'82 Moto Guzzi v50 Rebuild/Redesign

those heads do look pretty fine.... ha,i knew that a lot of the twin bike parts were derived from tractors like the motor, starter, and giant damn battery.. i had never seen the tractor though
 
Stellar build!!! Mine will ultimately look structurally quite similar; however, the color scheme be more of a vintage Ferrari than a bike from beyond the grave.

A partir d'ici: http://unpneudanslatombe.com/2012/02/28/une-honda-cx-500-street-tracker-sortie-de-chez-rive-gauche-kustoms/

I've had my hands in the media cabinet all weekend, and I am extremely sick of the tedious task. A little inspiration like this reminds me why I am still at it. The results are looking good though.
 

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The external portions of the cylinders are unquestionably the portion of my bike in that's (was) in the worst shape. Fun pics from yesterday vs today. These babies along with the heads are headed out for ceramic coating this week. At least I never have to repeat this process once I'm finished 'painting my masterpiece.'
 

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Alright, all engine bearings are finally in. It required several back and forth late night emails with Agostini Mandello and more $$s than I care to mention. Additionally, I finished refinishing the exterior of the engine. I had Brooks Performance coatings (http://www.brookscoatsit.com/) seal the cylinders and the heads with a clear gloss ceramic coating. The ceramic finish looks great and the turn around time was excellent. I am hoping to have a reassembled engine within two week's time (day job permitting).

Came across this nifty "impossible object" type face and used it to toy around with some MG branding. Font from here: http://www.behance.net/gallery/FRUSTRO-typeface/2525513
 

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The engine studs that are visible when the engine is fully assembled were slightly corroded; so, I pulled them and had them refinished in gold cadmium. I also had the corresponding nuts refinished. It adds some spectacular detail!
 

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Broke the cylinder rings during engine assembly, and it appears that I had bought the 2 last sets in North America. Orders coming in from Italy is becoming a regular thing.
 

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Hey, just wanted to say, nice build. V50's are becoming popular project bikes. Love to see more
 
Hey everybody,
I've been slammed with work, but the project continues to shuffle along. Progress is also plagued with what's probably a clinically diagnosable case of detail oriented OCD.

The engine is more or less bolted back together, and if my parts from MG cycle arrive tomorrow, I'll be torquing everything down tomorrow evening. That will be a huge step forward. Pictures will follow.

In coordination with the engine coming together, I spent the last few days refinishing the carbs, intake manifolds, and valve covers. I'm not a big fan of a polished look, but I've always thought a brushed or just a raw CNCed finish looked great. So, for the valve covers and intake manifolds I buffed the parts to a nice mirror finish and then added a brushed finish by wet sanding with 600 grit sand paper. The parts look killer (in my humble opinion :))

To get the carbs looking good, I started the process with a soda blast. Unfortunately the soda didn't dig deep enough to get some of the corrosion or other staining out, and against all recommendations, I shot them with glass bead. This didn't seem to cause any problems, and I'll do a thorough wash to remove any residual media before rebuilding (check out the great before and after photos). I also buffed all of the carb hardware. With all of this done and the the carbs looking like they were fresh out of the molds, I figured I'd preserve the finish by powder coating. It took quite a bit of time to mask off the pieces to ensure that I didn't inhibit functionality, but I'm pretty sure the powder coating worked out just fine. I'm really looking forward to the day where I actually get to test out wether or not they survived all of this!

Enjoy!

P.S. anyone know how I can get the photos to be publicly viewable? At the moment I think only forum members can see the pics.
 

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Wow, those carb bodies look pretty damn awesome. As does the rest of your casings etc!
About to start my carbs as well. Wont be getting mine looking that good - going to keep them pretty much stock I'm thinking.
The detailing going on here is next level...
Glad you're on it again! Keep us on our toes.
 
zachattach said:
P.S. anyone know how I can get the photos to be publicly viewable? At the moment I think only forum members can see the pics.

Get a free photobucket account, and link Mona Lisa Up there to the direct link url for the selected image you've uploaded ...
 
Thanks Dale.

Hey, on your thread I saw that you had your fork tubes refinished. Who did this for you? I either need to do this for mine or buy new ones. Also, ever heard of anyone being able to refinish in any alternate colors like these: http://racetech.com/page/title/FTNK%20Fork%20Tubes

Would add some fun detail.
 
Sure thing.

Those colors look awesome! I would contact these guys as a starting point maybe?

My contact isn't going to be much good based on the fact that we're on opposite sides of the globe! :-D

Very nice idea... Along with those gold cadmium engine studs and this idea, coupled with that CX500 Street Tracker image you posted... um, am I onto something?
 
Alright, trying out the photo bucket approach with a pick of the compressed head gaskets after torquing down the heads!

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Stealing a trick from Dales bag..

For all of the stainless hardware I've been using to put things back together I've chucked the pieces up in a drill press and then ground things to a clean finish by starting with a file and then working things further with swatches of sandpaper in an ascending grit. The photo doesn't nearly do the resultant effect any justice.

The file part takes the longest @~20 seconds a bolt. Working through the sand paper only takes seconds.

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I spent the weekend reassembling the transmission.

Pics of the transmission project:
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Photos of the assembled engine and transmission to follow sometime soon. The effect of the brushed stainless hardware on the raw metal finish is striking.

Regarding the suspicions about where I am heading with the design, what I am hoping to do, is create some sort of vintage bike-meets billet aluminum and carbon fiber look. Drive train is going to be raw metal (as you've all seen), but it's powder coated; so this gives the porous metal a wetted look. I'm intending to finish the frame and calipers to a nice slate color. The tank is to be done up in a loud red with some add some Italian flag detailing in somewhere/how. Carbon fiber detailing to include casts of the headlight bucket and ignition group/stator cover. Probs going to wrap the exhaust H pipe. Not sure what I am going to do for the mufflers just yet. Wheels silver to keep it classic (match the other toys
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zachattach said:
Stellar build!!! Mine will ultimately look structurally quite similar; however, the color scheme be more of a vintage Ferrari than a bike from beyond the grave.

A partir d'ici: http://unpneudanslatombe.com/2012/02/28/une-honda-cx-500-street-tracker-sortie-de-chez-rive-gauche-kustoms/

I've had my hands in the media cabinet all weekend, and I am extremely sick of the tedious task. A little inspiration like this reminds me why I am still at it. The results are looking good though.

thats looks like the ultimative "Güllepumpe" (thats the german name for the CX.. ;) )
like it!

@zachattach - good work. like to see another small Guzzi here..
 
OK,
The engine is back together. The transmission is together and shifting (the latter requiring several assemblies and strip downs to figure out what I'd done wrong). I started working on the rear drive and the driving backing/rotor cover was bugging me. It seemed like unnecessary weight on the rear swing arem and additionally seemed like it would add to heat retention in the rear rotor. This all seemed pretty counter productive, and further, I thought the exposed rear rotor and caliper would look better. Thus, the chopping began.
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I cut most of the material off with a band saw, and used a file to get the shape right from there.
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Isolating the caliper mounts required cutting through one of the supports.
I had a friend throw some aluminum bead in the structural gap that this left. From there, fine grit sandpaper was used to get the brushed finished, and everything was sealed with clear powder coat.
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Enjoy!

I'll have pictures up of the fully assembled drive as soon as it's together.
 
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