Off Track

It seems this blog has turned into a documentary on the rebuilding of a motorcycle instead of the crazy things that happen while riding. Oh well, I guess I can get back to that when she's done. For now, even though I'm in Greensboro, I've managed to finish some more parts. I finished the engine mounts, jugs, cylinder head and the starter (shown below). Right now I'm working on the wheels. I need to make a stand for them that I will use to paint them and to true them up with the spoke wrench (not in that order).

Late Night Love Affair

So I'm still working lots of overtime, averaging about 70 hrs a week so I have precious little time to spend with Nixon. Lately we have been spending lots of late nights together in front of the TV while I massage her with my Dremel tool.

I am still making progress, I swear. Here is a taste of what's to come.

Out of the Closet

I have been working a lot of overtime lately so I get home pretty late at night, too late to turn the air compressor on to finish stripping the paint and rust off of the swingarm. So, I've been working on the small parts that I could do by hand. I finished cleaning and sanding almost all of the small bits that will get the brushed finish with the exception of the motor mounts. They have a lot of rust on them and are going to require some grinding and sanding with the air tools along with the swingarm. After I got the finish how I wanted it, I cleaned the parts with denatured alcohol and then sprayed them with the high heat clear enamel I've been using. Since I'm not home when it is light out, I had to paint the parts under one of the flood lights out in the yard. On the first set of parts I painted, I wasn't in the best spot and couldn't see very well. I ended up putting too much paint on the parts and got a bunch of runs. So now I will have to sand those before I do the second coat. The other half of the parts came out very well, e. Except, I ran out of paint before I got the second coat on all of them. The picture shows some of them hanging in my closet drying. I didn't want to leave them out in the garage overnight because it is starting to get cold. Once they are all fully painted, I will cure them by hanging them in front of the space heater like I did the other parts.

[Insert Clever Title]

Time to update this slow rebuild process. I recently changed jobs so I haven't made great progress in rebuilding Nixon, but I am slowly chipping away at things. It is just a matter of taking something completely apart, remove 35 years worth of dirt and rust, cleaning and then painting it. I've got the Carbs done and they look great. I also finished the guages, the toolbox and the exhaust collars. I'm currently working on the swingarm. I replaced the old cruddy bushings with some nice new bronze bushings. The swingarm is going to have the brushed metal finish so I am cleaning all the paint and rust off of it so I can sand it.


I also got the cylinder head back from the mechanic who installed the new valve guide and refurbished the valve seats. They should work much better now. Found out I need to replace one of the cam followers so now I am on the hunt for one of those. Now all I need is a gasket set and the head is ready to go back together.

Baking Brownies

I got the rest of the head disassembled and all of the parts bagged and tagged. I bought a used cam chain roller and a new valve off of ebay to replace the broken/bent ones. I spent last weekend cleaning off all of the mating surfaces that will be getting new gaskets. There was some old gasket glue on them and I wanted them to be clean, smooth and shiny. I also cleaned off all of the buildup in the combustion chambers and in the valve ports. When I cleaned out the exhaust ports, 35 years worth of carbon dust came billowing out. Good thing I did that outside. I also noticed that the exhaust valve seats were pretty cruddy. I think they were not seating right which might have led to some of my low compression and poor engine performance. Although it is hard to see in the picture below, there was a whole lot of crud baked on there.

I also painted some of the other parts I had previously cleaned and given the brushed metal finish to. The brushed metal parts are painted with a clear enamel and the satin black parts are painted with a black enamel. The enamel should be heat cured for full hardness, but I didn't want to stick my parts in my oven. So, I hung them in front of a small space heater I had for about 20 minutes each. The second picture is the tachometer being "baked". They got too hot to touch and hopefully that is enough. I still have some more parts to do as well as the carburetors.