Arctic Cat Climber

cfh

Well-Known Member
#1
Finished an Arctic Cat Climber mini bike. I bought it from a guy in downtown Detroit. It was pretty much still all there, but in molested condition. Luckily most of the parts were Ok like the seat and gas tank and headlight.

The motor is a Tecumseh 4hp with one of my self cut cams, a 22mm slide carb, and open exhaust. The torque converter is a series20. The original 5/8" belt fairbank morse driven was there, but the drive portion was changed. So i went with a comet series20 with a 3/4" belt. That turned out to be a wise choice. The modified Tecumseh engine is more motor than this mini bike should have...

Before:




After:


 

GustoGuy

Well-Known Member
#5
the gas tank was powder coated using illusion money green. i'm not sure that's really the correct color but that's what i used. I also modified the 'arctic cat' decal for the tank to be red, instead of the stock black/white look.

http://www.pinrepair.com/minibikes/p/arcticcat_climber_mine1.jpg
http://www.pinrepair.com/minibikes/p/arcticcat_climber_mine2.jpg
How did the gas tank turn out? I heard that the solder can melt at the 400 degree curing temps for the powder coating.
 

cfh

Well-Known Member
#6
solder melts at 350 degrees, and most powder coats require 375 to 400 degrees. so yea powder coating a gas tank is tricky. you can ask your powder coat dude to run the oven at no more than 350. but that's difficult sometimes. instead what i do is tig weld tacks to all the metal gas tank pieces. So the filler neck, the bung plate, the mount plate, all get tig tack welded in place. Then i tell the powder coater to hold the tank upside down but completely horizontal. The solder will melt, but it doesn't really have any place to go. and with everything tig tack welded, the tank won't fall apart.

i remember powder coating my first gas tank (a rupp) and it completely fell apart at the powder coat place... the filler neck was left hanging and the tank hit the floor, and the gas tank mount plate fell off too. i think i had to replace the bung plate. i fixed that tank using high temperature solder (425 degrees), but ultimately the tig tack weld idea is what made the whole thing work. i've powder coated probably 20 tanks of various brands without issue using this technique.
 
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