79 Bonne

Autotek

You cant put a price on awesome.
Hello all, My name is Milo. I live in Richmond, Va and have been a Paintless Dent Removal technician (dent guy) for about 18 years. AKA, I make metal look good (most of the time! jk). My passion and past time is motorcycles and I often find myself spending more time in a week wrenching on bikes than removing dents. Im 40 years old and have been riding for 36 years. I remember riding with my dad at the age of three on the aluminum tank of a 250 Montesa (which I still have) and trying not to touch the wire on the bars that was his make shift kill switch. I have owned more bikes than I can remember over the years, mostly Hondas and Suzukis. The past couple of years I have been tempted by the cafe bug and bought a few bikes cheap, fixed them up and sold them moving to reinvest and keep going. 81 Honda FT500, 82 CB650, CBR600RR, and a Ducati 900SS. Nearing completion of the Ducati I began searching for a good candidate for a righteous, frame up cafe build. Now... back up 24 years. Im sixteen years old and cruising my cx500 with my friend Jay on his 79 bonneville 750. Loving the freedom of having a drivers license and a bike! Those were memories I will never forget and you cant hit rewind. Back to the present... I call me buddy and told him that I was looking for a bike to build and low an behold, his dad still had that bike and you can guess the rest. Thats right, that bike is now mine. I picked it up last weekend and have been cruising it all over Richmond.
OK, my plan is to take this build farther than I have in the past. I want to make a one of a kind, cafe style, reliable, ground pounding, handling, work of art. So where do I begin? ;-)
 
Best place to aways begin is to make sure everything runs correctly, since you said it runs. After that id just do one mod at a time, again, since it runs lol. First thing most people do would be rear sets, bars nd strip off all the unnecessary electrical crap, I.e. turn signals. Ditch/chop the rear fender down,and then figure out what shape seat you want. Coming from metal fabrication background, I would guess you could make a fairly bad ass one yourself instead of buying one. Welcome aboard!
 
Welcome autotek!
I start a build by using Google. In your case I type in "79 triumph bonneville cafe" and hit the "images" button.

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For your bike, this one search term brought up "about 65,000" pics. I then scroll through them and see what suites my fancy. I create a "Motivational" folder in my pics and save the ones I find that have traits I like. The seat on this, the bars on that, fairing or not, and that " _____ " is cool! You get the idea. This way I can mock up an idea on my final direction before I ever pic up a wrench. Then you can start buying parts that you decide on and don't have to worry "With will they fit" or "Is that really how they are going to look". You are lucky compared to some on here in that your bike has a HUGE parts selection as guys have been Cafe'ing Bonnies for over 40 years. Even the factory recognizes this with their Thruxton available today.
Now about that "Paintless Dent Removal"... Being a past Auto Tech, I watched those guys work thought the smallest holes to remove a dent by rubbing the rods back and forth. Often thought that would be the cats ass for motorcycle gas tanks. After all, you can work though that big ass filler cap hole! Always wanted to ask...Just how big of a dent could one of you guys remove given the access of a tank?
 
Gas tanks and metal on motorcycles in general is a heavier gauge than cars therefore more difficult to work than autos and over the years my success rate has varied with them. I often have better luck with a soft dent the size of a softball than a sharp dent the size of a quarter. The sharp one tend to crack paint.
Although I dont think I have any photos posted, I have made many riders happy saving there custom paint jobs. If your interested in just how large a dent a good technician (me, haha) can remove, check out my website autotekofva.com or go to my open facebook page entitled Autotek Virginia.
Attached is a picture of the bike I just finished and the Triumph I am staring on soon. Some may notice the bread box tank. This Bonneville was originally delivered in the UK and does not have the american round tank. I dig it! Oh and I know I need to straighten up!! Thanks for all the advice.
 

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The Bonneville as of now. Began to sand blast today but ran into issues with media I was using. Should have it done tomorrow and back on the stand so I can begin to clean up the frame. Also found and bought R6 rearsets with a brembo master. The should give a nice look and be easy to mount.
 

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Finished sand blasting the main frame tonight but wont be able to do any more work until next week. Never thought sand blasting would be so much trouble, extremely difficult to keep moisture out of the lines even with two separators in line. Maybe it due to the 99' weather and 100% humidity! :mad:
 

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Today I returned the (in my mind) piece of crap pot sand blaster that refused to work properly and got a cheap gravity plastic style and it worked perfectly. I got the frame done and began to remove parts and hangers that will no longer be needed, as well as clean up the welds and slag left from the factory. It is so nice to be able to flip the frame in any direction to get the job done right. Next week the rearsets should be here and I will get on mounting those.
 

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Thanks, that what I was thinking when I peeled off $3000 for it! That and "I will never get my money back from this!" haha. Seriously tho, thanks.
 
Continued to clean on the frame, shaved the rear fender, and began to locate the rear sets.
 

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Finally made some headway tonight on the Bonneville. Seat fabrication.
 

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More picts
 

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Today I finished mounting the seat, made a mount for the (cbr600rr) tail light and installed it. Then I put the wheels back on and mounted the rearsets. (yamaha r6). Just a couple more small items to check off then I will break it down, get the parts to powder coat or paint and the engine is going to Atom Bomb Cycles for a complete rebuild with high lift cams and oversize valves. The fun part is about to begin. :D
 

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