Motorcycle Restoration

You need to be two anyway, one driver and one gunner Pmp40fire:

 

Update...

A few more parts arrived today, and I also did an alteration to the bikes frame...

I removed the metal 'gussets' from the rear of the frame as these were not on the BMW R71 frames and were only added by the Soviets to their R71 clone. They were fitted to add strength to the frame, but as I will not be taking the bike off road or over rough ground, it doesn't pose a problem in removing them.

 

John - is that actually safe to do? I can't see early (or even late!) Soviet-era metallurgy being anything like as good as period German...and you don't know what grade of steel the Soviets used...or do you???

 

Not sure what grade of steel the frame is made from but it's an almost safe bet that the period Soviet steel was certainly inferior to the German. However this doesn't really concern me as I will not be riding the bike on public roads very much, it will be more of a show bike.

That said, I do plan to take the bike to Normandy in June 2014 for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings and will probably do a fair bit of riding around the area while I'm there, and if something does fracture or snap then there will be not much I can do about it, although I doubt it will. I know of other people who have done this modification on M72s and have never had a problem.

Think I'll take my welder with me to Normandy just in case of emergency repairs!

I also hope that Skipper is not too concerned about all this as he will be the first 'guest' to ride in the sidecar, should I see him in Normandy next year.

 

Here's a few other items that arrived in the post recently.
Military style number plate, tank badges, frame id plate, lubrication points information plate, Drilastic seat badges

In the end we decided to go for the plain BMW tank badges!

 

Wow, this is fast! When is the first ride planned?

 

That's quite a way off yet as there is still a lot to do.

The weather has been great again today so I've managed to get all the other parts undercoated including the frame, sidecar and all of the smaller bits.

Now I can go back to working on the engine and getting it re-assembled.

 

The professionals in action.
Large Knockometer & axe obviously essential tools...

 

John, did you/it make it to Normandy???

 

No, It's next year that I plan to take the bike to Normandy.

The project has been on the back burner for the last few weeks as I've had other things to attend to, but now I am able to re-focus my attention on the bike...

 

You'd better. You've been working on it for months and we've been following the thread with awe, ther eis no way you are going to "focus" on anything else until you ride to the Falaise gap.

 

I thought I'd better give an update on progress with the bike, so here goes...

I've not been slacking the last few months(honest! ) ,but there is more to do than first meets the eye, especially if it is to look more like a BMW R71 outfit.

The forks needed lugs welding to the bottom to attach the struts that hold the front mudguard in place.

Before:


After (I also added another bracket higher up which also supports the mudguard):


The correct struts are very difficult , if almost impossible to source, but I eventually found some for sale on eBay that were almost identical to the originals.


This is one of the struts:

 

New fishtail exhaust tailpipes.

 

Superb work, John.......I have absolutely no doubts that there's 'more to it than meets the eye' ! :S!

 

Thanks. Martin. I'm becoming quite an expert on spotting copy R71s as most people who do them tend to not change certain features.

Most copies that I have seen simply have a piece of flat bar as a mudguard strut and I was determined to try and find the correct type of profiled strut that is on the R71. It is the small changes like this that take up time to source, aquire and then alter, paint and fit.

All parts are now painted in RAL 7021 and I plan to start reassembly of the bike soon...

 

I'm looking forward to the updates - June 2014 is looming up fast !

 

John, when I need inspiration I reread this thread from the beginning. I can only imagine the hours of labor, searching and research that has gone into this project but know the results will be beyond sterling. Good show !!

Gaines

 

Indeed it is, this year seems to have gone so fast...I'd better get a move on with the restoration!

Thanks, Gaines. It can be especially frustrating when ordering parts for the bike as they can take up to 2 weeks or more to arrive from Poland or Germany and this can sometimes holds things up. But most of the time I find something else to be getting on with whilst I'm waiting for the bits to be delivered.

 

This is a before and after cleaning comparison of the carbs:


To clean the carb I soaked it in a caustic solution before briefly dipping the body and internal parts in to acid to clean them even more.