I have a seat (bought at club auction) that is for an OIF (it is said). In great condition. Setting it on the bike, it looks great. Bought a single OIF hinge from ebay and tried it in the aft position. Looks Ok, but leaves a big gap to the tank. Tried the hinge in the foreward position and the seat looks just right, but the latch is off. Cut the latch loose - will be easy to pop-rivet for a fit. The rear hinge will (hopefully) be finished today. Made from 2" angle iron cut to place the pivot in the correct position on the frame while mounting in the original seat holes. Just need to weld on the pivot that was made from a bored-out nut.
Rear hinge welded, painted and mounted. Worked out great. Today in the heat and humidity I mounted the tank with its ~.07" deep ~5" long vertical crease on my Workmate and used the stud gun and slide hammer to remove ~80% of the crease - enough to have it ready for Bondo. Only pulled two holes in it that will get soldered up tomorrow (in the garage, out of the heat). Was sweating so hard that it was getting in my eyes and puddling on my glasses. After soldering up the holes it will need cleaned inside and paint removed outside. Still undecided on a color.
Rear hinge welded, painted and mounted. Worked out great. Today in the heat and humidity I mounted the tank with its ~.07" deep ~5" long vertical crease on my Workmate and used the stud gun and slide hammer to remove ~80% of the crease - enough to have it ready for Bondo. Only pulled two holes in it that will get soldered up tomorrow (in the garage, out of the heat). Was sweating so hard that it was getting in my eyes and puddling on my glasses. After soldering up the holes it will need cleaned inside and paint removed outside. Still undecided on a color.
Make that 0.7" deep crease. All soldered up and tested now. In progress of removing the paint so it can be primed and then the inside fully cleaned before Bondo in remaining dings.
So 11/16 or 18mm then. The Brits don't like it when we use decimals all willy-nilly when we feel like it ;-) I intermix the units just to amuse myself but I've been told I have a very private sense of humor
STILL removing paint from the tank. Seems it was originally black with gold scallops. What kind of paint was used back then (BTW, this is not the original tank for this bike)? It is some tough paint.
Broke down and journeyed out to the shed, to the back of the shed, to the old school lockers in the back of the shed that things have to be moved around to just open the door - and there it was. A 2018 vintage can of Aircraft Stripper (the good stuff) that I bought when I started my first "rescue". I suspected that it was there, but didn't think it would still work. But SHAZAM! It still works! Right now the tank is outside in a contractor's plastic trash bag while the stripper does its magic. So much easier than mechanical stripping!
Was out there today and yes, it says Remover. Also that it is non methylene chloride. Worked great, though! Cleaned and popped one more dent with the stud gun today. Really too humid to start with the Bondo unless I do it indoors. SWMBO might frown on that, so I'd best beg for permission tomorrow if I want to walk next week.
The footrests, their mounting plates, and all of the rubbers are now mounted. Discovered that the seat pan is going to need modified just slightly (rubber mallet should do it) to clear the rear tank mount fully. Now have the tank mount rubbers and hardware for bolting it down. Also, mounted and connected the rear brake pedal and switch.
Finished wiring the brake and tail light. Took a lot longer than I expected. The lights are not mounted yet, awaiting fender mounting. I did hook them up and test, though.
Not much today. Drug my small sand blast gun, garnet sand, and rear fender outside into the humidity. Blasted enough to remove rust and plating to give the primer a tooth, then hit it with rattle-can etching primer. Wanted to do the front fender also, but my compressor was beginning to spit wet air, which was clogging the gun. So, it is all back inside. Just in time for rain squals to begin about every half hour.
Finished Bondo and prime on the tank. Need to pick up a 1/4 NPT plug so that it can be cleaned and perhaps lined. Rear fender got a light Bondo job to cover a few places where the Chinabay product was not top-shelf. Still need to drill new mounting holes in the front fender mount and smooth that steel out.
Took the oil cooler loose and bungeed out of the way so the headers (welded into a single unitby a PO) could be removed. They will get several coats of barbeque gloss black paint. Tank now has a gallon of acetone in it to remove any varnish buildup. Tomorrow I'll pick up a couple gallons of vineger to get the light rust out.
Acetone turned a little light brown and had a few flakes in it, but surprisingly clear and the tank (that I could see) looks pretty good even before the vinegar. Anyway, two gallons are in it now. I'll roll it on its side before I go to bed.
Tank is now rust-free inside. Two gallons of vinegar, resting in all positions, and five feet of sash chain shaken around. About 24 hours total soak time and it is impressive how nice it looks inside now. Three fresh water flushes and a fourth with a cup of baking soda, filled to the brim, and left to soak. Then a final rinse and drying with vacuum cleaner pulling a vacuum on the main fill spout while air is drawn in through the petcock holes. Lowering the pressure in the tank dries it pretty fast, and can be judged by the tank getting cool until the water evaporates, then it warms. Dumped in about 1/3rd quart of 2T oil and sprayed with fogging oil, sealed it all up, rolled to make sure all had 2T inside, and put it away until paint is aquired and all tins ready for color.
So, need to hear the engine run (not the exhaust note) before going much further. Ordered a cheap set of dirt/pit/quad mufflers. Painted the headers and put them back on. When the mufflers came, I realized that they were 1.5" OD the same as the adapters welded to the headers. So I spun some joiners out of aluminum that fit inside each with a ~2mm ring in the middle to butt against. Mounted the mufflers up and clamped over the joining rings with SS wide band clamps and mounted exhaust springs to pull them together. Cheap and hopefully functional, although definitely not "classic". Now, if it would just dry up for a while I will roll it outside and hear what the engine sounds like.
Started it up this morning (well, after moving the timing a LOT to get it to start). This is with cheap-o mufflers so that the engine can be heard over the exhaust. Sounded pretty good to me at first, but after it warmed up a bit stared to hear what sounded to me like piston slap. Ignition is probably WAY out of time. Had to actually knock the points cam loose and rotate it clockwise (retard?) maybe 20 degrees to get it to start. Don't know how I got it that far off static timing. At the end, besides moving the idle too low, I think it also ran out of gas. Nice to see it starting to bake the paint on the headers, but it is also leaking badly from rocker box/head joint in the middle and from the head/cylinder joint on left side.
Ran her again this morning after moving the timing around to at least get a mark (was the A - but I have a GG serial number) in the window. Sounded musch better this time.
Phone distorts a sound and pick up all the engine noise, not exhaust noise which is actually nice on the mufflers you bought. Idle has to be sat up properly for now it looks to be too high and breaking when little lower. I have to film my cold idle it sounds really well. Any work on carbs must be done with engine at operating temperature and to get there it takes longer than with a twin. Added cold engine start from today:
