Well, not as much progress as I would have liked, but progress nonetheless. The weather has not been very cooperative for working in the garage until today. So, I washed and cleaned the fenders, tank and side covers in preparation for sanding them down.
I’ve also been grinding out the cracks in the fiberglass around bolt holes in preparation for repairing these stress cracks.
Grinding out Fiber Glass Cracks
Today I also got the cylinders and cylinder heads back from Clem. He has the rings gapped, and provided a new carburetor top as mine had a cracked throttle cable bushing. I also expect the repaired carburetor back from the Bing Agency next week along with the carb rebuild kit.
I sent out the cylinder head with the cracked fin to Randy Long of Long’s Custom Services in Pennsylvania. He specializes in head work and can repair the cracked fins. You can see the blue paint from the wheel well of my Saturn where I hooked the cylinder head when I was backing out of the garage. When I get the repaired head back, I’ve got a couple of places who can bead blast the cylinders and heads and I’ll get them cleaned up.
Cylinder Head Fin Damage
I’ve decided to go ahead and add an R90S fairing and may have located one in good shape with most of the hardware. I picked up the correct turn signal stalks which are longer than the ones on the R75/6 on eBay last week. The longer R90S stalks are used for the lower mounting points for the fairing.
I’ve been updating the budget as I go and right now I’m just a bit over budget based on current purchases and estimates for the remaining parts and materials, so that’s good.
Parts have been coming in and I’m under the impression that I’ve ordered most of what I need. To date, I’ve received:
Battery Box, strap and hardware
Bar end mirrors
Electronic ignition and 2-port coils
Ignition wires
Exhaust and mufflers
Instrument cluster circuit board and back plate
I sent one of the carburetors to Bing International last week. See part 5. I ordered the #6 rebuild kit and Bing Carburetor maunal which I’ll receive when they return the repaired carb.
Other items I still have to get include:
Clutch neutral switch and gaskets (leaking and bike doesn’t start in gear when the clutch is pulled in)
Gas tank rondels
Gas tank nuts and washers
Cylinder head gasket (seems I only have one, not two)
Rings
I also have to decide if I am going to keep the stock seat, or get the Bushong cafe seat w/ tail cone and have that upolstered and paint it . And, I have to make the call on the R90s aftermarket fairing.
I heard back from Clem at BMW of Denver last week on the engine. The good news is it checked out fine. I was concerned the valve seats may have needed replacement, but they are doing well. I’ll need new rings, but that’s about it for engine parts as I have all the gaskets except one.
One of fins on the right cylinder head got broken [I hooked my car bumper on it a couple years ago when I was backing out of the garge … one of the lowest days I’ve had in a long time 🙁 I found a guy in Kansas, Cycle Works, that repairs them, and sent a note for a quote.
I realized that there are quite a few rennovations being done. I put together a spreadsheet of the work and then grouped the tasks by major subsystem. Finally, I organized them into a work flow that I hope will keep the work orderly and prevent forgeting tasks or having to remove what I just installed to do the next step. I was surprised by how many things are getting done. The task list will come in handy to help Branden and I coordinated.
I’ve been scoping out the painting and have a couple estimates from shops who do motorcycle painting. I’ve also been combing the web for information on painting, preparation and do it yourself painting.
I’m debating if I want to add an R90S bullet faring and also if I want to add a new cafe racer style seat with tail cone. Part of that decision is controlled by the budget. Adding these parts includes adding the cost of painting as well.
R90S Bullet Faring
R90S Seat w/ Tail Cone
I talked with a local shop about my ideas for the paint scheme and spent some time discussing how to prepare the parts prior to painting as I’m certainly able to strip and sand with the best of them 🙂 I also provided a description of the paint project to a nationally well respected motorcycle restoration painting company to see what they would estimate.
My reaction after I got the estimates: YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING !!!! Nope, they aren’t.
When I had the Silver Ghost painted in 1981 in an approximation to the R90S Smoked Silver paint scheme, I think it cost me less the $500 to have have the tank, fenders and side covers stripped, painted and hand pin stripped. It’s north of $1,000 for that if I do all the paint stripping and also sand the primer and color coats at the local shop. Adding the tail cone and fairing pushes their estimates north of $2,000. The nationally respected paint shop is also north of $2000 if I provide stripped parts ready to prime and paint 🙁
That’s a budget buster.
It turns out I have an acquaintance who restores Trimuph motorcycles and cars and is a professional gear head as well as machinest, Brian House. I figured I’d call him up and see what he could suggest for options. Well, one thing lead to another pretty quickly. He does his own painting, has the compressor and guns and offered to show me how “to do it yourself”. That’s cool because I’ve had a hankering to try my hand at painting, but didn’t feel qualified nor did I have access to guns, compressors, etc.
This afternoon I brought the parts over to his place so we could talk about the process. In the meantime, he showed me the 1968 Ford pickup he is restoring and some pictures of two of his Triumph restorations. Drool … very nice.
We are going to paint with laquer as its a “forgiving” media compared to the currently popular urethane two part paint systems a lot of the shops use today. Based on the pictures of the Triumph he restored, the laquer work he produced was awesome.
The conclusion from inspecting the parts is I need to strip the tank to bare metal as the almost 30 years I got out of the last paint job has resulted in paint cracking down to the primer. We will hand sand the fiber glass parts down to the gel coat and fix the cracks at the bolt holes with fiber glass resin and cloth for strength.
Stay tuned for the adventures of Brook and Branden as we learn our way around “DIY” motorcycle painting. I’ll be providing detailed descriptions of the preparation and painting process as we work away under Brian’s tutlege.
I’ve been looking on-line for pictures of cafe-racer restorations, typically those for BMW models. When I started, I thought I would follow an R90-S style. Here are some pictures of what I had in mind.
Here are some very nice cafe racer models I found.
I’ve been busy using Max BMW’s parts finder to look up parts and retail prices. I put together a spreadsheet to collect all that information and to let me do some “what if” scenarios on options. I’ve also been visiting eBay regularly for their motorcycle parts listings. It’s amazing what and how much for old BMW’s is there. It’s a great resource.
Battery Box
I’ve decided to replace the modified battery box that I cut the sides off to fit a lawn tractor battery, with a stock box. eBay has quite a few of them as good prices.
Battery Box
Instrument Cluster
The instrument cluster has a cracked back where the cable harness plugs in. I also suspect the circuit board wiring has a break as some of the lights don’t illuminate. I found this set on eBay. The exterior plastic housing is pretty scratehed, but he parts I really want are in good shape.
Instrument Cluster Parts
Exhaust System
I had kept the original header pipes and mufflers with the intent of using them again. But upon finding them and looking at them, they are dented, scuffed and pretty used up. So, new exhaust and mufflers from an after market supplier (stock BMW is just too $$$$)
Niche Supply – R75-6 Complete Exhaust System
Ignition System
The points ingnition system needs to be upgraded. The breaker plate has problems and I’m not sure the points cam doesn’t need to be replaced. I had the heads bored for dual plugs and used an Accel amplifier and dual ignition coil set back in 1980, but it was diagnosed as faulty several years ago. I pulled the second plug wires, bought new coils and went back to the stock ignition. Okay, let’s do the DynaTeck electronic ignition with dual port coils and a new set of dual plug wires in YELLLLLOOOOWWWW ….
Dyanteck D35-1 Electronic Ignition
DyanTeck DC2-1 Dual Port Coils
YELLLOOWW Dual Ignition Wires
Carburetors
I broke the float hinge post on one of my carbs many years ago. I had epoxed it together, but that really wasn’t working. Several years ago, to get on top rough running problems, I found a carb body from an R75/5 and used that. I still have the orignal carb body. You can see the left pin is shorter than the right.
The Bing Agency offers parts and repairs for all Bing carbs used on BMW motorcycles since 1926. They can fix this broken pin. It’s about $35.00, so I’m going to send it to them and let them do their magic. I wish I had known about them back when I decided to buy the used R75/5 carb body. No worries. Either I’ll put it on eBay or use it when I rebuild Rochelle’s R75/5. I’ve been looking at their rebuild kits, and am going to go with the #6 kit. That provides all new gaskets, o-rings, diaphrams, jet needles, needle jets, float needles, new floats and the throttle plate screws. As my carbs are 35 years old w/ 100,000+ miles, I think they deserve a complete rebuild.
Mirrors
I also stumbled on some R90-S bar end mirrors the other day, and decided to go with them. I’m either going to restore this as a naked bike, or budget permitting, put an R90-S style bullet faring with screen on the front.
R90-S Bar End MirrorsR90-S Faring
Font Turn Signals
I lost the front turn signal stalks when I put the Windjammer on. I picked up front stalks, turn signals and lens on eBay. Shortly thereafter, as I was cleaning up the garage and going through my various part stashes, I found my orignal signals and lens. Eventually, something will go back on eBay.
R75-6 Front Signal stalk, signals, lens
R90S Style Faring
I’d like to put this on the bike as it has a cool 1970 cafe racer style to it. Budget is the issue.
So, most of the parts are identified and many ordered from suppliers. Clem hopes to complete checking out the top end of the engine by the end of next week.
