Surrender

OK - I've finally decided that if this bike is to live again, that someone else needs to finish.  I've given up.

Today - I took the bike to Airline Motorcycle Center.  Andre (the owner) thinks he can get it to breathe fire again.  I'm hopeful.

Loaded it on a trailer that I borrowed from a friend.

Holy cow.  Houston traffic sucks without a trailer.  With one, and with the  crappy roads - terrifying.  I had to stop about 2/3 of the way there to get the bike re-settled.  It still moved later, so I'll have to have a better way to strap it down when I bring it home.

But - Andre has it now.

He thinks he can get it done in a couple of months.  I am hopeful.

Time Flies

When you are getting crushed by life.  Wow - 2 years since an update.  Yeah - I suck.  At the same time, since the last update:

I had my Porsche painted and a ton of work done to it, so now it is just a driver.
I bought a Ferrari 308, and I love it.
I renovated the garage to be able to hold 4 cars and 2 motorcycles.
I spent 15 months replacing all the vac lines on the Ferrari, as well as having all 4 carbs rebuilt, and the seats and steering wheel recovered.  It's pretty now though.

So, it's not like I spent the whole time doing nothing.

I'm back to work on the Bultaco now though.  I hope to have it running by the end of this year.  Electronic ignition is in the mail.  New exhaust is in the mail.  Stuff to fix the seat is in the mail.  Tools to do the timing are in the mail.  It will run.

Updates - I don't need no stinkin' updates

Especially when no work is getting done.

Yeah, the poor Bultaco sat and sat.  When I finally got the parts back, it was with mixed emotions.  On one hand, everything is better.  The dent is out of the gas tank.  All of the rust is gone from the undersides of the fenders.  The bodyshop did pinstriping just how I wanted it.

The bad is - they didn't prep all the parts right.  So, there are bits under the paint that you can tell weren't sanded right.  Plus - on some of the parts, the clearcoat was applied really thick.  Drippy thick.  But, what do you do?

So, I started installing parts.  Got the fenders on and tightened.  Got the tool box on.  Need to do some work where the lock goes on the box.  They didn't paint the license plate holder like I wanted them to, so I ended up painting it black.  The biggest deal, they messed with the seat when I had them paint it.  So, the vinyl on the seat is all messed up.  Dropped it at an upholstery shop Saturday, so hopefully they can fix it.

So, as it sits right now:

I need to finish the electrical wiring.  I'm still worried that there is something wrong with the shifting fork.  And I'm going to take it to a 2 cycle exhaust expert to help me with getting the exhaust mounted.

The goal for 2014 is to have a working motorcycle.  But, it'll never get there if I don't work on it.  So, I better remain motivated.

Still waiting

It's been close to a month.  Last friday, I went by the body shopt to see what's up.

The good news - they have painted my stuff - and the colors are good.

The bad news - there were some problems masking the parts - and it lifted off some of the paint when they pulled it.

So - it's still not done.

Waiting......

Good News / Bad News

I've been talking to the body shop this week, and all week long they've been telling me that my parts will be done by Friday.

Since I was going to be out and about today (my day off), I called them to see if I could swing by and pick up my stuff.

They said "We'll call you back in 15 minutes".

3 hours later - "Um, the guy that quoted you the cost was way wrong.  We needed to strip everything down to bare metal, and there was some obvious body damage that we will need to take care of.".

I told them I would come over and take a look.

We looked at the dent on the gas tank, and a dent that I never knew about on the rear fender.  Plus - a dent on the taillight/license plate holder.

Yikes.  Good thing we took it down to bare metal.

Wait, there's more:

"We don't want to use regular car primer on this one.  We want to use a self etching aircraft primer.   It's better for the restoration".

OK.

"Oh, and did you want the underside of the fenders done?  They are pretty rusty.".

Yes.  This is a full restoration.

"Wow - that's like double work".

OK - so what?

"Well, it's going to be more than the $700 we quoted you".

OK - how much.

"Why don't we say $1100?".

Deal.

So, it'll be another week, but at least it will be something I'm happy with.

I took them some pictures of the original paint scheme.  Hopefully that keeps them from screwing up the repaint.

Probably not.

At least it's close by.

5 second update

Called the body shop today.  All parts are sanded/cleaned up.  Painting is happening right now.  Should get parts by Friday.

And yes - I will post pics.

Activity Alert

I realize I've been bad at working on the Bul.  Small progress to announce though.  A few weeks ago, I got out to the garage and messed with the shfiter.  Got the small cover off of the shift fork, and jiggled it around until I could get the bike back in neutral.  Still not sure what the problem is, but I may have to let that sit until later.

This weekend, I started by taking all of the "tin" out of the garage.

And down to the body shop.  Their paint guy is out until Monday, but they'll give me a call with an estimate.  I'm going to stay with the stock paint scheme, blue and silver - and I'm going to have the seat back painted the same scheme as the tank.  I think that will look great.  I was able to find the original PPG paint colors - Crystal Silver Metallic (DAR 34926) and Cadet Blue Metallic (DBU 5414), and I gave those numbers to the paint shop.  

With all of the tin gone, I decided to work on the harness.  But first - I had to sit down with my diagram and Google Translate in order to see what goes where

The easy thing to do would have been to just run the harness externally to the frame.  But that wouldn't look nearly as nice.  So - it took a bit, but I was able to thread most of the harness back through the frame.

The only bit I couldn't get quite right was the part that goes down the frame to the brake light switch.  But I was able to get it pretty close to the frame with black tie wraps, so maybe it's not going to be too noticeable.  

I also attached the coil and a relay for my new turn signals.  It came from a kit to retrofit a 6 volt Model-T, so it should work for my wimpy 6 volt bike electrical system.  

 I also attached the throttle cable.  At first, I didn't understand why it didn't seem to be working right, but then I realized that the part that attaches to the needle in the carb had gotten some light corrosion on it, and was stuck inside the barrel.  Out it came, cleaned up and a light coat of oil.  Routed the cable through the triple tree and alongside the harness on the crossbar of the frame down to the carb.  It looks good and seems to work OK.

After all of that - it was time for some of this.

Ahhhhh.  And stand back and admire my handiwork.  

I see it breathing fire in 2013.....