the tinker
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Needed to come up with a pair of truss rod for a really nice Shelby springer I bought last week that was missing the rods. If it was a Schwinn springer, no problem. But Shelby? Hard to find item.
I had a really nice pair off a Hawthorne that I had replaced with a springer.....They matched the Shelby ones perfect for the radius . Not exactly the same diameter but close enough for me. The problem was they were too long and threaded on the top end.
The first photo shows 3 rods. A stock Shelby and the Hawthorne rods, one already cut to length. One marked ready to cut.
After cutting the 2nd. rod, I heated the end red hot with the torch.
Then with a heavy hammer beat the end flat to match the original Shelby rod.It is important to hammer it flat on the edge of the anvil, as shown. Hammering it in the center of the anvil will result in flattening it "off center" and it may curl up also.
All that is left to do is drill the bolt hole....... Nice thing was that the heat applied to the end of the rod did not destroy the chrome.
I had a really nice pair off a Hawthorne that I had replaced with a springer.....They matched the Shelby ones perfect for the radius . Not exactly the same diameter but close enough for me. The problem was they were too long and threaded on the top end.
The first photo shows 3 rods. A stock Shelby and the Hawthorne rods, one already cut to length. One marked ready to cut.
After cutting the 2nd. rod, I heated the end red hot with the torch.
Then with a heavy hammer beat the end flat to match the original Shelby rod.It is important to hammer it flat on the edge of the anvil, as shown. Hammering it in the center of the anvil will result in flattening it "off center" and it may curl up also.
All that is left to do is drill the bolt hole....... Nice thing was that the heat applied to the end of the rod did not destroy the chrome.