Sending the parts out

Well...I met my self-imposed deadline of getting the parts out for paint, cad-plating, and chrome and I ordered the parts I need. It was right down to my deadline, though, of the 18th of January and I was going out of town, so the blog had to wait till I got back...

Here's the pile of parts waiting for Charlie to pick them up and take them for a nice sandblasting and painting:

Most of the bike will be painted Dover White, as it was at the factory in 1967. Certain parts were always black. Thanks to Chris at Barrington Motor Works for helping me figure out which ones should be black (engine mounts, foot peg mounts, handlebar controls, and the tire pump.) The air filter housing gets painted silver as do the hub caps. The metal is in surprisingly good shape, with only a few slightly misshapen parts and dings, so we marked those up and Charlie will fix those before painting.

One little hiccup we had was removing the drive shaft from the swing arm. That sucker was really stuck in there. Finally, Rick and Bob teamed up and using the press in the shop, put a tremendous amount of pressure on it. It didn't come right out, even then. After a day under pressure and then some heat from a blow torch, thanks to Johnny, who owns the shop, it came out with a big bang. I wasn't there to hear it, but that's what I'm told. It came out unscathed and the swing arm was ready for paint.

To prep the steel parts for cad-plating, I had to clean them all up. The cleaner and smoother they are, the better the coating of cadmium you get, so I spent hours in front of a wire wheel, cleaning rust and grim off of metal parts. The big parts are easy and fun and quick. Very satisfying as you see years of filth disappear in a few seconds, quickly replaced by a nice dull sheen. The little tiny lock washers and nuts are still satisfying, but tricky to do without grinding the skin off of your fingers or losing the parts under some clutter in the shop.

Dirty and tired, this is a rare moment when the leather gloves were off.

Before & after springs

Half clean metal clamp.

  

 I do like getting dirty working on the bike, but there's something so satisfying about seeing them all clean.

"Do not lose!" hard to find pieces ready for cad-plating.

To be chromed...

 Tomorrow I'll prep the rims for powder coating. That's not authentic - the rims were always chrome or the Weinmann rims were aluminum, but this is less expensive and lower maintenance and totally reversible, so I thought I'd give it a try...

Besides that, we have to make sure that the engine doesn't need to go out for any repair, see if we might need new rings on the pistons and I don't know what else. After that, we'll start putting it back together!