tech hack
A look at the latest handiwork of Tech’s tinkerers.
Extreme Scooter Makeover In 2005, Tony Fritz, Arch 78, was cleaning out a shed belonging to one of his wife’s relatives in Blakely, Ga., when he discovered a 1947 Cushman Eagle scooter tucked behind some plywood and old signs. “The gas bowl had a wasp nest in it, the frame was in good condition with very little rust or dents, and when I kicked the motor over it actually sent the piston up and down,” Fritz said. “The engine wasn’t even frozen up after all those years.” After buying the bike from the family, Fritz, a partner at the architecture firm Harris, Fritz & Associates, began to restore it with a Georgia Tech theme. He gave the Alumni Magazine a rundown of his process. I created a Photoshop design of exactly what I wanted to do. Every paint detail was shown on the rendering. I went to the annual Cushman Show, which coincidentally is held in Cochran, Ga. I talked with experts on how to restore the scooter and got many leads on unique parts, engine mechanics, body painters and chrome dippers. I tore the scooter down to literally a thousand pieces. Every nut, bolt, spring and cable was separate and unique. I took every piece and soaked them in degreaser, acid or paint thinner. I disassembled the frame to a dozen pieces and hand delivered them to a company in Newnan that does bead blasting, which provides a much smoother finish than sand blasting. I primed the entire frame with a recommended sealer primer for the smoothest texture and paint finish. I sent the engine to an expert on Cushman engines and had it rebuilt and painted with heat-resistant chrome paint. I sent the shroud and anything else I thought could be chromed to a chrome shop. They said the springs could not be chromed, so I ended up buying new chrome springs—against my better
judgment, since I wanted this restoration to be all original. I laid out the entire paint scheme in pencil on the frame. I called Georgia Tech and got the official PPG numbers and paint codes for Buzz. I went to a local body paint store and bought all the ingredients for a complete paint job. Then I scrolled through the Tech website and got the best picture of Tech Tower and a sample of a Buzz sticker for the painter to reference. The painters airbrushed them on the scooter. I won’t have stickers on the scooter. I delivered the entire package to Cumberland Custom Designs in Tennessee who did a fantastic paint job. I took the metal seat to a local custom leather shop and had a new seat cover made with ostrich skin and a custom gold GT emblem stitched into the center of the seat. After assembling all the parts old and new we had our final product. Only one problem: It didn’t run. I messed with it for days but couldn’t get it running. Then, I took it to Bob, my next-door neighbor, an engineer. He pulled the engine back off the frame and rebuilt it again. Now, with a couple of kicks, it cranks right up.
Have a Tech Hack of your own to share? Send the details to Editor, Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine, 190 North Ave. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30313, or publications@ gtalumni.org. Entries will be selected for publication in the magazine and at gtalumnimag.com.
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GTALUMNIMAG.COM VOLUME 88 NO.1 2012
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Josh Meister
1/27/12 7:44 PM