FrankenHiggins is FrankenFinished

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Joined
Mar 3, 2014
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Location
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Here is my BOLEVEN entry. This is the JC Higgins that started me down the Rat Rod rabbit hole. I purchased the frame and a bunch of mismatched parts from a guy, but never built the bike up. The big dent in the top tube had me scratching my head on how to fix it. I think I have a plan now, we'll see.
I'll admit, I had several frames that I was considering, but was laying back to see what had not been entered yet. I saw several Spaceliner/Flightliners (all cool), and even some Silver Kings (just as cool), so I settled on the Higgins frame.
Anyway, here is my entry. No real plan other than a skip tooth setup, fat fenders from who knows what, and some truss rods, since the front fender already has notches in it.
Wish me luck and thanks for looking.
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I was hoping you would jump in the ring.
 
Hard to layback and just watch when the creative juices are flowing & you have a pile of parts . Welcome aboard the madness [emoji106][emoji106]


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Love the colorflow/jetflow frames! I'll be watching.
 
Good to see ya in it again! I like the frame, rat worthy!
 
Finally got some time to work on the bike today. I Found a crank that would work and added my skip tooth sprocket.
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Then I did some fit up work on the rear fender. No good pics here.
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Will need to address this hole in the right seat stay.
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I plan on using this JC Higgins air cooled hub.
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Here is the frame with both fenders mocked up. Will probably lose the ducktail on the front fender to get both to the same level.
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Looking good. Love how the guard fits with that sprocket. Cool looking frame too.
Thanks, the guard and sprocket were easy since they are Higgins items, or at least Murray. I had a lot of runout on the sprocket that I fixed with my rubber mallet. I don't know what the fenders came from, but they fit with just a little trimming. Of course, I haven't tried to mount any wheels yet.
 
Maybe time for a frame switch.
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Just kidding. With all the Silver King frames, I was feeling left out.
For real, I did some trading with Kingfish254, and came up with a cool triple tree fork for FrankenHiggins. The 1 1/8" fork works with the Higgins head tube with just a little filing inside.
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Need to come up with a proper threadless headset and stem.
I will need to decide if I am going to use this fork or the original style Higgins fork. I like this look, but I like my fenders also, don't know if I can make them work with this fork.
 
I haven't forgotten about this one. Just working and sleeping, not much else. Still debating between original fork and Triple Tree. Now I have a third candidate: Full on Klunker. I found this Diamondback Response Comp on CL yesterday for really cheap. I thought it was worth it for a few parts, but then I got to thinking, why don't I use all of it?
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Has anyone done a rear disc brake conversion? or would I be better off cutting the whole rear triangle off of something else?, or stick with one of my other two options? I guess I will go check out some yard sales and think about it.
 
nice buy ! if you could just swap the hubs or wheels, and have dual diskbrake on the oldie without going all out klunker, that would be sick!
 
I broke down the back wheel today. The tire came off the hard way:
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Tore down the hub and noticed that the sprocket was hooked pretty bad. No luck getting it separated from the driver.
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Guess I will have to study up on how this comes apart. Either that or find another driver with sprocket installed.

I did also work on getting the nasty dent out of my top tube. Seemed too big just to fill up with JB Weld.
Before:
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After:
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Just need to plug these holes.
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I did come up with an idea for a tank today. It must have been the new RatRodBikes shirt that came in the mail today.
 

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