'72 Interstate Restoration

Thanks. My dad is the original owner and he never replaced them, or anything else in the forks. I think they probably will be replaced after all theyre not ridiculously expensive.

It's not so much a worry of fracture or breakage, but springs lose elasticity over time. Like you said fairly cheap, and can't hurt.

Well, sounds like a plan to me.

Touring or fast road work the Lansdowne Kit will make the ride more enjoyable! But i would only say that if it was true

mattthomas4444 said:

I have plenty of questions today,
I have the bike down to the frame now, with the engine apart and everything to nuts and bolts. The forks have also been taken apart, the springs look good with nothing jumping out at me, Im still wondering if they should be replaced though, and the dampers also look okay, theres a bit of corrosion that can be cleaned and brushed out im sure, but ive heard good things about the Lansdowne kit, and am quite interested. Is it money well spent for an interstate that wont be going racing or doing anything too strenuous.

The crankcase breather is also another question on my mind, the CNW is catching my eye, Im wondering if I should send the cases to be milled or just buy the breather because my cases are '72.

And finally, the CNW headstady (Comstock) looks nice, but ive seen guys make their own, anyone have some pictures or comments about their homemeade ones?

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there hasn't been much progress lately, I'm still needing to fix a few things up before powdercoating, and I have a few questions about it.

Below there is a pic. of a mounting arm from my oil tank that has been snapped off. I know there's a CNW oil tank mod, and im wondering if this is what they take off. If it is all they do, will I need to bother welding it back on?



And also, the battery tray below. That one mounting arm that comes off the front looks bent, I'm assuming it is not supposed to be bent, but rather straight?? And there is quite a bit of pitting on it so body filler will probably be used, can body filler be powder coated?
Thanks

CNW removes the threaded boss on the bottom of the tank, that tab that you show will need to be welded back to the tank.

There is a special body filler that can be used with powdercoat, but your tray doesn't look that bad. Powder coating hides a lot of surface flaws, and after that part is blasted it'll probably look better. Yes that bracket needs to be bent back to it original position, square it up and all is well.

Thanks, that seems to solve everything. For now.

Well, it's been quite a while since I updated you guys on my progress. Right now everything is moving smoothly, a bit slow but hic up free. I have got a lot done since the last post and I've taken lots of pictures as well. The frame has been powder coated semi-gloss black, the barrels gloss black, the head has been blasted, many other parts have been powder coated, I've polished lots of things (cases, forks, etc.) the bottom end is reassembled. And to top everything off, it was my birthday on Friday so I got new Amals and a seat, and on top of my birthday, a massive order of parts came in (it will almost complete the bike!!) My long debated and discussed tank sealer decision was made, and the order also came in today. Here are the pictures.









This stuff is supposed to work really well, I've talked to people in person that have been using it for 2 years without problems. It comes with two different cleaners and then a sealer. Only about $50 to do a motorcycle tank.




Here it is. Almost everything my dad and I need. It was like Christmas all over again tonight. (notable missing parts: exhaust headers and the rear sprocket) there's lots of nuts and bolts in there so I will be beside my parts manual for a while.






Shiny stuff!


Box 'o powdercoated stuff


Frame looks great!


I got my drivers license this weekend too but I have one more year to wait till I'm old enough to drive the bike, as for now this is the only type of bike I'm old enough to ride!


Matt

NICE Matt, It well be well worth the wait.

Phil

No Doubt, just like Christmas when the parts come. Looking good Matt, thanks for the photos. Cj

OOOO SHINY!

Hey Matt,

In response to your earlier question on the CNW oil tank mod, I had that done to mine and it was worth every penny! They boil the tank to get the crud and paint off then cut the bottom thread off and check for cracks around that area. They then braze a plate on the bottom and crimp the chain oiler tube off and braze it shut and beef up the support brackets. Matt sends the tank out for powdercoating then he will clean up the powdercoating off the areas like where the cap/dipstick tube go and ship it back with new and better isoelastics and a rubber pad for the bottom of the tank.

I was thrilled when I got mine back from him and it was better than I expected! Now I dont have to worry about the tank busting on me going down the road. Regardless if you do this, order new washers for the banjo filter fitting, not thnking ahead I used my old ones and they leaked like crazy!!!

KSUWildcatFan said:

OOOO SHINY!

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Yes, the polishing disease has caught me too. But I think everything will look great as long as I put in the time to polish every part the same...

warpedscout said:

I was thrilled when I got mine back from him and it was better than I expected! Now I dont have to worry about the tank busting on me going down the road. Regardless if you do this, order new washers for the banjo filter fitting, not thnking ahead I used my old ones and they leaked like crazy!!!

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Thanks for the heads up, I still need to order a few things so I'll add the washer in the next order.

Matt

Wow.

That's it, just "wow".

Keep it up, kiddo; you're putting some of us old guys to shame. We need a bunch more of your generatipon to hand the torches off to...

grandpaul said:

Wow.

That's it, just "wow".

Keep it up, kiddo; you're putting some of us old guys to shame. We need a bunch more of your generatipon to hand the torches off to...

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, I still have a lot to learn though. I also still have a lot of work ahead of me. I figure that if I have a year till I can ride (maybe longer if I get a smaller bike to learn on first for a while) I will put a lot of effort into making it look and run perfect. Hopefully my dad will have the patience too! I think it will be done by the end of the summer if we can get to work on it enough. I have a job this summer and I'm training a lot for hockey so my workshop time will be reduced a bit. My friends bug me about working on the bike, but once they see the finished product hopefully it will shut them up. Ha! I guess we'll see how good it looks once it's done, I'm still thinking that some parts need more work (mostly cosmetic).

Assembly is in the near future, just need very few parts and have to decide what I'm doing about coating hardware and chroming foot pegs. Once that's settled, I should be on my way!

Matt

PS. I also got an iPad for my birthday and have uploaded norton manuals and parts books onto the iBooks app and it is a great tool for the workshop. It also has all of the pictures I've taken on it so I them for answering questions during reassembly without leaving the garage!

Well, ive made some good progress lately! After spending countless hours wire brushing every nut and bolt on my bench grinder, I had everything prepped nicely to go to the cad coaters. I just got the stuff back today and it looks great! I sent my spokes to him as well cause everything else looks so good. I was skeptical at first about sending the spokes but a little bit of steel wool shines the cadmium up like chrome. Everything cost $285 which I thought was a bit high at first, but I'm thankful that he did a good job, so much so that I won't need to chase any threads. Also, 300 pictures were take to help me sort everything again.

Before Coating


After coating








I also lined my tank with the KBS system I posted previously. From the people I've personally talked to, ive yet to hear it failing.
I also picked up a xs650 breather valve it came in the mail yesterday! It looks like I'm almost ready to start putting everything back together. I just need a few more parts and some time to clean a few things up.

Matt

It's a good thing you got everything tagged.

I wonder how many of us has have similar buckets of parts like that, not so clean and all extra stuff.

Its a damn good thing that I kept track of everything. Just looking at the bucket worries me. I think I'll print off the pictures and set all the parts on the floor and gather the nuts and bolts to make up what's in each picture, one picture at a time. If everything goes well I should have nothing leftover...

Matt

Just be glad if you have all the parts, but then I stored a lot of things for 30 years and some of them disappeared, but not many. Mostly just couldn't remember where parts went. No dig cameras then but it all came together.

Dave
69S

Well, I don't know if I could have done it without a camera. This puzzle is what I am now faced with...