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