More headway...

Here's another one from a few weeks ago...

Clean piston rings on the piston

When we measured the cylinder bore, we didn't need to size up the pistons or rings. If you're wearing out the cylinder, there will be too much space for the piston or the cylinder won't be smooth and  you have to bore it out and go to a larger size piston. This bike was in good shape and we could stick with the original size pistons. I got new rings for it and put them on the nice clean piston.

This is where she sleeps now...

Photo op at sunset in the garage.

Lacing up the wheels. I got new stainless steel spokes from Buchanan's and lubed them up and attached them all to the rim and the hub for both wheels so Bob could true them. Below is a picture of Bob patiently adjusting them, minimizing the "bumpity-bump" and the "wobbledy-wobble". (I've been working on my technical jargon...)

 

Trying it out on the bike, hanging on the
freshly installed final drive.

Waiting for the inner tubes.

That is a pretty tank, eh? I think the red pin striping came out great!

 To fully restore the medallions is a lot of work. The quotes and estimates I got were around $400 each!! Yikes. So, I asked Tony, the pin-striper, if he would take a shot at it and he made them look much much better! And they look great on the tank.

Improved medallion.

The rim, snugly in its tire. 

The handlebars went on today and it's so nice to have them on! I don't know why...maybe because that's what you hang on to control the bike all the time, or maybe it's like a head or a face, but I think it really makes the bike start to come to life.

HANDLEBARS!!

Finally!

It's finally time to put the parts together! I had a long wait for paint. I didn't really want to buy new chrome wheels and I couldn't find the high shouldered Weinmann aluminum rims that I did like, so after a great deal of debate, I finally decided to get the rims powder coated the same color as the frame — the same "Dover White" that the bike was painted originally in 1967. When I saw the rims, I knew they were wrong. They were more of a light yellow than the nice soft white that they should have been. Charlie, the painter, told me that he'd matched a spot on my old rusty headlight rather than using the original color that he'd used for these bikes before, and then matched the paint for the rest of the bike to that powder coat. He'd already painted the frame that wrong color. I don't know why that happened, but I suspect it had to do with the powder coating. I had been under the impression that we could match the powder coating to the color of the bike paint, but actually, I guess it's not so simple to match powder coat, so perhaps he tried to pick a stock powder coat color that was close to dover white and then match that with the paint. So, we had to start over again. Charlie repainted the frame and then we clearly had to re-powder coat the rims as they didn't look good against the dover white. I chose a different color that I thought would contrast and complement the white. I went with a gray and then chose a burgundy red for the pin striping. I added stripes to the rims and will use the same color for the pin striping on the dover white fenders and gas tank.

Here's a picture of the rims with the red stripes:

I know, I know... it's not "correct." BMW never put rims like this on its bikes and to my knowledge, never used red pin striping on the bike itself, but this is one place (maybe the one place) where I'm sidestepping authenticity. So far, everyone who's seen it has loved it, though, and I'm pretty happy with it. It's also a big savings over the Weinmann aluminum high shoulder rims that I did not win on eBay! I'm now happy with that loss.

I'll include pictures of the rims laced up with the hub and fresh stainless steel spokes next time. 

Now, I have to back up a bit as it's been so long since my last post...

I can't remember what I'd been working on here, but this was back in the middle of February. Clearly, I was still into something messy. Maybe I was cleaning up the brake shoes...?

No idea how all of that ended up on my face...

Brake linings...

After removing the brake shoe linings and cleaning up the brake shoes, we took them over to Dale at M&D Auto Parts. Okay, this might be a bit incorrect as well, but I understand it's safer and better. Rather than attach new linings with rivets, we had them do it a more modern way — with some sort of bonding. They're basically glued on. I understand that this is a more reliable way to do it and then you don't have to worry about wearing the brakes down to the rivets.

Brake shoes on Dale's counter.

Look at the before and after on this piston!

Just imagine that every time the engine runs, this piston is taking the brunt of every other explosion. I guess it should be called "combustion" and I say every OTHER because there are two cylinders and two pistons, but you can see all of the caked on carbon on there. A light cleaning on the wire wheel and it comes out nice and clean.

The cylinders...

I wasn't sure how to clean the outside of the cylinders. Several sources told me that it was just fine to glass bead them. Glass beading is like sandblasting, with a powder of crushed glass. It works great for getting rust and paint and gunk off of tight places, but no matter how well you mask the inside of the cylinder, the powder finds its way in. The sharp edges of these beads can get embedded into metal and no matter how much you scrub, they might only come out some time later and find their way into the workings of the engine. Not good. However, Garrick over at Kelly's Block Welding was pretty confident that it would be fine. He does a good cleaning afterwards in the hot wash - like a big industrial dish washer. I asked him if there was anything else I could do and he suggested washing it with soap in some hot water. I filled up a pot and put the cylinder in and washed it in as hot water as I could stand. Garrick warned me that I should dry it in the oven or blow dry it quickly so that it doesn't rust. That steel can rust quickly. I had no idea how quickly:

It bloomed even as I was drying it! Very disappointing. Now what? I tried cleaning it with rags and sandpaper, but I couldn't possibly get into every nook and cranny and I still had to clean it off before I could paint it black. I called Garrick and found out that he also does soda blasting. That's like glass beading, but with baking soda powder. Harmless! It's also not as effective on rust and paint, so it wouldn't have worked in the first place, but it worked great on this light rust, taking it all off easily. Garrick was great about it - didn't even charge me for the soda blasting. I painted it up quickly and it looks great! This photo doesn't show how black it is as the flash reflected a bit, but this was just after painting, in my garage, while the inside of the cylinder was still masked off.

Much better!

The painted frame came in and we got the bike up on its stand right away:

There were quite a few holes that got filled with paint that I had to clean out, either chasing the threads or for plain holes, sanding it out with a little round sanding drum on a dremel tool. That sanding technique saved me so much time!! It cleaned out the holes easily and well it was quick.

Here's a picture of some nice clean grease on the bearings. It looks dirty, but is clean and fresh and doesn't compare to what was in there before!!

Special thanks to hand model, Rick Monohan

Parts are going on quickly now...

 

Very satisfying to add that BMW plate.

I'm trying to be very careful during the installation to avoiding chipping paint, but it's unavoidable. That's what touch-up paint is for.

I've made more progress already, but I seem to have left my camera in the shop, so I'll have to add those next time. I think this is going to come together quickly now, providing that we haven't forgotten to order  anything that we can't get quickly...

The wait for the paint way over what I'd been promised was frustrating. That said, Charlie does a nice job and charges very reasonable prices. He's a really nice guy, but when your vintage project bike is sitting around getting even OLDER, it's hard to wait! I'm glad the wait is over and check back soon for more updates.

I plan to be riding this bike in May!! Hold me to it!