1962 Superhawk Restoration: Here I go

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:54 am

Poor brutalized crankcase. In dire need of paint. As you can see there is some damage on the bottom where "the bike was never laid down". Makes me wonder how badly the port to transfer oil is damaged. I was able to spray carb cleaner through, but its hard to measure what a normal volume of flow is, and how critical that is as well.

And here is after the sandblasting Really looking forward to the results. Also going to try and grind down the scraped edges on the oil port. Any tips on something to possibly fill in some of the deeper scratches (1/16"?) on the lower right side, or do you think the primer will fill it in?

I was also able to get a whole mess of parts sandblasted while I had the opportunity such as the chain guard (which was painted silver and had some of the toughest poorly done paint I've ever encountered in my life), step arm brackets, step arms, and other misc small parts.

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:59 am

A little upgrade to the rather unsightly air hoses. I picked up Non-Fray Expandable Braided Sleeving from CableOrganizer.com. Throw a few heat shrinks on each end and you've got yourself some nice looking hoses. Still debating whether or not to do this on my fuel lines. As of now I'm leaning towards no. The current hoses are a nice brand new light grey. We'll see once everything is assembled.

Total was $17.60 for 20' of sleeving. They're also heat resistant up to 257°F.

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:16 am

Avon AM26's 90/90V18 front & 100/90V18 rear from Tires Unlimited. Very fast shipping.

I was certaily looking for a tire using modern street technology. I plan on actually riding this bike frequently including freeway travel. Quality and safety are first and foremost. Naturally I didn't find the terrible $25 Cheng Shins and their poor quality rubber acceptable.

Rims and spokes are on their way from Singapore. I think what I'll do is pull the tires off and clean the brakes out. As soon as everything comes I'll bring it to a professional to lace up and true. I don't really have the experience or the tools to do so, and don't see myself doing this enough to justify the investment. Any idea on a ballpark cost to do so?

davomoto · Post by **davomoto** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:22 pm

Exhaust collars are steel, and I usually paint them with a high temp silver. The bolts and brackets should be replated, either zinc or cadnium. Motorcycle shops charge normally charge 90-100 per wheel to lace wheels, I charge 50 a piece, but you'd have to get down to Marin, or ship the parts down. You can fill the depp scratches with JB weld, or similar epoxy, and sand smooth just like bondo.

davomoto

Gunner_CAF · Post by **Gunner_CAF** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:20 am

I painted my exhaust collars with silver engine paint. They look good and hope they will hold up well. The foot peg brackets are aluminum so they clean up well. The foot pegs also cleaned up nice with a wire brush, so I plan to leave these unpainted.

My side covers had some scratches but they were not bad. I had a hole though my cover near the kick starter. A part of the collar around the bushing broke and made the hole. I put a new bushing in, then filled the void from the inside with JB Weld, then sanded it smooth on the outside. After painting, you can't see the damage. The JB Weld in the deep scratches sounds like a good idea. I wish I would have thought about that before I painted. Oh well, a few scars give it a little character :)

Gunner

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:46 pm

I picked up Non-Fray Expandable Braided Sleeving from CableOrganizer. While the caps were new, the cables weren't looking so hot. The other end where the cable screws into the ignition coil was pretty dirty and torn up. It appears to be made out of a very thin and soft aluminum. Overall, it creates a much cleaner and professional image and I'm happy with the results. The braided cable is heat resistant up to 257°F.

I never liked how the ground cable was unshielded. The metal braided was starting to fray in misc. areas and get dirty. I cleaned both contact ends heat-shrinked the entire cable with double reinforcing on each end.

Here are the bike's ignition coils. 47 year old pieces of electrical equipment. They have been stripped of paint, rust removed, sanded, and all contacts cleaned. There was quite a bit of rust on these poor things. I'm thinking I'll just paint these black. Though they might look nice with just a clear coat if I can polish them up nice enough. Here's a photo of what they looked like before: Original Ignition Coil

A methyl ethyl ketone solution that's been soaking for about 30 hours to try and dissolve the polyurethane Kreem liner in the tank. So far it seems to be doing a pretty good job. I'm eager to move onto removing the rust left in the tank. It looks as though the rust was never previously addressed. Just poorly covered with Kreem liner. I was able to carve a piece of cork to fit the hole where the petcock connects. It is completely resistant to the chemicals corrosion. The tank is covered in plastics in my attempt to save the paint through this whole process. We'll see how it fairs when I'm done.

I also placed an order for the e-ignition ($325 for CA). Figured I'd do it right the first time even though I paid to have someone just set up the ignition/timing.

Gunner_CAF · Post by **Gunner_CAF** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:59 pm

Steve,

It looks nice! I like the way the plug wires turned out.

Gunner