Project Bare Bones Hemi Ruttman

Which seat looks better?

  • Piece of wood

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Piece of wood with tonneau cover on it

    Votes: 4 100.0%
  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .
RuttmanRacer

RuttmanRacer

New Member
#1
#1
I needed a minibike completed by this Sunday with minimal money invested. Luckily I had a frame, wheels and a lot of parts that needed to do more than sit on the shelf. For everything else I am lucky enough to live close to Motor City Minis oh yeah and I bought a Hemi Predator.

I bought this frame from MeanDean about 3 years ago.


I sandblasted and primed it a few months ago just for the heck of it which came in handy because I only had 2 days to finish this build (standing up in a wedding so Friday and Saturday are out and I work 24 hrs Thursday).

I decided to leave it in primer and go extremely bare bones on it since I plan on painting it soon.

The wheels are purple from the last bike they were on. Again no time to change it so I will just embrace the purple patina.


That muffler gets pretty hot so I might have to cut a seat out of some birch plywood that I have laying around.

Thanks again Mean Dean and thanks to Motor City Minis and to Uncle Bill for the wheels!
 
minibikin'

minibikin'

Sho-nuff
#2
#2
Love the small frame Ruttmans. You can always cut a piece of aluminum the shape of the seat bottom and bolt it in between the seat and frame for a heat shield.
 
RuttmanRacer

RuttmanRacer

New Member
#3
#3
I cut the seat routered the edges and am in the process of sanding it. I thought it would look cool on there stained very dark. Again bare bones no frills needed.

 
Last edited:
RuttmanRacer

RuttmanRacer

New Member
#5
#5
I also just remembered I have a tonneau cover with a rip in one part that I could use to wrap it. I might try that on abother piece of plywood real quick. What do you guys think?
 
RuttmanRacer

RuttmanRacer

New Member
#7
#7
Thanks buckeye.

I actually expected more out of the Hemi. Maybe it is the gearing but it didn't knock my socks off at all compared to my greyhound it doesn't feel any faster maybe even slower (12:72 on both).

It is a beast outta the hole though
 
RuttmanRacer

RuttmanRacer

New Member
#11
#11
So far most people have said they like the black seat better. I hate to say it because I really thought a finely sanded slab of wood would make a kick ass seat, but I think I agree.

Here are a couple pics of how I made my first homemade seat with what I could find at work.

First I cut some plywood the same size as the first seat i made.

Then i needed to figure out what i could find for padding. I wanted a low profile seat so I wanted something very thin I even tought I would just wrap the plywood with a cut off from an unused tonneau that I had stashed for parts


(it was damaged in shipping few months ago and I was told to keep it)

then I noticed a pad for a floor buffer would be just right lol. It is about an inch thick and can take a beating.

I didn't have any fancy hardware on hand so had to make due. I put two carriage bolts on the grinder to flat side them enough to put them in a slot that I made with my router





From there it was just a matter of stretching the tonneau over the seat pad and stapling it in place. I played with the corners a little bit to get them to lay as flat as possible.

It's not the most advanced seat and I'm sure most of you have done this or do it all the time but it was a first for me and I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no plans of doing it until all the pieces kinda fell in my lap.

The other cool thing is I have plenty of material left to make a bunch more if needed!

I think if the stain was more of a black than red mahogany the original seat might have worked out but like I said almost all feedback has pointed towards the traditional seat.

I created a poll please vote and or reply to let me know what you think
 
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