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Moon Rocket 88

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10~18kustoms

Wore out three sets of tires already!
Digging more old parts out of the back of the barn and trying to envision a project out of them.


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My first thoughts were to just create a Monark Rocket Header/Manifold bike like the JC Higgins version. I have actually seen a few pictures of real Monark built Manifold bikes and would love to have one someday. But then I remembered a bike my friend Buddy used to have that was a custom mashup of a Dyno Mooneyes & a Buick Rocket 88 and I decided that since this was also going to be a Kustom mashup, why not roll with that theme.

Here is a picture of Buddy's bike used as inspiration for the theme:

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I had a loose girls Monark single springer fork that had been laying in the shop for a couple years waiting for the right project. It got straightened, threaded & cut down to fit the frame. Chrome was cleaned, mockup complete, the fork will be painted simi gloss black to match the Rocket frame.

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Next up Wheels and tires. I had recently bought a Dyno Cruiser wheel set with a Nexus 7 Speed hub. I had a couple of Jerrold White Wall Slicks I've been hording for the right project. The rear got a slick, and the front just got a Kinda 2.125" WW for now. It's new but has been laying around for 20+ years and has sort of yellowed as those will do. I wanted to run a 1.75 on the front for that Wide Glide bobber look but didn't have one. I may change it out later. Now I think it needs a front fender, so time to cut another fender down to size.

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Next up Wheels and tires. I had recently bought a Dyno Cruiser wheel set with a Nexus 7 Speed hub. I had a couple of Jerrold White Wall Slicks I've been hording for the right project. The rear got a slick, and the front just got a Kinda 2.125" WW for now. It's new but has been laying around for 20+ years and has sort of yellowed as those will do. I wanted to run a 1.75 on the front for that Wide Glide bobber look but didn't have one. I may change it out later. Now I think it needs a front fender, so time to cut another fender down to size.

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Marty,

I have a Chen ????? Mountain bike tire, 26 x 1.75 (42-559) whitesidewall you can have. No cracks and the whitewall isn’t yellowed that much. A little Westleys Bleach White might take of that. Text or call me.

Ed
 
Cool project! I forgot how sweet those front springer forks are.
Yes, they are my favorite of all the Monark forks. Some would say they were not as widely used as the double spring Monark fork, but you couldn't tell that from my garage. This one makes the 9th one I have on bikes.
 
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The tank was an old rusty Rocket tank I picked up at a swap meet years ago. It was cheap because it was badly rusted and had a few pinholes on one side. I had previously stripped all the rust off to reveal all the pinholes and pits, Fiber glassed the pinholes from the back, did a little fill primer to smooth out the pits, then premiered it and put it on the back burner pile until I needed it for something. This seemed to be a good project for it since it was a non-horn tank, and already had pinholes in it so I didn't feel as bad about drilling more holes for the repop headers I also had stashed and wanted to do something with.

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It was painted Mooneyes Yellow, and the headers were installed.

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