CA77 and CL77 ProjectsA few nights ago I mixed up a batch of copy cad zinc plating solution from Caswell. Believe it or not, from the first bolt I plated I was able to get excellent results. I had previously tried a epson salt/vinegar solution, but even with sugar added as a brightener I wasn't able to get the brightness that I was looking for.
I also needed a subject to work on my parts and pieces photography, so I used the results for that. The bolts shown had been sitting outside for about 10 years and they all looked about like #1. Now it's time to get the glass bead blaster working again so I can begin plating the bike parts.  Yesterday I sprayed the spokes nipples with penetrant so I could take the wheels apart today. I've ruined my share of spoke nipples from using an adjustable wrench in the past, and I wasn't too interested in continuing that trend, but I figured I could use one at least to remove them. One of my adjustable wrenches was working ok, but it was too big to reach into some of the tight areas without potentially slipping and gouging the wheel. Eventually I would need one to put the wheels back together anyway so it was time for a trip to Harbor Freight to see what they had.
I picked up a 6" cheapo adjustable wrench for $2 (with a 20% off coupon of course) and created the one shown below. I thought about just using a standard smaller open end wrench and milling out the opening, which would have been quicker, but the smaller wrenches were pretty thin. I wanted something that would cover the entire height of the flat part of the nipple. I didn't bother heat treating or tempering it other than a quench in cold water after TIG welding. I'll probably zinc plate it eventually so it doesn't rust. It took about an hour to make, and works great. I probably could have picked one up at the motorcycle shop for $15, but what fun is that? The best part about it was that I got to have lunch with my daughter on the trip to HF.  I seem to be making tools to take things apart more than I'm working on the bike. I don't have an adjustable spanner, and the ones I've had in the past were a little flaky, so I made the one below to disassemble the front forks. I grabbed a scrap piece of 1/4" hot rolled steel laying on the floor and heated, hammered, drilled and zinc coated until I came up with this. The pins are made from an old drill bit shank, TIG welded on the backside. It works well but there's not much of a handle there.
 Someone had drilled a hole in the side of the license plate mount to run the tail light wire, so I fixed that by using a copper backing plate and the TIG welder. The backing plate was simply a piece of 3/8" copper pipe that was smashed flat on one end. I welded up a few cracks around the mounting holes as well.  The rear fender looks to be from an early model, with the mounting holes in the wrong place for the license plate mount. There had been new holes drilled to fit what I believe is the correct license plate mount. The bike must have been ridden pretty hard because the cracks are pretty bad in that area. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to fix that since it's two thicknesses of steel in that section and both pieces are badly cracked.  The new swing arm showed up yesterday. Nice. One part I don't have to do to much to.  And last but not least, a little heat and a big hammer and the skid plate is almost straight enough to paint.  Thanks sarals. I usually only show the good stuff ;)
I normally use NAPA Martin Senour paint for projects since PPG is getting so expensive. I painted a VW pan recently with NAPA black and found that even after a month I could still catch my fingernail on it. For a car chassis, this is actually preferrable as rocks will bounce off a slightly soft surface rather than chip the paint. I figured I would go back to PPG paint for the Scrambler since I've read about the suggested code for the silver, I have the primer, activator, hardener and clear already, and I wanted the proven PPG black. The PPG DBC 33283 silver (basecoat) Mazda Sunbeam Silver metallic comes in 3 shades; or at least there were 3 chips for different shades - maybe it comes in more. I could barely tell any difference between the shades. The counter guy and I compared the chips against the stock silver under the tank rubber and picked the shade that was closest. It's not an absolute perfect match, but I'm not sure that's even possible given the differences in the paint chemistry from original to today.  I also picked up a quart of PPG DCC 9300 (single stage) - pretty much the visually blackest black I've ever been able to find, and a quart of epoxy primer. I wasn't suprised when I saw the total. I did briefly question my sanity, but then I'm used to doing that.  The Dream has been collecting shop dust so I ordered some Heidenau 3.50x16 tires from Scrambler Cycle to be able to get it out and ride this summer. I ordered them Tuesday afternoon and they arrived Friday morning, which I thought was pretty quick shipping. Thanks Hahnda! 
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