What's in our nature that drives us to collect? To purchase endless amounts of items that you may or may not use, but just can't pass them by. From time to time we pick up projects with dreams and hopes that some day they'll be staring right back at you fully restored, gleaming and whispering to you "I look sooo goood"! "You did a great job"! For some of us this never happens. You inherit a project, go into it so involved and excited then half way into it your bummed.. You run out of money, inspiration, and worse hope. Well, this next post is something like that. It involves a 1969 BSA Lighting. We won't say who it belongs to but hope and inspiration is not what this project is lacking. If luck is on your side then half of what finishing a project requires is free!....Labor. So to inspire those in this similar situation I introduce Tech Article #001. Fabricating a Headlight Bracket.
First you'll have to decide what look and most important what era you're building your bike to resemble. You can the hit swapmeets, Craigslist and the ever expensive Ebay. Once you have purchased your headlight, mock it up by hand and make sure you like it. If you don't like it DON'T USE IT!
Step 2
Take some measurements of the existing mounting holes. These play a key role in the centering of your new headlight. Make sure to take a measurement vertically to determine your desired height.
Step 3
Selecting the right material to use in mounting your headlight is also important. In this case we're using 1/8" cold roll plate. This should be strong enough to support the weight of the headlight and withstand the bikes vibrations. By this point you can begin transferring your previously written down measurements and layout your design. Our design is laid out to be sleek and un-bulky. You want the headlight to attract most of the attention. Dig?
After your layout is complete cut your bracket as close as your scribe line allows. This will minimize your grinding and filling time. Drill out all your holes and use a counter sinking bit to add depth to your bracket.
Step 5
Now you can take your bracket and add some angles to it. This will tuck your bracket tighter into your forks and add some rigidity. We've first broke it into a 45 degree then back to 90 degree. Now you can clean off all your layout fluid and hit it with a scotch brite pad. Don't bother with removing heavy scratches now. You'll do that before sending it out to chrome.
Step 6
Now that you have cleaned up your bracket its time to bolt it up! Use mock up hardware. This will buy some time on deciding what you will be running and allow you to unbolt your headlight without damaging your newly polished hardware! Now... just stand back and enjoy!
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