Wet Paint - do not touch!

My skills at painting start and end with my ability to spill some colored liquid onto the walls of a house with a 6 inch brush (or broom).  Painting is NOT what I am good at, and although there are only 5 parts that need to be painted (apart from the frame), they will either make or break the project in terms of aesthetics.  So I wisely decided that I would find the best bike painter in town and pay him whatever he wanted to do a good job on those 5 bits.

BMW are well-known for their paint quality.  Especially the pin-striping on the tank and fenders.  These were hand painted at the factory using a small group of specialist artists whose only job was pin-striping.  It was so important that each bike was a separate project and the artist actually signed his or her work under the tank!  BMW briefly experimented with stick-on pin-striping.  No-one would buy the bikes and BMW owners howled so loudly in protest, the artists were re-hired after a few months and the hand painting tradition continued.  So, it was important to me that the paint job was the best it could be.

here are the signatures from the two tanks I have


Anyway... guess what?...

The best place in town is Ron's Auto Body & Paint.  All the best custom bikes seem to be done there, so he was "da kine" - the guy to go to.  I turn up with my fenders, side covers and tank while he is in the throes of doing a quote on a beautiful custom Harley (not my cup of tea, but beautiful nonetheless).  I wait patiently - its one of those rare sunny days in Hilo so I'm baking out there waiting on the shop's apron.  Finally, he finishes with the previous customer, and its my turn.

And he makes all the excuses under the sun NOT to take the job!  I had a fat roll of money in my pocket and would have paid him anything he asked.  I dunno whether its because it wasn't a Harley, or I looked poor, or it was a task somehow beneath him... At first I was embarrassed, then miffed, and finally offended.  What a bum!

But it was a turning point for me as well.  When I first started, my plan was to do the things I could, and take anything that was too hard to an expert.  That way I figured I could have some limited involvement in the restoration but end up with a good professional job at the end.  This was not going to happen. There are no bike mechanics on this island who want to work on vintage BMW's, and now even the painter won't paint the panels for me!  This project turned into something where I wanted to do as MUCH as possible myself, rather than the least I could get away with.  I was going to be riding something where every bolt, screw, adjustment, washer, torque setting would be my own doing!  If/when something fails, falls off or whatever, it was gonna be my own damn fault...

Back to painting motorcycles.  This was definitely something I was not good at doing.  I painted the tank on my first motorcycle (a 1974 Honda CB250) for no good reason and it was not pretty.  By the time I was in my late 20's, I just did not bother anymore.  Below is a picture of my XT500 Yamaha cafe racer project (peeking out behind the Suzuki GS1000 Cooley special).  Notice the tank only has primer on it...

My impression of painting was that to do a good job required 99% preparation and that actually applying the paint was only 1% of the job.  This is about right, except my technician Michelle pointed out that the after-paint rubbing, buffing and finishing actually comprised about 1/2 the job.  WTF is rubbing and buffing?  Back to the internet, and sure enough, once painted, you need to methodically and carefully rub back the paint with fine sandpaper, take out all the lumps and bumps, then buff it with a buffing compound.  I never knew that! - epiphany!

So I curb my natural impatience and desire for instant results, spend an awful lot of time pre-sanding, puttying, smoothing and other general preparation activities.  Then, when I was satisfied all was good, apply paint (5 coats) and then clear finish (another 4-5 coats) and wait to rub and buff the panels.  But I did not wait long enough...

It turns out the base paint I used was slow drying.  That's good because it gives the paint time to slump down and produce a smoother finish.  The clear coat I used was fast drying.  That's also good because that gives dust etc less time to fall onto the completed job and ruin it.  BUT...  When it appeared to be dry, the base coat was still malleable.  I picked up the pieces to admire my work and start rubbing.  It was easily touch dry, the instructions on the clear coat can said it was ready to rub down, but the base coat was still wet.  Everywhere I touched ended up with ugly and deep fingerprint impressions.  Shit! - gotta do it again!

And I did...  The end result was not perfect but "ok".  I made one concession however.  The only other guy on the island crazy enough to play with these bikes had a spare tank with original paint.  The tank was not perfect - has scratches, a little ding and some paint wear (he called this "patina") but absolutely original.  That's a rare thing.  40 years is a long time for a motorbike tank to survive with original paint. And then I manage to buy another tank for $80 - the value of the gas cap alone (they are worth $100!). This one definitely needs repainting. So now I have the best of both worlds - an original tank which I shall wrap in cotton wool and hermetically seal in a vault, and an every-day riding tank that I can repaint but not worry too much if it gets damaged.  On special days, I can install the original tank...

So the lesson I learned here?  Wait another day before touching wet paint!  Patience saves a lot of work.

ranting about dismantling

When I first saw my new project, she was a collection of rusting parts in cardboard boxes.  "Shit" I thought - I'm going to have to "remantle" the whole thing...  Is remantle a word?  It should be - the opposite of dismantling, yeah?

Anyway, when I got all the parts home I quickly came to a startling realization.  The remantling would have to wait because I actually will need to pull everything apart even more, right down to its basic components!  Yup - even before I could sand-blast the frame I had to pull off more electrics, the rear fender and lights, the front forks, fender, brake lines.  The list goes on.  And... lets not talk about the carbs.  The bits I ended up with there were really small.  So a word of advice to the newbie.  Get good at taking things apart because that's what you will be doing an awful lot.  And... A completely assembled bike is still the best start.  At least you will be able to see what goes where...

In like Flynn - the motor is in!

Its been 2 months - almost to the day.  I am well ahead of schedule, which is to see the old girl running by her 40th birthday (April 2014).  She was number 439 imported into the USA.  Now she might be the oldest one out there - or at least one of the oldest...

I have a rolling frame, so now is the time to put the motor back in.  Its frigging heavy!  I can barely lift it, even without the transmission, starter, air cleaners etc attached.  Its a 2 man job, but my vanity just screamed at me - "do it yourself!".  Note to self "do not listen to your vanity".  I did, and it made things somewhat more difficult.

In order to install the motor, this is what you need to do.  With one hand, steady the frame so it does not fall over.  The other hand is used to raise or lower the hoist so that there is enough clearance into, under, and above the engine cradle.  Arm and hands number 3 and 4 are used to lift the 200lb short motor, gently place it into the cradle, and once there, shoot the 2 long engine bolts through the frame and the engine.  There are spacers and other bits that need to go in between the frame and the engine (on both sides) but that's ok, the guy operating the hoist and steadying the frame can hold them in place while you hold onto the engine with one hand and drive the bolts home.

Doing this by yourself is stupid.  I am stupid, but I did it!  To me, this is a major milestone.  I have no idea how to make the motor actually work.  It was not pulled apart and rebuilt.  I just sent it to my "guy" who ran it through the part washer to make sure it was clean inside.  The previous owner told me it ran really well.  He only owned it for a short while, and bought it from a BMW mechanic.  That guy seemed to know what's what.  The after-market parts on this bike all screamed "quality".  She has a machined top brace, re-enforced bottom brace, fortified swing arm and a sump extension with passive oil cooler built in, as well as an improved side-stand.  Most of these parts would have been a real pain to install but would have really fine-tuned performance.  These items would only be added by someone who knew what they were doing - not beauty enhancements but they made the bike run faster, longer and handle way better.

I'm gonna let sleeping dogs lie.  Unless there is something obviously wrong, I'm going to re-assemble the engine and hope for the best.  Only time will tell, but I have my fingers crossed...

back to the shocks

So, the carbs are now good (I hope) and the new shocks have arrived.  The old ones were beyond repair and were not original anyway.  20 years of living under a house had not been kind to them...

the new ones are also a bit rusty (well. the springs were) and the rest of the assembly was dirty, so I work out how to pull them apart.  A bit tricky 'cos when you take the top off, the springs ... well ... spring!  Anyway, I get them apart and discover that one of them is buggered.  So, I get another set off Ebay ($25).  These had better centers and I manage to build a single good pair out of both with some bits left over for spares.  They look good, mount nicely and now I do truly have a rolling frame!

Time to take her off the hoist and "roll" her around.  The stands are not yet properly fitted, but 6 weeks after starting the restoration, I have reached my first milestone.  Poorer, dirtier, smellier, but happy.

A carby interlude

Before I actually have a rolling frame, I need to install the rear shock absorbers.  Without them in place, the bike will collapse onto the rear wheel.  The ones with the bike were after-market and rusted beyond use, so I found a cheap pair of original ones on Ebay and now am waiting till they arrive.  To keep myself busy, I  investigate the carburetors...

In the past, these things have been a mystery to me.  Yes, I know what they do, but then again, I know what a jet engine does too.  My experience with carbs has taught me to leave the bastards alone, and if there's a problem, take them to a competent mechanic.  They obviously will not work in their present condition, and there's no mechanic to take them to - so back to researching just how to dismantle, rebuild and "re-mantle" them.

 

The function of a carburetor is to take gas and air, mix it up, and shoot it into the cylinders so it can explode and power the engine.  Why they have to consist of so many little inexplicable parts  has always mystified me.  I find an exploded diagram of my carby, and a good article on the net about rebuilding them.  The diagram helps me to know what and how to pull them apart, and the article tells me what to replace and how to put it all back together.

I've now gone from the biggest part on the whole bike (the frame) to some of the smallest (the internal bits of the carby).  My plan is to take lots of photos as I pull the thing apart, and lay them out on a towel on the kitchen table.  This I do.  (note to self  - close the window blinds behind the table otherwise Scamp the dog, will launch himself onto the table in order to bark at passers by, thus knocking all the bits onto the floor where they will be lost forever). 

This is where I have a good idea.  I bought a dozen or so small plastic storage boxes at Home Depot ($1.39 each).  They're labeled "shoe boxes".  Every little project can now be housed in its own little project box, along with replacement bits etc.  Very tidy, and it means I can start or pause any of the several little projects I am doing simultaneously without losing those little bits.

There are rebuild kits available by mail order and I get a set.  This lets me replace all the gaskets, O-rings, and the needles (which are rusted).  Once apart, I meticulously clean all the parts and put it back together, as per the rebuild article.  I won't bore you with the week-long effort to remove the top screws which were seized in place and caused me to utter many naughty words.  Anyway, I now have what I believe, are a pair of perfect carbs.

At this point, I begin to wonder...  In the past, I would do some major maintenance job on a motorcycle, go for a test drive, realize its not quite right, pull the whole job apart to see what I did wrong and fix it again.  BUT - I'm restoring a whole motorcycle and in essence doing maybe 100 major rebuild jobs but will not be able to actually test any of them until the very end.  What the hell will happen then?  Maybe I'll need to completely rebuild everything I had done before???  Shit - that's not a good thought!  The short term solution to this is blindingly simple - and involves a bottle of Jim Beam, some ice and diet coke...

the wheel bearings

By now, I have learned way more than I wanted to.  Yes - I took on this project to keep me occupied, but now I just wanna ride the frigging thing!  And all I've achieved is to stick the front forks onto the frame...   Now things get really tricky - wheel bearings.

BMW - in its grand wisdom, chose off-the-shelf wheel bearings (Timken 30203) that will last 2 BILLION miles provided they are lubricated and maintained correctly.  BUT - to maintain them and adjust them, you need a good mechanic.  The bearings sell for $25 each, but a mechanic costs $100 an hour.  Modern motorcycles are designed so that you just replace the bearings and this requires little or no skill, and not much time.  BMW bearings last forever, provided you have a knowledgeable and patient mechanic and you can afford his well-earned hourly rate.  I have neither a mechanic nor the money to pay him/her...

Back to the drawing board.  My new wheels have no bearings - but my old ones have both bearings and all the other bits needed.  Duane Ausherman has a great instructional page that explains just how to take the bastards out, maintain them and re-insert them.  check out http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/wheel_bearing/index.htm.

I started with the front wheel.  Duane's page explains how you have to heat the wheel with a blow-torch in order to punch out the entire assembly, service them, and re-insert them.  EXCEPT - he forgot to mention that all these instructions do not apply to front wheels!  So here I am, heating, beating, and wailing on an assembly that will never come out with heat!  Call me stupid, but I cooked the front wheel bearings real good for no real reason.  So... order new wheel bearings on the internet, and chalk it all to experience...

Now to the rear wheel.  I repeat the "Duane" procedure and it works like a charm!  I repack the bearings, check the entire bearing stack and insert it into the "new rear wheel".  Guess what, the "new" rear wheel hub is stripped and the whole bearing stack is loose in the hub.  BUGGER!  I email the person I bought it from on Ebay - dryheat1.  I did not expect any outcome but the guy replied immediately and sent me another wheel.  That guy is true-blue!

So now I have a front wheel that works, a rear wheel that works, a swing-arm that needed new bearings (easy) and I nearly have a rolling frame.  Next episode soon...

stiction interdiction

OK - to get to "rolling frame" stage, I will need the rolling things (called wheels by the technical folks).  And this is where my first (of many) disappointments began.  Both wheels I had were not fit to use.  The spokes were corroded and did not look safe.  A new set of spokes for each wheel was going to cost $89 plus shipping.  Then - I would have to find someone on this God-forsaken island who still remembers how to lace a wheel.  Bugger!

So, the safe thing to do was to buy wheels with good spokes.  Some good luck here - I managed to pick up a front and a rear for $100 each.  The rear was great - stainless spokes.  The front was "ok" but this is when I find out about the nuances of BMW bike restoration.  I had bought a normal R90 front wheel - that's the one with a 17mm axle and I really needed the rare front wheel with a 14mm axle.  Bugger!

Its now I realize I need to do better research.  There are 6 really great web sites worth checking out:

these sites sell parts and have online microfiches which let you see each component and also where and how it bolts together.

the first is MAX motorcycle parts
www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51889&rnd=03252011

and the other is Capital Cycle
http://secure.capitalcycle.com/BMW-Airheads-1970-to-1995/departments/76/

Two other sites are written by cranky retired BMW mechanics and are absolutely invaluable.

the first is Duane Ausherman
http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/index.htm

and the other is Bob Fleischer
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/technical-articles-list.htm

Then there are 2 motorcycle clubs devoted to my kine bike

The airheads club - http://www.airheads.org/
and the IBMWR - ibmwr.org

So, back to the title of this post - stiction.  WTF is stiction???  Well, stiction is when things go terribly wrong at the front of the bike.

OK - remember when you got that first bicycle?  Every little bump and imperfection in the road would be transferred to the rider.  That was before shock absorbers.  Now, motorcycles have shock absorbers in the front and the rear.  The front ones also hold the front rolling-bits (the wheel).  they consist of an upper steel tube that fits into a lower aluminum tube and with springs and such, they take out all those bumps from the road and ensure the bike travels in a straight line.

Now - imagine that the forks are not parallel - what would happen.  Well, if they are closer together at the bottom than at the top, the wheel axle will spread the forks at the bottom giving a knock-kneed appearance.  If the forks are wider at the bottom than at the top, then the axle will end up giving the forks a bow-legged appearance.  Either way, the top tubes will not go smoothly into the bottom tubes and you will experience a not-so-smooth ride.  But, we are talking about an out-of-parallel measurement of 1/10 mm and less.

The other plane is even worse.  Looking down from the top - if one fork is more forward than the other, the bike will be out of alignment and will want to go around in circles.  This is not good!  This will make the rider lean permanently either to the left or the right just to keep going in a straight line.  To make matters worse - you will be buying a new tire every few weeks 'cos the tires will scallop and everything will get worse and worse...

So what to do? Well Randy Glass (bless his soul) wrote a dissertation on this very thing.  OK - the guy is anal but he has a good point.  The front forks need to be aligned really well otherwise the whole bike will ride like shit.  Check out his instructions at http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/fork/title.html.  When I checked out my forks and steering head, I discovered (eventually) that my forks were bent - the steel upper sections.  BUGGER!

Back to the front wheel I bought...  I now had a front wheel with the wrong size axle, and forks that were bent.  It made sense to buy another set of forks (going price on Ebay is $300) because the forks for each wheel are different.  SHIT - more money...  Now some luck, I found a set of the correct forks for $25.  WOW - what luck.

So I get the forks, I got the wheel, I put them all together, do the anal measurements as recommended by Randy... and all is good!  I have a front wheel, its aligned. and all is good with the world!  At least that's the short version...

the frame

Its February 12 and I'm home with my new girlfriend.  SO, now I have all these boxes, bits and pieces - what now?  I spent a day or so looking at everything, muttering to myself:  "WTF is this thing?" etc.  So I find probably the only other guy on the island mad enough to be into these things and asked his advice.  He said the best place to start was to get to "rolling frame" stage.  That means front and rear wheels, shocks, bearings etc all overhauled, aligned and installed.  It also means doing something with the hunk of rust that is supposed to be the frame.

The frame is not pretty.  It comes in 2 pieces (main, and sub-frame).  After taking pretty much everything off these pieces, I find a shop that does sand-blasting.  There, for a very reasonable fee, they gave me back the nicest shiny bits of steel I ever saw!  The hunks of rust look very pretty now, and I rush home to prime them.  Hilo is a very wet place, and if the parts are not primed the same day as they were cleaned, they will rust overnight.

and thats how I went from "before" to "after".  Progress at last!

introducing ganda-girl

Ok - so this is a secret blog.  A secret blog about my new secret girlfriend!  My wife must not find out about this or I will probably be emasculated - or worse - divorced.  You know - divorce - is where "he" gets nothing and "she" gets all the assets...

My beautiful long-suffering wife is living in New Zealand where she has a great job.  Me - I'm living in Hawaii where I have a great job.  Not an ideal situation for either of us.  So ... what do I do when Nelia is not around?  In the past, I've engaged in "impure" activities.  Not the best choice on my part.  This time I have found a secret girlfriend.  She's expensive, always want presents, always wants money - in short, a high maintenance relationship.  Is it worth it?  Probably not, but hec, I'm in love.

So, why call her ganda-girl?  Ganda means "pretty" in Tagalog - the national language of the Philippines.  I, since my very first ride at age 12, have always wanted one of these.  What is it?  Well, there is no way of telling from the photos, but it was once a 1974 BMW R90/6.  This was BMW at the top of its game!  An iconic bike.  And, gonna be expensive to restore.  Any motorcycle you buy in cardboard boxes is gonna cost big dollars.  You will be told "It was running when I pulled it into tiny little bits".  Translation - "There was something wrong with the bike.  I messed with it, and to hide my mistake, pulled it down and stuck it in cardboard boxes..."  You will also hear - "Its all there, just bolt it back together".  Neither will be true.  Rubber rots away, rust eats away at other bits and always, the bits you are missing are mysteriously expensive to buy...

Making it worse, is that on the Big Island of Hawaii, there are no BMW mechanics - even the painters do not want to paint your fenders.  This means YOU have to do EVERYTHING!