1967 V700 Corsa-Record

[cliffrod]

Two of my favorite new pictures, taken about an hour ago.  Trying to make two shows this weekend and finally made some progress.  Details will follow soon....

[radguzzi]

Most impressive clifffrod...!  Wow..!   

[cliffrod]

At this point, I've decided I will be making a new seat and rear fender after using the ones in hand for all fitment and experimentation.  My welding is improving and there's no reason to try to make these pieces perfect.  It will be faster to make good ones and hang these up as souvenirs.


Saying I've wanted to build a bike around one of these CEV taillights for years isn't far from the truth.  Among others, these lights came on Ducati 175 & 200 Elite models in the late 50's and very early 60's.  imho, it's a perfect fit to incoprporate into a typical cafe racer seat.  I had already trimmed off the back of my first seat, so now it was time to weld in a basic mounting platform.

This lamp assembly uses two ancient 6v bullet-ended bulbs.  I'm still sorting out the details about the lamp upgrade.  Saw some similar sized LED bullet ended builds that might work or may just use a regular or LED 1157.   Until I get all in place with fender, I'm waiting on developing the lamp interior.

So I made a pattern to fit the hump, turned a simple flange to facilitate welding and welded it in place.  Only blew one hole this time and then quickly fixed it.








Looks ok on the bike.  Should be able to center the next one even better.





After the taillight was mounted, I started working on mounting and initial trimming of the rear fender.  After studying enough pics, I understood the front mount was a pair of small L brackets that rivet to the fender. Before making them, I added a lateral bead across the leading end to both clear the frame cross member below the battery tray and to stiffen the fender.  Not sure that it's necessary to have the fender this long, but it's easier to cut it off later than to add it...





After bead was added (with simple hammer & stump/dolly work), the fender was marked and trimmed to length.








The L brackets were pretty simple to make from 16g crs.  After a pair were bent, I had to mark & drill holes to attach these via the two bolts at the rear of the battery tray.









Transferring holes can be done with a cross made from two pieces of tape.  At the intersection, the sticky sides face each other.  Use one layer of tape to tape it to the piece with the hole.  Mark the hole as you like.  Place the part to receive the pattern in place.  Use the other sticky face to attach the pattern to the receiving part & remove the tape from the original part.  Make your hole. 









After that, I marked holes for the fender rivets before drilling the bracket & then the fender.  For now, I'll use small bolts instead of rivets.  Not sure if I'll make new brackets for the new fender.later or reuse these.





With the front mounts done, I moved to the rear of the fender.  Before trimming it to initial length, I wanted to add a narrow bead across the end.  This will stiffen the fender and is similar to the bead found on the trailing edge of a V7 Sport fender.  For this one, I simply freehand end a bead with a cross pein hammer using another cross pein hammer held in the vise as a dolly.  It isn't perfect, but wasn't meant to be.  It was fast & easy and looks good.









After the bead was done, I marked the fender and trimmed it to length.  I thought it looked good but Tip wasn't impressed. 





Test mounting the fender and seat on bike looked good, even with the frame loop intact.









I left the fender slightly longer than the height of a handy license plate.  The angle isn't very vertical, but should be manageable.  Cannot really deal with this until the frame is cut because the frame is in the way.









Now was time to add a vertical loop for mounting the seat & rear fender and to tie the frame together after the rear loop was cut.  No handy channel in my scrap inventory. so I welded two equal lengths of 1/2" angle into a channel, made a pair of pie cuts at the bends & welded it up,  fish-mouthed the ends to fit the frame, ground everything clean and welded it to the frame.





Then made a couple of cuts and removed the rear frame loop.






image post


Now the seat and fender look much better-

















I did make it to both shows, including the nearby Tryon (NC) Rolling Art car, truck and bike show.  I first displayed the bike here last year, so wanted to have some progress to show.   Saw several old friends, made some new ones and  had a great time.






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Yesterday and today, I had time to resolve the fork brace.  The original Record bikes simply utilized a lower or rear font fender brace turned vertical and attached at the upper fender mounts via two small tab brackets.  Very simple, probably not incredibly effective but that's what they did so that's what I'm doing.  First I had to relieve the stamped end to clear the weld at the bottom of the fork slider.





After removing two broken fender mounting bolts from the fork lowers, I made a quick pattern from card stock and transferred it to some handy 14? gauge crs.  Ganged the pieces together to sand them to even shape, then drilled and countersunk holes.













Some simple bending to match parts was followed by lots of trial fitting.  Once all fit well, all was cleaned to prep for brazing.  Brazed area was then cleaned, masked and spray painted black like the original Record bikes. 









Fits well and looks good- very cool...

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

OK cliff, that tape X hole transfer tip just blew my mind and made this thread worth the price of admission!

[cliffrod]

OK cliff, that tape X hole transfer tip just blew my mind and made this thread worth the price of admission!

Very cool- glad you like it.  I learned that from renowned sculptor Jim Sardonis during my stone apprenticeship to accurately located & mark holes for dowels/pins for assembly, installation and restoration work.  among other work, Jim did the famous Whales Tails in VT.

It works great for irregular surfaces, not just flat.  You can also mark the hole or holes on the tape first, then apply it to the two object.

[cliffrod]

The last several weeks have been busy in studio, but shipped that job a week ago so I had a little time & $$$ to do bike stuff before the next stone arrives.

I want to use Italian parts when I can.  If not, I want to make parts that look Italian.  I've had a crashed Ceriani 35mm top clamp or triple tree in the too-good-to-throw-away pile for years.  I had plans to use the clamp portions from it as basis for headlight ears but decided on another path.

Using poster board, I made a simple pattern for the ear.













I transferred patterns to .125 thick 5000 series aluminum and cut them a little oversized, did some bending, welding, filing, sanding, etc and made a practice ear.  This pic shows the part bead blasted as I was trying to decide on the surface I wanted. In the end, I polished them.









To attach these to the fork tubes and after studying some more, I settled upon the making clamps to mimic Dellorto carb clamps.  Earlier ones, like on SS1 carbs, were aluminum and solid.   Later ones, apparently around the time of the V7 Sport, are a folded piece of steel.  I decided the folded design would be the best choice to weld to the ear. NOS Dellorto bolts & nuts were ordered.  A pattern was made.  Using a 35mm knockout punch, I punched two holes and drilled a third smaller hole between these holes.  Folding them accurately is not too hard but I'm still working on doing it better to avoid stressing the bend.  After everything was bent and trimmed for the nut & bolt, a slot was cut to make the clamp functional.

For those who aren't familiar with a knockout punch, it's a die and cutter that are pulled together to cut a very accurate hole-





The hole fits the hammered sportster fork tube perfectly- very cool.





Now making the clamps-





















Not knowing how the welding would go, I made one clamp slightly wider than the other one. 





Today I went to town to restock welding supplies.  Back at the shop, I decided to try welding everything together.   Didn't get pics of the TIG welding and grinding, but my welding is getting better.  I used a scrap 35mm sportster tube to align the clamps.  Lots of trimming, then welding and more filing, grinding & polishing and I have a practice headlight ear. 






















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I still need to install this on my bike, mark & drill the hole to mount the headlight.  I'm using the long headlight on this bike to help house any electrical components are needed.   Need to make a few adjustments, but this ear will work well to develop a proper pattern. 

Between pending projects and the holidays, it will probably be awhile before much gets done.  No matter- it feels good to make some progress.

[Turin]

Any Updates?

[cliffrod]

Any Updates?

Thanks for asking.  Hadn't looked over here for a while.  Might need to make some more popcorn.... 

I've had a really busy studio schedule lately, which means little free time for bike stuff beyond planning.  There's a nearby bike event/show called the Meltdown in late April.  My goal was to have a tank on the bike by then.  A local friend wants a seat for his RD cafe project on the same schedule.  Doesn't count another Guzzi seat that's also pending.  We'll see.

I have done some work and more planning in this war of attrition but no worthwhile pics right now-

The headlight ears were a very good exercise.  After I drill a hole and hang the headlight to confirm dimensions for the best fit and placement, I'm planning to make a new pair.  I want to coordinate the length of the ears to work with a tach mount above the headlight.  The tach mount needs to coordinate with clutch and brake cables.  I would prefer to have the proper clip-ons with their unique welded perches here first so the cables aren't fouled by the tach, the mount or the headlight.  Until I order another $$box of parts, the clip-ons still in EU.  So this project waits.

I have done some work with the tank buck.  The lines were ok but not right.  Finally I realized that the factory bikes had tanks with a bottom that was not parallel to the lower frame rails like I had made mine.  The rear bottom corner of the tank buck was fine. The front bottom corner needed 1 1/2" cut away from the bottom.   A front-to-rear diagonal cut across all buck stations fixed that, but requires other changes.  To have good joinery, I've cut new base pieces and all new blanks for new stations long enough to notch into the new bases.  Also figured out the front tank mount and need to make a minor adjustment to the buck for this detail.  With the parts are waiting, I'm looking forward to a long day to do it once I straighten up my wood shop a little.

There were plans to disassemble the original ultra lightweight flip-up gas cap to be serviced and rechromed this winter.  Reproduction caps are noticeably different and not what I want to use.  Before doing that, I want to resolve the interior cap gasket.  The original black rubber/urethane gasket has hardened and shrunken during the past 50+ yrs, so it's useless beyond guiding a pattern for a new one.  whether I can make a new one or source one that will work from elsewhere, that still hasn't happened.

I got a pair of Tarozzi folding rear sets.  They may stay or go, but will help for now & be faster than building a pair.  The headpipes/exhaust/starter/rear sets are the same deal as the clip-ons/cables/headlight/tach.  Numerous details are downstream from and dependent upon other details.   I would rather bend headpipes than weld them.  With Christmas $$, I got a good deal on a tubing bender that may help with the headpipes.  The exhaust will likely hit the original starter's bottom bendix so an upgrade to a Valeo is planned to move the bendix to the top.  A Valeo starter is not here yet either...

The original bikes used 38mm SS1 Dellortos with remote bowls, mounted on straightened intake manifolds.  I had planned to change my chrome bores to new 750 Ambassador parts, but didn't buy them before all sold out.  Now I will get new Pistons and have my cylinders replated to keep it at 700.   I'm liking the idea of keeping it 700cc more every day.  This will help with using both the original heads and the original SS1 29 carbs I already have.  I want to straighten the intakes.  I can fabricate them here without major issues, but really want to cast new piece.  So i'm working on foundry patterns.  I do models & patterns for the majority of my sculpture work, whether it's stone or other media like bronze.  My best friend tuned flat track bikes years ago before opening the bike shop.  A close friend of his was the rider.  His family owns a large aluminum foundry about 30 min from here.  They designed and cast numerous parts for their race bikes, so casting pieces for my bike has been suggested if I supply the patterns.  Still, I need to get a Valeo in place on the bike first to make sure that the normal fuel bowls on the SS1s won't hit the top bendix....  If they don't hit, very cool.  If they do hit I'll need to get a pair of remote bowls sooner not later.  If I can angle the intakes slightly to make it work, I want to do it that way the first time.

During this time, I've made progress with my welding and welding gear.   The seat and fender were both practice pieces, made from scrap aluminum.  The welding on these parts was not my best work.  I'm planning to make new parts from new aluminum that are both shaped and welded better.  Everything is here and waiting except the time to do it.

My schedule was opening up so I had expectations to be working on the bike more around now.  at the first of the year, I was invited to demonstrate as the featured sculptor as part of the major annual national memorial industry convention.   Lots to do prepping for the event.  The event is tomorrow, so hopefully things will settle down sometime soon and I can get some bike time before the lawn needs mowing twice a week.   Really looking forward to going down to the shop and doing just my own stuff for a while.

As I've mentioned elsewhere on WG, a stainless steel Whirlypop makes the best popcorn....

[80CX100]

     I've studied the art of cedar stripper canoe building a little bit, and had a little understanding about about using a strong back style mold, very similar to a little of your work, but you're taking the whole thing to a completely higher level!

     Mad skills, very impressive work   

     

       Kelly

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

Hey Cliff,

Still looking good, excited to see your progress at the Meltdown.  We will see you there!

Chad

[cliffrod]

     I've studied the art of cedar stripper canoe building a little bit, and had a little understanding about about using a strong back style mold, very similar to a little of your work, but you're taking the whole thing to a completely higher level!

     Mad skills, very impressive work   

     

       Kelly

Thanks, Kelly. 

As the years accumulate, doing models has become SOP for the vast majority of my sculpture work.  During my apprenticeship, I used models but only rarely had time to make anything before I started carving.  Doing clay sketches to cast into formal plaster models before starting on stone improves my stone work significantly, even if I don't point (accurately measure & duplicate) the job.    When people visit, they expect to see lots of sculptures just sitting around.  Nope.  All is sold before I do it, so ships asap when finished.  having plaster models here is better for my portfolio than images and visitors can see what I made.  We took 8 clay & plaster models of recent work plus one stone and one bronze to that show last week.  Having that stuff on hand makes a very good display.

The bucks for this project are just more models to add to the portfolio.  I'm sure I could have made the pieces without bucks and made good parts. Doing a buck is the smart way to do it.  They help me and they help others understand what I've done & how I did it- both now and later.  I like the woodworking, too.  I'm not a finish carpenter, but i really like to cut good fitting joints without jigs. Nothing like hand cut dovetails.  The joints on the fender buck are great.  I'm hoping I can make the tank buck better with these new stations.

Hey Cliff,

Still looking good, excited to see your progress at the Meltdown.  We will see you there!

Chad

.

I'll be there, Chad.  Even if there's not much more progress, I'm looking forward to bringing the bike and seeing everybody again.  My friend doing the cafe RD I mentioned had a bunch of tornado damage in town last week, so he's not too focused on bike stuff right now.  Me- no damage here but I spent another chunk of coulda-been-lotsa-bike-parts fun money this week on concert tickets for my daughter and me for a BTS concert (her favorite K-Pop boy band) in ATL in May.  She'll only be 16 once.  The bike will still be here after she isn't.

I may mock up more appropriate perches on these current clip ons so I can get some thing done on the headlight ears & tach mount.  Getting that and the tank buck done would be great.

See you at the Meltdown.

[cliffrod]

Did some work on the tank buck over the weekend.   Finished one stone and had to do some model-related woodwork for the next one, so took advantage of being in the wood shop for a change.

Just like the growing use of technology elsewhere, many now do 3D design and modeling work with a computer using Solidworks or another program.  They then slice & dice for files to direct production of buck stations using a waterjet.   It's great for economy and speed, but not my preferred method.  To me, hand made means hand made.  It's all practice.  I like the challenge to cut a dozen equally tight and accurate joints in one piece of wood. I also like the challenge to not waste any more $$ plywood than necessary.

When I made the buck using patterns pulled (lofted) from the clay model, I pulled patterns for each side of the station location.  Ideally, this would let me fair the stations closely before assembly so less work would be needed later.  Like I said, it's all practice and practice is good for any craftsman.  Some went a little past where I needed them to be and some ended up needing more work when I fixed the bottom profile as mentioned previously.   Fixing the bottom also eliminated interference issues encountered with tank vs distributor. Some larger tanks have a large recess or false area to accommodate such things. 

Last fall, I had already cut spacers for the base to locate stations like I had done along the center spine.  It's a very simple way to make a tight dado and theoretically keep everything equally aligned.  After modifying the bottom plate, I had cut new blanks for the stations as well.   Since then, it's all been waiting for time.

Old buck stations along one side were removed. Pattern was transferred from each one to a new blank, with was then ganged to a partner with screws before being band sawed & belt sanded into general shape.  This went quickly. Then each station was notched into the new base plate & cut to length.  When all were done, spacers were added between the bases of each station.  So far, just a single screw at each joint.  They may be glued later.   I still haven't unbolted the two halves (along the tank midline at top center) to add 1-2 screws to each station. Doing dadoes like this makes things so stable, I'm able to do al this work with stations simply well-fitted into those built-up dadoes.  .

When all was together, I began fairing or blending the buck. Some excess was easily sawed away with either bandsaw or my favorite cheap Japanese pull saw.  The rest of the blending was done with a 4" 40 grit flap wheel on a side grinder.  I like to cut, not to grind or sand things into shape.  With plywood, sanding is the necessary method.   The ends of the stations are largely resolved.  Here's the buck now, beside the removed stations and bottoms.









The stations are still a little tight in the tunnel area and don't fit as well over the frame mounting bushings I made. I also need to to blend the bottom inner corners when I have them removed.  To resolve the tight tunnel, I can either remove each station or unbolt the halves to rework things as needed.  Baffles, foam and decreasing tank volume are all being considered.  Foam would be the easiest, but wonder about longevity and what it will do to carbs & beyond if and when it deteriorates.  Input is welcome....








Aside from the glue in the plywood gumming up the sanding program, the top along center and bottom outer corners were all fairly quick and easy to blend or fair.  I still need to fair the sides but ran out of shop time.





There's additonal shaping to do beyond fairing the sides. Still, the reworked buck looks good on the bike. 








Building up a buck like this with spacers used to create dadoes for the stations is a very simple approach to doing a buck by hand.  Computer modeled and waterjetted plywood parts are a more-guaranteed perfect fit, but not something most folks can do 100% in-house with few tools.   At some point, my homemade & hand made buck can be fully glued together and be super solid. 

More to come, hopefully lots more before endlessly mowing grass around this place takes over for months on end..

[cliffrod]

Had time to make lots of wood dust lately, sanding these buck stations into better agreement. 





The original tanks were likely very spontaneous, just made to hold enough fuel and fit the bike & rider as needed.  No patterns or buck, just quick,work.  This tank I'm building is deliberately trying to mimic that tank, so is a little more forced and determinant.  Kinda like a trained artist trying to do child art.  So I'm working from both the original pics and taking some guidance from other tanks.   As noted before, this tank is smaller than the originals so that also changes things.

The method of building this buck in halves, from the tank centerline outward, makes it very simple to develop the tunnel detail.  It was too narrow and tight with these new stations. Remove 5 bolts, which secure in the opposite half with t-nuts, and all is readily accessed and modified as needed.








Once the tunnel fit was resolved, I needed to add and develop the solid wood front corners of the tank.  This buck isn't a hammerform (where metal is held against the form and hammered into the desired shape) so plain soft white wood 2x lumber is used for the corners.  For the front, I needed to glue up thicker pieces.  Once ready, contact sides were sanded to better fit the buck. 





The approx profile patterns is marked on two sides in pencil.







Band saw is used to rough in corner along these profile patterns.





The outer corner blank is still very heavy.  I like power tools and could tilt the table on the bandsaw to trim here, but things go right or wrong more quickly with some cuts & methods.  Just like stone, little pieces are little mistakes.  So, once again I used my favorite cheap Irwin Japanese-style pull saw to go slower and carefully knock off these corners.











The corners were screwed into place, before sanding finished the corners.








With all in place and well-sanded, the stations are faired very well.  It's easy to see the flow of the tank contours. 








At this point, I think this buck is finallyfinished.  All needed now is to add a few light coats of polyurethane, both to protect the wood and keep it clean during the use when metalshaping.  Handling the aluminum makes hands very gray and that makes makes for a dirty buck.  No big deal in terms of function but I want it to be clean.  It provides another piece for my portfolio to display.   I would like to start on the metal work for the tank very soon, but doubt that will happen.  I still need to address 1. the filler neck spigot for the cap I have yet to restore, 2. the petcock bungs and most importantly 3. proper baffles for this tank.  Even if I further reduce tank capacity, baffles should be worth the effort.

Next small project will be mocking up the cable mounts to guide both headlight ears and tachometer mount. 

[LesP]

Fantastic work. 
Very labour intensive but well worth it in the end.

One of the first sheet metal books I brought (Metal Fabricators Handbook and still have it) was by Ron Fournier.

[cliffrod]

Fantastic work. 
Very labour intensive but well worth it in the end.

One of the first sheet metal books I brought (Metal Fabricators Handbook and still have it) was by Ron Fournier.

Thank you very much.  Lots of learning and improvement on this buck.  I enjoy woodworking very much, especially seeing the wood age and yellow after it's done.

That was my first metalworking book as well- I still have it and recommend it highly. When they say someone "wrote the book", it's well understood in the modern Metalshaping movement that Ron Fournier really did.  His first book succinctly captured so much information and made it accessible to people outside the trade without any fluff or attitude.  It's not that the work wasn't being done.  It had never been revealed the way he revealed it, in a way that didn't threaten experts but didn't talk down to novices & hobbyists. 

Lots of books, videos and more "dynamic" experts followed.  By comparison, Mr Fournier was quiet and reserved with no bs.  I got to say thank to him personally for his influence upon me.  About 20 yrs ago, I ordered a few tools and he answered the phone.  Very cool.  Never met or "knew" him but have heard only good things about him.  He died not too long ago.    Many others have played a major role in this work becoming what it is now but it's safe to say he was the first one to get the ball rolling for people outside the trade.

[cliffrod]

I had assembled a full set of older tommaselli clip ons and controls for the project, simply because I like them & it would match my V7 Sport.  After enough studying old photos, the clip on pattern which I identified as most similar to the original bars used on the Record bikes are clip ons used on some Aermacchi race bikes. Given Tonti's prior experience with Aermacchi, that's probably not a coincidence.    It appears the pattern is still available, so plans changed to order a set. 





The perches on these clip ons route cables as parallel to the bars.  The late 850GT perches had similar parallel cable routing.  most loops, including my original V700 perches, have perches which angle cables back towards the handlebars.  That won't work for this effort..  Since I only have one 850GT perch here, I had to make either something or wait until proper bars are finally in hand.   I want to move forward with headlight ears and tach mount.  So I made some parts to mock up and provide approximate cable orientation.

Pretty simple. I've already got a pair of spare Magura clip ons on the bike for now.  A little bit of scrap oak, some time on the bandsaw, then a gouge & some clean-up on the belt sander and I had a pair of perches.









I removed the V700 perches and tommaselli grips I had on the bike and installed these wooden perches with a couple of hose clamps.  These perches have a drilled cup receiver and are slotted to potentially hold a cable.  For now, a simple piece of smooth wire in each perch will suffice.













They look really big, but are surprisingly close to relevant maximum dimensions of the tommaselli matador perches.  Didn't spend much time accurately scaling these parts from the photograph. I just estimated them.  They should help a lot.  Now it's time to get to work on a pair of headlight ears so I can make the tach mount.

[cliffrod]

Had a little more bike time today around clay model approval & work.   I decided that before I drop the spare unobtainium tachometer while futzing with making & fitting a mount, I should mock-up a substitute.  Started with a tin can that was conveniently the same diameter, cut it to length and added a pair of mounting studs to match the real tach. 









Then I stepped over to the lathe to make a cap/bezel for this tin can.  Figured I would make it long enough to slip it into the can a little and add a few screws.  When I realized the handy scrap wood blank was big enough, it only took a few extra minutes to turn up an entire 1:1 scale duplicate oak tach.  Should have just done that in the first place....  Now if things go wrong, this one will be lots cheaper to break.





I'll add the details on the back asap.  Good to make some progress.

[cliffrod]

Did a little more with the wooden tach mock-up.  Added elements on the back to represent what's there and realistic spacing requirements for the wiring.  After that was done, I ebonized it for fun before adding a layer of polyurethane to seal it up for handling.









While this - stuff stalls the world, I'm budgeting supplies towards paying stone work and putting off casual spending. Doing wood is fine.  I've got quite a bit of mystery crating lumber, looks like oak, unbelievably hard and heavy.  It came through the bike shop a while back and what wasn't used for a privacy fence came here. 

Last winter, I had scaled dimensions for the exhaust from a contemporary image.  Since I have no formal slip roller, i decided I would glue up blanks to turn on the lathe to use as mandrels/hammerforms.  After jointing and planing, two blanks were glued up- one for the initial taper and one for the reverse cone megaphone.





After initial squaring and trimming, the blank for the initial taper was installed in the lathe.  No fancy lathe or accessories here, just me. For this project, I'm the taper attachment.... 

I turned the piece to round, then marked the ends, then marked the mid point and again marked midpoints between those marks.






One at a time, I set a caliper to the appropriate diameter for each line, used a parting tool to produce that diameter and marked the line again with a pencil.    The small end was cut to a straight 11/2" diameter to represent the headpipe.





Then the material between cut diameters was carefully removed to flush to produce the needed straight taper.  This is the normal approach to doing accurate stone work.   Not .0001+/- machinist perfect but certainly good enough for my project.









The same process was repeated on the other blank for the reverse cone megaphone.









To avoid drama, the ends were left a little heavy to be trimmed off after removal from the lathe.





The actual steel cones will end and meet at these two neighboring lines to be welded at an angle where the pipe sweeps upwards at the rear set foot pedal.





Pic of the original bike and exhaust-





The parts look better with the ends cleaned up and a little polyurethane to seal in the splinters & keep them clean while handling.





There's no new crs sheet metal here for these at present and probably won't be any until life & work comes back to some level of normal. For now, I may have some scrap sheet metal to practice and experiment with my planned homemade slip roll/bender fixture.  These mandrels should be great to both shape and fine tune what I need to make. 

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

 

[Canuck750]

Wow!  Very impressed with your attention to detail
 

[Rick4003]

Very nice idea with the hammer forms for the exhaust. I also have to make a new set of exhausts for mine at some point, so it is nice with some ideas as I also don't have a slip roller.

[cliffrod]

Thank you, sirs.  I'll try to avoid as much hammering as I can to limit how much wreckage is created.    These turned pieces should work as mandrels to guide the rolling.   There's a couple of things I want to try as a slip roll substitute and will post any success.   Another bike/Metalshaping build thread has a simple home built slip roll but it requires a metal lathe that I don't have.  Maybe later.

Edit- link including slip roller build, just scroll down- http://www.suzuki2strokes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12737&start=45

[cliffrod]

Time for an update, even if only to post some related progress..

When the - shutdown hit and delayed the pending stone project, I decided to use the time to do,some deep cleaning and reorganizing of my wood/model shop and metal shop.    The model shop is done and came out great. 

Along the way, some things for the metal shop came together after many years of contemplation and a long series of typical delays.  Not done yet, but very close.

I've wanted an affordable metal lathe for years.  Most are priced beyond my justifiable need.  In April, I bought an antique metal lathe.  I posted a little about it in general discussion.  It's a Putnam line shaft lathe, 16" X approx 36", circa 1880-90.  Unrestored, very complete, in pretty good shape . Completely manual and somewhat archaic but it should suffice for me to learn the ropes and do some basic machining.  Best part is that it was not expensive.  In fact, enough stuff came from cleaning a neighbor's shed later that day to completely pay for the lathe within the week.  Free is very cool...

As purchased-




Cleaned and in the shop.




My best friend earned his reputation as a national-level tuner on the flat track racing circuit.  Approx 35 yrs ago, a mentor and bike owner called him saying he had a mill for him.  He had refurbished this circa 1945 Index Mill Model 40H for him.  A quick trip to TN and it came back here to SC.  Since then, it has faded into semi-retirement at the local HD dealership.  After a decade+ of "you need to get that mill..."  arrangements were made a few weeks ago and now it is in my shop.  Didn't come with tons of tooling but the price was right.  Again, 100% manual.  8" X 22" capacity. Fantastic condition.  All it needs is me to plug it up and use it.  With decades of motorcycle-specific use, it's very cool to have it in my shop.





Right now, the mill is pushed back into a corner.  That's because of the ongoing rearranging, based greatly upon the third part of this story..

Metalshaping has become very popular.  Hindsight has brought new things about old machines into focus.   Mid century, large vibratory shears came into use to accurately and cleanly cut plate steel.  Pullmax is the heralded brand.  Many comparable machines were produced, but the name Pullmax became synonymous.  As technology changed allowing a portable tool to be taken to the metal, these often huge machines became obsolete by the 1970s. When prices dropped to scrap levels, individuals began to exploit the shaping and forming capacities of these machines which had often been of secondary interest back in the day. 

The benefit of a Pullmax is that tooling for many operations like beading, flanging and tipping can be made of two simple flat profiles of plate steel, plastic or aluminum. Fast and cheap.  More elaborate tooling allows one to make louvers of any length and perform other functions.  In recent years, thumbnail dies typical of power hammers have been adapted to enable these machines to accurately and quickly shrink metal.  This is a huge asset when shaping metal.  Stretching is easy; shrinking is difficult.

Now that many have been scrapped and the rest are easily recognized and prized, it's tough to find bargains.  Many build a smaller version of these reciprocating machines.  That was a possibility for me, even though I had a realistic concept of how likely or unlikely that would be for me.

Last summer, while cruising c/l at my inlaws in Philadelphia,  I unexpectedly found a bargain on this Made in Spain Gairu M1-8 at a race shop near Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.  It weighs approx 3300 lbs and is rated at 5/16" shearing and 1/8" forming capacity, which is equivalent to a Pullmax P8 or P9.  Arrangements were made and it was here on my truck a few days later, along with an original CP Planishing fender iron kit and more.   Big score. Last weekend, Ifinally got mounted upon the cart I built and moved into my metal shop with the help of the same best friends connected to the Index Mill.  I almost posted on the "How was your Day?" thread because I was having a REALLY good one,  but figured it was more relevant here.









The end game- the lathe and mill will be a big help in making more accurate tooling for my Gairu plus other things as needed. I may upgrade lathes at some point but really like the idea of this one.  The shop is pretty crowded right not and will be until I finish & move my big red Galaxie.  All now is somewhat on a slow track as eldercare obligations increase.  I've got to assemble a phase converter to run my equipment, then keep moving forward.  In the end, this equipment should be of great asset for metal shaping work- including my Guzzi Corsa Record project.

I did recently buy a pair of good SS2 remote bowls to use with my v700's original  SS1-29 carbs.  No direct performance benefit, but these will better emulate carburetion on the original bikes.

[SED]

Cliff - I spent about an hour reading your past posts the other day and THE VERY NEXT DAY (!) used your tape transfer method to locate a hole.  Great stuff and beautiful work.  Thank you!

Love the tips and the super old lathe and cool old mill!

[cliffrod]

Cliff - I spent about an hour reading your past posts the other day and THE VERY NEXT DAY (!) used your tape transfer method to locate a hole.  Great stuff and beautiful work.  Thank you!

Love the tips and the super old lathe and cool old mill!

L
Thanks, man.  You're very welcome. 

The tape transfer method came from one of my Master Sculptors.  During my apprenticeship and later journeyman carving/sculpture work in VT, renowned natural forms artist & sculptor Jim Sardonis spent a significant amount of time in studio working on his own stone projects directly across from my bankers.  Whenever I looked up from my stone,  what he was doing on his stone was all I could see.  http://www.sardonis.com.





Jim has been a professional fine artist for decades.  In VT, his Whales Tails are practically as famous as maple syrup...  He greatly broadened my perspective beyond the granite industry work I was being trained & paid to do.  He taught me a lot about things like interpretation, cost vs value in different markets and much more.  Very cool man to know.

Looking forward to carving new stuff with my new machines.   Right now project creep has moved into phase converters, build vs buy/trade, how much is too much, etc.  think I might have traded a headstone for a big $$ factory-built rotary phase converter this afternoon.   Gotta go look at it.

[SED]

Great stuff.  Love the Sardonis link - those sculptures make me smile.

OK - back to bikes   

[Turin]

 

[cliffrod]

This isn't as much of a build update as a general question about the rear axle.  The final drive was missing, so an Ambassador final drive and axle was purchased.  When I assembled the swing arm and fully seated the axle against the brake plate , the through hole in the offside of the axle was approx halfway through the swing arm. The threaded end will extend past the nut of fully seated and tightened.   Right now it's simply assembled to roll around the shop.













I've not found any reference to a difference in axles, brake side spacer or other parts between V700 and Ambassador.  Neither axle or brake plate appear to be modified.  I can make a thicker spacer, but I would rather get a different axle if it would be more correct.  Not a big detail.  It just bugs me.  If someone has familiarity with this issue, input would be appreciated.

The rest of the bike build plods along.  A few more parts have been sourced, including new Pistons which arrived this week.  While the bike waits, progress on my metal shop has been very good.  Other equipment has been resolved- sourced, purchased, built and installed- since my last post.  It should be a big help.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I suspect that you have a front axle installed. Here are the measurements of the axles:
https://www.thisoldtractor.com/moto_guzzi_loopframe_axles.html

[cliffrod]

Thanks, Charlie.  Will check and see if I need a rear axle..