Ian

Thanks to Nigel I now have a nice pair of Spax adjustable coil over shocks...
Shorten the springs a little bit and some new top mounts on the frame and they should work
 

Morning all, after a short break from MadTrax to build the camera panning jig thingy I'm back on the case now..
 
With the frame painted it's time to start on the smaller parts, starting with these nice crusty A arms..
 

 
 
After thinking for a while I decided the best way to clean the crud off was to use one of these.......
 

 
 
Well, use a Hoover as dust extraction for my blasting cabinet
 

 
 
Unfortunately, due to the cabinet beings so small and bad arthritis in my shoulders the pain got too much after just a min's use, so I had to clean the A arms up the old fashioned way with a wire cup brush on the grinder!
The very shot ball joints in the upper A arms came out without to much of a fight..
 
 
 
 
The lower ball joints however refuse to come out despite plenty of WD40 and huge amounts of pressure in the vice.. I think I'm going to have to grind the base of the ball joints away and try and bash them up through the A arm rather than down as normally would be done..   I'm sure my 12 ton hydraulic press is going to some in handy
 

 
 
Four (mostly) cleaned up A arms waiting a few mods..
 

 
 
With the A arms having quite a bit of rust pitting I don't 100% trust the strength of them especially as they will have to cope with a lot more power and forces.... So template time it was.
 

 
 
Which turned into a couple of these..
 

 
 
One of which fit's in here..
 

 
 
I didn't like the look of the inside straight bit, so something had to be found I could draw around to give a nice gentle curve.
You can also see the lip welded to the underside of the strengthening plate to er... Strengthen it
 

 
 
Fully welded up and hit with some Red Oxide.... I think they should be strong enough now and will hardly notice after a coat or two of satin black
 

 

 
 
And so onto the lower A arms.......
 

If there was more than one Nigel I'd never get anything done
 
 
 
Thanks Norm.. A bit more of the same in the next video with a splash of "how did he do that?"
 
 
The strip down continues..
 

 
 
Right side A arms and hub.
 

 
 
Left side and rear shock...    Quite amazingly I have had no problems getting any bolts out, a few were very tight to say the least, I think only 2 small ones have broken and they only held the original bodywork on anyways so they are not needed now.
 

 
 
Lot's of welding has been happening, you may remember the sump/engine guard mounting brackets that I couldn't weld on upside down..
 

 
 
Ground back... Ok, this is a different bracket but you get the idea
 

 
 
And fully zapped up.. It ain't gonna move now
 

 
 
Speaking of welding, you will now see why I didn't want to get the engine running before fully welding the frame up...   Lot's of bit's to weld that just couldn't be done with the engine in!
 

 
 
There has only been two bolts that were a right pain to get out, but that was only because I didn't have the right tool was the swing arm bolts with "big ar$e" 17mm Allen key bolts!
 

 
 
But yesterday I was able to borrow the right tool, a 17mm Allen key thingy that fits on a ratchet (Thanks Karl) and after a lot of force that bolts freed up with a loud crack..
Of course the swing arm bearings are shot..
 

 
 
An almost naked frame.. The sump guard is doing a great job of keeping the frame steady on the bench
 

The foot peg mounts needed some strengthening.. They won't move now but I will add a bit more strength underneath.
 

 
 
Due to the engine being offset to the left, the frame rails are not the same which meant the left side foot peg stuck out a bit more than the other side..

Chopped..
 

 
 
Push the ends together..
 

 
 
And weld it up.. I have welded the joins inside as well.
 

 

 
 
With the foot pegs now sticking out the same amount both sides I needed to think about something to stop me running over my own legs with the rear wheels...
So more recycling, some steel mesh and a mower handle.. The section of small louvers I will use later..
 

 
 
I needed to bend a couple of slight but long bends in the tube (mower handle now swapped out for a better one which also turned out to be Honda.. In keeping eh ).
Running it over with the quad and even my Gt-14 didn't work, so something heavier was needed..
Please note Nigel busy eating to add to the weight
 

 
 
I'm sure there was a length of tube there a second ago
 

 
 
I think Nigel's truck did the bending trick
 

 
 
As it turned out we decided not to use the long bends in the end and went for something shorter.
 

 
 
Mostly welded on each side. The photo's do make the angles look a bit strange.. The tube heads towards the wheel before bending up..
 

 

 
 
It's hard to tell but I think they both look the same each side..
Once some steel mesh is welded in the feet shouldn't go through.
 

 
 
And that's this thread up to date again..

Making the head lamp bowls 1 1/2 inches longer has been fun, here's the second one after tack welding.
 

 
 
And the first one part way through having the welds cleaned up..
 

 
 
As well as a temperature gauge the pod on the right will have a couple of warning lights fitted.. Neutral and low oil.
 

 

 
 
Only balanced in place here, but the shape and look of them do make me grin
 

 

Evening all a bit of a MadTrax update for you..
 
The coils, regulator etc have been mounted under the gas tank, you might say space was tight!    Photo's to come when I remember to take some
To make enough space to get the ignition barrel in the right place and to stop my thumbs being crushed between the bar and the gas tank I made this handle bar riser thing..
 

 

 
 
The riser thingy in place.
 

 

 
 
While in the handle bar area I thought I should have a look at getting a rev counter, temp gauge and a couple of warning lights mounted.
 

 
 
With a bit of trimming of the mounting plate the temp gauge shrunk a bit in size.
 

 
 
Some thick-ish flat steel was needed so I decided it was time the last remaining part of my first Mig welder found a use.. I do have plans for the louvers
 

 
 
Not a bad fit..
 

 
 
The plan was to mount the temp gauge in a box, I even started to mark out the sheet to do so..
 

 
 
Then Nigel asked if I had thought of fitting the gauges in tube?
Not a bad idea I though and went of the search for a couple of big enough bit's of steel tube..
It was at that point that I found a pair of Gutbrod headlamps that have a rather nice shape to them.
 

 

 
 
Who would of thought a Honda rev counter would be such a good fit in a Gutbrod headlamp!!!
I just need to make them a bit longer
 

 

No chance of it being finished for a while Norm, but you can have a good nose at it tomorrow when you drop by the workshop
 
 
The sp-z wagon sounds like a Japanese import car
 
I guess it's about time for another update as it's been a while.
 
The fuel tank gained a couple of these strange looking brackets.
 

 
 
If your wondering what they are for, they hold the front of the seat down.
 

 
 
The rear of the seat has a couple of plastic spikes/pointy bits which fit into the rubbers.. I found a couple of washers which were the right size inside but too small on the outside..
 

 
 
So I cut a hole in some plate..
 

 
 
Dropped the washer in..
 

 
 
Then zapped it up..
 

 
 
Tack welded in place.. They will get fully zapped up when I pull the quad apart to finish all the welding..
 

 

You would be right Norm... Which is why I made this
 

 

 
 
Not perfect but it should help the gasses flow in the right direction now
 

 
 
Getting the down pipes from the engine to the 2 into 1 thingy was interesting, lot's of measuring, bending, welding and trimming a few mm's of here and there until it all fitted together..
 

 

 

 
 
The exhaust system is split into 3 parts so I can actually get it in and out of the frame.. Here's the front part on the bench getting fully welded up..
 

 
 
A couple of little holes like this to fill or it will be louder than I think it's going to be... Quite loud I'm guessing
 

 
 
The rear section with the two shortened silencer boxes and some 1 into 2 pipework..
 

 
 
Here's the completed system, me thinks it looks quite mad
 

 

 

Thanks mate, it sure makes a difference when you have the right tools
 
The Honda MadTrax now has a backbone.. Sorry about the rubbish photo, my phone camera is starting to have problems now it's getting on a bit.
 

 
 
I'm sure all you bike folk know what these bit's of small tube are for..
 

 
 
These are old mounting rubber from a Ford P100 pick-up. After a bit of trimming..
 

 
 
They were perfect for mounting the fuel tank in the normal bike kinda way.
 

 
 
With some cutting, shaping, welding and adding a captive nut the rear tank mount was made.
 

 
 
The top engine mount taking shape, I just need to find a couple more bolts.
 

 

 
 
To finish off here's the latest MadTrax video.. Enjoy
 
 

The new bit of the rear frame has been sorted, I think your agree that "kick up" gives MadTrax an aggressive mean sort of look
 

 

 
 
Of course as soon as the frame had enough strength put back in to take the weight of a person.. I just had to have a seat
 

 

 

 
 
You know the saying of "A bad workman always blames he's tools".. Well in this case I can rightly blame my small Mig welder..

With the aid of a new welding mask and Nigel's 30+ year old heavy duty Mig I produced the best welds I have ever done This is the start of the lower rear engine mounts..
 

 

 
 
A couple of rear upper engine mounts..
 

 

 
 
MadTrax can now hold it's own weight up including engine
 

 

Thanks Alan, I should be a lot further ahead than I am really, but life, looking and giggling have slowed me down
 
 
 
It's called visualizing and working things out
 
Well, early Monday morning my welding wire turned which was very nice of it.. Tacking tubes together with a Arc welder has not been fun..
 
As it happened Mig welding was not fun for long!!    A word of warning chaps, always wear gloves when welding even more so if your welding something galvanized!
 
Why??
Well a rather nasty evil big blob of molten weld decided to jump and land on my wedding ring where it most unkindly burnt a hole through it and at the same time super-heated the top half of the ring to a very "ouch" sort of temperature!
 

 
 
Getting the ring off was interesting to say the least, it's always been a very tight fit but still turned, but once my finger started swelling!!    With the help of Google, a good chap by the name of Matt, and a length of fine string we managed to get the ring off without having to cut it!   
This was quite bad timing as it was our 9th wedding anniversary yesterday!
 

 
 
For those of you (Hi Nigel) who are saying I shouldn't wear the ring in the workshop, I've never taken it off as it doesn't/didn't really come off without a big fight!
 
And now onto something tubular..  The quad frame.. A lot of new tube work has gone in to add strength and also give it a bit of style..
 

 

 
 
While my Mig welder did an "ok" job of welding the frame up, it did seam to be lacking oomph and not powerful enough to do a good job.
So Nigel the good chap he is suggested we drag he's welder through and give it a whirl...     Strong welds??   Ooooo yeah baby
 

 

 
 
This was one of those corners with a lot of steel bar showing.. It now be filled with weld
 

 
 
So thanks for the use of your welder mate, I now feel a lot happier about riding the quad
 
A blurred view of the other side..
 

 
 
The rear or the frame is getting a re-shape to to keep the curved theme of the frame going, here's the first part of it.. 3 tubes all with slight bends to get them fitting under the seat lip. When the seat if clamped down only the bottom half of the tube will be showing.
 

 
 
I just love this view from the back, the tank makes it look so meaty and MadMaxy
 

Thanks mate
 
 
 
Don't you mean Australian Norm?
 
With the fuel tank braced in the right place I could make a start on rebuilding the frame.. This may sound a strange way of doing it, but I want the frame to be a feature and not hidden away under bodywork.
 

 

 
 
Every cut and join in the frame has some nice thick steel bar inside to make sure it's all strong enough when welded up.. Everything is only tack welded at the mo as I've run out of Mig wire.
 

 
 
I like the "double down pipe" look, the o/s was easy..
 

 

If your thinking the n/s looks a bit close to the carb then you would be right!
 

 

It's so close that I had to notch the inside of the pipe to give enough space to get a fuel pipe on the carbs!
 

 
 
Putting some strength back in the front, roll on Monday when my welding wire should arrive and I can zap all the tubes fully together..
 

 
 
 

It would seem that somehow today I managed to buy one of these with a shot engine (not this one) late this afternoon...
 

 
 
Well, I needed somewhere to put the spare CX500 engine I have
 

 

Nice work Chris, I like the contrast between the freshly painted wheel and Bap's faded oiled bodywork
Are you going to paint the front wheels and wheel weights?

Some machines just like to fight you, and the RJ has picked the very last stage to er.. Pick a fight!
 
With the fuel tank sealed up inside and painted, and the carb passing the leak test before it was installed the time had come to fire the RJ up and have a drive/adjust the shifter linkage..
I'm not sure if he didn't like coming off the bench or is just scared of being at ground level but the fighting started!
Problems with the pull start not being able to keep hold of the end of the cable and the re-coil wasn't!
Cable and re-coil eventually sorted only now the jaws bit that grabs hold of a hexagonal shaft on the engine wasn't grabbing any longer!
When the pull start is off the engine it works fine, but once fitted!!   
 
Sometimes walking away is the best option and go back to the problem with a fresh head.. Which will be happening tomorrow..
 
The dull weather makes the paint look darker than it actually is..
 

 

 

 
 
I almost forgot!!!
 
 

This wasn't a planned thing, but as we had 5 Wheel Horses in our workshop we thought it would be nice to see them all lined up
 

 

 

 

This wasn't a planned thing, but as we had 5 Wheel Horses in our workshop we thought it would be nice to see them all lined up
 

 

 

 

As some of you will know Nigel bought a Wheel Horse GT-14 the other week, quite why he is not sure, I just think Nigel wanted to copy me
 
A few photo's from Nigel's first drive..
 

 

 
 
A good place to park
 

 
 
Nigel insisted that I had a drive to see what I thought, and of course Nigel blamed me for the "cough cough splutter" as the engine started to run badly and then cut out
Lot's of swearing followed by a carb clean out, a coil and fuel pump swap and eventually fitting a one way valve to the fuel line to help the pump prime (the replacement fuel pump is a bit lazy too) and the GT was back into life..
 
Oh, Nigel did make a new exhaust for the GT, but as the only way to fit it was to drop the front axle off we shall gloss over it
 
So... What do you do if you have two running and driving GT's???   You go for a drive of course
 
 

This wasn't a planned thing, but as we had 5 Wheel Horses in our workshop we thought it would be nice to see them all lined up
 

 

 

 

As some of you will know Nigel bought a Wheel Horse GT-14 the other week, quite why he is not sure, I just think Nigel wanted to copy me
 
A few photo's from Nigel's first drive..
 

 

 
 
A good place to park
 

 
 
Nigel insisted that I had a drive to see what I thought, and of course Nigel blamed me for the "cough cough splutter" as the engine started to run badly and then cut out
Lot's of swearing followed by a carb clean out, a coil and fuel pump swap and eventually fitting a one way valve to the fuel line to help the pump prime (the replacement fuel pump is a bit lazy too) and the GT was back into life..
 
Oh, Nigel did make a new exhaust for the GT, but as the only way to fit it was to drop the front axle off we shall gloss over it
 
So... What do you do if you have two running and driving GT's???   You go for a drive of course
 
 

Some machines just like to fight you, and the RJ has picked the very last stage to er.. Pick a fight!
 
With the fuel tank sealed up inside and painted, and the carb passing the leak test before it was installed the time had come to fire the RJ up and have a drive/adjust the shifter linkage..
I'm not sure if he didn't like coming off the bench or is just scared of being at ground level but the fighting started!
Problems with the pull start not being able to keep hold of the end of the cable and the re-coil wasn't!
Cable and re-coil eventually sorted only now the jaws bit that grabs hold of a hexagonal shaft on the engine wasn't grabbing any longer!
When the pull start is off the engine it works fine, but once fitted!!   
 
Sometimes walking away is the best option and go back to the problem with a fresh head.. Which will be happening tomorrow..
 
The dull weather makes the paint look darker than it actually is..
 

 

 

 
 
I almost forgot!!!
 
 

This wasn't a planned thing, but as we had 5 Wheel Horses in our workshop we thought it would be nice to see them all lined up
 

 

 

 

Some machines just like to fight you, and the RJ has picked the very last stage to er.. Pick a fight!
 
With the fuel tank sealed up inside and painted, and the carb passing the leak test before it was installed the time had come to fire the RJ up and have a drive/adjust the shifter linkage..
I'm not sure if he didn't like coming off the bench or is just scared of being at ground level but the fighting started!
Problems with the pull start not being able to keep hold of the end of the cable and the re-coil wasn't!
Cable and re-coil eventually sorted only now the jaws bit that grabs hold of a hexagonal shaft on the engine wasn't grabbing any longer!
When the pull start is off the engine it works fine, but once fitted!!   
 
Sometimes walking away is the best option and go back to the problem with a fresh head.. Which will be happening tomorrow..
 
The dull weather makes the paint look darker than it actually is..
 

 

 

 
 
I almost forgot!!!
 
 

Thanks Iain, it was painted with enamel.
 
 
Neil's RJ is so close to being done I can almost taste the first test drive
 
A few detail jobs, the points cover was missing a gasket so I had to make one...
 

 
 
The exhaust was missing a clamp and little doo dat that clamps between the exhaust and frame... Sorted
 

 
 
The foot pegs didn't have the optional? foot rest thingys (I don't even know if RJ's could be ordered with them?) so Nigel put some rubber shrink wrap stuff over the pegs to give a bit of grip and stop the paint wearing away.
 

 
 
Sorry Neil, a change of plan for the wheels... We thought gold would look much better and Nigel had all these cans of wheel paint kicking around you see..........
 

 
 
Only kidding
 

 
 
A second coat is needed at this point.. As is first coating the other side
 

 
 
Wheels second coated and bolted back on...... I can't help but grin every time I look at the RJ
 

 

 

This wasn't a planned thing, but as we had 5 Wheel Horses in our workshop we thought it would be nice to see them all lined up