FLXIBLE sidecar frame castings, how they are made...

HOW I GOT STARTED AND WHY:
As you all know years ago I bought a Flxi sidecar frame that was butchered badly and parts were missing and for years (off and on) and I finally finished it and put it on my VL and it had a 1936 thru 67 Harley-Davidson body on it with out springs for I could not locate any, years later it was stolen out of my garage plus the VL frame that was set up for it and some Harley motors since then I have been trying to collect some more Flxi sidecar frame parts even damaged ones for patterns or get molds off of other Flxi sidecar frames even to be honest most owners I found out would not let me take patterns.

Anyway in the late 80s I was a single parent and had a son and daughter to raise now (no skooter or sidecar durning those years). Then in 96 when my son and daughter were teaching me how to use a computor I thought what a idea to share my information with others that I had collected thru the years.

However, in 03 I started again looking for a Flxi frame and in my search I found out even fewer now were up for sale and even harder to find and no where to go on the internet to locate one, yet I still had my box of some old Flxi molds that were not broken I had taken off my old VL years before so why not make my own and I never gave up the idea of owning another Flxi sidecar frame so I called foundries and you would not believe what they told me plus they would not do small quanities so I figured there must be another way like do them yourself. Now it was time for research on doing sand castings. I called several foundries again for info and they still would not tell you hardly any thing just the basics (so I tried again much later just in case they were having a bad day or some thing ... wrong) so I bought books on that subject and then one day when I was on the computor I found a man doing Indian motorcases in aluminum at home his name is Lyle Landstrom and he was super helpful and answered all my questions except I was interested in doing steel castings instead. However, I later found out that I needed to know was the lost wax method to get the detail that I was interested in so here I go again and all the foundries said it can not be done at home, in the next few years when I was doing research on the net I found a site and the man was doing just that melting steel at home so now I knew it can be done. However, he is set up to do sand castings tho.

However, it was not until 06 when Amy Elben taught me the basics on doing a web page and here I am still at it while I was working on my first webpage I meet Dana and he had other ideas to do to it and we went from there to where it is today. Durning that time I started talking to Robert Jones and we started sending info to each other for at that time I told him I was interested in doing one for the 1937 thru 57 Harley-Davidson style frames and later I meet him in Davenport,Iowa at a Antique Motorcycle show (I could not believe what all I seen there) and while I was there I meet Gene Harper and later he let me take molds (patterns) off his Flxi frame plus I meet Steve Little and his Harley-Davidson frame castings (what a treat to see super detail quality castings and I never forgot it) and Merle Wolfe who makes Harley-Davidson bodies plus others.

So here I am now early 2011, I talk to John Grant and he told me how he makes his master molds and materials that he used to do so .... and durning that time while im still waiting for the castings (samples) to arrive from a foundry and later on that year I ended up talking to Jim Calcagno and he was more than helpful to answered all my questions that I needed to know so I could continue on my molds like shrinkages etc. Anyway, I was at Jorg Chisholm metal shaping shop toward mid year when I meet Steve Settles that used to use the lost wax method for years in his business but no longer does due to his health problems plus his equipment has not been in use for years but would show me how its done if I was interested and later on that year I finally decided to take him up on his offer. So now its toward the end of the year so now I decided to trade work instead of cash in exchange for his home made lost wax set up. However, it was old and now im redesigning it to bring it up to code and safety standards and besides I now had to figure another way to continue since I had no more funds left after just investing on this project and nothing to show for it instead putting my hard earn cash that I have been saving for awhile toward my skooter frame from Craig at Tennesse frame company that I had originally planned on doing in the beginning like my Ol'newstalgia style straight leg rigid frame for the Blockhead engine with ol'milwaukee style castings with a 180 series rear tire anyway im to far into it to stop now plus im doing my lost wax work at home this way there is no overhead to worry about. So here I go again even at my age on social security with very limited funds now. If I do my own lost wax work I figure I can control the quality im looking for plus turn around time and no more broken promises or delays and still continue and have someone else pour my sidecar castings.

I want to say one more thing here if it was not for these people and all there moral support for I almost gave up on this project. Jorg Chisholm, Eric Bourragué, Dana Meisner, Ken Libben, Amy Elben and Gary Laird. Thank you all so much for everything for you all are special to me and dear friends.

SIDECAR CASTING BUSINESS

I have now been kickin the idea around about selling it as a turn key business after I get it all up and rolling so I can get back on building my skooter and Flxi sidecar and just ride and have fun plus spend as much time with my grandbaby. So mostly this might be my last year. However, I have been thinking of keeping my Flxi sidecars website just so I will have some thing to do at my age and still promote the Flxi sidecar.