Caper Cycle Restoration.

[Oldsalt]

According to the dictionary caper is defined as: n., silly action or prank. vi., to leap in a playful manner; frolic.

Ben Hunt, here in Walla Walla WA, made pick-up bumpers and truck beds for hauling wheat from the fields in the 60's. He also raced go karts. In the early sixties he started making racing go karts. Called 'em Caper Karts. Also started making mini bikes and named them Caper Cycles. Not at all faint hearted he installed 2 stroke kart motors in them. These were the muscle cars of the mini bike world.

They were made behind Mr. Ed's cafe, where I had breakfast this morning, in a tall tin building. Hunt Mfg. is long gone but the building's still there. On the door of the shop office is a sign that says: "Don't spit on the floor". This mini was made sometime after '63 because it has a taller frame to also accept an upright 4 stroke engine. Properly known as a Caper Cycle Kingfisher. Serial number 1799. This is the most expensive mini I have ever purchasd...$100. I expect to have about $300 or so in it. That will include the plating because I have a set-up in the basement. I'll use "copy cad" on the cad plated items such as nuts, bolts and drum brake parts. Copy Cad is a lot like nickle but is hard to tell from cadmium. Cad is not done any more because it's too toxic. I already have a reproduction sticker for the forks.

This is intended to be a restoration not just a build to get it looking O.K. so it can be enjoyed as a rider. You know, proper engine and color and seat & etc. & etc.. I usually fake a lot of things on my mini bikes but will strongly resist that impulse on this project.

The forks and frame were badly bent. Pictures showing the frame and fork straighening are attached. Forks had to have the main plate flattened in a press. The fork tubes were repaired by heating and brute force. The engine plate had to be removed to allow the frame to be "loose" enough to be tweeked back into shape. One pic shows a layout on the work bench being used to ensure that the frame and forks were returned to original positions. Both wheels will now be vertical and the forks centered so the bike will track correctly.

Tomorrow the rear brake drum/sprocket assembly will ne overhauled.

 

[miked]

doing it again i see i will be checking it out

 

[Oldsalt]

Today the rear hub was worked on.

The first pic shows the brake drum that has the sprocket permanately attached. Never saw a sprocket that worn out! Also in the picture is a new sprocket. The job will be to cut off the old sprocket from the brake drum portion and put on a new sprocket.

Next pic shows the rear hub in an old lathe and the worn portion of the sprocket removed. Also the brake drum was cleaned up to ensure that it's round.

Third shows the new sprocket being cut out to produce an inside dimension to match the outside dimension of the hub.

Last shows the two pieces put together. The backside was skip welded [very small welds to avoid warpage] to complete the job. Now the part needs to be stripped and cad plated as is the original.

 

[caperman]

Lon, How do you like the name sticker? I just took my kingfisher around the block on its maden Voyage on sunday and today my daughter rode it and I followed her on My West Bend powered Caper Cycle Falcon. We get a lot of smiles and even a thumbs up. I emailed my entire Caper Cycle brochure to this website but it hasen't showed up yet. KBS Eightball did my seats, I sent him the original base and now he has the patterns if you need a seat. Thats a nice job you did on the rear sproket and forks. I wish I had a lathe. I have a t.i.g. machine and a Hossfeld bender but I can only cram so much in a two car garage. Keep up the good work.
Mike aka caperman

 

[Oldsalt]

The reproduction Caper Cycle name sticker is perfect! Like I said above, I intend to do a creditable job on the restoration in comparison to my usual work on my mini bikes. The sticker will go on it. But it is going to be awhile before I get the Kingfisher done. I still have a lot of parts to get together and not just any part will do. You make me jelous by haveing a Falcon. I still have not found a West Bend to complete my early Caper frame. Tomorrow I'm going to see one of my competition car sponcers and have him try to match the paint and write up a color fomula. "Regular" red, like Fleet Red auto/truck color is not right. I know it dosen't really matter because no one will never know but I got this one chance to investigate the issue. I found a nice place on the bottom of the engine plate with original paint and polished it with rubbing compound in an effort to get a good read. By the way. Have you noticed that Caper Cycles were painted without any primer of any kind [at least the ones I have seen]? I'm thinking it's implement paint like International Tractor red. Sounds just like something Benny would do. Any comment on this?

 

[Stang]

You the man old salt, nice work. The more I see these bikes the more I like them :thumbsup:

 

[Oldsalt]

Paint

Today I went to visit Buck at his detail shop. He's one of them guys that does paintless dint repair. He is also an expert on matching paint for chip repair. Benny Hunt, of Ben Hunt Mfg. which made caper Cycles, was his uncle. He worked there but at a later time than when the mini bikes were being made. Anyway, I had attempted to get a couple of auto paint stores to use their magic color analizers to tell me the paint formulation for the red paint Ben Hunt used on the Caper Cycles. Neather could do it because my sample of original paint was too small. One attached picture shows the bottom of an engine plate that I cut off my frame. The blue paint was scraped away and the underlaying original red was hand polished. Maybe someone can find a bigger patch of good un-sunbleached paint but I'm doubting it. The other picture is of the top of the engine plate where a piece of masking tape was placed over a small patch of original paint and then sprayed with a "Red" rattle can. When dry the tape was lifted and the radical difference between the two is evident. My lack of success was why I went to Buck about paint. His suggestion was to sit down with his big stack of color chips and get a match. Each professional chip has a hole in the center so that when it is placed over the sample any obvious difference in the tone of red is easily discerned. Took a while but a very very close match was found. It is SAAB laser Red code 278. Buck stopped working on a paintless repair he was doing on the hood of a Toyoyoyo pick-up to help me for about an hour! Bottom line is that I now have a formulation that will be be used to paint the frame.

 

[Oldsalt]

As it's my aim to do a reasonable restoration on the Caper Cycle it seems like a good idea to look up some people that were involved with Caper Cycles Caper Carts way back then. I interviewed a couple of local guys here in Walla Walla. Both are in their 80s. The first is he owner of a tire shop that he and his parents before him have operated since WWII. He raced Karts with Ben Hunt in the late 50s and early 60s. They used to recap tires and he still has the capping molds used back then to make really wide kart tires! There's a brass name tag on the outer that says: Made by Ben Hunt. He knew very little about the Caper Cycles but he gave me the name of the guy the was the chief of the Caper Cart/Cycle production at Ben Hunt Mfg. He lives in nearby Athena. He has original sales literature and a mountain of verbal information regarding the carts and bikes. For instance: No listing of serial numbers ever existed. No records of how many of what models were made did not exist according to him. The prototype was based on a Go-Kart mini bike. There were three colors. Mostly red but also blue and yellow. If a few Caper Carts were being painted he would also put a few Caper Cycles on the bench until it was full then paint everything the color that the Caper Carts were suppose to be to fill an order. The Caper Cycles played second fiddle. As suspected the single coat of paint was tractor or impliment paint. The yellow was usually John Deere. The Blue often the dark blue used by Ford Tractor back then. The red was Massy Furguson. But even that changed a little from time to time because they started to have it mixed by United paint in Spokane as a cost cutting measure. The frames were bent by hand on a Hossfeld bender useing dies he made on the lathe. The springs on the forks are exactly as my eldest son guessed they were! I was told they used automotive valve springs bought downtown from Walla Walla Motor Supply by the box. I searched through my collection of industrial spring catalogs but couldn't find anything close in a "stock" spring. Even the wire diameter was unusual. That explaines it. I'll bet they are Chevy. 6 cylinder 216 cubic inch valve springs. I'll confirn on Monday. I was welcomed to come back again and get more information and etc.

Hope you find this interesting. I did. There's only one more person alive, that I can find, that worked at Ben Hunt's in the early 60's. I'll talk to him and if no new names come up I'm at a dead end as far as collecting history.

 

[steven Durham]

Hi Lon: Your doing a lot by being there at the home of the Caper Cycle. I hope you find a jack pot of information.
Steve

 

[Ruppster81]

Nice job so far. I give credit to have the balls to ask around about minibikes lol. I always get the funny look when I mention minibikes around anybody here for example just the other day I had to have the auto parts store order me a few cans of white engine enamel for some tecumseh engines and the 2 fellows at the counter asked me what the hell engine I was painting white... I told them I had a couple of tecumseh lawnmower engines I was going through for minibikes and both looked at each other and pretty much laughed ut: Oh well, Good luck with your quest for info on the caper cycles and can't wait to see more on the bike :thumbsup:

 

[GTO]

Oh to have a lathe! Great job and the history lesson was great!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Oldsalt]

Today I started cleaning up and plating the brake parts such as the backing plate and etc. These parts were cad plated so the old plate had to be removed. All parts were put in a plastic bucket with hot water and lye to remove the grease and grime and old paint and etc. I don't suggest anyone use lye if you like your clothes. Bead blasting and a soak in a good solvent is almost as good. The parts are then put in a hot tank [a slow cooker from the kitchen] that has a TSP solution. Trisodiumphosphate is a wall cleaner often used before painting.

The first picture shows the backing plate being pulled out of a de-plating tank to take a look at the progress. The de-plating tank has muriatic acid [common stuff used to clean swimming pools and concrete] diluted and a couple of anode plates [lead sheet]. In this case about 1.5 volts at about .5 amp is used to speed the process. The parts are then washed.

The second shows the backing plate in the plating tank. Cad plateing was stopped being used years ago because it's somewhat toxic. Acually it's very toxic stuff. I'm useing what is known as "Copy Cad". Looks like the proper stuff but isn't and is not a health problem to handle and be around. The backing plate spent 35 minutes in the tank. The square inches of surface area is estimated and .02 amps used for each square inch. No big power supply is needed, a phone charger or a small flashlight battery will supply the needed current.

I do most of my own plating in copper, nickle, and chrome. I don't like to do chrome unless it is absolutely necessary. If the piece to be plated is bigger than will fit in my tank then it is sent to a professional plater. I would probably not have all these chemicals in the basement if I were married. But I urge anyone that works on bikes, cars or guns and etc. to consider getting at least a nickle set-up. If I can do it anyone can do it. If you want to know more about home plateing go to Plating Kits Electroplating Kits Aluminum Anodizing Kits Powder Coating Systems Metal Polishing And Buffing Supplies - Caswell Inc.. They are great people.

The third pic shows the backing plate and a couple of the original axle nuts with their new "Cad" finish. I did not polish or do anything to the surface of the steel pieces before plateing. If I had the plate would shine. As this is suppose to be a proper restoration this is the closest to the original appearance.

 

[GTO]

Nice. :thumbsup:

If I played with that many chemicals, we wouldn't have a house. :doah:

 

[steven Durham]

I know that where I live is just the best and greatest. But one thing that sucks is not being able to just go out and paint parts because of the temperature of the shop. And the lack of more room to be able to dedicate a room just for painting. Then that small room could be heated and painting could be done during winter weather. this morning we are BACK TO SNOW what the heck is going on !!!! With all the information Oldsalt supplied on Plating parts got me to thinking by being able to plate and Powder coat parts at home would be a way to fool the cold weather and get some parts ready for assembly.
Steve

 

[steven Durham]

I should of looked a little closer at the information about Powder coating the price of an oven is way out there. I can see the plating has more realistic possibilities. But I will do some more looking around for some more home grown types of equipment for Powder coating.
Steve

 

[Oldsalt]

I should of looked a little closer at the information about Powder coating the price of an oven is way out there. I can see the plating has more realistic possibilities. But I will do some more looking around for some more home grown types of equipment for Powder coating.
Steve

To make a really big oven all that would be necessary is tro fab a big insulated box with a big door and install an element and controls from a regular electric oven. My powder coat outfit is an electric oven purchased from Salvation Army for 10 bucks. Removed the upper element [broller element] and added several rods attached to the back wall and open at the door side. This makes it easy to load the dusted parts without touching them. About a hundred or so bucks will get you into a powder coat set-up. Sure, a kitchen oven will not accomodate a mini bike frame but powder coating a frame probably is no better an idea that powder coating a motorcycle frame.

A plating set-up, even if only nickle, is a real handy thing and not as much loot to own as you might think. The big advantage, besides being a hell of a lot cheaper, is that you'll be able to plate almost all the parts on a custom motorcycle or mini bike or under-hood parts on a car or gun parts without waiting for a plate shop. Sometimes weeks! You make the parts during the day and plate them while watching TV at night and assemble the parts the next morning.

 

[steven Durham]

Lon : I was thinking of looking for a commercial two door convection oven shell they have 240 volt Single Phase and have fans to circulate the heat like the ones Caswell sells.
I thought that Caswell would offer books on the different process but I found everything from them is a kit, so it's a kit for this and another kit for that.
. I am sure you have not gotten into this from buying and shipping in plastic buckets that are given away every day from restaurants all over the company.
I was wanting to know if air flow over the powder coated parts during the baking on process is required ?
And do the parts have to be up to a pacific temperature to apply the powder ?
Steve

 

[Oldsalt]

Caswell has certainly gotten into the "kits" thing. I have delt with the guy for more than 7 years. On occation I have called with a question when my plating did something strange or was unsure about some procedure. On every occation I was helped by a knowledgeable, friendly person. I like them.

In a really big oven it might be necessary to use a fan to keep the heat even at the top and bottom of the oven. Definately not necessary in the altered home kitchen oven I use. Sorta do what the instructions say and you'll have perfect parts every time. I tend to be a bit sloppy about temperture and time but never had a problem.

As for the temperature of the parts when dusting on the powder: I never heard tell that there ware any problems at high or low ambient temperatures. I do it all year round. I'm certain I've powder coated when the temp in the shop was very warm and VERY cold. Never had a problem.

 

[Oldsalt]

Today a new engine plate was formed. The original has so many holes it looks like swiss cheese. The serial number was stamped on the bottom of the new plate just like the original. I didn't punch the slots in the plate because it seems prudent to make and install the new jack-shaft [the original was removed with a torch long before I owned the bike] and make sure the engine and jack-shaft sprockets line up correctly. The slots will later be made useing an 11/32 end mill. Also in the picture is the ruined original gas tank mount and a new one.

The other picture is of the rear brake and sprocket assembly with it's new cad plating. The brake lever is new, a copy of an original on another Caper Cycle.

Bought a NOS British twist throttle that I hope is very close to the original, I'll see when it arrives. Also acquired an NOS brake lever for the handlebars. It is an era piece [early 60s] so I'm thinking it will be O.K..

 

[Oldsalt]

Jack Shaft

The original jack shaft bearing mounts were removed sometime in the dim past so it was necessary to make new ones. The dimensions were taken from another Caper Cycle that is intact. It would have been nice to have some heavy wall tube rather than solid round stock to make the parts but no such luck. Material is hard to come by in this small town. The proper diameter shaft was cut and turned to length. Drills were used to get the bore close to final size and then a cutting tool to finish. The last picture shows the bearing mounts with bearings installed and lined up by use of a 5/8 shaft prior to welding to the frame. Beginning to feel like I'm getting someplace with the project. New original fork springs are comming and original color and type of paint is on hand. Have bought Carlisle tires because there's little hope of getting original Good-Year but a hell of a lot closer than ones that say Chong-Chong on the sides. I am going to find a pair of original fenders even if it harelips every man in the crew. If anyone has a pair, no matter what condition, I'm interested in buying them. If they're not useable they can be used as patterns to make new ones.