I came across a 1965 Ducati SCR tank that looked about the right size and shape for my CB125 cafe bike. The stock tank that came with the motorcycle was rusted out and rather ugly to begin with. The Ducati tank gives this that streamlined, European look I want. The tank is pretty clean inside, but needs some serious outside cosmetics.
Still looking for a cap and petcock for this. Eventually I will strip the paint, lead load the dents and re-finish the tank in a color yet to be determined.
The other day I received my Abrasive Blaster in the mail. I forgot to take a picture of it set up in my shop, but here's the amazon photo (yup bought it on amazon for a really cheap price):
For now, I essentially have all the components for the finished bike (minus the seat I plan to fabricate by hand) so I couldn't resist propping everything together to see how it looks. Keep in mind that nothing is bolted or finalized. The tank will end up at a slightly different angle, the drop bars will be narrowed, the front forks will be lowered etc... For the sake of visualization, I quickly made a seat out of cardboard and duct tape to show how the lines of the finished seat might work with the frame and tank.
With everything pieced together I got a rush of excitement. This pipe-dream project is becoming a reality. I really like the way the mock up looks, but I can see where I want to make some modifications.
You can see some of the dents in the tank that need to be addressed:
Another darker shot of the "finished" bike:
The abrasive blaster is really just a bucket with a siphon hose that connects to an air-gun. The box keeps the glass beads (really REALLY fine sand) from going all over the place.
I started with the Cylinder section of the engine. I masked off the actual cylinder openings as I didn't want any abrasion to the inside bore.
Also the Cylinder head got blasted. Once again I masked off any openings to the engine.
Man this works well. It took all the grit and grime right off and left it looking brand new!
The Top end is cleaned, though I think I need to take the valves apart and clean them before I rebuild the engine.
Sadly, I didn't take a close up of this when it was filthy. Let's just say it looks much better now.
I popped out the o-rings on the stator cover before blasting. The o-rings seemed fine, so I cleaned them and reinserted them into the groove where they belong.
It's all about getting the dirt out of any raised or indented lettering. It really makes the piece look factory fresh!
Lots more to do this week. More blasting, wheel truing, body leading etc.... Check back soon!
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