Back in the saddle Again

[Ivan]

Hi Guys
Just out of Hospital. All well. Picked up my bike (1983 R65) from the workshop where it was being made mechanically sound. Complete gear box overhaul - all new bearings. New timing chain. All rubber thingies replaced. New throtte unit including the cam. All bowen cables. Carbs fully serviced with new slides n needles. New rear Koni shocks.And  a few bits and pieces replaced like cracked fork leg reflectors, new fork gaiters n stuff. So the bike is mechancally sound.  Now will get on with the cosmetic changes. Will post some pics of the bikes present condition soon. the heatproof balck paint on the engine is grotty and removing that is gonna be a lengthy process.  The exhaust headers and balancer pipe were so bad I thought that they were rusted. However a bit of hard work with very fine grit paper and a buffing wheel with metal cleaning polish brought the shine back. Thank God the previous owner and fitted staintune pipes - stanless steel.

Bought a few parts on eBay. There is guy "lamontsanfurd' who seems to have taken a R65 apart and is selling the parts.
Purchased a headlight dome ( my chrome ring is n a bad way), LH switch (indicator lever very loose), RH switch (as a spare),
Front plate that holds the indicator pods, light and speedo unit (my bike appears to have been dropped at some time and the indicator stalks have been welded back on so that the wiring is no longer inside the stalks but taped on the outside).

So now the cleaning and painting is due. Any tips on cleaning the black paint off the engine casings and to clean the aluminum would be most welcome. My BMW guy says it looks like someone tried to clean the aluminum with caustic soda and they really look dark and grotty.

There is a R80RT tank up for sale and I am wondering if it will fit my 1983 R65 without any modifications. Does anyone know how to take off the tank and tail pod emblems prior to painting the bike- would make it easy to paint.

including one pic of the bike. Do'nt know how to add more than one pic to the post.

Any tips on restoration are most welcome

Ivan
Gold Coast
Australia

[Ed Miller]

It looks fine to me, I'd ride it.  Much to the dismay of the Oregon Airmarshall....

The emblems are easy to get off if you warm them up with a blow dryer or some other hot air gun; I warmed them until they were kind of hot to touch, then was able to peel them off.  You'll need to buy new ones though; I didn't try to reapply mine.  Why do you want the R80 tank?  That guy you mentioned also had an R65 tank up, I think it sold really cheap.  

I'll probably think about cleaning mine up some day, like after I retire.  :-)

Enjoy your ride!

[Justin B.]

"Saw" through the emblem adhesive with heavy dental floss, or something similar.  You'll probably want to put new emblems back on anyway so just bend up an edge and yank 'em off with pliers.  There is nothing that looks tackier than old brownish emblems on fresh paint!  

The R80RT tank mounts totally different in the rear but my motto is "anything can be MADE to fit", if you are determined...

Congrats on the stainless headers!!  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Ivan]

Hi
I always liked the shape of the scaloped tank of the R90 and R80 series. My tank is basically fine. Has one ding in it that I will probably fill up with filler and smooth out. Doe'snt look deep enough to warrant taking it to a panel shop. Actually my tank emblems are in pretty good nick. I just thought taking them off would make it much easier to paint. Its tough getting emblems here so I'll probably retain them and paint around them after masking them off.

Still busy trying the clean up the aluminum engine casings. Thanks to "dremel"and their nifty little wire brush mounted on the flexible shaft. Mind you, the brush wears out pretty soon, and costs a bit to replace,but it really is great for all the nooks and crannies.

Shall try the scotchbrite pad with metal polish and see how that works. Hard to do with the engine in situ, so may have to take the timing case cover off.

whats an ideal size and resolution to post pics here. That last one turned out very big and u have to scroll through to see the pic ?

Keep u posted

[Justin B.]

If you want to save them then use the dental floss trick (or similar with some lube), if not then you shouldn't have any trouble getting new ones from Moto-Bins.

[Ivan]

Hi Justin

Will see how tuff  a floss I can find here, but I may eventually just mask it off and paint.
Have just started the cleaning up with the exhausts now looking good and the valve covers startiing to get a shine. The hard part is doing the under surfaces. Ido'nt have a workbench I can wheel the bike up on to, so bending and cleaning is a hard job.

Weill get some snaps organized soon

Ivan

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Hi Ivan.  I did some photo size tests in the "test zone", and for this picture, it looks like 500x375 is best.

The way this forum is set up, you can only post one photo per message, unless you have the photos hosted on another web server, somewhere.

We have limited server space here, and so far it is a free forum.
I really don't mind giving pBase $23/year for 500mb of space.  For more information, click on my 'WWW' tab below.

[Justin B.]

I still don't understand why y'all don't make use of the storage space that virtually every ISP gives you with your internet account.  Even as stingy as Charter Communications is I get 20 mb!