New rat rod in town...Los Angeles...named 'THE NUTCRACKER"

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New rat rod in town....los angeles...build thread
So......my trucks in the shop and I need a project. I decided I would build a bike from scratch and not really have any clue what I was doing......almost tried to build out of emt until jeff with CCC steered me toward MK metal. That shows just how little i know about what im doing. I just got a welder and a bunch of tools and figured I'd give it a go. My welding sucks BUT I have a grinder remember its going to be a rat rod I do NOT want it pretty looking.

My goal is to have it done by the December mooneyes Christmas show so I can have it in the bed of my old truck. The bike will be covered in rust and look like a ratty super low rider. I need a good name for this bike. I was thinking Flea since alot of my parts are coming from local flea markets or second hand.
Any way here are a few shots of the bike now. First off I am re designing the front this is just a rough set up and the rear has not been shaped where the rear tire holds on. Also. This are not the handle bars just a piece of tubing to get ideas.

The front has air shocks which raise the front off the ground when I want to ride and then drops it on the frame so I don't need a kick stand. I tested it last night and it works perfect! I will either run a small compressor or inflate and deflate with co2 set up.

The gas tank is an old fire extinguisher from back in the day.....this will be a four stroke build since pedaling will be a pain In the ... due do the height. I will do a small shorty fender in the rear so my back doesn't get chewed up....

Got any suggestions lemme know

Here's the beginning

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:|
Here's is what I have for the gas tank
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Here is base where bike will lay
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Re: New rat rod named the nutcracker

Felt 24 inch thick brick rear tire with wide felt rim and front 26 inch felt rim with quick brick

Also. There are no gussets or extra supports in yet. I just started few days ago. I was going to wait until it was done to post but thought I could get good suggestions along the way

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Re: New rat rod named Sexy beast

Oh yeah! Great looks, kidliquid. Few questions,though.

What's the groundclearance? My experiences with a very low bottomtube (about 2-2,5") are, that I regularly get into scraping the kerbstones and speedbumps. Especially nasty, when you don't expect it. :mrgreen:

Are you gonna change your bars or is this your final design? Doesn't look too comfy to me.

Anyhow, it's got awesome looks.
 
Re: New rat rod named Sexy beast

wimpy said:
Oh yeah! Great looks, kidliquid. Few questions,though.

What's the groundclearance? My experiences with a very low bottomtube (about 2-2,5") are, that I regularly get into scraping the kerbstones and speedbumps. Especially nasty, when you don't expect it. :mrgreen:

Are you gonna change your bars or is this your final design? Doesn't look too comfy to me.

Anyhow, it's got awesome looks.

The rear is about 2-3 inches. the front with the air shocks will raise up over 6 inches if need be. the handle bars are definitly not that shape....thats just a piece of emt that i stuck in there.

here are my other 2 bikes military felt i built and rat rod felt Norm from Venice motorbikes built. they are low but i dont have 2 many problems unless really uneven sidewalk.... or massive speed bump
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last night I rusted the frame
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Re: New rat rod in town...Los Angeles

I would make the frame hold your air for the forks. The top tube and down tube would hold the air. Then you wouldn't have big tanks every where. That would require some solid welding.

I make my Bicycles ride about 4" off the ground. It looks low, but I rarely hit the bottom.

:lol: I really like the look of your black bike :lol:
 
CRASH said:
That dog is staring at me. Taunting me. Telling me "You don't know how to rust a frame like that, do you?!?" Well, I don't. But I'd like to know. So... what did you do?

Get a squirt bottle. Fill about half inch or inch with muratic acid.....then Fill with water and soak frame let sit overnight and that's my recipe. Where skin and eye protection


Mocked up the seat today

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kidliquid108 said:
gas tank mock up

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Just checking but are the front fork rockers on different angles in this photo? If you are having trouble with them moving seperatly to each other, (moving the wheel side to side at the top and bottom) maybe you could link the rockers around behind the wheel, making them into one piece that moves together. Of course you may already have this covered or it may not even be an issue, so feel free to ignore me... :wink:

Great bike, big fan of over the top engineering...

P.S. Your dog is an awesome photo bomber...

Luke.
 
This is ridiculous... in a good way! Yeah, it's definitely got a steampunk feel to it. I love it!

Are those front end rockers going to be shaped to a point or something or are they going to stay as big rectangular hunks of steel?

Cheers,

Glen.
 
muriatic acid, i thought maybe the dog had something to do with the rust. :mrgreen: good work on it so far.
 

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