Chopper Rob has one sweet Trumpet going. This scoot is just straight up tasty - check out that sparkle finish - pure sugar. I’ll let Rob tell you all about the build himself: (full story and more pics after the cut)

Well here she is the Rockabilly Rocket ship. A 1973 Triumph 750 engine creates the power. And a 5-speed transmission puts the ponies to the rear wheel. Petrol is pumped in through dual Mikuni carbs, and the spent gases are expelled through a set of custom-home-made exhaust pipes.

The frame is a two piece deal with the front loop of the frame being an original 1969 Triumph front loop that still retains the original stock steering head geometry. The rear section is an after market bolt on hardtail with 6 inches of stretch. The front end is an early 70’s triumph hydraulic setup with stock length tubes and a single disk brake.

The handlebar risers are from unknown Japanese cruiser origin (thanks Deano) and the bars are 1″ Harley style mini apes. The clutch and front brake controls with master cylinder are both after market Harley reproduction items.  As for the rear wheel it is an American made Invader 5 spoke from late 60’s early 70’s vintage. The rear brake is an original Triumph drum that was chromed many years ago and is now actuated by a custom cable setup. As for the rear fender it started life as a West Coast Choppers front fender (http://tinyurl.com/oerks) and with plenty of cutting, grinding, and massaging it finally conformed to both the radius and contour of the rear wheel. The rear Fender struts were bent up from some old Royal Enfield front fender stays and welded up inside the fender.

The oil tank is an old Santee horseshoe style with a small gel cell battery hidden inside. The remote oil filter mount is an aftermarket item that was removed from Jim Carr’s BSA A7 and graciously donated to my project. The hard lines coming out of the oil filter were made with 1/8 galvanized water pipe fittings (courtesy of Nichols Hardware) and the rest is plumbed with stainless steel braided lines.

The license plate/taillight bracket is of my own creation. The basic idea was that I wanted to make something that would hide the license plate mounting hardware. What I ended up with something more then heavy duty enough to mount the oil filter and taillight on. Speaking of the taillight, once again the origin is unknown but it came from Jerry (who’s better then Trombetta) who picked it up many years ago at a yard sale thanks Jerry! I cut down its mounting base painted it black and welded it to the license plate bracket. The seat is a Lepera solo seat riding on 3″ springs and homemade perches. The headlight is a 5 ¾ “bates style” on a homemade bracket to pull it in nice and tight to the front end. The gas tank is a Harley Sportster model with an internal vent tube and a high flow Pingel petcock.

The custom exhaust was made at home using 1 ¾ ” mandrel bent tubing (http://www.magnumforceracing.com/ubend.asp) that I cut up and mig welded back together using weld alignment sleeves. (http://tinyurl.com/gttrc)  Once I got them lined up and sanded down I sent them out for some cool ceramic coating (http://www.jet-hot.com/Pages/coatings.html)

The final job was laying down the paint. I decided to try a new water based automotive paint (http://www.autoaircolors.com) it has almost no VOC’s and cleans up with water. I laid down 9 coats of candy apple red with red sparkle and 2 coats of candy apple red with white sparkle. For the white graphics I put down 3 coats of opaque white topped with 3 more coats of pearlized white. On top of all of that went endless coats of DuPont’s Chroma Clear (http://tinyurl.com/hj49x) and two solid days of hand wet sanding between coats. My friends at Stingray’s Auto body handled the final buff and Patty laid down the black pin stripping at the Sign Shop in Purcellville Virginia.

Many Thanks to all my friends and family for your help, suggestions, and support! - ChopperRob

Dig it! Click the pics for bigger (including the one at the top of this post)