I have started on the seat. Powder coated base, new foam edgings and next step is fitting the Eldorado seat cover.
The gold bodywork is now finished, all badges, taps and cap are in place. I have started on the seat. Powder coated base, new foam edgings and next step is fitting the Eldorado seat cover. In the coming week the plan is to get 3 freshly powder coated frames back to rolling chassis. Then they start to look like a proper bike again.
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Lots of freshly painted and powder coated parts. I also had to resuscitate a new pair of discs that seemed to have discoloured, so etch prime and top coat. Took the SFC 1000 out into the weak winter sun today. She does look great. Already there is some interest in buying it. Check out the For Sale section for more info. I restored this from nothing more than a bare frame and matching crankcases. Why? Well the frame/engine number told me it was the 7th production 1200 that the factory built, so I had to save it, and make it as close to original as possible. Even before it was finished someone bought it. I view this as the nicest one I have restored to date. I collected the flyers and pop up banner that I will use at the Scottish bike show in March.
I still have some other stand stuff to organise but I want everything ready in time. Today I had a few things to do. Delivered a frame, swing arm, brackets and wheels to the powder coater. Then I dug out the mule (to be the subject of some future project no doubt) to use it to set up another GSXR wheel/brake conversion. I will be using this braced swing arm so I wanted to see what was required by way of a torque arm for the floating rear caliper. I need to do more checking but it seems it will need a shorty (in yellow) arm that will render the caliper fixed, as the bracing might foul a longer torque arm fixed to the frame just behind the engine. I will also check brake hose lengths required. The plan is to run a pair of hoses direct to the front calipers as the new front brake m/c has a micro switch built in. The GSXR wheels allow safe fitment of wider tubeless radial tyres with modern sticky compounds, larger discs, and via CNC-machined adaptors, 4 pot Brembo calipers out front. The weight saving is big, saving around 3kg on the whole front wheel assembly (lighter wheel, no tube, thinner stainless discs), and around 1.5kg on the rear wheel. This has a knock on effect on the suspension too. Found time at the weekend to get started with the vapour blaster. A guy gave me an old air-cooled 2 stroke dirt bike cylinder head to clean. It was painted black and was in poor condition. Stupidly I forgot to take a 'before' photo. Anyway, after about an hour it looked like this. He is now going to give me the rest of the motor.
I have some Laverda engine parts to blast now. If you need any blasting or metal polishing done give me a shout. Mid summer I was able to make some new purchases that will take the business in a new direction. I bought a vapour blast unit and compressor and also a polishing wheel as my blasting and polishing provider was retiring.
This meant I had to make space for them and build rooms to house them. I built it all myself but had to get an electrician in to install 3-phase power for the equipment. This used up a lot of ground floor space that had been used until then to store customer bikes. So, as well as these 2 rooms I built a new office above them and started using the 'old' office to store some bikes. The workshop is still recovering from the loss of storage space and \there is still a lot of work to do to optimise this. All of the above meant I could not dedicate a lot of time to working on the bikes so a backlog is currently being worked through. I still need time to optimise the equipment I bought but this will happen before the end of January. Apologies for lack of updates. I started a Facebook page (Clublaverda.com) and got caught up in it. I promise to post more regularly here.
So much has been happening since I last posted. I'll post up more info later. The Scottish bike show is coming up soon and I'm hard at work organising the stand. We will have 6 bikes on the stand this year. There will be application forms for ILOC too if anyone wants to join or renew membership. The dates for the show are 7th and 8th March and the Laverda stand will be in the classic hall. |
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