I’ve been bicycling most of my life (haven’t we all?)… riding BMX, freestyle, flatland, Mtn. Bikes with no/front/full suspension, and currently am riding a Trek that I’ve cobbled into a singlespeed (freewheel, not fixie… yet) ‘cross type bike. For the past several years I’ve wanted to build my own bicycle frame, but haven’t had the tools to do so (oxy/acetelene torch or TIG), but now that I have a TIG, I’d like to give it a shot!

After seeing this Excelsior Henderson race bike, I now had the inspriation to do so! I found a junk 70’s frame at my grandparent’s house for practice, and am hoping to get going on it once we get back from California in a couple weeks.

Here’s some more inspiration I came across from Zach Suhr for your perusal:

This past Sunday, Michelle, Emmett and I took the stroller down to Blacksmith’s in Hugo, to Emmett’s first swap meet.

We put him in the stroller, and he slept most of the morning, doing a little looking around. We ran into Titus from the HAMB, and he had a nice GM Tilt & Telescoping Steering column for cheap, so we bought it, and on the way back to the car, we found a cool old three gauge cluster with three generic gauges in it. It’s cast aluminum, and chromed, and kinda 60’s-ish, so we’ll use it in the truck.

I spent some time yesterday re-organizing the garage, and while I was at it, I mounted the cab on the frame for the first time in about a year! That was pretty exciting, and it really looks alot better now!

I also turned the truck around, so I can get at the rear suspension to rebuild it, and c-notch the frame easier… so while it was in the driveway, I took a couple of photos. I also shot some of my own photos of the new Miller 330A/B TIG welder I recently bought. I got a tank of Argon for it, and have fired it up. Mainly I’ve just contaminated my tungstens, but it seems like with some (read: ALOT OF) practice I’ll be able to TIG weld.

Firing the Engine for the first time from Ben Carlson on Vimeo.

I finished welding up the motor mounts this afternoon, and started modifying the transmission mount for the truck. The motor mounts went slick, then I had to narrow and raise the transmission mount. I went to put the new rubber cushion I had purchased under the trans, but it wouldn’t fit! I ended up having to take a half-hour to run up to the parts store and buy a new one. It ended up that I needed one from a 1984-1986 Chevy Caprice to fit it.

So, I got the transmission mount modified, and then it was dinner time. I buttoned things up and now, all I have to do is do some measuring, and drill eight holes, and the engine and trans will be bolted in place.

I had found a pair of whitewall tires on steel rims on Craigslist the weekend before Emmett was born. They were off of a ‘47 Ford project, and they were the perfect price to see if I really wanted bias-ply whitewalls on the truck.

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