Woo Hoo! A Big Project!

[melville]

Some of you might remember this:

http://boxerworks.com/phorum5/read.php?3,36224

Which appears to be in flat view for everyone now, so it's a bit easier to read the later posts but kinda hard to check the context. I'll give a Cliff's Notes version of what's there, and resume the fun where I left off.

For my 40th birthday Mrs. melville bought me this:



I was flabbergasted. It was a total surprise. She knew I'd always wanted a bike but would never get one myself. She's not stupid--note that it has no carbs mounted. They were in a box in a zillion pieces. She also had me sign a contract that it would get a full, to the bare frame and back up again, restoration, before I became a regular rider. So cut to 2 1/2 years (2 VW motors and a shoulder surgery) later and things looked like this:



I made it run and rode it around the neighborhood a bit evaluating the motor and trans as best I could, and then I started on satisfying the terms of the contract.

[melville]

General condition of things before disassembly--Frame was within 1/32" of straight using Duane's String Test:





Motor was crusty and leaky:





With barbacks like these removing the tank was a bear:



So things got to be like this:



The motor had lousy compression on the left side when I first got it going. Compression came right up to spec in a few miles and I was tempted to leave the motor alone, but more of that anon. Trans was classically clunky, but I myself was clunkier. Clutch made a big "Squartch" sound when starting from rest. Bike had a low frequency weave, possibly due to tight head bearings. Never felt a wobble.

[melville]

And then it came apart:

[SteveD]

I'm predicting 150+ posts.
Go Melville go! This new board needs a rebuild thread!

[melville]

Things found in disassembly. Just a little water in the trans oil:



But not in the drveshaft or final drive. Another issue there, however. I checked the fill plug on the drive shaft first and it came right out, as did all other plugs, but for the driveshaft drain plug, which did this:



My local airhead guy is fixing that now and replacing the seals. No metal chunks in any of the oils, and just a sheen in what I pulled off the FD drain plug.

Found the rumble:



Getting new bearings all around, wheels, swingarm, head.

Odd electrical stuff here and there--no evidence of a trailer or lit bags:



Dual filament bulbs in the rear turnsignals for running light function. A few soldered connections:



More soldered connections in the headlight bucket for the fairing harness. A little disappointing as it would have been easy enough to connect directly to the junction board:



Bike is to go back together naked and stockish, so some repair was necessary to the harness.

Coupla cracks in the frame. NBD--welded back solid by my local airhead guy:





Splines look good all around:







Battery mounts had perished:



PO didn't like oil vapor in the airbox, so he extended the breather hose through a hole in the filter. No great accumulation of oil on top of the trans or in the clamshell, thankfully:





More to come.

[gspd]

Almost finished?
I wanna see this sucker!

[Deleted User 61]

Make sure Duane knows about the little orange button!

read this post, Duane!
http://boxerworks.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... t=30#p1022

[melville]

Almost finished?
I wanna see this sucker!

As some of it goes back together some of it is coming apart, as you'll see soon. Hoping for Labor Day. Our best weather here is September and October anyway.

[melville]

Nice of you to chime in, gspd, as your guidance made the next section possible. On with the BLING fetish--here's my steering yoke as it came outta the bike:



After one pass on the buffer (looks like dookie):



gspd chimes in, says I must file off stuff and sand the bejeezus out of things to get THE LOOK:



He might be right:



He IS right:



This leads to further adventures in BLING:









The caliper was a special case. I really just wanted to smooth out the tool marks and paint it:









But one thing led to another:



I put a coat of paint on it after the above pic but it looked awful, so I sanded it off and went a few steps further (meanwhile, getting the levers and throttle cover):



And a close-up:

[melville]

So you may be asking, "Gosh, melville, whatcha gonna do with the crusty cast parts?" Well, I'll tell ya, I listened to gspd, professor of BLING, and I am NOT polishing them. They got cleaned up with #3 ScotchBrite or #3 steel wool as necessary and then got a heavy wash of silver spray paint applied with a softer ScotchBrite pad. Credit also to Chuey on this method. Here's where the front cover started:



Here's the front cover after abrasives and paint, the clamshell parts are as found and post abrasive:



And the motor itself magically fits my VW engine stand after a wee spot of filing on the mount. I had to degrease it with successive rounds of Simple Green and Brakleen, then worked it with ScotchBrite



Here's how I got the cylinder fins. As it was:



A little shoeshine:



A different technique in the tight spots:



And how it looks now, with some of the covers in place:



Circumstances are such that the cylinders are coming off and will have the opportunity to get bead blasted. I am likely to paint them black, going for that R75s look.

Other cast bits--the disc carrier before:



And after:



More to come.