Boxerworks.com

... and some crushed macca's perhaps ?
Mmmmmm, making me drool lols

Long over due for and update...

Many weeks have been spent unable to do much of anything, so as predicted progress is slow... none the less, I am still making forward steps.

Another new piece arrived -



The most important information I have read about spray painting, has nothing to do with painting... its all about the preparation.

My process for the steel was a little more involved than the alloy due to surface rust pits etc.

First was to use a bench grinder with wire brush, then hand grinder /wire brush tight spots, then hand brush / dremel the super tight spots.



Triple hand application of rust converter/prohibitive, followed by dewax/degrease for any final surface contaminants & finger prints ... then 3 coats of 2pac surface primer/filler.



The following day (or 2 or 8) each piece then was hand sanded with 240g, 400g or foam sanding pad as required.
All pieces were then resprayed with another 3 coats of primer/filler and hand sanded again.

The main frame, sub frame & swing arm were the given a further 3 coats of p/f & wet hand sanded with 600g.
Now were are looking smoooooth...




Finally, the top 3 coats of black...





All steel frame, sub frame, swing arm, foot pegs, fairing brackets, battery box, side & centre stand to name a few... are now finished... except 1 final step (against the purist's & predominately as an extra stone & chip protection barrier) I will spray a final 3 coats of clear to the main frame, sub frame, swing arm & fork sliders.

When that is done I only need to attend to a new uni & reassembly of swing arm and I will be at the stage to assemble a completely restored rolling chassis & brakes.
How ever, I choose not to assemble just yet because of space, weather protection & these bloody pesky mud wasps wanting to build in every nook & cranny... it is easier at the moment to simply keep adding to boxes of "completed" components.

Next stage - Tank restoring / prep inside & out, seat cowling & fibre glass repairs. Starting with the need for a new insert for the lost one on a lower fairing piece -



... needed repair of missing chunk from r/h upper fairing-



... and a couple other minor things like a broken mounting tab I have no pics for.

... then, yep... you guessed it... back to more sanding before starting the whole primer/filler/sanding scenario again.

Then the super fun part ive been thinking about & planning for ages... Betsy's final dress colours

Total resto cost to date is about $3400 which includes all painting materials, new seat, stanchions, crank shaft, top triple clamp, brake m/c & caliper fitout kits, chassis/wheel/ steering bearings seals cups springs, fairing clips & pins, foot peg rubbers... to name a few.

On the mechanical side, I have now obtained about 40% of required engine parts and am planning & budgeting the final $3500 needed for parts inc head work, u/g charging system, engine assembly & final tuning labour... then rego !

So at this stage it looks like a final bill of around the $7k mark.

Still aiming to take Betsy for a ride on my 50th in October

Smick job on that frame Joe !

Man, Excelsior effort!
That white undercoat, reckon that'll bite yer on the ass? Chipwise?

I'm going to mount mine above the fireplace one day. What are you going to do with yours?

Nice work Toga! For $7000. You'll have a great machine. What a bargain!

Zombie Master wrote:Nice work Toga! For $7000. You'll have a great machine. What a bargain!

Hey ZM, PSSSSSST! have you heard the mileage on this bike??!!

ME 109 wrote:

Zombie Master wrote:Nice work Toga! For $7000. You'll have a great machine. What a bargain!

Hey ZM, PSSSSSST! have you heard the mileage on this bike??!!

EXACTLY! When you amortize it out by the mile, it's even cheaper!

Thanks guys,

Some of the pieces are not 100% but pretty close.
The frame number plate area is one example, in trying to get a nice finish I was overly worried I might fill the frame number beyond readability. I could have spent 20hrs alone on this area buy using the dremel on the numbers and block sand the flat, all in all im stoked with my results.
Close up, several pieces look like flawless wet glass

ME 109 wrote:That white undercoat, reckon that'll bite yer on the ass? Chipwise?

Yeah, colour wise I would have preferred a black primer like I used on the alloy but that was 20% dearer than the light grey. As well as that, the black primer used for steel was not suitable as a primer for fibre glass & I would then have needed to buy an additional primer product for the fibre glass. The grey primer does both. The alloy required a special primer on its own.

Chip wise, the main pieces have been given 9 coats of 2 pac primer/filler, after all the sanding I reckon I have the equivalent thickness of 4 solid coats. Plus 3 coats of 2 pac black & 3 coats of 2 pac clear. I think (praying) that should be plenty.

A quick story of a bit more detail;

After the 2nd spraying of primer/filler (coats 4,5&6) of the sub frame I noticed something I should have noticed when still rusted encrusted or at the least, after I had wire brushed it clean.

On both sides of the frame piece, the shockie mounting plates have been pulled in. ( 1 shockie = 2 plates ... = 4 bent/pulled in plate surfaces) I concluded some where along the line spacers were not replaced... or perhaps not included or installed when the Koni's were added about 40-50k ago.

So in seeing this for the 1st time, after all the rust prep, spray, sand, prep, spray, sand... to say the least, I was not happy. It looked pretty bad to my eye and this part of the frame is not covered by fairing or other bits as you know... I had to do something about it.

After 3 mins of thought I could not avoid the final conclusion on how to solve this problem.
Anvil & Hammer

One edge of this anvil was thin(15mm) & wide(40mm) enough to fit into the shockie mount area allowing me access to all 4 plates.
Line it up & Whack Whack Whack !!
Mate, I should have taken a pic. The damage to the previously clean, sanded & cured 2pac filler was not much more then a deep star, spider web type cracking like a stone chip in a car windscreen... this stuff is frakkin tough !
When I was happy I had done as much as I could with what I had... it then required a hand file to clean up the damage back to suitable to repaint those areas.

ME 109 wrote:I'm going to mount mine above the fireplace one day. What are you going to do with yours?

Ride her for another 30yrs / 1,000,000klms
... I reckon meeting you & some of the southern lads on a ride up to that cute hut just has to be a MUST!

Toga wrote:
Ride her for another 30yrs / 1,000,000klms
... I reckon meeting you & some of the southern lads on a ride up to that cute cabin just has to be a MUST!

Righto Joe! well you'd better hurry up and get her going and come down to the hut. You've got a lot of k's to do.
A bit more than 91 a day!