Kickstand for 1949 Ducati Cucciolo

Project:
To make a replica of the broken kickstand off my 1949 Ducati Cucciolo

Process:
When I inherited the cucciolo I noticed that one leg of the kickstand was broken off. A previous generation had drilled two holes through the stub of the broken leg and riveted a bent piece of flat iron to it. It was pretty wobbly but I guess it kept the bike up.


First thing I had to do is take the kickstand off which was easy. Two screws and a spring tied it together then it needed a very serious clean with the parts washer. There was over 40 years worth of oil, grease and dirt stuck to it. The cleaning took a good 15 minutes. Couldn't have done it without the parts washer fluid.


After it was clean and dry, I mixed up some autobody putty together and patched up the holes that were drilled and some of the worn off aluminum from the bottom of the kickstand leg.


Then I used some of the leftover 2 component reo-flex polyurethane rubber (shore hardness 60A) that I had bought a couple of years ago (when I made the concreted stamping pattern for my driveway) to cast a negative of the good kickstand leg. Once that cured for about a day, I removed the aluminum leg and filled the negative cavity with another batch of the rubber to create the positive copy of the leg.


Once the positive copy of the good leg had cured for about two days I cut it to length and glued it to the broken kickstand with some regular polyurethane glue.


With that "fixed" pattern I was able to create a mould of the kickstand. After firing up the foundry furnace and melting about a pound of aluminum I poured it into the mould, waited half an hour for it to cool down and extracted it from the sand.


A little bit of grinding was left and voila! Here's the replacement kickstand for my "bike"!

Pictures:

Right after pulling the casting out of the flask

Originally fixed kickstand leg

The broken kickstand taken off the cucciolo and all cleaned up

Using polyurethane rubber to create a negative of the good leg

Filling the negative with polyurethane rubber to create a copy of the good leg

After I filled in some holes with auto body filler and glued the rubber copy of the good leg to the broken side

Now I could use the "fixed" kickstand to create a mould

Cleaning up the casting after I pulled it out of the flask

Comparing the old broken/fixed kickstand with the new one

Another angle

Tools:
Foundry & foundry tools, grinder, hammer, hacksaw

Materials:
2 component Reo-flex polyurethane, autobody putty, mold release agent, polyurethane glue, foundry materials

Cost:
$3.50 (for 1lb of aluminum and some propane)

Time:
4hr

Savings:
Priceless!

Conclusion:
Success! All the way around. This is incredible!