Motorcycle

This was moments after purchasing the bike in the exact state I bought it in. The person I bought it from owned the community garage and had it disassembled and stored away. The frame was hanging on the wall at this point, and I wouldn't need it for several months. All the parts were wrapped in newspaper inside of labeled plastic bags. Almost all these parts were soaked in old oil.

The garage I worked in had a vapor blaster, which is what initially attracted me to this place. A vapor blaster is like a sand blaster, but instead of sand it uses fine glass beads in water. This is less abrasive than sand and won't remove the metal, only the grime. I chose to start by cleaning the pistons considering they had almost 50 years of carbon build up.

This is what the same pistons looked like after vapor blasting. I was surprised that it took quite a bit longer than I thought to get rid of that carbon build up. But the results were worth the effort.

The cleaning process for the engine took about a month. Some parts are required to be replaced like the gaskets and piston rings, so those were ordered during that time as well. Most of these parts were cleaned with a brush and solvent to remove all the old oil, followed by a light coating of a new oil to prevent flash rusting.

When a motorcycle sits for a long period of time, the leftover gas sitting in the carburetors gets extremely thick and sticky. The small holes in the brass tubes need to be pristine for the correct mix of oxygen and gas. Fortunately, they were designed to be able to replace these parts. However, the circular brass floats are original. It was common for them to have small holes that prevented them from actually floating, but these ones were in great condition.

This was the very first step for reassembling the engine. This shaft connects to the kick start lever, which manually turns over the crank shaft and starts the bike. A backup in case the electric starter fails.

The next step was adding the transmission, crank shaft, and sealing up the case. I laid everything out to move fairly quickly while doing this part. When closing the case you use a special sealant that glues it shut. This sealant dries somewhat fast, so you have to get the case closed, put all the bolts in the correct location and tighten them to the proper torque.

With the transmission and crank shaft in place, it was time to close up the case. There's no going back after this without a lot of extra work, so triple-checking everything looks good beforehand was a good idea.

About half of the engine reassembly was complete at this point. The chain seen resting on top of the engine case had to avoid slipping in where it was looped through. It's possible to fish it out, but the more parts that go on the harder it gets to do so.

Both pistons are added with brand new piston rings and a fresh gasket. The cam chain tensioner is in place as well.

In order for the engine to run well, I needed to lap the valves and ensure they made perfect contact to the inside of the combustion chamber. The lapping was done by hand. This process involves an abrasive compound, and a small plunger that sticks to the inside of the valve while it rests in place in its slot. The plunger is held between the palms and you twist back and forth to grind away material to create a perfect plane. To test that it is sealed properly, the valves are put in place, turned upside down, and oil is poured in. This is left to sit for around 24 hours. If any oil leaks through, more lapping is required or even a replacement.

Last step is to assemble the valve springs and gasket. The top of the case is then put on top, and acorn nuts are tightened to specific torque in a specific order.

The internals of the engine were officially complete. You can see the clutch was added here as well, which was an entire separate process. There are steel discs and friction discs that need to be assembled in alternating order, and each disc needs a coat of oil.

I had to source several parts, wheels being one of the things I was missing. In hindsight, I probably should have relaced these. The tires were replaced, along with the brakes.

Working on this part made me the most nervous. The brakes in this picture are brand new that use modern materials. Vintage brakes used asbestos due to its heat resistant properties, so during this part I used a respirator for a thorough cleaning.

The forks needed some rust removal. Unfortunately, the rust caused some pitting on one of the forks. It wasn't so severe that they were unusable, just not ideal. I did spend some time looking for replacements, but at the time I couldn't find any. Made the decision to use what I had and progress.

Finally starting to see it come alive. I hired a company to refinish the frame since I didn't have the required tools or space to do so. The original paint was quite dull and several areas had some light rust. They sand blasted it clean, including some other parts, and repainted.

This was by far my favorite part to receive. The exhaust pipes for this model were difficult to find in decent original condition. It was (still is?) popular to convert this type of bike into a 'cafe racer,' which sometimes means the pipes would be cut right before the muffler. If they haven't been cut then you're hoping they aren't heavily rusted or dented from falls. I was lucky to find a nice pair with very minimal damage or rust, and with the chrome in great condition.

I ordered a brand new wiring harness that matched the original. If I had the chance to redo this part I might go a more custom route. The harness works fine, but the connectors aren't the best. The reason I avoided the custom route was mostly due to how much time it would take, plus the cost for good connectors added up quick. The wiring gets pretty congested near the handlebars, and you have to arrange the free hanging wires into the hollow cavity of the headlight. Part of the wires need to be threaded through the handlebars and it's a pretty tight fit.

There are a lot more things I could talk about up to this point, but I will summarize. I sourced fenders, tail light, turn signals, gas tank, mirrors, air filters and covers, intake manifolds, drive chain, bolts/nuts/screws, a brand new seat, and many more parts.

Finally out of the garage seeing daylight again. I honestly really haven't spent much time riding motorcycles, but I did get it up to 60 MPH for a brief moment. That was fast enough for me and confirmation that the project was a success. I've since retired from riding motorcycles altogether.