MK3 Restomod

I'm looking forward to seeing your BRG paint job. I'm thinking the same for mine, but with gold trim. There are a lot of versions of that color out there. At the moment I'm leaning toward the Triumph/BMC one, having had a BRG TR6.
Bill
 
This is a shot of the tanks and one of the side covers after sanding and touching up with polyester glazing putty. There were some areas at the front of the tanks that needed some rough welds and grinding marks filled in, and one of the tanks had some rough grinding at the rear. They really aren't bad, and some of them would have gone away with some more primer surfacer and sanding, but this way I can probably get away with only one more round of surfacer and sanding to get them ready for paint. This particular side cover was rescued in pretty bad condition, so is taking more effort than the others, which are ready for paint. I'm just happy to be making progress. I'm only an amateur painter, so everything takes way longer than it would for a pro, but it's really satisfying when it's finished.



I broke out some of the other parts that I'm almost ready for. These are the EPM mag wheels I plan to use. They are period mags, originally on a TZ250 race bike, and later on my PR race bike. They are 18" diameter, with 3" width rear and 2.5" front. Being something like 35 years old, they are meant for tube type tires. When I was racing with them, I used tubeless tires with no problems, but for the street bike I plan to use tubes. They are waiting to be media blasted, inspected, conversion coated (Iridite) and painted. I'm sticking with the gold color to match the tank lettering and some other bits.



These are the brakes for the front. I bought these a couple decades or so ago for one of the race bikes, and never used them. They really are overkill for a street Commando, but I'm doing my best to use up accumulated stuff. Besides, the do add some bling. Besides, the color goes well with a red bike. The rotors are Kosman, the master cylinder is Brembo, and the calipers are a brand I can't recall at the moment. I do have to come up with a rear master cylinder, but I think I still have a good Lockheed racing one in a box.



I already have a rear disk and TZ caliper that fit the rear wheel with my swing arm, but they're still tucked away somewhere. This picture of the PR shows the rear brake I'm planning to use.



And these are the forks. They are Ohlins superbike forks, the same ones Kenny Dreer used on some of his first 952 bikes. I still have to make some triple clamps for them, but I'm getting pretty close to being able to have a rolling chassis with engine.



That's it for now.

Ken
 

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Wow, gonna be quite a hot rod isn't it Ken!?!

With all those 'bling-bling' parts on the bike, I would personally go for a solid or mild metallic colour, and probably a dark colour.

What colour is the frame? I can see it in my minds eye with dark metallic blue tins and a silver frame (there's a few like that on Matts cNw site)!

BTW, I'm having an Interstate tank painted at present and have opted for a Mercedes colour 'Cavansite Blue' its a really dark blue, almost black in some lights, with a fine metallic. Will post some pics when done, but don't hold your breath, my painter man doesn't rush things...!
 
lcrken said:
A little more progress. This is one of the EMGO tanks that I just finished spraying epoxy primer on. ........ He picked "British Racing Green" with silver lettering for the color scheme, so I think I'll go with that. Ken
I will be interested to see how that looks Ken, since it is also the color combination I had in mind for the beat up old roadster tank I'm working on for my bike.
 
Fast Eddie said:
Wow, gonna be quite a hot rod isn't it Ken!?!

With all those 'bling-bling' parts on the bike, I would personally go for a solid or mild metallic colour, and probably a dark colour.

What colour is the frame? I can see it in my minds eye with dark metallic blue tins and a silver frame (there's a few like that on Matts cNw site)!

BTW, I'm having an Interstate tank painted at present and have opted for a Mercedes colour 'Cavansite Blue' its a really dark blue, almost black in some lights, with a fine metallic. Will post some pics when done, but don't hold your breath, my painter man doesn't rush things...!

The frame is going to remain black. Rustoleum gloss black, as a matter of fact. I'm so used to frames being black that I hadn't even considered a change.

Ken
 
cjandme said:
lcrken said:
A little more progress. This is one of the EMGO tanks that I just finished spraying epoxy primer on. ........ He picked "British Racing Green" with silver lettering for the color scheme, so I think I'll go with that. Ken
I will be interested to see how that looks Ken, since it is also the color combination I had in mind for the beat up old roadster tank I'm working on for my bike.

This is what it looks like. I still need to color sand this first coat of clear, and spray another finish coat, but this shows the color combo pretty well. This is a little OT, since this is not the tank for the bike in this thread, but I figured it was ok anyhow.



Ken
 

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pantah_good said:
Very nice looking! Which BRG is that?
Bill

It's Neo Green from the 1991 Mazda special edition commemorating British cars. The Mazda color code is HU, and the PPG code is 47037. As you imply, there are a number of BRGs out there, some solid like this one, and quite a few metallics. I'm quite happy with this one, and my grandson, whose bike it is for, says it is exactly what he had in mind.

Ken
 
lcrken said:
......... This is a little OT, since this is not the tank for the bike in this thread, but I figured it was ok anyhow.......Ken
That works for me, thanks for posting the picture and the paint code. Ken what type of spray gun are you using, is it a newer High Volume Low Pressure? your end result looks very nice. Cj
 
cjandme said:
lcrken said:
......... This is a little OT, since this is not the tank for the bike in this thread, but I figured it was ok anyhow.......Ken
That works for me, thanks for posting the picture and the paint code. Ken what type of spray gun are you using, is it a newer High Volume Low Pressure? your end result looks very nice. Cj

Strange as it may seem, I'm using a Harbor Freight $9.95 (on sale) very basic HVLP gun. with 1.4 nozzle. I have several other guns (Binks, DeVilbiss, Sharpe, etc.) accumulated over several decades, both HVLP and conventional, but I was trying this one out as a dedicated primer gun, and it worked so well, I thought I'd go ahead and spray the basecoat and clear with it too. It really did work well.

Ken
 
Well, I missed having the race bike done in time for Bonneville, so I'm back to getting this one running.

Last installment on the engine I mentioned the need to check for valve-to-valve interference. Turns out it was pretty close. I only had .020" clearance between the valves at the closest point. That makes me a little nervous. On a race bike I really like to see at least .060", although I have run them at .040" with no problems. I checked with both Jim Comstock and Steve Maney, and both thought it would probably be ok, since this is a street bike, not a racer, but neither one was real enthusiastic about it. I decided to sink the exhaust valves by .025" as a compromise to get more clearance.

This is a picture of the setup I use in the mill to cut the seats. It's an old Mira set of tooling that I've had for quite a while. Similar in concept to a Serdi, it used contoured carbide inserts to cut all three angles at once. I use a 37 degree top cut and 53 degree bottom cut, and then blend the top into the combustion chamber bowl with a radius cutter. In this particular case,there is no bottom cut because Steve sets the exhaust ports up with a straight 90 degrees at the bottom of the seat, so there is no material left for the 53 degree cutter to work on. The second picture shows the design of the cutter in more detail.





This is a shot of the combustion chamber, showing the valve seats and ports.



And this is just a shot of the head. You can see where the head bolts have been moved to accommodate the wider bore spacing of the 1007. It's similar to what we do to convert a 750 head to an 850 bolt pattern.



Ken
 

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Big inlet ports Ken...

Aren't you worried about losing some low end torque... :wink:
 
Hi Ken

What is happening with the section of shaft which protrudes beyond the seat cutter? Is this for support of the cutter or is it reaming out the hole for valve guides?

Carpenter wanting to be machinist needs to know :mrgreen:

Glen
 
As Paul has correctly deduced, it is the pilot for the cutter, and fits closely in the guide. Unlike a lot of other valve cutting systems, it is fixed in the cutter head, and rotates in the valve guide. The other systems I have used rely on a pilot that is fixed in the guide, and the cutter head rotates on the pilot. I've not noticed any particular benefit to either one, with both cutting seats with about the same concentricity, so I use whichever style works best for the job at hand. I use a different brand for really small valve seats like those in the Honda VF500F.

Ken
 
Is there something to prevent swarf from getting down between the valve guide and the pilot shaft? I see what appears to be a small coil spring there.

Glen
 
worntorn said:
Is there something to prevent swarf from getting down between the valve guide and the pilot shaft? I see what appears to be a small coil spring there.

Glen

That's a bounce spring that pushes against the cutter head while cutting the seat. Having some pressure there takes up the play in the quill feed and allows more precise feeding of the cutter, which prevents the cutter from going deeper than desired, and also prevents chatter. The fit between the pilot shaft and the guide is very close, so no room for swarf to get in.

Ken
 
Before I sunk the exhaust valves, I had installed the head with some trial push rods from another engine with BSA lifters, and checked for length. I made up a new set of push rods with what I thought would be the right lengths, but I think I subtracted where I should have added, and vice versa. In any case, I managed to get enough measurements to make the next, and I hope final, set of them. This is a shot of the engine and head ready to assemble. It doesn't show the .020" copper head gasket I'm using, but I did fit it before putting on the head. The four bolts to the right are the longer head bolts, and you can see why I can't just use a set of CNW waisted stainless bolts instead. Steve supplies his cylinders with metric threads for the head bolts, so I can't use the stock style. I do plan to experiment with grinding these bolts to a waisted profile.



These are a couple pictures of the engine with head, just for general entertainment.





If all goes well, I'll get a new set of push rods done tomorrow, and they will be the right length. Not much else left to finish the engine.

Ken
 

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Looks pretty awesome Ken!

So, we'll soon see / here it running shall we...?
 
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