'82 R65LS Restoration

[marcmiller001]

OK.... lots to catch up on still!

The project continues.... now that I have it "running" - I have to finish up fab'ing up brackets, mounts, etc before I can get it on the road... and oh yea, I don't have a fuel tank either - so hard to really get a ride in like that... so during this down time, it was a great opportunity to go through and sort the wiring, fab up some brackets and go over the bike with a fine toothed comb.

This entire run of photos is simply the fab work done for the Acewell/Ignition/Gen light mount. I wanted something quite simple, strong and industrial - so a trip to the hardware store I came home with a steel plate.

Photo 51 - as the bike sat after valves, oil change, etc..

Photo 52 - I took some measurements and made up a few samples out of cardboard for mock-ups....

Photo 53 - I wanted to make it rather small, not interfere with the clutch/throttle cables... and that took a few tries and decided on this layout.

Photo 54 - Next it was time to sketch/trace them onto steel.

Photos 55, 56, 57, 58 - I took them to a friend with a proper fab shop who also welded up my stainless exhaust brackets for me. He and I cut, drilled, bent and rounded the edges....

Photo 59 - One I got the bracket back to my garage I sanded and mounted it. I used some spacers (cut aluminum rod for a nicer spacer than washers) to give it distance for the cables.... Everything looked nice so it was ready to start cleaning up wiring and mounting up the gauges, ignition and GEN light.

Next was to get the "organizing of wiring" and headlight mounted back together!

[marcmiller001]

..... and the saga continues!!

Next up in this list is to sort and organize all the wiring for the headlight/bucket and route it neatly and in a tidy fashion which proved to be a lot more difficult..... as well as figure out a nice way to mount my license plate!

That Acewell 4453 is a great gauge - however - it has a TON of wiring that I didn't need and the clubman headlight I got didn't have a ton of extra room to hide a lot of it, so tucking it away was a bit of a challenge...

Photo 60 - I ordered a roll of TESA tape and some braided cable sleeve. I started with the ignition switch, then the headlight and turn signal wires, then wrapped all the other extra wiring. Like I said, it was a challenge!

Photo 61 - With the gauge and ignition switch mounted, it looks quite nice from the top, even though it was a tight squeeze underneath.... the GEN light was difficult as I had to made the hole large enough to get it through without soldering it after it was mounted - so I used a nice aluminum angled washer for it to set down in. I polished the washer up as well.

Photo 62 - This photo shows a look from underneath prior to healight being mounted. I have since changed out the bolt and nut for the gauge to a nicer looking and better length....

Photo 63 - once headlight was mounted, it was time to finish tucking cables away. I actually had to mount and dismount the headlight a few times to figure out the cleanest way as to not chafe the wiring or the painted surfaces. So far I have not seen any issues.

Photo 64 - Finally - the front wiring is done and everything is mounted as it should be - and most importantly - functioning properly!

Photo 65 - Next my attention turned to the back of the bike. I had my license plate hanging up on the wall for 6 months with numerous thoughts on where it should be. I still had not even heard back from VonZeti about either my seat or subframe in almost a month and a half - so I figured I didn't want to mount it off the subframe anyways - and since I couldn't mount my rear fender I was modifying until the subframe arrived - I guess I didn't have a lot of choice. I had seen some people mount them off the final drive and I didn't feel too keen about that either, so I used the pinch bolt for the rear axle and some steel strap that I drilled, bent and rounded the corners off of. The result was pretty good - even though it isn't legal in many states - I figure when I am done with this bike, an officer has to be having a pretty piss-poor day to write a ticket for it.

Photo 66 - The view from the posterior.... clean and tide location, easily visible.... once the subframe arrives, I also plan on adding a white LED to shine straight down to illuminate it.

Photo 67 - This last photo is simply because Forgeline, who is a marketing partner of the race team I drive for, sent me this nice little light-up pen & stylus... and I would LOVE to see them take a stab at some custom wheels for me. 

....so that is the latest on my project R65LS build.... have a long list of TO DO's still... and a lot of "waiting around on other vendors".... but the remaining task list includes...

> Rear subframe
> custom seat
> Custom painted tank & fender
> New Continental ClassicAttack tires
> modified rear fender (using a front R65 fender purchased from ebay)
> Rear brake clean & adjust
> Rear spline lube
> Several maintenance bits
> Neutral switch replacement (current leaks badly)
> Another oil change & oil pan gasket replacement (to stop the leak)

STAY TUNED!

[wilcom]

Great job Marc...... Love the temp gas tank, never make it thru tech with that

[Justin B.]

Excellent progress!  I saw some pics of the "real" tank on your instagram page, looks cool!

Speaking of generator light, make sure whatever you use is in the same circuit location as the stocker as it is actually part of the charging circuit!  Same as the damnable Lucas stuff in the MGs I've had...

Glad you enjoyed Texas, I mentioned to my wife you were racing in Austin and she said we oughta go but just couldn't make things work, schedule wise, on such short notice.  Maybe next time.

As I mentioned in a post that I accidentally wiped out (sorry, really) your oil temp pickup point is an excellent idea and I bet it gets about as true a temp reading as possible.

[Tony Smith]

Marc
I saw another member congratulate you on the positioning of your oil temp sender and decided to have a look.

Neat placement, but please be very sure that both the threads and the device itself can handle high pressure - these boxers can develop extraordinarily high oil pressures, especially wen cold.

[marcmiller001]

Hey Tony - the fitting uses a pipe-thread, so it is tapered...which typically is great for high-pressure. So far - zero leaks and seems to work flawlessly, but I will keep an eye on it!

Marc
I saw another member congratulate you on the positioning of your oil temp sender and decided to have a look.

Neat placement, but please be very sure that both the threads and the device itself can handle high pressure - these boxers can develop extraordinarily high oil pressures, especially wen cold.

[marcmiller001]

Great job Marc...... Love the temp gas tank, never make it thru tech with that

haha - thankfully - no tech here... wait until you see what I did to ROAD TEST it without a tank  8-) - pics coming!!

[marcmiller001]

Thanks Justin - I tested the circuit, followed the right procedure and it charges - though my updates are slow - I have over 100 miles on it so far and have not had to charge or had a loss in voltage at all. All seems great!

Excellent progress!  I saw some pics of the "real" tank on your instagram page, looks cool!

Speaking of generator light, make sure whatever you use is in the same circuit location as the stocker as it is actually part of the charging circuit!  Same as the damnable Lucas stuff in the MGs I've had...

Glad you enjoyed Texas, I mentioned to my wife you were racing in Austin and she said we oughta go but just couldn't make things work, schedule wise, on such short notice.  Maybe next time.

As I mentioned in a post that I accidentally wiped out (sorry, really) your oil temp pickup point is an excellent idea and I bet it gets about as true a temp reading as possible.

[Justin B.]

Ditto on what Tony said about pressure.  I installed a 150 PSI gauge on the "Project Junkyard Dawg" and first startup on cool morning I had to remember to keep the revs down for a few minutes or I would peg the meter!

[marcmiller001]

.... Justin eluded to seeing some photos of my tank on instagram - but here is the process. My goal was to have a clean look - so chose matte satin, matte white and a matte titanium color, which matched some of the accents on the bike such as the handlebar end caps and brake lines.

My helmet painter of 12 years, Mike Corby (Corby Concepts in Indianapolis) was tasked to do the work for me. He also had to completely repair the local place did when they "fixed it" and re-coated the inside for me... I was charged for pretty crappy work - then charged again to fix it after the fact. This was pretty much the only regrettable part of the build to date.

Photo 68 - Tank and modified fender with first round of satin.

Photo 69 - Taped off and ready for next color - titanium

Photo 70 - This was a special color Corby made up - called Platonium. It works well.

Photo 71 - Masked and the "platonium" stripe going on

Photo 72 - 2nd round then dry....

Photo 73 - Removed - now ready for a matte white to finish it off. Once that is dry, then several rounds of satin clear go on!

[marcmiller001]

Got some shipments in a few weeks ago.... some meant "more maintenance to do" and others were ..."HELL YEA.... FINALLY IT WILL LOOK LIKE SOMETHING!"

I received:
- Oil pan gasket and miscellaneous washers
- NEW Continental ContiClassicAttack tires
- My painted fuel tank!!!
- New BMW roundels for tank

 At this point, I was planning on some more maintenance.... the TO DO list included...

- Warming up the bike
- Taking it for a little spin around the block to warm up gearbox, shaft and final drive oil
- Drain ALL fluids
- Replace oil pan gasket and clean pick-up
- Refill with all fresh fluids and check for leaks

Photo 74 - The first issue was opening up the package and finding a cracked gasket! I called up BMW Motorcycles of Countryside and they sent out a replacement, next day - no charge. These guys have been ROCK SOLID for me in getting this bike mechanically sound. I have ordered ALL of my BMW replacement parts from them and their techs and parts guys have been hugely helpful.

Photo 75 & 76 - Next was figuring out a way to warm up all the fluids without a seat or fuel tank.... I opted to create a smaller "portable" tank out of a water bottle... and I remounted the original subframe and placed a floor pad on that. Yes, I know... looks janky as hell - but I wanted to make sure everything functioned and wanted to do all the fluids before re-assembling and fitting with a tank. It fired right up and I set off within my subdivision to do a few laps to warm up the fluids. All was going great until it started to sputter and die. I looked down...gave the bottle a few squeezes and she came back to life. I went through the whole bottle nearly..... and that was good for just over 3 miles of circulating around safely through the neighborhood.

I parked the bike, drained the oil, dropped the pan, drained the gearbox, final drive and shaft oil - then set about replacing the neutral switch, cleaning the pain and the bottom of engine, checking and cleaning the sump screen and took my time reassembling everything.

I took this time to replace the Valvoline 4T oil with 20W-50 Valvoline VR1 and filled the gearbox, shaft and final drive with Valvoline gear oil. I fired it up again and let it idle.... checked fluids again.... and was happy to see NO LEAKS!! Success - a boxer that doesn't leak for now, it either out of oil or is well-sealed 

Photo 77 - I was especially happy to receive these ContiClassicAttacks as well. These look great and was ready to start pulling off the wheels and take them in to get swapped out!

Photo 78 & 79 - The tires though went into the corner when the other box arrived from my racing helmet painter.... I was anticipating this baby!!

Photo 82 - Also 2 new BMW roundels showed up.... perfect timing as well! Kid in a candy store!

Photo 84 - I noted a very cracked and worn out o-ring for the filler cap as well, so texted my parts guy and ordered a replacement - they were in stock and received it the very next day.

So we are getting close to caught up and was able to spend some fun evenings emptying boxers and figuring out what to do next!

STAY TUNED!

[Justin B.]

Marc, if you don't quit it'll be too purty to ride!

[marcmiller001]

Marc, if you don't quit it'll be too purty to ride!

No way!!! 

[Justin B.]

Your tank sealed the deal for me on my R100RT fairing re-paint.  I have almost all of the chips and cracks fixed and was trying to decide between gloss black (like rest of bike) or sem-gloss black.  I think I'm going to use the rest of that quart of Dupont "Hot Rod Black" and kinda stealth it.  8-)  I may be able to get back to it now that the '57 has AC!

[marcmiller001]

Hey again folks - I am just over a week away from debuting my project bike build! This is the only forum I have really kept a running tab of the progress, but will be writing up a full build report with some nice photos in the next couple weeks.

Some cool things!

1. Tank got MOUNTED and all seemed well... and I put the old subframe and seat to run a tank or two of fuel through and work out some tuning issues - which now seem solved!

2. The seat and subframe arrived!! (FINALLY)

So let's catch up!

Photo 80 - Corby Concepts nailed my request and I mounted up this gorgeous satin and matte white/titanium finish tank. A far cry from where it started with.

Photo 81 - The tank fitment on the R65's seem easy - but I wanted to protect the tank and frame a bit more so used some high density foam cut and fitted to the center section (about 4" long) and then on each side where the back of tank gets close to the inside edges of the tank. Secured with industrial strength 2-sided - they make the fitment secure and avoids any jarring or extra movement in the tank.

Photo 83 - With the new roundels.... it really has a nice look to it.

Photo 89 - I installed a new petcock, ran the fuel line, installed a new filter (which I replaced once already due to the clogging (new painted tank blues) and re-installed the old subframe and seat to do some test rides. I opted to ride out to Lake Michigan and Holland state Park and take a shot of it as it sat - in the same pose as I took a photo of the original LS I received in Fall of last year. It looks nice, but still looks unfinished...

Photo 95 - After returning from two weeks of work trips and still no word on my seat/subframe.... I decided to pull the wheels/tires and do maintenance on the rear spline, inspect/clean rear brakes and have my new ContiClassicAttack tires mounted up. One thing I did notice on one of the test rides - with my girlfriend on back - was the old shocks had to go - soon... so I looked further into ordering the set of YSS shocks I had researched months ago.... I pulled the trigger a week later.

Photo 96 - A few days later - a shipment from UK-based Von Zeti arrived!!

Photo 101 - But first....maintenance work. I used some Castrol moly from BMW Motorcycles of Countryside.

Photo 97 - ....and here is the start of the fitting of the subframe. The quality is very sturdy and I was pleased with the design. It came primered and only needed slight tab adjustments to fit. I replaced all the hardware and used some shims to make it fit without tension.

....so that is the latest! Hope you guys are enjoying the build!