1/12 Top Fuel Motorcycle (Larry "Spiderman" McBride)

[ScrappyJ]

Thanks, Guys!

@ Darryl- We missed you guys too! It's always cool hanging with you and Wayne.

I had to make the side plate for the primary belt pulleys. I enlisted the help of machinist extraordinaire, Bob Dudek to make the side plate as well as the brace plate for the drive sprocket. In order to get the side plates done, I made master copies for him to do his CNC wizardry (the sprocket master was actually machined out of aluminum and the primary was scratched out of styrene):

[ScrappyJ]

I also enlisted Bob's help for the clutch set up. Again, I made the master out of styrene:


Billet items from Bob:


Finished product:

And then the transmission:

Edited November 30, 2012 by ScrappyJ

[ScrappyJ]

Here's a pick of the blower hat. It was made from styrene and the master actually is hollow all the way through. I wound up casting these to make enough for the other bikes. Then I machined a flat side to the butterfly shaft. The pulley for the cable has two brass pieces inserted that has holes to receive the cables from the throttle cables:

Here is the blower hat on the blower and carbon-fibered. It als has some of the do-dads and do-hickies:

Plumbed and ready to go:

Edited November 30, 2012 by ScrappyJ

[Bobdude]

Mr. Joseph, Thank you for including me in your fantastic build of Larry's bike. I really enjoyed working with you. Bob

[vintagedragfan]

beautiful craftsmanship boy's!!

[gasser59]

Man that work is excellent although its really not 'work' is it? I'd say its more 'art.'

[pharr7226]

I'm running out superlatives for this thing. The multi-piece clutch is just sick. You and Bob make quite the team. I love the blower work also. I was out of town for a few days over the Thanksgiving break. I'm going to call Reggie tonight or tomorrow to see if he is going to the ACME meeting on Sunday.

[Scott Colmer]

This is really, really great scratchbuilding. Your handmade parts have a very tight and clean look to them. Always been a fan of your stuff, Dirk. This will be another masterpiece.

Scott

[Mooneyzs]

Dirk.... What can I say. This is a very IMPRESSIVE build. You have caught my eye with this one. You have talent and skills. I really like the frame Jig that you made. that is the best way to keep everything straight. I love all of the machine work you have done as well as the parts that you had Bob Dudek turn for you. I have a few parts that I bought from Bob a while back and they are beautiful pieces of work. I am really looking forward to seeing more of this build up as well as the finished product. I have always wanted to scratch build a Pro Stock Motorcycle basing it off a Suzuki kit since I really love those bikes. Keep up the Great work.

[ScrappyJ]

For some reason, my edit buttons aren't working and I can't add images. Oh well...

[ScrappyJ]

Let's try it this way:

Here are some pics of the dampers for the front end. If you’ve ever ridden a bike and wheelied, you know that when you come down, the front end can sometimes have a tendency to wobble a little. The dampers help to stabilize the front end a little better and when you’re going about 200 mph (these TF bikes can carry the front end for most of the 1320 before the front end final hits the pavement), you definitely don’t want any wobbles.

[vintagedragfan]

beautiful Dirk!!!

[ScrappyJ]

I used the Tamiya detail kit for one of their bikes for the project; however, I didn’t like the part where the front axle attaches to the fork tubes since it is plastic and not quite the design I wanted. I decided to try my hand at machining pieces for it. The thing with these pieces, is that I made them with a ledge so that once I got my machined pieces (rotors and calipers) from Jim at Micro Nitro, I could machine some brackets to attach the calipers to them:

This is a picture of the original parts as they came out of the kit:

Here are the machine pieces:

[johnbuzzed]

I saw this project at the ACME show last month. Truly amazing, absolutely incredible; a phenomenal work of art that should be displayed as much as possible.

[pharr7226]

Outstanding work Dirk!

[futurattraction]

Now that I've picked my jaw up off the keyboard, I can type. What a spectacular job! There's no point in repeating what everybody else has said, but my gosh!!! I'm not really a bike fan, but the work you did on your T/F bike is off the charts. I'll keep watching and look forward to more updates.

[ScrappyJ]

Thanks for all the kind words, Gents! I'll post some more between tonight and the AM.

[Prostreet]

Amazing work Dirk, I cheated and looked through your Fotki Photos.

[ScrappyJ]

Here are all the parts that Mike Lawrence made for me. To say this guy has talent is an understatement. The work he’s doing on his Evo’s motor is beyond real. Thanks, Mike!

The primary covers in the process of being CNCed.

MSD box being CNCed

The fuel pump

Brake and Clutch levers

Edited December 6, 2012 by ScrappyJ

[ScrappyJ]

And then the parts from Jim Littiken (MicroNitro). these include the rotor and rotor hats, the calipers and triple-trees. Great stuff here! Thanks, Jim!

Edited December 6, 2012 by ScrappyJ

[vintagedragfan]

WOOOW!! that is some beautiful stuff Dirk!!

[Mooneyzs]

Dirk.... Those parts are very impressive. Man Nice work by Jim as always. as well as the parts Mike did to. This is a killer build

[pharr7226]

WOW! Amazing design and machining going on here. A tip of the hat to all of you...

[ScrappyJ]

Thanks, Gents! I couldn't have done it without the help from Mike Lawrence, Bob Dudek and Jim Littiken (not to mention Clay Kemp, Charlie at Pro Tech and Bob at RB Motion).

Here is the motor and the exhaust. One of the only parts, other than the front wheel and tire, from any kit was the head and valve cover for the engine, which all of those were cast. The engine block/case and the cylinder jug (for lack of a better term) were machined on my mill. At first, the block/case was more (no pun) block like. Then I decided to taper the sides once I realized that is more how the real case looks). All the braided lines were from Pro Tech (Charlie has the best) and most of the fittings were from Bob at RB Motion.

I thought the exhaust was going to be one of the most challenging parts of this build. The part of the exhaust coming out of the motor is made from aluminum and the four pipes coming out to the top are made from stainless steel. It turned out to not be too bad and I think the final results were okay.

[vintagedragfan]

you think it turned out ok?? thats killer Dirk!!