Sperry Rand Tricart

[wildman]

Ever wonder what a Tricart would look like if a bomb were set off under it? ...
see below. I still have to find a few parts. Time to start the body work.

[wildman]

Update: Small metal parts and wheels back from powder-coat. Tires are remounted and no leaks! Handlebar is at chrome plater… 2-3 more weeks. Most small parts collected (bearings, etc) or cleaned. Still have some cleaning to do on the steering pivot, foot rests and engine. New brake caliper is located (very close to original). I had the engine running again after sitting for a couple of years and still sounds good and the Salisbury clutch seems to function ok. I still need a Fram CA4PL air cleaner. I had one bought on eBay, but after winning the auction, the seller couldn’t locate the item … he’s still looking. Body is in primer. I had a scare with the paint. I know that the color was originally an in-mold process, but there were just too many scrapes and scratches through the color layer to be able to rub-out to the quality that I wanted, so I decided on paint. I don’t have any kind of paint code, so I hauled the body to a local paint jobber with spectro color analyzing equipment. They shot me down saying that the color tone was out of the range for the equipment to accurately match. I then poured through pages and pages of early ‘70s automotive color chips kind of remembering some Mopars and Fords of that era with similar colors. I know that going by color chips is unreliable but ultimately I decided on 1971 Ford “Bright Lime” and had some mixed, figuring I would need to manually tint to match. The result was unbelievable. It came out perfect… just as close as I hoped that the color analysis would provide. I don’t have any timetable for completion but hope to start shooting color and reassembling soon.

[Mike]

Very nice work. The little things can kill you but they sure make for a great finished product which you will definitely have. Thanks for the update and keep us posted.

[lewis]

Very nice work there wildman!!! Keep up the good work.

[Joe M]

Looks Great!!!! The rear tires look like they've hardly been used. Can't wait to see it all back together!

[Dirty Harry]

Is there ANY place out there that has tires that either duplicate or very closely match the bizarre meats on the SP Tri-Cart??? I have never seen anything in catalogs or on-lline that even comes close to those gargantuan squared off rear tires, and the front isn't exactly on off the shelf job either.

Just curious...

[wildman]

I don't know what the story is with the tires on this trike. They look almost new and there was no evidence of remounting on these wheels. They look good when inflated, but there are plenty of cracks especially noted when distorting them during the mounting process. I kept my fingers crossed. I actually had pretty much decided to restore the wheels with the tires mounted, but I came home from work one day and my son had them off. I'm happy he made the decision for me because they look great on the fresh wheels, but I'm glad that I wasn't there for that dismount process.

DH... I don't know of any suitable replacement tires for the 16x14.50-6 rears on these trikes. I've never seen anything else that will even fit these rims. The widest tires available for 6" rims are about ½ the width needed. I'm always hopeful that someday Goodyear will dust off the mold and pump out some for the resto market.

[Dirty Harry]

Wildman-
I forgot to mention in my previous post... absolutely fantastic job on the restoration! Wish I could snag one of those sweet TC's in good shape. They look like a blast to ride. The handful I've seen for sale are usually in pretty sad condition. Have fun!!!

(What's the top speed on one of those things??) Looks scary-fun!

[wildman]

Supposed to be about 40 mph!

[Amphiman1]

Wildman-
I forgot to mention in my previous post... absolutely fantastic job on the restoration! Wish I could snag one of those sweet TC's in good shape. They look like a blast to ride. The handful I've seen for sale are usually in pretty sad condition. Have fun!!!

(What's the top speed on one of those things??) Looks scary-fun!

Try member tmccars? i think he has one for sale.