Topic: Chewbacca5000s ADD Project Thread - So many bikes so litle time.

[chewbacca5000]

I recently found out I have ADD so what's my answer buy more bikes of course!  I will be posting pics of all wrenching adventures, but don't expect me to stay on one bike for too long cause I get distracted very easily.  Hopefully by posting updates here it will keep me motivated and you guys can keep me accountable to get some projects done.


So here are the projects I got on tap in no particular order.

1. K5 Restro Mod with around 9,500 miles currently a basket case
2. Poppa Wheelie a K1 with the power to pull the front wheel off the ground.  Almost flipped it over first ride.  Wahoo!
3. A Planet blue one owner K5 with around 8,500 miles lots of patina.  Think I will call it Spit Shine.
4. Another 72 basket case    Yeah I killed it now to Steve Austin it back from the dead.
5. A beautiful 74 aka the organ donor  13,000 miles
5. Another k4 think I will call this one Rusty.  Supposed to have ported head.
6. A cb400f with just over 9,000 miles. 
7. A GS1100 not sure what will happen to this one.
8. A K1 restro mod with 43,000 not bad except for the 2 or 3 drops of oil when I park.  Loves to take trips to the red line.
9.  Another 71 that is going to also be an organ donor.

[chewbacca5000]

Reserved.

[chewbacca5000]

Ok here is my k5 restro mod laying on it's side like it is going to give birth.  Really was doing tapered steering bearings.  Been putting this job off for sometime.  Not that bad really a little hacksaw loving and a BFH and the old races came out no problem.

[seanbarney41]

in to it

[chewbacca5000]

Spent the morning moving my control box for my powder coat oven and powder coating a lower tree.  Didn't want to leave it all nasty so I gave it a shot of powder.  Came out ok, but could have been better.  A bit of orange peel, but no one will see it once installed anyway.  Better to do it so future owners won't have to worry about it.

Can't very easily do it after I put the tapered bearings on.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Chewie,

You have your own dedicated powdercoating oven?  That is awesomeness!

[rb550four]

Holy cow, look at all those projects! 
Do you have enough space to do 2 at a time? That way , time waiting for parts won't be wasted because you can just jump over to the next project for a while.
Lots of pictures would be great for sure.
I almost made it out your way this weekend but the plans changed again. Mother's day weekend  next weekend, my sweety will want me around the house for sure, so that weekend is out too.
I'd like to see your collection.

[chewbacca5000]

Chewie,

You have your own dedicated powdercoating oven?  That is awesomeness!

Yeah it's pretty cool for all the bikes I got I figure why not.  Now I can pick whatever color I want.

[chewbacca5000]

Holy cow, look at all those projects! 
Do you have enough space to do 2 at a time? That way , time waiting for parts won't be wasted because you can just jump over to the next project for a while.
Lots of pictures would be great for sure.
I almost made it out your way this weekend but the plans changed again. Mother's day weekend  next weekend, my sweety will want me around the house for sure, so that weekend is out too.
I'd like to see your collection.

Rich your welcome up anytime!  Will get some more pics as soon as I find m camera.  Installed tapered steering bearings for the first time today, and man what a difference!  Now I know what every one is talking about.

I have a couple nice bikes, but mostly it is raw materials.  Been doing collecting for a few years straight and got to get some done.

I have the space, but trying to stay focused on one or two.  The K5 is a bit more being a frame off.  Trying to decide on home zinc or sending it out.  A guy in Rochester said he will do it for about 50 cent a bolt.  Seems reasonable enough.

Also tempted to drop an 836 kit in as I have one on hand.

[rb550four]

Tempted to do an 836 ? You already have a massaged head and 836 kit, I would think definitely 836 for sure.
 Most bikes are raw materials... That's the best kind... resurrections are my favorite. They have been lost for years, wake up on the back of the pick up truck, intensive care in the garage, and back to life shortly there after. Who doesn't like that?
  I've haven't considered zinc plating bolts, saw it in the closet build,  I guess they don't rust but do they shine ?  I really like shiny, I remember seeing a new member a few years ago nickle plated exhaust collars, looked great, shiny,never heard how it held up ,or if it's something we can do in our backyards

[chewbacca5000]

Tempted to do an 836 ? You already have a massaged head and 836 kit, I would think definitely 836 for sure.
 Most bikes are raw materials... That's the best kind... resurrections are my favorite. They have been lost for years, wake up on the back of the pick up truck, intensive care in the garage, and back to life shortly there after. Who doesn't like that?
  I've haven't considered zinc plating bolts, saw it in the closet build,  I guess they don't rust but do they shine ?  I really like shiny, I remember seeing a new member a few years ago nickle plated exhaust collars, looked great, shiny,never heard how it held up ,or if it's something we can do in our backyards

I'd like to but not on this bike.  If I used that head it will be on one that is a keeper.  I am the same way rather get take a chance on a $500 bike than spend $1,200 on a guaranteed runner.  Now that I got the parts this type of plan makes sense.  For one bike not so much.

As for the zinc plating from what I can tell having a small aquarium pump really helps.  You can make them all shine up really nice with some autosol, but there is only one kit that gets it shinny with no polishing and that is in the UK.

The quality is really impressive.  Company is Gateros Plating - Zinc Here is a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNAlBEoMrfQ

This is a zinc nickel vs the zinc tin kits like eastwood or caswell.  It also has brighteners and other chemicals you can't easily ship overseas.


If you want to do copper plating that is very affordable just get ZEP root kill, a hunk of copper and power supply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoCyRQsDNco

You can do it for under $20 bucks!

I might just go with straight zinc and use this recipe from another member

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=119931.0

I like the idea of taking nuts and bolts of a parts bike plating them and putting the clean ones on my project.  No wasted time labeling and sorting just do one target area at a time.

[chewbacca5000]

A few more pics.  Got my tapered bearing installed and they are very smooth.  Feel tighter and more solid than the ball bearings that would just flop all over.

Also is my hot plate I used as a bearing warmer to get the lower bearing on.  Learned this trick from KJ electric who has a coffee pot behind the counter to warm bearings.  Will work on any press fit bearing.  Makes a big difference.

Also pics of the engine, got the spray bomb job I am trying to reverse.  I have no idea why people use that shiny black engine paint it chips so easily.

[Stev-o]

Along for the ride.  You are quite ambitious, Chewy!  It's not ADD, it's called multi tasking, I'm the same way, 1 project at a time would be boring!

[goldarrow]

DIY zinc plating nuts and bolts sound very interesting. 

[chewbacca5000]

DIY zinc plating nuts and bolts sound very interesting.

I like the idea of being able to stay organized by taking off a couple bolts plate them then put them back vs sending stripping everything bag / tag and getting the whole mess back in a pile.  Not sure all platers are like that, but I would not be surprised.

[chewbacca5000]

Decided to plug all the holes and meida blasted the entire engine.  I know I want to go gun metal for the jugs and head, but not sure about the cases?

[chewbacca5000]

Nothing says loving like something from the oven!  Man I had no idea how cool it is to have my own powder coating oven until I realized I could use it to dry engine paint.  This thing rocks!

Best part is it does not not to be 60 degree to paint now.  Just put the whole thing in the oven warm it up to 75 or 80 then paint.

After I set it to 100 degrees or so and it does wonders to help that paint dry.  Hopefully this will reduce bumps or bruises from install.

Now to off to the parts store to source some 341 forks.

[chewbacca5000]

So no luck on the getting those HM341s out of my basement stash will have to grab a parts bike from storage. 
So I got to thinking what else can I do and I came across a post that said you can remove tires with three tires irons so off to Harbor Freight I went.

I got 3 tires irons for $10 bucks! Must of been a sale or something. The best part is it actually worked! Front and rear tire off without having to pay $10 a tire.  Great way to get out some energy too!

After that drilled out the peens and removed the bearing retainer without too much fuss.  Next I used my pit trusty pit posse bearing remover to get the bearings out.  No matter what bearings suck, but this too makes it sorta easy.  Still lots of work though.

[edwardmorris]

I'm the same way about zinc plating, I can't have it all sorted out ahead of time, small groups at a time is simpler. I used the household supply recipe from Tom Gugliotta (same one grepper uses in his write up) for my crankcakse bolt set and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Derust and wire wheel clean to bare steel


Zinc plate and steel wool polish


They look much better in person, this is a bad shot but the best I could do with basement lighting

[chewbacca5000]

Hey edwardmorris ,

That looks great! 

Never mind I see you need to polish.  Read somewhere too much current is the reason for the whole chalk like appearance.  Thanks for posting this is very encouraging.

[edwardmorris]

No worries chewy, you're right about the current management part. This is a painfully slow and tedious process but you're set for another 40+ years in the end. I started with the engine because of the odd ball sizes of the bolts and other attachments. Knowing how compulsive I can get for uniformity, I'll eventually do the whole bike bolts, but that's me. Since you've got so many projects going on, maybe you could only do the crankcase bolt set and go stainless for the rest?

[chewbacca5000]

No worries chewy, you're right about the current management part. This is a painfully slow and tedious process but you're set for another 40+ years in the end. I started with the engine because of the odd ball sizes of the bolts and other attachments. Knowing how compulsive I can get for uniformity, I'll eventually do the whole bike bolts, but that's me. Since you've got so many projects going on, maybe you could only do the crankcase bolt set and go stainless for the rest?

Yeah I would like to do something like that engine case case set would be nice.  Not sure how long the whole thing would take.  Main thing is to get the engine bolts done so I can put the engine back in the frame.  I am not too worried about speed I will have some free time here soon.  If I make point to do the stuff in groups I don't think it would be bad at all.

[edwardmorris]

For just the crankcase set, with a 1A power supply (voltage doesn't matter, just amps need regulating) on a 70F or hotter day, you're looking at about 8-10 solid hours doing 2-3 smaller bolts at a time and the large ones one at a time. All the washers and nuts went in together for about 40 mins to come out nice and evenly plated at 1A. If you go for higher amps, make sure you do a lot more parts together so it remains balanced and you may be able to get through a set faster. General rule of thumb is about 0.1A per square inch to be plated.

Edit: removed quote to fix nasty formatting

[chewbacca5000]

Thanks Ed for the tips.  I will have to remember that .1 amp per square inch.  Easy enough.

[chewbacca5000]

Here is a useful tip for you to easily remove bearings.  Last night I got my rear bearings out using a pit posy bearing remover.  It took several tries and much wacking with the hammer. 

Today I put the front rim in the oven and heated it to 200 F and the bearings just about slid out.  One hit  with the pit possy and they came right out.  I will try to remember this for the future.

[chewbacca5000]

Not much of an update, but I got the wheels disassembled.  One front rim looks great compared the other front rim I took apart looks like it is 1/16" when placed on a perfectly flat surface.

Is this rim junk now?

Rear rim very Purdy on the outside, but has quite a bit of rust on the inside.