1937 shelby cadillac tuner
So a buddy of mine (sloppy kidricer sin) passed along his MB addiction to us.
For years he had been raving about these things,
and after hemmin and hawin about gettin a slew of craigslist motorcycles,
decided to go the MB route since i've got a ton of old stagnating bike parts,
plus they look like alot of fun.
Also, wanted a project that wasn't as much time intensive as the hot rods and stuff i've got going.
(little did I know so far!!)
So anyway my favorite fat-tire frame is the pre-war shelby,
and coincidentally had the perfect wrecked frame for this build.
A couple months back,
i'd tried to fix the bottom bracket area with a donor girls shelby bike,
but didn't realize the angles weren't the same,
so ditched it before I wasted too much time on it.
Bummer was the earlier 37ish shelby's had a straight downtube,
and the engine doesn't fit in the space correctly.
The later 38ish shelby's hadve a curved downtube.
Since this frame was toast,
figured it was worth customizing it even further.
There was so much brazing on this frame,
it wasn't much fun to weld.
The way I fit the new tube gave it the more welding strength in a cleaner section,
and also more room for the engine.
There was a small insert on the top part.
so the new tube is below the centerline of the BB now...
At first was going to give it the natural flash rust look,
but figured a half-*** paint match was the safer route.
Yeah yeah I didn't grind the welds,
for this one strength is more important than pretty.
(called a 30/30 - 30 mph and 30 feet away)
This is why I think the shelby frame's are so cool.
They invested alot of time in the seat-tube area of the frame,
and as a welder/grinder, I can really appreciate their effort
As common on lots of early bikes,
shelby used a poopload of badges,
(western flyer, hiawatha, shelby flyer, flying cloud etc)
but this one is kinda cool as its a cadillac,
(and schwinn had a lasalle branded bike which makes it a neat competition)
These are my riders,
the black one is 98% stock,
and the red one was alot of my random stuff.
A couple months ago the rims and other chrome was shiny,
but it was all flash rusted,
a perfect donor for the new motor-bike.
(sad to see it torn apart actually but it will be back as a klunker)
I really needed some instant gratification here,
so swapped all the parts to the new frame.
Figured it would be smart to ride it around and make sure it didn't fall apart too!
The thing rode great and straight,
probably the first time it had been ridden in 50 years.
So that was the first night...
TP
So a buddy of mine (sloppy kidricer sin) passed along his MB addiction to us.
For years he had been raving about these things,
and after hemmin and hawin about gettin a slew of craigslist motorcycles,
decided to go the MB route since i've got a ton of old stagnating bike parts,
plus they look like alot of fun.
Also, wanted a project that wasn't as much time intensive as the hot rods and stuff i've got going.
(little did I know so far!!)
So anyway my favorite fat-tire frame is the pre-war shelby,
and coincidentally had the perfect wrecked frame for this build.
A couple months back,
i'd tried to fix the bottom bracket area with a donor girls shelby bike,
but didn't realize the angles weren't the same,
so ditched it before I wasted too much time on it.
Bummer was the earlier 37ish shelby's had a straight downtube,
and the engine doesn't fit in the space correctly.
The later 38ish shelby's hadve a curved downtube.
Since this frame was toast,
figured it was worth customizing it even further.
There was so much brazing on this frame,
it wasn't much fun to weld.
The way I fit the new tube gave it the more welding strength in a cleaner section,
and also more room for the engine.
There was a small insert on the top part.
so the new tube is below the centerline of the BB now...
At first was going to give it the natural flash rust look,
but figured a half-*** paint match was the safer route.
Yeah yeah I didn't grind the welds,
for this one strength is more important than pretty.
(called a 30/30 - 30 mph and 30 feet away)
This is why I think the shelby frame's are so cool.
They invested alot of time in the seat-tube area of the frame,
and as a welder/grinder, I can really appreciate their effort
As common on lots of early bikes,
shelby used a poopload of badges,
(western flyer, hiawatha, shelby flyer, flying cloud etc)
but this one is kinda cool as its a cadillac,
(and schwinn had a lasalle branded bike which makes it a neat competition)
These are my riders,
the black one is 98% stock,
and the red one was alot of my random stuff.
A couple months ago the rims and other chrome was shiny,
but it was all flash rusted,
a perfect donor for the new motor-bike.
(sad to see it torn apart actually but it will be back as a klunker)
I really needed some instant gratification here,
so swapped all the parts to the new frame.
Figured it would be smart to ride it around and make sure it didn't fall apart too!
The thing rode great and straight,
probably the first time it had been ridden in 50 years.
So that was the first night...
TP
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