe. We’ll see how the clutch works now.

I wired it across the shock absorber bolts, which is not optimal because it won’t allow you to take the transmission in and out. Since it was already in, and not coming out, I didn’t have to wire directly to the spring.

Nowadays I just hire somebody to do my mowing etc. That saves me time twice, because I don’t have to maintain a mower either.

The pan is all painted, and I am making a pattern for the upholstery.

What’s the orange thing made out of square tubing?

There are some neat Youtube “training” videos of of British tank crews changing tracks in the field.

“Say Tommy, does your mother have a large carving knife? A really sharp one?” There you can really see all the holes that I welded up. I roughed out the foam and then shaped it with sandpaper. I still have to finish grinding the base and paint it. I might add a tab for the tail light. I could now carry a substantial battery under the seat. Before it was rather weak and I was sure it would crack under me in less than a year. I really needed the practice TIG welding and it was a good experience because by the time I got to the 22nd hole I was fairly good at it. Let’s give her a Hollywood nose job. I got her down from a Jimmy Durante to a Bette Midler.

Light gage TIG welding. Ugly nose before reshaping: Whacking it on a wrench. Nose reshaped: The slots were really destroying the seat and once I trimmed off the ragged edges it was even worse. I welded up every one of them. 22 holes filled.

Just for the record, When I was at Paul’s shop, the transmission was in but it was still lacking the four nuts on the front rubber mount and six proper bolts to the spring arms. Over the years they changed the stud size for the front transmission mount, and Paul had to drill one out to make it fit. We were fortunate that the studs in the frame were still in good condition. If you ever take one of these transmissions in and out it’s nice to have the spring compressors. We just used bailing wire and some old screwdrivers. I decided years ago that I was not going to buy a set of spring compressors for every damn car. I have done a dozen springs with bailing wire.