il Crustico - '73 Moto Guzzi Eldorado Basket case Restoration

[adventurco]

Too hot to paint the tank so I finished buffing out the front fender, laid the stripes and put a coat of wax on it and the fender braces before finally installing the whole assembly.

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[doc_rot]

Its really starting to come together.

 

[Luugo86]

Looking great man. The fenders are really nice

 

[adventurco]

Thanks fellas.

The fuse box and distribution block that live inside the headlight were worn out and missing their decals, so I redrew them and had a run of decals printed. I’ll be offering these for sale for others as they used to be reproduced but were no longer available.

Cleaned everything up, sprayed down all the connections with DeOxit, and slapped on the new decals. Just need to figure out what hardware I need, I think these small screws were missing from the box of parts.

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[adventurco]

Traveled back to New England for most of August. Drove the beetle a bunch and got out for a couple rides on the GS450, both of which are running great

Back home now and trying to get momentum back on the projects here. I put the Guzzi back up on the lift today. I had bought a new aftermarket top end oil line from MG but somehow lost it. Ended up buying a used original one, which fits better anyways, I’m sure the aftermarket one will turn up eventually.

Reinstalled the alternator stand and alternator. Some extra clearance is required for the belt since the alternator pulley is a smaller diameter. Took the dremel and power file to the case and gave myself plenty of room.

Belt installed and shimmed up nicely, not too tight, and plenty of clearance.

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[adventurco]

Getting little bits done this week in between blocking the fuel tank and getting a couple other pieces ready for paint.

Reassembled the Tomaselli Super Pratic B throttle. I ended up getting a spare housing and most of the original parts did not want to fit, so naturally it took longer than expected. Put a coat of wax on the chrome bits and tightened everything up on the right side.

Since the Triple A floorboards that came wiyt the bike replaced the stock gear change linkage, I had to source a stock one. Luckily Joe at Guzzi Doc had a NOS one, coupled with a heim joint linkage to replace the prone to breaking stock one, and I’ve got working shift linkage.

I have the footboards mocked up, need to make some minor adjustments before I powder the mounts and polish up the boards themselves.

The tank has been blocked down and I applied a thin layer of seam sealer around the filler neck, some folks report that fuel vapor escapes and causes the paint to bubble so I figure it can’t hurt.

Paint tomorrow.

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[ridesolo]

Nice work, Nick. I thought the Germans did things differently... they've got nothing on the Italians. That's some really interesting bits n pieces.

 

[Hurco550]

That throttle is a work of art! You're definitely taking this thing to a pristine level! I can't wait to see this thing in person. You think it'll make barber?

 

[Rider52]

That is an interesting shifter mechanism.

 

[adventurco]

Nice work, Nick. I thought the Germans did things differently... they've got nothing on the Italians. That's some really interesting bits n pieces.

Yes, definitely interesting, also very much assembling everything takes a lot of fiddling and what should be a 30 minute job always ends up as 3 hours. It does all look very nice though.

That throttle is a work of art! You're definitely taking this thing to a pristine level! I can't wait to see this thing in person. You think it'll make barber?

I'm doing my best from this dusty ass garage LOL. I won't be riding it, since the whole fam is coming along this year. Depending on how much I decide to try and get rid of at the swap, it may come down in a trailer.

That is an interesting shifter mechanism.

It is, and the stock linkage tends to break since the two levers are on different planes. Funny trying to track down bits and pieces when you never had them in the first place.

A nice cool high 60s and low humidity this morning, just got the right tool box and tank sealed up with epoxy primer, waiting on flash before spraying color. Pics later.

 

[adventurco]

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[Rider52]

Paint is looking great!

 

[Hurco550]

I'm doing my best from this dusty ass garage LOL. I won't be riding it, since the whole fam is coming along this year. Depending on how much I decide to try and get rid of at the swap, it may come down in a trailer.

I think as awesome as it sounds, a first long ride on a freshly pristine restored bike is that far, in October, starting in the Midwest.... yeah, not so awesome after all lol

For real, this thing is looking like it would belong on the stage at garagebrewed....

 

[adventurco]

Spent the last few days refurbishing, modifying and repairing the DB floorboards.

The bike came with Triple A boards that replaced the stock shifter and linkage, they look cheap and were super crusty so I got lucky on a set of these from a fella in CO.

They are much bigger and look way better on the bike. Dan Brown had a shop in Oklahoma City back in the day and hand made these, so they are a cool piece of Guzzi history.

It’s not the best design and the way they are fixed can cause sagging and enlarging holes, etc, so first thing was to address this. Chock them up in the vice and attach to the brackets.

To fix the sagging, I first welded up and redrilled the holes for the pivot bolts. Then shimming was required where the boards contact the mounting bracket. One side was pretty bad and I used a piece of 18 ga sheet metal to make shims and welded in place. The other side was more manageable and I got away with just a bead of weld that I flattened out.

Much better. The brackets and cross brace were blasted and powder coated gloss black.

Another thing I don’t like about the design is that the front of the boards are supported by a cross brace which is just a 3/16” piece of steel that rests on the frame. Obviously not a great setup, so I notched the cross brace and modeled up a spacer to fit onto the support and distribute the weight more evenly along the frame rails and to avoid marring.

The first version did not result in the correct distance between the frame rails, so I revised them to move the center of the semicircle support 5mm outward on each side, much better

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[adventurco]

I spent about a day sanding down the imperfections, some from casting and others from road wear, then polished up the boards.

I had the mats already pre-cut so I got some 3M weather strip adhesive, cut some blocks out of scrap MDF and went to town.

Apply to both sides, give it a bit to tack up and then mate the surfaces. It’s fixable for a minute or two if it’s not aligned perfectly.

Here are the complete restored set of footboards with the brackets and new SS hardware.

Over on the bike, the shifter requires a shim so I 3D printed one. It’s PLA for now but eventually I’ll print it in ABS.

And finally installed on the bike.

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[Maritime]

Nice job, this thing is coming out amazing. The attention to detail you are putting in will have it better than new!

 

[Rider52]

Great job, restoring the DB boards. The best thing about AAA floor boards is when they are removed.

 

[adventurco]

Lots of odds and ends. Got the mufflers and crossover pipe installed, had to cut about 1.5” off the ends of the headers. Went with the “big hole” mufflers for more noise.

Turning back to the tank, I put it outside in the sun. I’m quite pleased with the way this round of paint went.

I sanded the petcock and gas cap areas back and applied some clear nailpolish to seal the edges to avoid any bubbling of the paint where it comes in contact with fuel.

Still working on wiring, I’ve got everything ran into the headlight bucket and installed pretty neatly. Headlight and trim ring can go on next.

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[doc_rot]

Nice. I thought the orange peel looked a lot lighter than previous. Did you add reducer to it?

 

[Maritime]

Nice work. Looks great.