tuk tuk frame part 3-ish
Chopped out more of the old frame, bit difficult to get in there but I got it it the end.
Decided to take a risk and chop the other side too, it hasn’t fallen down. tomorrow will finish the other frame rail then next week it’ll be all welded together.
ebayed 8″ drum came finally!
New crossmember, arrived from a IrishEscortClub member, just the suspension top mount to find now.
More tuk tuk frame work
But first, a puppy!
Okay, with Frosty’s help we got it upside down and level, don’t have to worry about the front end being on straight now.
Decided to put the new rails just here, didn’t like the angles i’d have to cut  if I went from the end of the frame rails. This way is better engineering.
The bit i cut out was recycled into a patch.
An easy weld for once, the holed piece of metal in front of my patch is structurally unimportant, Your going to here that alot with this build, structurally unimportant.
Stopped there because I ran out of cutting disc’s dammit.
Tuk tuk, new frame.
First up a test peice to help me guestimate the angle I need.
Angle turned out to be quite shallow, didn’t figure on the fact that the head stock its self is inclined back.
Quick break to do Frostys brakes and a cv joint boot on his fiesta diesel van. took a pic of this hanger because i wonder if i could fit these calipers to the escort mk2 legs.
And a tack weld later, next week we’ll be sorting two more bits to split into a Y back to a more solid part of the frame and then it’ll be final welding. Sort some brakes and some brake lights and it’s off for a spin 🙂
Taking the handle bars off a tuk tuk.
But first i had to fix nikis puncture.
tyre off the rim because he drove it here like that.
screwed! also the gearbox seal was leaking because a plastic bag got caught up in the chain and wrapped around the shaft, then melted through friction and worked its way into the seal. just took the plastic out it seems ok, not a problem if it isn’t because the it can be replaced with out splitting the cases.
Over to sarges and the tuk tuk is covered in fags. great.
Friction steering damper :) that’s not staying.
Took nearly an hour to do this, to get the cables out the inner had to come out first then the outer had to be pulled the other way, not an easy to work with design but very repairable. The electrics! built like home plugs you have to undo little brass screws and pull out the wires, madness, again great for easy fixing but pain in ass if you can’t remember where which wire went . I just chopped then all off this bike is either getting dash switches or a completely new set of handle bar off a normal moped, this means I’d have to sort a foot gear change and handle bars that had cable brakes. I’ll be able to adjust the brake level up and down then and it’ll be a million times less complicated and lighter,and proper dog leg levers. On the other hand the standard bar setup does work and its all aluminium which mean i  could polish it up..
Tuk tuk, more work
Finally got the metal and the welder in the same place, pissed rain tho.
Got one crappy patch done.
that took all day, rust is very hard to weld to.
Next day we tried to flip it fully over to do more welding.
Much closer inspection and i’ve decided to skip to plan 1.1 and make new frame rails from the headstock to a good section of the chassis, I don’t trust that I can make the neck strong enough with out basically replacing the whole front end of the chassis, much of it is triple plated sheet and i can’t be sure that the sheet in the middle is any good and hence structurally sound, after all I’m hardly gonna just cruise around I’ll be totally flat out just trying to keep up with traffic. Measured up the fx400r engine, looks like it will be sticking out the back by about the length of whatever diff I find, so probably at worst 10″ which we can live with.
Bajaj tuk tuk, the build
but first up is, fixed my cbr6 chain lash by slotting in 5 bits of chopped up number plate around the cush drive, on the non driven side of the rubber. I have the sweetest gearchange now and a clean rear wheel!
and then we got sarahs car fixed at kenny bros crash repair, excellent work (hint hint!)
Damit just realised i forgot to take a pic of the underneath where i spent the day working
Leftovers, this just from the bit i was working on, sarge had some more left over from the body.
you can see it’s a bit bent, didn’t take much force to straighten it up
Paint’s drying, body on plastic bin’s, very handy having a light body.
Front paint dry, windscreen just balancing in place, roof chop would be cool, but there is not enough space inside to make it comfortable.
Who’s that awesome man?
Can’t believe i didn’t take a pic of the underside, it’s gonna need a sheet of meat 50x90cm
Roof temporarily thrown on, look at the floor!
Lots of things to do, but just to go for a test ride it only needs the hole welded up, the front drum is enough for a short while, the rears need a complete overhaul.tails light need a bit of hot wireing, roof and loads of small stuff. right had stuff to say but im tired and i’ve forgotten it all 🙂
bajaj re 2s
Well, i bought this, worth it for the log book alone, but it will go back on the road pretty much as is since it only has 114km on the clock we’ll use it till it pops. it’s powered by a vespa px150 so that’ll be easy to pick up and throw away, stage two will see a tzr250 engine slotted in, but first the stage one plan. Weld up the holes, fit better brake lines (the originals depend on the steel pipes bending with the suspension) new tyres and we’ll see where that gets us.
The space tyre is nice eh? only 13 years old, take 50 psi too, its probably a trailer tyre. Maybe some atv wheels might fit..
The big hole, think we’ll re route the cables outside the channel to help with welding and repairs. Will be replacing the hole with at least 1mm thick sheet, maybe 1.2 gotta measure things up
Probably could replace this end with a vespa aftermarket disc braked front. the drums are fine but not the cable operated ones.
long bar there is for the starter handle, wanna keep that, works quite well and is a unique feature (also it would break sarge wailing on the handle with a 250cc engine :)Â )
tub really does look like a mini jeep don’t it? if i could find a quad… Also reckon i’ll paint “to scared to drive it” under the sign and leave it as is
Can’t quite tell but the engine may bolt off the diff/box which would be great for stage two, could keep reverse with the tzr250 engine. Diff needs welding up.
plan is to weld a large Y section from this head stock back to the rail in front of the engine, it will stiffen up the chassis and provide a good place to sit.
smoke! it lives! phew somebody put two stroke in the petrol.
Most important thing about this is that it is insurable on a bike policy, which is hugely useful for sarge and even me, no separate policy’s and our no claims bonus stands.
Also got back my cbr6, so the rebuild of that starts in earnest tomorow, once iv’e gotten the jago onto four wheels thinks I’ll start on the bajaj then, xtdr350 will have to wait a bit more.
