1963 BSA | Oil Tank Cover

Well the battery sits in the oil tank. It was previously exposed, but I think it will look better covered. I made a simple template out of paper. I transferred it to steel, and cut out the holes first because it’s easier that way. I cut the rest out with tin snips. Placing the plate on the frame I marked where I wanted the mounting holes, and drilled out the plate. Bringing it back to the frame I then marked the holes on the frame. After drilling and tapping into the frame I mounted the plate using 6×1.25mm bolts. I then used a hammer and dolly to roll the edges over to contour the frame. It looks a lot cleaner now!

1963 BSA | Oil Tank Mount

This is the oil tank that came in on the bike. Its pretty cool. There was no real reason to change to mounting position. However it was only secured at the rear of the tank, and the front was just resting on the crossmember thats in front of it even though the tank has a mounting point for the front. Also the front of the tank was rubbing on the frame. So I set out to get it done proper.

I cut out the old rear mounts, I needed more room to slide the tank back to get it away from the frame. I also cut out a notch in the frame, for the front mount of the oil tank to secure to. Using a 1″ solid stock for the front mount, I drilled it out for the hardware to pass through. Using “L” brackets for the rear mounts, I notch them slightly to accommodate for the width of the frame. I tapped the oil tank rear mounts so I could bolt the “L” brackets to.

With all the brackets bolted to the tank I placed the in position. I held the tank in place with a bottle jack. This allowed me to still maneuver the tank in to place while freeing my hands to weld. Once the tank looked good and was in place I burned it in. Now the tank is mounted properly in the front and rear, and is no longer rubbing on the frame.

1963 BSA | Headlight Bracket

Well I made a simple headlight bracket for the BSA. Remember the front end is now a Harley Davidson sportster set up. I started out with 1 1/2″ tube for the fork sleeves, and 1/2″ tube for the clamping point. I weld the 1/2″ tube perpendicular to the 1 1/2″ in position about half way up.

Then it was on to the struts. I used 1/2″ solid stock. I heated them up an bent them following a rough template I had made. At the apex of the bend I drilled a hole for the mounting point of the headlight. Then I mounted the struts to the headlight and held it in place on the forks. A couple of tack welds held them in place. Then I took them off the forks for final welding.

The bracket lends itself to the overall look of the bike. The original brackets were generic “flat strap” chrome universal things.

1963 BSA | Handle Bar

After converting the front end to a Harley sportster set up, I made some bars. The bars that were perviously on the bike hit the tank, leaving it looking rough. So I bent up some simple nineties out of one inch tube. I tied them together at the bottom with 1/8″ plate. Then I welded in a 3/4″ bolt in the ends of the tubes to mount to the triple tree. And they don’t hit the tank anymore.

1963 BSA | exhaust

Well the time came to get the exhaust done. I found some really cool 12″ mufflers at Dime City Cycles online as well as a TC Bros DIY builder kit. The builder kit came with an assortment of bends and straights to get the job done right. And the high flow short mufflers look great and will sound amazing too.

I started by mounting the mufflers. If you don’t know where you want to end up how can you get there, I always say. I cut a 7/8″ hole in the frame. Then I cut down a 1.5″ length of 7/8″ solid round stock and drilled and tapped it. Each muffler came with it’s own mounting bracket. Since I wanted both mufflers on the same side I used one of the brackets to mount both mufflers. This allowed me to offset the mufflers with ease. After drilling a hole in the bracket between the mufflers I mounted my slug to the mufflers. Then I inserted the slug into the frame. This allowed me to make sure the mufflers were where I needed them to be. I tack welded the slug to the frame, then I removed the mufflers and final welded it in.

Now that I knew where I wanted to end up time to cut the bends in order to get there. I decided to set the mufflers on the right side of the bike because Joe, the customer, had mentioned he wanted to put a leather saddle bag on one side of the bike. So I thought I’d make some room for him. The exhaust kit from TC Bros came with everything I needed. I ran the left exhaust pipe under the frame just before the rear tire. I chose to go under the frame to avoid running into the chain. The left pipe used two 90 degree bends to get to the muffler. The right side pipe used a “U” bend cut in half and spun 180 degrees, which gives it a cool “S” look. Joe was having problems with the old exhaust scraping on turns. Well that problem is gone and the new exhaust makes room for a saddle bag, as well as has a custom clean look.