1970 Taco 100

sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#1
First time entering in the build off, long time follower. I decided to enter my 1970 Taco 100 I purchased from @RideSF a few years back. Background on how I got this bike goes as so...

I was in Oregon working for my father helping him build his tree house for a few weeks. Not much to do around the area he bought a home so I was scrolling the local Craigslist in my local hometown. I saw a Taco 100 listed for $350.00 and it looked pretty complete. I decided i would try to swindle the seller to hold onto it for me until i made it back home the following week. Well as most know, Orange County California has a lot of VULTERS scouring the web for minibikes and I was unfortunately beat to the finish line. Come to find out it was purchased by my good friend @RideSF. He had convinced our mutual friend Danny to pick it up and hold onto it for him until he brought the family down to Disneyland, then he would take it back home with him. Somehow I was capable of convincing @RideSF to sell me the bike a few months after he brought it home. He packed it up, I sent him a shipping label and $350 and the bike was on its way to its permanent home.

I walk past this bike everyday at my warehouse and always wonder when I will get around to building it. Well after a couple years of locating the parts I wanted to use to build this bike, the time has finally come.

The wheels I had burnished by a local shop, I sent in a massive amount of wheels to have burnished. I should have only sent in one set to see how the work would come out, because the who I sent everything into broke a lot of my wheels and lodged some of the material inside of the bolt holes of some other wheels. I lost out on that ordeal, but I was able to salvage a bunch of the wheels I sent in and these are one of the sets.

The sprocket went to the same burnish company in that same large order, but I'm going to powder coat the sprocket black along with the brake backing plate to match.

I have been accumulating taco parts for a long time now, and decided to send in all my Ceriani shocks at one time to have restored. Karterman was able to knock out all the little dings and dents along with fill some of the holes in the shock housings for me. I think I sent him somewhere around 50 individual shocks to do at once for me. He did a fantastic job on them. He painted them and polished the cups for me and even added new rubber grommets for me. Thanks Michael!

The front Sebac shocks I purchased off the bay from @markus. They were costly, but I have some of the nicest Sebac shocks I have come across. Thanks Markus!

I decided to go the route of using the optional trail tamer front end that a lot of other minibike companies used. The ones I have also cost me a fortune, but that's because @bigevilone2 made them. I'm happy to have the last set he made years back. Thanks Ed!

If I'm not mistaken I located the NOS front and rear tires on the bay as well. STOKED on those! If anyone needs a set, I have some used and one set of NOS left.

Scott made a pile of kickstands for me a few years ago and I have one Taco 100 kickstand left for this build. He also made me the axle adjusters for the rear, the cable clamp, and a new brake arm which I will be using. Thanks Scott!

The seat was given to me as a gift from a buddy who I helped sell a bike for him. Apparently @bigevilone2 had something to do with that bike too because this seat came off of it.

I plan to use a 1968 Briggs 5hp as the power plant instead of a Tecumseh 4HP that would be correct for it. The HS40's are too expensive and I have some cool Briggs parts I've been dying to use. Thanks to @bigevilone2 for the Hooker header and @CarPlayLB for the Edelbrock head.

Still trying to convince myself that another purple bike is needed for the garage, but I think I'm going to change it up a bit. Black is always a good choice!

Thanks!
 

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markus

Well-Known Member
#8
Right on! sounds like its gonna have the style of the Gene Woods bike, I Dig it! Love those monster 14 5.50's they used on the backs of those!!!!
 

sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#9
Decided to keep the 1968 5hp Briggs I have for another build later down the road. I decided on this 1969 5hp to go over for this bike. It wont need much, it actually started prior to taking it off the bike it came on and putting it on the shelf. Most people know the Grey Goat by @CarPlayLB. He and I have been talking about a engine build for some time now, and finally we are going to get around to it. He loves his flat heads and is local enough for me to learn a few things without having to spend the evening watching his podcast (I'm more of a hands on learner). Once he is back from vacation he and I will go over our options for performance parts and get to ordering parts for the engine build.

I ordered new tubes for the tires last night along with new foot peg rubbers, a jack shaft kit and 2 sets of black and silver chain.

Found my last taco clutch cover with the large letters to use on this build also. Think I'm going to have it polished for this one instead of using the rough cast aluminum look they come in.

I don't have any handlebars for this bike so I convinced Rafa at GTS hobbies to make me a set based off my original bars on my Super Trail, which are the same on the Matterhorn. I like the look of the adjustable handlebars.

Sending the bike and some other parts off to powder coat this weekend and most likely will have it back in a few days, they work very fast.

Next task is to run to the hardware store and buy the needed hardware in stainless so when the tubes come in and the bike is out of powder coat I can start to assemble to be a roller.

Thanks
 

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sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#11
Well my Hooker Header has a nasty booger weld at the flange. It must have cracked at some point and someone did the best they could to make it work again. I am going to send it to my buddy up north who is going to cut it, belt sand the flange smooth and re-weld it back together. Unfortunately this will shorten the length by about 1/2", but I'm OK with that. In the mail the header goes!

I also decided to send my wheels in for burnish again because I think they still look a little dull. The handlebar mounts and my engine block will go with the wheels. I'm looking forward to getting everything back together for the first time since I have owned it.
 

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sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#12
Picked the bike up from powder coat, I use Primo Powder Coat in Huntington Beach. I went gloss black on this instead of the purple or blue that would have been original to this bike.

Hardware has been purchased, fine thread stainless. Engine torn apart and parts list made. Aluminum parts sent to Sam for burnish.

Now the fun begins.
 

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sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#15
Wow you aint playin, you have some nice steen stuff good for you! I am watching your progress and I like what I see.
thanks! i dig the steens stuff. i think i have too much at times, but its starting disappear as i post things on ebay. this build will probably end up in someone elses hands in due time.
 

sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#16
Sam packed my stuff up and sent it on its way back to me. I should see it Friday. Really excited to get this bike together. OldMiniBikes emailed me with a little lead time on my order for engine parts, but that's OK because powder coat still has the shroud, axle spacers, brake baking plate and neck spacer for the optional trail tamer forks. I also decided to jump on Karen's list for a seat, I can keep Eds on the shelf and laugh how he partook in the building of tacos when he's such a diehard bonanza dude.

Since I am just the bolt and throttle turner with all my builds, meaning I don't do any welding or painting or even building of the engines, I'm at the mercy of my good friends who help me along the way, to complete the rest of this build. I'm not pressuring anyone to get anything done before the build off date is over, but i have faith this will be done in time.

I'm also working on a 1951 Mustang Pony build which I'm hyped on.
 

sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#17
I took a very long break from this bike for quite some time. Pictures of some of the things I sent off to Sam, @cambo61. He does a great job, I would recommend him to anyone and everyone. Honest with pricing and you can trust him with your expensive unobtainable parts. I decided to powder coat the shorud black, but send the recoil to Sam. I think it turned out cool.
 

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sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#18
The hooker header is on its way back to me also, the new weld looks factory. I didnt think about it until later, but that header being so long it will need a support bracket. I asked Miichael since he still had the header to fab something up off a photo I had sent to me of NOS hooker header bracket. The picture of the header on the tailgate is a NOS factory header with a factory header bracket. The next photo is the bracket thatw as made for me, looks like it will work!. I still need to send the header and bracket to ceramic coat. Michael was cool enoigh to polish my Taco clutch cover too, those things are rough when you get them new. I think it turned out amazing.
 

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sonerenos

Well-Known Member
#19
Eric is awesome. Spent the time assembling my engine and doccumented it on his podcast. Pretty neat videos he does, I think hes hilarious. Still a few more things to get done, but he sees the light at the end of the tunnel. I cant wait for the virus B/S to be over so I can gather all these things up and start bolting my bike together. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped me out thus far.
 

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