Evenin' all.
Thought it was about time I added a post to keep track of my adventures in rebuilding. My phone tells me that I took the image below on 27 July ('bout four weeks ago), which was the date I acquired what has turned out to be a bag of bolts with a sound engine and a few shiny bits hidden underneath.
44,000km since 1972 (appears to be the right numbers from the little history that came with the bike).
Since that time, much has happened. Oh yeah, lots and lots.
It took about four hours to completely strip the frame and work out what parts were good, what was ugly and what just sucked.
On the upside, the frame and engine are fine (always a good start). Carbs, electrics, front end, rear end and oil tank are all good. Also good is the choice of seats - it came with 2 (the cafe racer seat thingie is bungie-d on the back in the photo).
Rear mudguard, shocks and tank are best described as serviceable.
On the downside, the exhaust lasted the fifty mile journey home and then literally disintegrated. Just fell apart in my hands. The front mudguard was made out of something like cardboard, so that went too. And rather unsurprisingly, the fork seals were shot to pieces.
On the wierd side are the extended side panels - these things are outright strange. A previous owner has had them professionally plastic welded and then painted, but for the life of me I've no idea why. I'm not keen.
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And so to work.
Frame and ancilliaries went off to be powdercoated - that took all of two days.
Next, the engine was opened up and the cases sent out for dipping and stripping. Removing the engine inners turned out to be less tough than I thought it would be, probably because by splitting the cases and lifting the insides out, you don't need any special tools (unlike disassembling the engine bit by bit). Unfortunately, the muppets who dipped the engine cases washed them off with tap water and left them sat in a damp warehouse for a week - so I've spent a good few hours getting the surface rust/crap/oxidising off. The case/head are going to be painted satin black, to contrast with the gloss black frame.
In the meantime, I sent the side cases and other potentially shiny parts off to be polished. Something I learned very quickly was that the UK is not the place to get chromework done . . . at least, not unless you're talking commercial quantities. It also seems that we've lost either the industry, or the art, or both for producing high quality plating. At the four chroming places I tried, I got the same two responses - either polish instead of chrome, or send the bits to the 'states. Given the mounting cost, and the sheer number of bits that I wanted working on, I went with the first option. I guess only time will tell whether I made the right choice.
And while all this was going on, I was scouring t'internet for bits. Like a new exhaust. Hmmm . . . OEM 4-into-4's aren't cheap, are they? And a marginally better tank/panel combo. Uh-oh. But if the UK isn't the home of decent chrome, we make up for it with suppliers like David Silver. And earlier today, a box the size of a small coffin arrived at my door with a few quid's worth of NOS parts. The aforementioned exhaust, front and rear mudguards, primary and camchain tensioner assemblies and so on. An eBay search also turned up a half decent tank and panels. What I need now is a centre stand and MPH clocks, but they're not exactly essential - yet.
So I sit here surrounded by boxes of shiny polished bits, NOS stuff and freshly powder coated frame parts, which I'd love to show y'all, but it's dark here right now. I'll add some more photos shortly. Fortunately this weekend is a bank holiday (read public holiday), so with any luck, the bike'll be back together by Monday evening.
He says.
More news as it's made . . . Neil
