Post 12: Cutting the Bike in Half

    Landers came by on Saturday and helped me figure out how to take some stuff apart I was afraid to break if I pulled on it too hard. Most everything is held with 10 mm nuts.
He helped me disconnect and unravel the wiring harness, and take it off.
Today, I took the throttle and choke cables off the handlebars, drained the radiator, and took it off the bike.
    I proceeded to cut the two tubes of the front frame just above the engine mount. I used a 6" counter rotating saw with carbide tips for most of the cut, and finished with a reciprocating saw:

I then cut most of the air intake tube built into the top of the frame:

I will need help to finish the cut so the front end doesn't just fall over.
  Next will be the cut of the lower right part of the frame, leaving the rear brake bracket attached to the rear end and the engine bracket attached to the front frame:

   Removing the top rear engine bolt should let the back end come loose with the gear drive separating from the transmission at the U-Joint:

Post 11: Keeping tearing down...

    I finally figured out how to wiggle a wrench in the really tight spots and managed to take off the whole muffler system, the battery holder. I will need to take the rear wheel off to take out the air box.
   Anyhow, I am beginning to get a better view of the frame, and thinking of the right places to cut it to separate the V Twin unit

from the rear wheel swing arm unit

   Here is a revised left view mock up of a possible Chassis Assembly:

Post 10: Getting Started

  Landers delivered my new bike right to my workshop so I could keep my promise not to ride bikes again. I had moved the stage set stuff to another location to make room for it, but I still have to clean up the benches and reorganize the space to work properly on the built.
  I started stripping it yesterday morning even though the workshop is still a mess. Not so easy for an old man with arthritis. I couldn’t lift the darn thing up on my hydraulic lift because of the way the bottom is configured, and the ground is much lower than it used to be. Left hand can pick up a wench, but can’t do much more. I can already tell it’s gonna be a laborious and tiring project...
  Everything is packed so tight my basic wrenches can’t reach some bolts, like those holding the exhaust pipes and the transmission cover. Part of the frame is actually used as the air intake.

 I really need some expert advice(Landers') on how to proceed.
 I would like to re use as much of the frame as possible, and design the chassis so I can:
    1. Leave the engine attached to the bike frame and weld the front half of it into the front end of the chassis
    2. Weld the back half of the bike frame onto the back end of the chassis.

  So it is critical to cut the frame in exactly the right places, and I need to look at it and talk about it with Landers. 

Post 9: What Kind of Chassis

    Now, assuming I go with the idea of using the Honda as a donor, what kind of chassis do I want to use?
  The original Morgan 3 Wheeler actually used a very simple tubular backbone design:

    That was used again in the Tatras, and in a much beefier version by Colin Chapman for the Lotus Elan:

   I like the simplicity of the design.

   The old fashion option is of course a ladder design like the Bugatti 35, which also means an old fashion rigid front end and leaf springs:

 The back end would be simplified and just follow the shape of the body, while a strong cross member and braces would be needed to attach the swing arm.

  The third option, which offers more rigidity, is a tubular space frame like the Lotus 7, with the back adapted to attach the single wheel swing arm:

   The mockup might then look something like that:

Post 8: A Possible easy Option

 The Morgan is using the S&S V twin and a Mazda Miata 5 speed gear box. A chain drives the single rear wheel. I am looking for a simpler solution. Also, I find the motorcycle kick shifting much simpler than the standard automobile grid shifting. My two Mini Coopers have had the Automatic transmission, with manual shifting, and I like the way it works. Push a lever backward to shift up, and forward to shift back makes more sense to me than trying to find gears on a grid. The 6  speed gear box on my Z could be confusing sometimes. 
  So, I definitely want to use a motorcycle gear box. The shift lever is going to be short and the clutch is going to be a lever on the stick:

  Engine wise, the Victory was my first choice for reasons I explained before. But I was at Landers a couple of days ago, and he had a 2001 Honda Shadow 1100 WITH 15,000 miles on sale for $2650:

  I looked at it and thought: cut this thing in half, move the rear fork unit back a few feet, extend the drive shaft by the same amount, drop the engine in the front of a chassis, put the radiator in front like an old car, and build a front end. That is a much easier built even than with the Victory motor, and a lot cheaper: Victory engines go for $1800 without exhaust or fuel injection, and I wouldn't have to buy a rear wheel and drive). Good donor bike!
  It would not look like a Morgan, but so what, it could look just like a Bugatti instead, which was my original purpose...
  My mock up doesn't even change, except for moving the engine back behind the radiator,and therefore behind the front wheels, which should actually improve the handling substantially:

  I might move the front wheels back a bit, but that will depend on actual full size mockup tests.

  Let's take a look at the parts.
  First, a really solid V Twin good looking great sounding engine with the gear box built in and a shaft drive on the left side:

   Then the rear end, that can be cut off the bike frame and grafted onto the back of the chassis:

The drive shaft and enclosing tube will need to be extended about 5 feet, and a C joint may have to be added:

      Finally, the front brake caliper and disk 

will hopefully fit the design of the front end:

Post 7: A Fabulous Find!

   I just ran across this image, and just have to share it. Sometimes, I feel "Restorators" and "Collectors" should leave things alone and admire them just for what they are:

Post 6: Going with the Bugatti Look?

     Having started this project years ago as "The Budget Bugatti Project", it only seems appropriate that my design for the 3 wheeler take its inspiration from the Bugatti rather than from the Morgan. The trademark Bugatti pointed tail is perfect to house the single rear wheel, and the mock up done with the Bugatti 51 body looks great. The only problem is the narrowness of the body, and I want a two seater, so I will do another mockup starting from the not quite so elongated 35. We only need leg room under the hood anyway, since the engine will be up front:

    An idea to remember is to stagger the seats to give the driver extra elbow room  and the passenger extra shoulder room, like in the 1912 Isotta Frashini, which is also on my list of favorite RACERS:

or the big Bentley:

   In the course of surfing old cars sites, I ran across the 1923 Miller, which I did not know, and which probably comes closest to the look I am after, because of it's solid aluminum wheel covers, except that it is a one seater:

   But the back of my 3 wheeler is going to be high enough so that the rear wheel has sufficient space above it for the suspension to work.
    Just for comparison sake, here are the blue prints for the 1926 Morgan 3 Wheeler:

and for the Bugatti 35:

  Two very different looking beasts indeed. My goal will be to inject some of the "CLASS" of the Bugatti into the Morgan design, with a mixed flavor of Miller, Isotta Fraschini and Sunbeam thrown in for good measure

Post 5: What Kind of Front End?

    This is actually the single most important decision, and I have not made up my mind yet. I need to think about it at length, because handling of the car will depend on it greatly.
   The original Budget Bugatti Project kept a "period" front end with old fashion leaf springs and friction shock absorbers, for the sake of realism and simplicity. It has it's charm, and would be easier to build. The chassis has just two rails, and we could probably use Hot Rod parts:

   BUT since McPherson came up with his strut, and especially since the development of the Double Wishbone Suspension which allowed control of camber, we know we can do a lot better, and have built in adjustments to tune the handling of the car to boot.
   I was at the Barber Track the other day, and shot a bunch of pictures of all kinds of variations on the double wish bone concept, with external and internal spring. Looking for something we can actually build with tubing and a welder. 
   The simple Colin Chapman Lotus design can't be beat:

I remember a friend working on his Lotus 7 back in my engineering school mechanic shop  in 1965, and it was already exactly the same basic design :

   But a more elaborate tubing frame has to be built to attach the struts, which also provides more rigidity. The original Chapman chassis seems a good place to start:

The back would have to be totally modified for the single rear wheel, but the front could actually remain pretty close, just adding re-enforcements to attach the V Twin.

POST 4: A Three Wheel Black Bugatti 51 Mockup

  I started in Photoshop with the picture of the black 51 beauty, replaced the four Bugatti spoke wheels with 3 FatBoy wheels, moved the radiator back a bit, reshaped the rear end a little, added my Victory 1500cc V Twin, modified the exhaust pipes, and got this:

   I think it looks pretty nice.
   If I scale things to the 18" rim diameter, that makes the whole car 10 ft long and the cockpit only about 24" wide, may be a little snug to take a passenger along. I need to have the side bulge out a little more...

Post 3: The Engine, Gear Box and Drive

  I have pretty much already decided to use the Victory 1500cc V Twin that powered my own Vegas. It is a beautifully streamlined engine that doesn't look like any other V-Twin.
   It is fuel injected, which makes it extremely reliable, and it has a lot of torque. I wish I had not sold my bike for a pitance. But it's done, and I can find a used engine for around $1500 (including the gear box of course, which unlike Harley type engines, is built in):

    I like the idea of using the motorcycle gear box instead of mating a Mazda or other car gearbox to a basic engine. I have grown to really like the kick shifting on my Mini Cooper Automatic/Manual gearbox, and want o do the same on the 3 wheeler, having both a kick shift pedal and a kick shift stick. I might get rid of the clutch pedal entirely, and rely on a handle on the shift lever as some bikes have:

The shaft coming out of th Victory gearbox is going to be off centered, but hat is fine since I am planning to use a C Joint and a drive shaft to the rear wheel, with a Yamaha V Star 1100 drive:

Post 2: Sudden Brainstorming

     I have been too busy so far thinking much about the 3 wheeler much, but I started brainstorming today. The first element I definitely want to keep from the Budget Bugatti Project is the Harley Fat Boy rim, which I love, and already have:

   I already have cut one side out to fit the steering pins and the brake disks:

   The second thing I want to keep is a Bugatti look, with a pointed rear end, and a thin long body shape like the Bugatti 51:

    I like the Morgan 3 wheeler well enough, but I dislike the rounded Morgan "FAT ASS":

    Other cars I REALLY LIKE and want to look at for inspiration rather than the Morgan are the 1909 Blitzer Benz, an amazingly modern design for 1909, that except for the chain drive looks like something out of the 20's or 30's:

the 1923 Alfa Romeo Targa Florio:

the 1921 Sunbeam:

The 1921 French Ballot:

 and the 1914 Ford Model T Speedster: