16. BATTERY BOX

Starting with one of my fibreglass replica Lucas battery boxes I 1st wrapped it in leather.Then riveted on some routed brass edging & brass corners. I added small brass hinges,a brass catch & a cast resin  Lucas logo that I painted black then picked out the details in copper paint 

Lucas battery box replica

routing brass strips

battery box bits

Finished battery box

15. CLOCKWORK

Dashboard

Needed a place for the white faced brass clocks id been collecting so delved into the woodpile, found an unsuspecting bit of dead tree carcase, gave it a trip round the Ryobi sawbench then the router table,added the speedo & oil pressure gauges plus a nice old  brass switch, flamed her up & viola job done.

14. GETTING WOOD

This 3 wheeled apparition to me seems to sit a little high so in a fit of pique I decided to add some wooden 'bodywork' to help fill in the gaps & visually lower it.
Raiding Bunnings collection of picket fence posts,I added some more jigsawed endy bits,whipped out my mapgas torch & flamed them up to accentuate the grain.Mounting wise I made several 25mm steel strap brackets then used some M6 brass machine screws into 'T' nuts smacked in to the other sides.Seems likely these brackets will get the 'hammered black from a rattle can' treatment.

Wooden bodywork

Wooden bodywork 2

13. TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Petrol tank etc

The old,now paint stripped, fire extinguisher got a second life as a petrol tank.To give it a bit of detailing I added a copper /brass/clear plastic tube fuel level indicator & in the rear flange a large vintage white faced vacuum guage.Also cut a hole then soldered in a brass filler thread with a matching ,now polished, brass cap.All this was then strapped on using 2x hand made brown leather belts. The whole riveted together look really suits this project.

Petrol tank

12. SEATING FOR TWO

In an effort to make it look much older than it really is  I decided to employ a pair of early cast iron (rather heavy) tractor seats mounted on coil springs.Should be quite comfy eh?

Will likely have them powder coated in a brass colour.

Also decided on some wooden pailings to form rudimentary bodywork that then got flamed to emphasize the grain.Finished off the exposed corners with various brass fittings.

11. GEARBOX

After a bit of hunting around I eventually fell upon an ex railway jigger Albion 3 speed  gearbox.Perfect!!  That'll give me  a reverse gear!!
It's already hand change and has the clutch and kickstart built in so all I need to do is invent the linkages and hook up the primary drive chain.EASY PEASY!!

Albion gearbox1

Albion gearbox2

Albion gearbox3

10. BLUNT END

The back end consists of a mix of an old Honda XL250 puddle jumper 18" wheel & swingarm suspended with 1/4 elliptic car springs of dubious origin. The mudguard is my fibreglass copy of a '72 Moto Guzzi Eldorado rear.Trailer U bolts hold the springs on.A couple of tubular struts join it all together.The u bent tube above the guard is from a 70's BMW. Tyre wise there will be a retreaded 18" bike tyre I imported from aussie.

Rear end

Rear end 2

9. MORE PIX

Heres some more pix showing progress:

8.SUSPENDERS

The Ford 10 front end had no damping on its transverse spring so after a bit of thinking/ staring at it I knocked up a couple of brackets and mounted a pair of Moto Guzzi Koni dampers on after first removing their springs.
Being chromed they will eventually get powder coated to match the chassis

Koni dampers

Koni dampers 2

7. PETROL TANK

Deciding to use an old fire extinguisher as the petrol tank I set about paint stripping it to finally reveal the nice copper hidden underneath.
This will then be held in place with 2 leather straps.

Here also  in the pix is an old cast iron tractor seat.

I'll be using a pair of these with both being coil sprung.

6. MOTOR PROGRESS

In an effort to steampunkise the motor further i soldered together some copper plumbing fittings to form a nice looking inlet manifold.Then amongst my collection of potentially useful bits, or as my wife calls it 'yur junkpile' i found a couple of brass bits that wound up adorning the mikuni 28mm carb.

Copper & brass engine detailing 

The idea is to only use brass,copper,wood and leather ie nothing  chromed.
The next job is to make a wood & bog casting pattern for my replacement rocker covers as the black plastic originals just arent useable.Ill then visit the local non ferrous foundry and have a pair sand cast in alloy.

5. CHASSIS PROGRESS

The front pair of coil over/headlight mounts I scourced from a guy who makes hotrod parts off TradeMe.
Here's some more pix of the chassis taking shape including the front spring hanger from the same guy.

Chassis progress

Coil over & spring mounts

4. THE MOTOR

After collecting various Kohler motors it was decided that a vertical shaft 726cc 'Command' would get the retro treatment.
Time to brush up on my soldering skills with a random pile of copper plumbing bends that would form the inlet manifold.
Then an unsuspecting  Mikuni carb from my carby collection wound up disguised with brass and copper embelishments.

 Steampunk trike motor

Steampunk trike motor 2

3.WORK BEGINS

After the mockup came nutting out just how and what to begin fabbing.
I found plans for a T bucket hotrod that then got shortened and narrowed followed by grafting on a Ford 10 suicide front end with 17" wire spoked trims.
I also decided to run a pair of 1/4 elliptic leaf springs out back above the XL250 wheel /swingarm assembly.
To mimic the old bike frame a  selection of tubing and welding elbows got the electric glue treatment. Using welding elbows kinda looks similar to how the early frames with their cast lugs looked

Chassis begining

2. INSPIRATION

This is the pic that inspired the steampunk reverse trike build. Apparently this intrepid soul took a Model T chassis and chopped the diffy and back wheels off then added either an Indian or Harley motor and frame complete with chain driven back wheel!! BRILLIANT!!!

mock up

mock up 2

20's/30's original