An update as to the progress of “Gerty”.
I pulled the swing arm off of Gerty a couple of weekends ago and took it apart to inspect, clean and get it ready for powder coating. What I found was perplexing to me to say the least. Attached are a few pictures for reference.
Needless to say, the Collar (close-up picture) is pitted WAY beyond serviceability. I have been getting advise from various sources (friends) and I was at the point a few days ago to where I thought I had to make a decision of whether or not this thing is worth the money I paid for it or whether its goes on the block for parts and I take my monetary hits and just chalk it up as a learning experience. Although I am still digging that dry hole, I am now looking at the project differently. I quit thinking of this thing as a money pit and look at it as entertainment. When I go spend $40 at the movie theater, do I expect to be able to sell my tickets to someone else later? And, for what I have into them? No. What a dumb friggin’ concept huh? Now to talk my wife into that notion…
Since I am having problems with the restoration of the original swing arm, I was thinking of completely replacing it with a custom made swing arm.
Since I have a friend (when I say friend, I mean FRIEND) that has a machine shop and is willing to take the time and help me make a new swing arm to vintage Bimota specifications so it will be allowed in both the WERA and AHRMA series for vintage racing. We started it on Sunday and within a few hours we had a frame to template the old swingarm to and the pivot made. The only thing that will be stock is the pivot bolt with the grease zerk, although that will be upgraded to a standard one as well. Anyway he is on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I can only dream what the next step will be once he gets back! I had never been around a working lathe before, let alone measuring fitment to the nearest ten-thousandth of an inch was a challenge. My pea brain has a hard time thinking four digits out…. Anyway, I can hardly wait to get back to work on it in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I have met a friend of a friend that does metal work. So with a handshake agreement, we are starting to fabricate the bodywork with the use of hammers, sandbags, hardwood stumps, English wheels and planishing hammers. It seems that he has been making good progress on the seat pan and hump. I cant wait to see what the fuel tank and the headlight come out like.
At this point, the headlight is going to be a custom 6” aluminum bucket that will house the speedometer and headlight. Similar to the headlight below.
Acewell 2853 Spedometer
So far, this is what I am thinking about for the tail light. Just because I’m chicken of being pulled over for a light that does not belong on the machine, I took a trip to the CHP office yesterday and they quoted me this:
{QUOTE] 24603. Every motor vehicle that is not in combination with any other vehicle and every vehicle at the end of a combination of vehicles shall at all times be equipped with stoplamps mounted on the rear as follows:
(a) Every such vehicle shall be equipped with one or more stoplamps.
...
(e) Stoplamps on vehicles manufactured on or after January 1, 1979, shall emit a red light. Stoplamps on vehicles manufactured before January 1, 1979, shall emit a red or yellow light. All stoplamps shall be plainly visible and understandable from a distance of 300 feet to the rear both during normal sunlight and at nighttime, except that stoplamps on a vehicle of a size required to be equipped with clearance lamps shall be visible from a distance of 500 feet during those times.[/QUOTE}
So at this point it looks like I’m going forward with the 1933- 36 Ford tail light with the blue dot center. Although the light is allowed if I can project 300 feet, the illuminated blue dot is not. But, all I need to do is paint the back of the blue portion of the lens and its all good with the local CHiPies! Now to find out how LEDs work!
