1983 FXRT Build: First Foray into American Motorsickles

[Tippyman]

Made some dumb foot pegs.

[Tippyman]

Got my sissy bar made and mounted. Made a jig table by tack welding some 3/16 plate to 4 jack stands. Booty fab at its finest.



Drew out my measurements and welded studs to the plate to bend around.







Got the angle I wanted then mounted it up with some bullet bungs.

[Tippyman]

Got the seat pan made. I had galvanized 16g laying around, and I held my breath and tried to weld it as best I could. It did ok, but pretty shitty. Seat pan came out pretty legit though.





Added a little rebar support rod to the back:



It works!



Foam is next.

[Tippyman]

Made a trim panel out of perforated stainless, and an arch that matches the seat. Taillight looks perfect on the back.

[Tippyman]

Got the seat foam and taillight housing done today. 1” neoprene base layer, 3/8 gel insert, then a 1” medium density wheelchair foam top layer. Wrapped foam tape around the edge of the seat to fill in my grinding and turkey cutter imperfections.





Taillight was more of a task than I thought originally, but came out good I think.

[Vyvyan]

Looking great.
How do you mount the seatpan to the frame?

[Tippyman]

Looking great.
How do you mount the seatpan to the frame?

There are two bolts going through the bottom of the pan that are tack welded on underneath the foam. They bolt to the front hinge. There is another bolt that goes through the perforated stainless on the sissy bar and threads into a nut welded to the inside of the seat pan.

[Tippyman]

Mocked up rabbit ears and T bars. I was leaning toward the T bars until I put a duffel bag on the back. Soooo comfy with the rabbit ears. I’ma need it to be as comfy as possible for long hauls to camp sites.

[Tippyman]

Got some cool shit painted on the tank.

[bpeak]

Dude this thing is coming together so sweet. So pumped for you.

[Tippyman]

Dude this thing is coming together so sweet. So pumped for you.

Thanks man!

[Tippyman]

Got the bars welded, tank mounted, and began making a jockey shifter. When I started to bend the metal, however, the O2 on the torch started acting funny, hard to dial in, and then it fucking exploded in my face. Ears were ringing for a while and I had to clean out my fucking drawers, but no parts got blown off.



Turns out the seat on the regular is fucked and it slowly just kept going up to full tank pressure on my ass until the hose exploded.

[farmall]

What regulator was that? If in doubt as to model please post a pic. The oxygen regulator blowoff valve should have saved the hose when the seat (usual failure on most regs) let go.

I rebuild OA regs and torches for myself to factory specs and have a morbid oxy-acetylene fetish.

[Tippyman]

What regulator was that? If in doubt as to model please post a pic. The oxygen regulator blowoff valve should have saved the hose when the seat (usual failure on most regs) let go.

I rebuild OA regs and torches for myself to factory specs and have a morbid oxy-acetylene fetish.

It’s a Victor 250-80-540. Ordered a rebuild kit for it. It broke a gauge a few weeks ago which I thought was just a bad gauge but now I know was overpressurizing. Definitely never had any blowoff or safety popoff other than the goddamn explosion.

[farmall]

That is weird and the first of that era Victor style regulator I've ever heard or read of doing that. I'd unscrew the cap from the blowoff valve and look it over when you rebuild. I'm trying to imagine how that disc would stick.

Have a manual. The valve that didn't open is the "relief" valve shown on page 2. The hex cap is what to unscrew, not the fitting on the body.

http://www.esabna.com/eu/literature/gas%20equipment/gas%20regulators/56-0607%20sr%20250%20series%20regulator.pdf