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I like it Josh! Light weight with some stylish and functional curves. I see the 45 braces on the front, are the rear verticals getting the same treatment? Will the 45 braces eliminate needing to tie the top rails together? Very cool though. Gotta get you a TIG welder so you can start making that stuff out of aluminum!

Very nice work!! Its nice to get the kids involved. I have four daughters and I fortunately have a couple that are willing to help out and ask to do so. At least I know they will be able to do some of there own work (or willingness) if needed through life.

I am teaching their mother to ride now, and they keep saying "we are next".. a coupe years for that however....

porchev914 wrote: I like it Josh! Light weight with some stylish and functional curves. I see the 45 braces on the front, are the rear verticals getting the same treatment? Will the 45 braces eliminate needing to tie the top rails together? Very cool though. Gotta get you a TIG welder so you can start making that stuff out of aluminum!

Thanks Adam, and yes the rear will get the same bracing. That is just as far as I got yesterday. I have a couple of other tricks up my sleeve as well. Those braces will eliminate the need to tie the two hoops together. That's an absolute necessity for me. If they are welded together that makes it almost impossible to easily remove by yourself. Also a one piece ladder rack takes up a huge amount of space when not on the truck.

A tig is still on my short list of wants. That and a small lathe for the house. I'm waiting for the right deal to come along.

nice job on the rack but, you could of got some shiney huge wood screws and just mounted it to the outer fender. real kustom like??

Josh, you and Adam can team up to build a carbon fiber kayak after he gets his bike up and a few CF airboxes made.

Nice work on the rack but I think my car looks better with a kayak on the roof haha.



I was at a gas station this summer and some guy in a minivan thought I was gonna hit his van with the back of the kayak haha. Sticks out a good 5-6 feet off the back of the car lol.

nice work.
it is gratifiing to see your son working away.
i helped my 24yr old son put a railing on his new deck this week end. its nice to see that the lessons he learned by helping me over the years, are actualy helping him now.

Ditto, I love it when my girls want to help me out. I've already told them they'll have to learn how to ride a motorcycle, change the oil, brakes and rotate tires on a car, and solo an airplane before I'll let them drive a car alone

MTBspeedfreak, thems' deep waters, making kayak moulds. I don't like the thought of paying for the fiberglass and resin to make the moulds, let alone the materials for a full carbon layup It is IMMENSELY more work than you realize my friend. But it's nice of you to dream of all the work we could do

I started to build my own kayak one time:



That's as far as I got before my Dad went into the hospital and finally succumbed to cancer. All I lacked was to make the ribs and skin the thing, but I was too depressed. The top frame sat outside for too long and started to rot. That was a Greenland style kayak.

Later I actually built my own canoe. It was epoxy/fiberglass over plywood. Jackson and I caught a few fish out of that one.

clutch wrote: I saw that big yellow kayak pic and thought you were going to tell us it was a new project....

KAYA-saki!

TWO THUMBS UP!!

This afternoon, I was able to spend a little time finishing up the fabrication of my kayak rack. You will notice that I added four fishing rod holders under the top rail. Hopefully, this will mean no more broken rods from sliding coolers. Keep in mind that I have to pass all the way through Houston on my way to and from fishing. Sometimes the freeways here involve what I call "combat driving." Evasive maneuvers have claimed more than one of my rods.








I plan on driving around with the yak up there for a couple of days to see how things work. I used to tie it down in the bed of the truck, so it's always been shielded from the wind by the cab. I need to verify that the thing can handle doing 75 mph for 1 1/2 hours. All I have left is to sandblast the thing and paint it. I wouldn't mind building a detachable box to store "stuff" on camping trips and such. That will have to wait until I get my TIG. It needs to be aluminum. A steel box that size would prohibit easy installation and removal.

Hey Tyler, do you have any close-up pictures of the tie down system and the support pads for your kayak?

Nice work Josh! What did you do with your old Ford?

rslingshot wrote: Nice work Josh! What did you do with your old Ford?

I sold it down the road. The first guy who looked at it couldn't resist.

Wow, it's been a little while since I posted any progress on the blue streak. Life got in the way again. My company put me in charge of the whole machine shop back at the end of November. Been pretty busy getting acclimated to my new responsibilities. Since I have a desk job now, I find it therapeutic to run a machine now and then. I have been needing to put some passenger pegs on my bike for a while now, so I decided to make up some mounting points this morning.

I started out with some scrap steel that was 3/4" thick, and borrowed one of the Bridgeport mills to cut it down. In this picture I'm squaring up the stock with a shell cutter:


Here I'm roughing out the center section with a 3/4" roughing endmill or "corncob."


Got my bolt holes drilled and I'm tapping them here. Notice the use of a tap guide to keep the tap straight.


I decided that 3/4" thick is overkill and too heavy so I went back to the shell cutter to remove another 1/4" off the thickness.


I stopped at this point to drag them home and test fit to the bike. I know that they are super basic at this point but I plan to radius the tabs and remove some more weight before I weld them to the bike. Stay tuned for more pictures when I get the rest of the machine work done.

Whoohoo! Looks good Josh.... you gave me a great idea for my own passenger peg mounts, so thanks for the inspiration

it looks pretty good Josh, but real men use hand tools.

woohoo machine work pics !!!!!!!!!!

i think i know where this going, .

keep us posted josh.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: woohoo machine work pics !!!!!!!!!!

i think i know where this going, .

keep us posted josh.

leon

Yep, you should know.

Nice, can't wait to see it mounted up!! I just tore off my rear set mounts (again) maybe third times a charm.