BMW R90/6 Cafe

advCo said:
Ahh man, thats one car that I will own someday. I'm working on a 1970 Westfalia Camper right now, and I have a 1970 Karmann Ghia chassis with a '68 donor body that I'm going to build into a baja.

Yeah it was a fun car. Very cool projects, I want that camper!
 
Sorry for the lack of recent updates, my second kid was born so I checked out for a bit.
I did manage to get some work done, and the bike is just about ready to be broken down for final welding, paint and coatings.

The seat pan is ready for foam and upholstery. I came up with these aluminum retainers that work to hold down the main seat support, and pressure fit into rubber grommets in the seat pan so it can be popped off for battery access.
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I also machined a small backing plate to attach the speedometer magnet to the front brake rotor. I could have drilled and tapped the rotor, but this way the magnet can be easily moved if the rotor needs to be replaced.
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Finally I finished up the removable frame support braces. The tabs shouldn’t get in the way of engine removal.
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Thanks man for your informative posts, I learnt a lot from reading them. I've silversmith'd in a past life and know a little about working with metal, and hope to work on some panels for a bike I'm working on at the moment. Really appreciate your insight, and really enjoying watching your bike come to life. Great work.
 
The Jimbonaut said:
Thanks man for your informative posts, I learnt a lot from reading them. I've silversmith'd in a past life and know a little about working with metal, and hope to work on some panels for a bike I'm working on at the moment. Really appreciate your insight, and really enjoying watching your bike come to life. Great work.

Thanks so much man! I love learning new metal skills, and I always enjoy talking about it to anyone that’s interested. Don’t hesitate to ask if you’d like to know more about something, I’m happy to help if I can.
 
I just read through your whole thread. Very nice shaping work!

Can you confirm the alloy, you mention 5054 but I only know 5052? What filler rod? On the upper half of the tank did you grind off the welds before planishing? Did you weld inside and out?

I struggle to get panels smooth enough to polish, I'd like to talk to you some time about how to read the panels well enough to to that.
 
sandmanred said:
I just read through your whole thread. Very nice shaping work!

Can you confirm the alloy, you mention 5054 but I only know 5052? What filler rod? On the upper half of the tank did you grind off the welds before planishing? Did you weld inside and out?

I struggle to get panels smooth enough to polish, I'd like to talk to you some time about how to read the panels well enough to to that.

Thanks!

I use 3003 aluminum, with 1100 filler rod. The 5054 comment was not from me.

I don’t usually grind my welds before planishing, unless I have a high-weld spot where I may have dipped too much filler. When tig welding, I run a fusion weld on the backside wherever I can. Gas welding is a better process for shaping, I’m just not as good as I’d like to be yet.

As far as finishing panels for polishing, it’s pretty simple, just takes practice. I’d be happy to help you out if I can. Do you use Instagram? If so, look me up Catskill_Mtn_Customs, and send me a message.
 
Damn I wish this was staying brushed! But I totally understand now why you're painting it and no doubt that'll look killer too. Avante!
 
The Jimbonaut said:
Damn I wish this was staying brushed! But I totally understand now why you're painting it and no doubt that'll look killer too. Avante!

Thanks man. Now the owner is asking about leaving it brushed or polished...
 
Sorry for going MIA for a bit. 2019 is off to a busy start.

I’ve been plugging away on the bmw. A lot of the work over the past few weeks has been the small boring stuff, but I do have a few interesting updates.

The big one I think a lot of you will be happy to see is a polished tank. I know, I’ve gone on and on about why this tank won’t be polished. Well, my customer caught the polished bug and asked if there is any way I could make it happen. I went over the possible issues, everything I’ve explained here, and we ultimately decided to give it a try. I proceeded very carefully, had to cut an access hole in the tunnel to do some more slapper/dolly work. Here is the results.
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After that the bike was torn apart.
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A pile of handmade parts.
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The frame was finish welded and sent off to powder coat. Here it is with the additional bracing in place.
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Today I dug into to engine, and overall I’m pretty happy with what I found.
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Now that I can access the engine I’ll be making final part lists, placing orders, and refinishing parts until I’ve got everything to rebuild the motor.
 
A sneak peek of my idea to add a splash of color. Possibly leave all the aluminum brushed with this stripe pattern.
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