1970 Ambassador Project

[Dave Swanson]

All of the grunge was scrubbed off the main housing using only nylon bristle brushes.  The housing still retains the look of age, which is a great look.  There is still some pesky gasket material to remove. 

It may be a "patina bike", but it will be a clean one.   

[Dave Swanson]

Welch plug sealed with JB.

[Dave Swanson]

Curtis Harper helped me out in a big way with the rear fender and a few other essential parts. 

NOS baby! 

[Dave Swanson]

The Gilardonis are finally where they belong.

[Dave Swanson]

This was all that was left of the clutch throwout bearing ball cage.  Damage was done to the bore from the shards.  I will be sending this to Patrick for re-sleeving. 

[Dave Swanson]

The transmission was a grimy beast.





Secrets of the 4 speed revealed.  Good news all the dogs look in great shape.

[Dave Swanson]

And now clean.

[Dave Swanson]

I have decided to tackle improving the seat. 

Although the underlying foam is still quite resilient, the cover was slack and has some missing stitches in the passenger area.   The pan was rusty also.

I gave the cover multiple cleaning cycles with Goop hand cleaner, the non-abrasive kind and it turned out great.  More than I could have hoped for.

My son in law's mother is an expert seamstress, so I have enlisted her help with the sewing repairs. 

I have watched a few YT videos and have come up with a plan to re-attach everything.  I hope it all works out.

The final step will be making an accurate stencil of the MOTO GUZZI for the rear seat and paint it on. 













 

[Dave Swanson]

I carefully removed the cover and had the stitching repaired at a local upholstery shop.  They did a great job.

The foam was surgically removed from the pan and found to still be in very good shape over all.  The pan was sandblasted and painted.  After gently cleaning the foam it was reattached to the pan with spray adhesive.

I purchased some thin batting material that was more than big enough to cover the entire seat.  After spraying the foam and pan edges with spray adhesive the batting was applied and pulled taught all around.  I was afraid of wrinkles, but the batting material qualities let it conform to the seat with gentle pulling in all directions. 

Gluing the cover back on came next.  Guzzi Paul recommended using 3M Windo Weld adhesive.  It sets up quickly.  With nervous apprehension I dove into it, gluing down sections held with multiple spring clamps from HF. 

I am very happy with the end result.  It still has the aged look, but it is so much better than before.

[DoubleGuzzi]

That's impressive stuff that you're doing there, especially the engine casings. I take it that you use something along with the nylon brushes, to get such a clean finish?

This bike is gonna look excellent at this rate. 

[Dave Swanson]

That's impressive stuff that you're doing there, especially the engine casings. I take it that you use something along with the nylon brushes, to get such a clean finish?

This bike is gonna look excellent at this rate. 

For the very hard to clean areas of baked on crud I used a combination of tools such as; a plastic razor blade, picks for the caked on crevices.  I used bronze bristle brushes on the very stubborn deposits.  Always with the goal of keeping the original finish under the grunge as undisturbed as possible. 

[Dave Swanson]

Yesterday I drove out to the Guzzi Doctor to pick up my heads that Joe had went through for me.   He found them in good overall shape except for some fairly heavy pitting on both exhaust valve/seats.   He said that this led him to believe the bike had at least 2 extended layups with the exhaust valve open.  This info coincides with the theory for the crud found in the left cylinder.





After touch lapping the head gasket sealing areas on my granite surface plate I thoroughly washed them a few times followed with copious compressed air sessions. 

This evening the heads were torqued in steps to 29 lbs.  I will let them sit overnight and retorque them tomorrow before finishing the top end assembly.

[Dave Swanson]

The old clutch plates showed little wear, but were completely oil soaked and stuck to the metal plates.   I assume the oil intrusion was from the pushrod seal leaking.

A new set of Newfren plates are in.

[Dave Swanson]

The timer had the typical divot at the bolt hold down area.  It was quite minor and shallow, which is another indicator this is a low mile bike. 

I figured I might as well make it right for the next owner so I skin cut the divot out.

[Dave Swanson]

The mighty Ambo! 

[Ratso88]

Dave, you always seem to be doing such an awesome job on these projects.

I am envious. Keep it up, it’s very inspirational.

[Dave Swanson]

Rusty pan - no more.

[cliffrod]

I have decided to tackle improving the seat. 

Although the underlying foam is still quite resilient, the cover was slack and has some missing stitches in the passenger area.   The pan was rusty also.

I gave the cover multiple cleaning cycles with Goop hand cleaner, the non-abrasive kind and it turned out great.  More than I could have hoped for.

My son in law's mother is an expert seamstress, so I have enlisted her help with the sewing repairs. 

I have watched a few YT videos and have come up with a plan to re-attach everything.  I hope it all works out.

The final step will be making an accurate stencil of the MOTO GUZZI for the rear seat and paint it on. 

Just a suggestion.  If you haven’t done a stencil yet, my wife has been doing some screen printing lately.  Instead of the typical emulsion process, she’s been using a Cricut machine and program ( via makers space at local library) to cut vinyl stencils to install on screens for t-shirts.  It’s a lot easier than cutting perfectly by hand like I do with some stone-related lettering stencils.

For a single use project, using adhesive vinyl typically used for decals to stick right to the seat should be no problem. 

[Dave Swanson]

I hit it hard today.

New fork seals and I sprung for a set of Wirth progressive springs.  Its a bit like putting lipstick on a pig as these forks are very basic, but I figured every little bit will help.

[Dave Swanson]

Just a suggestion.  If you haven’t done a stencil yet, my wife has been doing some screen printing lately.  Instead of the typical emulsion process, she’s been using a Cricut machine and program ( via makers space at local library) to cut vinyl stencils to install on screens for t-shirts.  It’s a lot easier than cutting perfectly by hand like I do with some stone-related lettering stencils.

For a single use project, using adhesive vinyl typically used for decals to stick right to the seat should be no problem.

That is a good way to do it.  I came to that same conclusion while trying to cut the stencil out with an Xacto knife.  HA.

I contacted a graphics maker that has made vinyl decals for my model airplane hobby in the past.  She is going to set me up with the stencils.