il Crustico - '73 Moto Guzzi Eldorado Basket case Restoration

[adventurco]

If you know me, you know I like to get myself involved in the worst of the worst when it comes to projects. So naturally when Alex @Deviant1 started talking about moving on from the Moto Guzzi Eldorado project he had picked up a few years back, I got myself (and a few others) involved. The bike had been partially disassembled so I never saw it all together, but a Guzzi has been on my list ever since I caught a glimpse of a red LeMans on a jobsite years ago. After seeing only a few pics of it in Alex's shop, and what the finished product could be, I paid the man and started working out how I'd get it across the country.

With some help from the DTT folks, the bike made its way from its previous home in Alabama to the Barber Vintage Festival in Birmingham in 2022, where @Hurco550 had agreed to haul it back to Ohio. It didn't roll, and its not light, so I was told it was fun to get onto the trailer. It took a couple of years for this deal to work its way out, and I ended up getting the bike back home to Chicago in November of last year. A good amount of work has been done since then, so I'll be playing catchup on this thread for a bit.

Below are the pics I saw when I agreed to take over this project. The fenders and some of the sheet metal bits had been blasted, and the tank is with @Kanticoy where it'll get chrome powder, paint and stripes.

The man @Deviant1 himself, and the only pic I have of the bike together

 

[Luugo86]

That fuel tank has a great shape to it

 

[Maritime]

Sign me up Nick. Going to be lots of work but I've seen you turn some real turds into nice machines LOL.

 

[adventurco]

By now you're probably thinking, "this guy's a moron," and you're probably right. In October of '22, the bike was sitting at @Hurco550 's place for about a month before I could plan a drive over to set eyes on it and probably get tetanus. We were able to disassemble some other components to lighten the load and hopefully get this thing inside the back of a Honda CR-V. Luckily hurco has a bike lift, so we were able to slide the carcass onto it and slide it into the back of the car.

And once I got back to Illinois, I managed to super sketchily unload this thing from the back of the CR-V without dropping it on my foot. 1/10 would not recommend.

Laid out all the parts and took stock of what was there and what everything looked like.

Found some neat old DOD stickers on the forks.

 

[adventurco]

Over the winter I started to disassemble the chassis, evaluate what all was rusted to bits and needed to be replaced, and eventually pull the motor out of the frame. Once the frame was stripped I checked thoroughly for any rust through or damage from sitting in Florida under a carport for however many years. The frame was solid, though there was some pitting on the lower frame, I'd be sending it out for powder and they're usually able to smooth out any pitting pretty well.

While inspecting and disassembling, I noticed that some holes had been drilled in a gusset on the frame for a Shrader valve that was used to air up the shocks. I certainly wouldn't be needing that so I pulled out the MIG, cut out some circles and patched them in.

This is the first shaft driven bike I've restored, so disassembling the swingarm was a bit of a journey. With the help of a bearing puller, I was able to get the 2 swingarm pivot bearings and their races out, as well as the driveshaft bearing. The swingarm pivot bearings are tapered and don't need to be replaced, so they will get cleaned and greased, and while the driveshaft bearing typically doesn't need to be replaced, a new one is cheap insurance.

I cleaned up a bunch of the parts and brought them over to the place nearby that I use for powdercoating. I do small parts here in the garage but the frame and some of the other components are too big to fit in my oven so I send 'em out. The frame, battery tray, fork lowers and upper shrouds, fender brackets, center stand and seat pan were off to be refinished.

 

[irk miller]

I'll be straight up, dude. I thought you were an idiot at first, after seeing it at Barber. Impressed so far with what you've managed to do with it.

 

[Rider52]

I can boost your spirit a bit by telling you that is not the worst loop frame Guzzi I've seen. Keep going it is worth it.

 

[ridesolo]

This looks like a great project!

 

[Maritime]

Nice progress!

 

[adventurco]

Thanks for the kind words fellas. And irk, I'm definitely still an idiot

 

[adventurco]

Bringing us up to May, I picked up the parts from the powdercoater and as expected they did a top notch job. I went with gloss black on the frame and components which was the factory finish on these bikes.

 

[adventurco]

The engine is a separate saga. This bike had sat under a carport in Florida for probably 30 years or so before it made its way into our group. The engine was seized, and boy was that fucker stuck. Guzzis of this era had chrome lined cylinders which are notorious for flaking and turning the engine oil into glitter, so replacements are readily available. While the engine was in the frame, I pulled the valve covers, only to find that the exhaust collar nuts were stuck really well. They are chromed brass, so besides galvanic corrosion they are soft so you can't really put a whole lot of torque on them without the tabs breaking.

After getting one side unstuck, I had no luck with the other and decided to hack the header off (rusted through anyways) and deal with it later.

Once I popped the heads off, I found the culprit of the siezed engine, which was some seriously stuck pistons and you guessed it, flaky original chrome bores. I had them soaking with Kroil and heat cycled them over and over but they wouldn't budge, so I broke out a hammer and beat the hell out of the pistons until I managed to get one side free. The right side was really going to give me a headache.

During all of this, I linked up with a gentleman in North Chicago that works specifically on Guzzis at his shop The Guzzi Doctor. He's known in the community for being a reputable builder and overall very knowledgable guy. I had swung up to his shop one afternoon as I was looking for a centerstand to replace the rotted out one that came on the bike. He let me know that these motors were similar to a cary motor and you can simply unbolt the con-rod at the big end, and pull the cylinders out that way. I'd need to reclaim the conrods, but the pistons and cylinders were sacrificial at this point. We also discussed the 88mm cylinders that can be bolted on to bump up the displacement to 950cc, but more on that later.

I got some pullers to remove the oil pump gear and timing gear, but once I got to the crankshaft and saw that you need a specific puller for each bearing (big and small end crank bearings), I decided to talk to the Guzzi Doctor again. I ended up deciding to have him pull the transmission apart and go through it, including replacing the seals and inspecting all the transmission parts, as well as having him help me disassemble the bottom end and then re-assemble the bottom end once I'd cleaned everything up.

So anyways I got back to the garage a few days after that, pulled the oil pump and oil lines underneath, and unbolted the conrods. I was able to get the cylinders in the vise, bought a bigger BFH and beat the shit out of the pistons until I could get the conrods out.

So with that taken care of, I packed up the crankcase and transmission and headed up to drop them off with the pros. Of course, I forgot to drain the transmission fluid being that they are 2 separate pieces (doh) and when I arrived, I found a quart of old smelly transmission fluid had spilled and soaked into the carpet of the CR-V. Hooray. (took me about 2 weeks to clean that up. Baking soda and a vacuum, and lots of dish soap).

 

[Maritime]

I can smell that, yuck. Been there and been scolded for it too.

 

[pidjones]

Damn that looks like fun!

 

[Hurco550]

I've had many a dirty motorcycle part on one of those "Miller" plastic sheets lol

The work is amazing as usual! Keep it up

 

[teazer]

That is even worse than the T140 I am working on right now... But you are making great progress. What's the plan for the Eldo?

BTW, that powder coat looks smoother than the finish that I get from The Blast Shop in Kenosha. They do a great job but most of their clients bring in I beams and other large industrial stuff.

 

[adventurco]

That is even worse than the T140 I am working on right now... But you are making great progress. What's the plan for the Eldo?

BTW, that powder coat looks smoother than the finish that I get from The Blast Shop in Kenosha. They do a great job but most of their clients bring in I beams and other large industrial stuff.

This is Fox Valley Powdercoating over in Yorkville. They do some industrial stuff but always have lots of car and motorcycle pieces around. Its probably a bit of a hike for you (its a bit of a hike for me) but they have done great for me in the past and I was even more impressed with how they finished this frame. There was some pretty serious pitting in some areas. I forgot that you were in the area, I'll have to ride up your way once this thing is back together and grab a pint.

Plan is a nut and bolt restoration/resurrection, with a few minor quality of life modifications. I have 88mm cylinders so the displacement will be 950cc from the stock 850cc, but everything else will be restored as faithfully as I can.

I've had many a dirty motorcycle part on one of those "Miller" plastic sheets lol

The work is amazing as usual! Keep it up

This one you donated to the cause did me well, however it did not survive the gear oil spillage LOL.

 

[adventurco]

Once I got the parts back from powder, I've been slowly working to get a roller back together. First step was the forks. These forks are a strange (to me) design, and the chrome collar houses the fork seal and threads on to the lowers, and requires a special tool to remove and install. I got a cheap strap wrench to pull them apart, and cleaned everything up before sending to powder. The collars that came with the bike were pretty pitted, and the Guzzi Doc had some replacements for me that look much better.

Those were cleaned and polished, new fork seals installed (upside down) in the collar and new o-rings at the base of the collar. These forks have external springs and the bottom of the spring sits in that collar, and the top sits in a cup that lives in the upper shroud against the lower triple tree. I am waiting for some upgraded springs to come back in stock from Stucchi in Italy (https://officinestucchi.it/en/before) reassembling the front end. There are Wirth springs available but from what I've heard, the Stucchi are a better ride quality and half the price even coming from overseas.

I got some 30wt Fork Oil and adding an additional 4 oz (total 8 oz each fork leg) is supposed to assist with fixing what is said to be an overly squishy front end.

I cleaned up the rusted upper area of the stanchions with a brass wire wheel before reassembling. The nice thing about this design is that the area that contacts the seal is never exposed to weather, so despite the top portion being pretty rusty, the important parts are in great shape.

Once I had everything oiled up and back together, I made a trip up to the Guzzi Doc to drop off more engine components (more on that later) and he used the correct tool to snug down the collars.

36mm socket that I needed for the swingarm pivot nuts came in handy as a fork seal driver

 

[Luugo86]

Hard to believe it's the same set of forks; Heck ya man

 

[doc_rot]

NIce work. Crazy to see Guzzi was doing steel lowers on those forks in the 70s