1973 1/2 BMW R60/5 restoration.

[Kanticoy]

Thanks guys, and Tim, I might just have something up my sleeve as far as a touring tank goes.....

John, That's why I'm building this one. I want it to be a road dog that the wife and I can ride two up comfortably.

Got some work done today and my fingers are killing me. Got the wheels disassembled and they were disgusting. The original front wheel had a bad ding in it so I picked up a set off of Ebay as mentioned earlier. Turns out my bike originally had a 2.15 rear wheel on it, and the one I bought was a 1.85. I ended up using my stock rear wheel and the new front wheel. The front wheel I bought came bead blasted. I hand sanded and polished both of these hoops and let me tell you, sanding down a bed blasted surface is a major pain in the ass. Took me forever to get these guys polished. There are still some dings and stuff in them that wouldn't sand out, but they give it a little character. And you'll see from the pictures what a chore it was to get them where they are.

I disassembled the hubs and pulled the bearing stacks (bitch) and have new bearings in my hands to put back into them. I finally understand the concept of wheel preload after researching for hours and am going to attempt to get it all back together correctly. I got a nice brand new set of clover leaf spokes and nipples in stainless waiting to be laced up. All I am waiting on is the new wheel seals. Onward we go!

The wheel polishing escapade:

BMW hoops are directional, that's why wanted to make what I have work.

Hubcaps both done now:

Hubs ready for reassembly after cleaning.

 

[Kanticoy]

Been whittling away a little at a time. Today was spent swapping all of the old seat hardware from the roached /5 seat to the great condition /6 seat that Tim brought me at barber's. It's not the right seat cover, but the condition is amazing. I had to extract a couple of stripped out screws from the seat hinges, and then moved the grab rail and the seat emblem over to this seat. Debating on moving the alloy trim pieces over from the old seat to the new as well because they're pretty. Also Tim Green from NC sent me a couple of spare battery covers that are in excellent condition. I get by with a little help from my friends!

Seat:




In typical BMW fashion, brass screws holding on the emblem so they needed polished of course. This is not the original seat obviously, since this bike is an R60/5, but will basically be a 75/5 when finished.





Side covers:

 

[Big R]

Looking great as always man.

I like that design for the grab rail. I may have to utilize that idea in the future.....

 

[Kanticoy]

Looking great as always man.

I like that design for the grab rail. I may have to utilize that idea in the future.....

Thanks man, and yeah it is a really smart design. Gives you a good place to lash things to for travel too. Cool design.

 

[Tim]

Looking awesome Kiley. I didn't know the rims were directional! Got me concerned about mine.

I'm probably going to break my wheels down again. I had the rims soda blasted and then built the wheels from that. The soda blasted finish is really picking up oil stains etc. I might actually powder coat my rims black. But that will wait till winter.

 

[Kanticoy]

Thanks Tim! That seat is gonna be perfect. Even had the threaded holes for the badge mount under the vinyl. They obviously just changed the cover. You've probably got the hoops right, because from what i understand if they aren't, the spokes bind on the angle when they're laced. Try cleaning your hoops really well and then wipe them down with WD-40. Trick I learned from somewhere for repelling stains off of soda blasted alloy surfaces. Works really well.

 

[Rich Ard]

Love watching this come together, and great teamwork on the seat.

 

[Kanticoy]

Love watching this come together, and great teamwork on the seat.

Thanks Richard, it really is a fun project!

 

[oldskool]

Beautiful,simply beautiful

 

[Kanticoy]

Beautiful,simply beautiful

Thank you my good man!

 

[Clutch48]

Looking great brother!

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Maritime]

She is going to be a hottie when you finish her! I think when the GL needs it's next refresh I am coming to visit for a couple of weeks to use Kiley's garage and get some assistance in bringing the level of work up a few notches!

 

[Kanticoy]

Thanks Thomas! And Mike, bring it on, we will make her right.

 

[Kanticoy]

Starter day. Ordered a starter rebuild kit from Euro Motor Electrics. New bronze end bushings, new brushes, and new brush springs. Pulled the starter apart cleaned and degreased it, threw a coat of paint on the stripped cases, reassembled, and now she's as good as new. It worked before, but now I have the peace of mind. These Bosch starters are very very good and will last forever if maintained. I know I made it sound like it was easy, but honestly it was a complete pain in the ass. All of the brushes had to be soldered on, and then they were a bitch to reassemble back onto the shaft. The bushings were fairly easy. The solenoid mechanism is complicated and had to be reassembled just so. But I hooked it up to a battery and a temp starter switch, and damned if it didn't work flawlessly first try. I also started the body work on the tins. Had to make some repairs to the fiberglass in the rear fender where the mounting holes busted. Found MANY layers of old paint on them, but all smooth now. Onward we go. Hoping to powder the bits that need powdered this weekend.

Bronze bushings soaking in oil prior to install:



And in.





Brush plate assembled with new brushes and springs:





Inner shaft cleaned of carbon:



And done.







Test fit on motor. Looks good on that clean block IMO:









Here is one of the spots I repaired on the lower rear fender. This is where it bolts to the frame in the front and the holes were busted out all of the way through. I epoxied and fiberglassed over a piece of 16g metal on the inside and when it dried I skimmed the outside with JB weld then sanded. Perfect fix. The holes are drilled now.




The tail light/turn rail mounting was the same fix:



And the fenders blocked down smooth.







Making progress!

 

[Rich Ard]

ha - clearly not the first person to look at this bike and think 'needs some body work done.'

And did I just see you completely tear down a starter motor and then throw the old solenoid back in?

 

[Kanticoy]

ha - clearly not the first person to look at this bike and think 'needs some body work done.'

And did I just see you completely tear down a starter motor and then throw the old solenoid back in?

Yes you did. Works perfectly and that part is easy to change if I need to. Two screws and they're swapped. Amazingly, they don't fail regularly on these motors. It's always the brushes wearing out because the bushings have play. The original bushings are alloy of some sort. The new ones are a much better oiled bronze.

 

[Rich Ard]

I may be kvetching only because there is no update to my thread tonight because my solenoid just stopped acting as one. Beg pardon.

 

[Kanticoy]

Haha, this ain't no Honda solenoid. This thing weighs a good half pound. Good thing is it is replaceable with an easy to get VW unit from any auto parts store. Pretty convenient. It literally is a "relay" that manually pulls down an "arm" which engages the starter sprocket to the flywheel. BMW over-complication at its best.

 

[troybilt]

Nice progress. I agree with Richard on the multiple paint and body work. She's definitely been around the block haha.
Keep it up and the way things are going you'll catch me.

 

[Maritime]

Nice work, I actually think the blocked out fenders look neat the way they are, almost like a camo effect or something. Of course you won't leave em that way on this bike but on a different bike style they may have been cool with clear over them.