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Cali III Cafe Project

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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 20:30
So the frame had to come off yet again, followed by the gearbox. The gearbox was easy enough to remove so I could get the broken clutch arm mount welded. But first had to use heat to get the pivot pin out of the broken casting. The next step was to make a temporary spacer to hold the broken casting in place when it was welded back on. Turned out the pivot pin was 7mm diameter, an odd size, so I reamed the mount and arm out to 8mm so I could use an 8mm stainless bolt to replace the rusted out pin.

Then I took the whole lot to Geoff the welder, who did the job while I waited, just needed to polish the arm and fit a shorter 8mm bolt to finish things off, after that the box went back on followed by the frame... all went ok, practice makes perfect I guess..
 
 


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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 20:49
I bought a 60mm electronic speedo, which will need mounting on the top yoke, The speedo mount was made from a scrap piece of 3mm alloy plate, fortunately it was shaped by my mate Jeff on his miller, which saved me a lot of effort with a hacksaw and file. The plate needed a lot of heat to put a bend in it, cant just use force, as alloy tends to crack if your not careful. It also got a billet cover machined for the speedo body. Finally the old handlebar mounts on the top yoke were milled down as far as we dared to make the speedo mount a bit neater.
 
 
 
 
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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 20:54
I decided the wheels weren't good enough, the anodised Akront rims were scuffed and scratched, while the hubs had been painted badly along with the rest of the bike by a previous owner. When I got the bike, I tried to remove as much paint as possible, the stainless spokes turned out ok, but it was impossible to clean up the hubs with the spokes in the way.

I wasn't sure whether the original rims could be restored to a good enough finish to be re-used, if not I'll get new Morad rims. Expensive but worth it. While ideally I wanted to also reuse the stainless spokes, as they looked to be in good condition.
 
Early one morning I took the wheels to my LBS, who removed the tyres for me, then it was off to my mates workshop to dismantle the wheels, shouldn't take long, just need to unscrew 80 spoke nipples. How wrong could I be ! The first few spokes snapped inside the nipple as I tried to unscrew them. Not good, and a surprise given that the spokes were stainless.

There was nothing more that could be done, but to cut the spokes, as they were beyond saving anyway. At least that didn't take long, five minutes with the bolt cutters and the hubs were free. But my wheel troubles weren't over yet. The spokes were seized solid into the hubs, they didn't want to come out, even applying a blowtorch didn't make any difference. Instead I spend 4 hours
hammering each spoke out of the hubs. What a pita, if I hit the spoke hard enough to move it, it would bend the spoke like a cheap nail. Don't hit it hard enough and its going nowhere. 

I've since spoken to a rep at Central Wheels in Birmingham who supply rims and spokes as well as rebuilding wheels, and he said they insist that such Guzzi wheels be dismantled by the owner before they'll rebuild them, as they have regularly faced the same problem with the spokes corroded into the hub (due to galvanic corrosion), at which point customers in the past have been reluctant to pay for the extra work involved in dismantling the wheels.
 
Eventually, they were all out, and with the old wheel bearings removed, the hubs, rims and disc carriers were ready for bead blasting, which I could do at a local machine shot, for the price of yet more biscuits..

 

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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:02
The hubs were blasted, as were the disc mounts, and both came out well, then I moved on to the rims which were anodised, so I blasted the anodising of one rim to see how it looked. At this point I wasn't sure if I could reuse the rims, and whether they should be polished, re anodised, painted or powder coated. While the hubs could be painted or powder coated, I think they are too rough to be anodised, in the end I sprayed them with the same finish I used on the bevel box.

After cleaning up the first rim, I stopped as it was clear the corrosion pitting in the rim was worse than I thought, they could still be reused if painted or powder coated perhaps? but at that point I decided to go for new rims. 
 

First I decided the gloss black paint I'd used on the starter motor didn't look quite right. In the end I re-sprayed it satin black, not sure how durable the finish will turn out to be, but it looks better to me now.

Next the two old bolts which fasten the starter to the crankcase were replaced by new stainless bolts, but not before their heads were machined smooth..

The billet battery tray was looking dull, as I hadn't spend much time polishing it when I drilled and modified it a couple of years ago. I prepped it carefully, working my way to using 400 grade wet and dry, before using my mates homemade buffer. Its about thirty years old and still works really well. Once fitted to the top of the gearbox, its clear a couple of spacers would be needed to take up the gap to the rear frame mounts. Last time I just used a few washers, this time I did things properly.

 
 
Next I took the carbs to my LBS who kindly popped them into their ultra sonic cleaner for me for free, afterwards they didn't look that different on the outside at least..
 
So I spend a long time sealing up the carbs and bead blasted them too, only took a few minutes to get them looking like new..
 
 
We also made four alloy 'top hats' for the Tarozzi rear set mounting bolts. The problem here was that the rear sets have 12mm holes (a bit OTT) while the equivalent mounting holes in the frame were a more sensible 10mm. Using 10mm bolts through a 12mm hole worked ok I guess, but I didn't like the idea, so we made top hats to take the rear set holes to 10mm... much better.

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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:06
There are a couple of chrome parts that need attention before being refitted. First the side stand pivot bolt, and second the two wheel spindles, both of which are corroded in places. Rather than have them re-chromed, I decided to make replacements, so I ordered a length of 17mm stainless Hex bar to make a new pivot bolt.
While my initial idea of making new spindles from Grade 5 Titanium wasn't such a good one, as Ti has issues with fatigue, I was told Ti spindles are banned from racing for that reason. Instead I ordered 600mm x 25mm diameter 303 (marine grade)stainless bar, which is enough to make two spindles. Luckily the thickest part of each spindle is exactly 25mm. We could do the outline machining on these parts, but once that was done I left the final machining to my local machine shop, who wrote a program on their CNC to do the job... this cost me several packets of biscuits and the task of re-lacing a wheel, the making of which I'll return to later. 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:29
The cast iron floating Brembo discs were looking very tired and rusty, being cast iron they're always going to rust, but nevertheless they could be cleaned up.

The floating rotors are held to the alloy centres by steel bobbins which are in turn held in place by a sprung washer (called Belleville washers) and circlip. The front discs came apart easily, while the rear was badly corroded and put up more of a fight. A couple of the sprung washers were rusted through and fell apart, so it turned out to be one of my better ideas to rebuild the discs. The tops of the rear discs bobbins were badly scored too, which were skimmed in the lathe to clean them up. The centres were repainted and the whole lot reassembled. I would have preferred to fit new rotors too, particularly for the rear disc, but they don't seem to be available. Another expensive alternative was to fit new EBC discs all round, which I may do in the future.

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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:32
I needed to get a couple of parts rechromed, and after a lot of flip flopping on my part also decided to get the black headlight shell chromed too. Got it done at a place in Crewe, not cheap but its run by the chap who used to run the chrome shop at Bentley/Rolls Royce, so the quality is excellent.

I also replaced the old brake pad pins with new stainless ones and polished the caliper bolts too.

The original Cali headlight brackets weren't very cafe racer-ish, so they were changed for some that looked better.. 

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MisterB View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:37
We're now up to May this year, when after saving my pennies, I could finally buy something I'd always wanted for the Guzzi. When the parcel arrived, I was like a kid on Christmas morning, it didn't take long to open it and see its contents   

My hand made Endurance racing alloy tank had arrived from TABII in Wales..   :thumb:


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Sep 2016 at 21:42
Next I had to decide on what style of seat to go for, its a tricky decision as there are half a dozen options I'm considering. One complication is that the seat rails of the Guzzi Tonti frame are very low, so any seat unit will have to sit an inch or more above the seat rails. It wont be easy to get right, without it looking awkward, or resorting to a thick foam seat, which may be comfy, but not look the part ..

In the end I went for a seat which I knew was 1/2 inch too narrow to fit over the frame rails, it needed to be mounted above the rails in any case, so not a problem. A SS750 / 900 Bevel seat from Mead Speed, complete with a handy zipped area in the seat hump.

It needed a stainless under tray to help mount it to the frame and support the back of the seat..
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote italianmotor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2016 at 08:46
Where have I seen this bike/thread before, on Ebay, or the UK club forum? I recognise the stripy type paintwork on the fuel tank. Guess it doesn't look like that now. Good stuff though!
Guzzi lover doing my own thing: http://www.italianmotormagazine.com
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2016 at 12:17
As I mentioned in my introduction, I had posted in the other Guzzi forum up until they blocked all non paying members, so I imagine that's where you would have seen it before.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Sep 2016 at 12:34
The new alloy tank fit the frame with no problems, whereas the seat needed more thought as its mounting points were made to match the SS900, I also wanted to be able to shim these mounts so the seat could be set at just the right height above the frame rails. Too high and it looks wrong, too low and its too low for comfort.
 
 
In this pic, the seat isn't mounted yet, its just resting on the seat rails..
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2016 at 18:05
We're now into May, and at this point I worked out how to use my little camera to take video, so I pointed it at the Guzzi, and off I went. I'd intended to make one short video, but soon found myself filming each step along the build from that point on... Its now up to part 19.
Some of them are pretty simple, wiring basics, lacing a wheel and so on. But there's some machining / milling one off parts too which may be of interest. On youtube I set it up as a playlist, I have other projects on there too, anyway here is the list of vids if your interested.   

Part 1 - Overview
https://youtu.be/AaYPYpQhGE4

Part 2 - Next steps
https://youtu.be/Usa9XrhSqq0

Part 3 - Chrome
https://youtu.be/svDXSaWxT_U

Part 3a - Billet parts
https://youtu.be/CVJN8aAj-Cs

Part 4 - Paint options
https://youtu.be/2KgdeH3zvSM

Part 5 - Machining a fork brace
https://youtu.be/Ukfh86TyHmM

Part 6 - CNC machining new stainless spindles
https://youtu.be/WxE7igxmmM0

Part 7 - Making a billet alternator cover
https://youtu.be/nyTRQspnKPM

Part 7a - Making a biller alternator cover
https://youtu.be/RvYt0DyP6E8

Part 8 - More on the fork brace and wheels spindles 
https://youtu.be/zXBYWlaDPHM

Part 9 - Polishing the billet parts
https://youtu.be/RrAEDVnvSdM

Part 10 - Fabricating a stainless battery box
https://youtu.be/JfUj5Zn41iA

Part 11 / 12 - Wiring basics
https://youtu.be/Tl7cDD_IgL4
https://youtu.be/C_IGs1_k-nA

Part 13a - Lacing the wheels
https://youtu.be/4KXXeWj8p2Q

Part 13b - Truing the wheels
https://youtu.be/rVhruA1_Rdk

Part 14 - On its wheels at last
https://youtu.be/xkL0H2AX0j8

Part 15 - More bead blasting & painting
https://youtu.be/UT-Gwae0Ois

Part 16 - New parts & making some brackets
https://youtu.be/O3vWBnLQk6I

Part 17 -  Todays To Do list
https://youtu.be/axQEhhSVVWU

Part 18 - Keihen silencers
https://youtu.be/UpVHUBEkcLA

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote red leader one Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2016 at 18:33
What camera did you make that video with?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MisterB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2016 at 22:13
A Canon Powershot SX210, had it about five years now so no doubt its way out of date now. Just googled it and surprised to see its still for sale, but now less than half the price it was when I bought it. I'd like to get a DSLR, but that will have to wait.
 
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