Past Blasting and Shattering

My computer crashed.  As I was sifting through the remains, trying to reconstruct things that I lost, I came across these photos of the exact moment that I bought the BSA, in the exact condition it was in.

I had thought these photos were lost to the ages, and was amazed to find a photo of my dad writing the check on the bike's seat:

How perfect is that?  First, you can see that it was a rainy, dismal day.  The old man was wearing a raincoat, for pete's sake. Here's our campsite, if you don't believe me:

It was a crappy day, but it was the first day of a long weekend.  I remember telling my dad on our way in that I wanted a project bike.  I already had the beautiful Honda CB450 (seen above) and was looking for something to fix up.  He asked, "What's your preference?"  I told him that I really liked the Brit bikes, and I would thrilled to find a Triumph or a Norton.  Even better would be an AJS, a Matchless or a BSA, but I only had a $500 budget, so I knew that was out of the question.

We pulled in, set up our tent and settled in.  Right next to us was a really interesting guy from Canada, who had ridden his BMW over 1000 miles to get here, and we started talking and shared a few beers (see above photo).  After a while, I got up and started to wander the campgrounds.  No more than 50 yards away, I see a fella pushing 2 bikes out onto turf next to his campsite, and a "for sale" sign on one of them.  It's a Triumph and a BSA, so I start getting excited.  I say hello as ask what he's looking to get for each bike.  $1200 for the Triumph and $800 for the BSA.

In my head, I'm thinking, "Maybe I can get dad to float me a little, but I really need to show this to him, nonetheless."  I go bug him, and get him to come check it out.

INTERJECTION - Before I go any further, you need to know that this was 2004.  Nobody knew about cafe bikes.  I was buying vintage Hondas for $50.  Those fuckhead bike "builders" on TV had not yet been made public.  These beautiful bikes were cheap, and totally a value in the eye of the beholder.  As they should be.  I only brought $250 in cash with me.

Low and behold, dad came down to check out the bike.  To his credit, he was able to contain his excitement WAY better than I was.  I don't remember his exact words, but it probably went something like, "Stand back, son, I'll take it from here."  I heard phrases like, "Hard to find parts", and "Enthusiastic next generation", but before I knew it, dad was asking me if I wanted it for $400.

...uh, YES!  He wrote the check, and it was done.  I gave him the cash I had in hand and promised to send the rest ASAP.  We rolled the bike the short distance back to our campsite and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of cheap beers.

The rest of the weekend was a blur.  I didn't know enough about the bike to scavenge parts from the dealers, and my goal had already been accomplished.  I had a project bike that was insanely awesome.  Over the course of the weekend, every third person who passed the tent asked if the bike was for sale.  We had offers of up to $1200 for it, but I turned them all down.  This was my treasure, I'm the one who found it, It's MY win for the weekend.

I spent my last nickel on gas to get home, but I was able to get it into the ramshackle garage of my shitty rental house, and breathe a sigh of relief.  It was now a reality.

At work on Monday, I chatted with a work friend that was also into vintage bikes.  He, too, was at AMA vintage days, and went on to tell me a story that he'd heard about someone buying a BSA for $500.  Steal of the century, he said.  I told him that it was only $400, and it was all mine.  I'm not sure if he wanted to punch me or kiss me.

In the end, I feel bad that it's taken me 8 years to reinvigorate the bike build.  I did, however, buy my first house, get married, start a career, etc.  The Beezer sadly sat idly by in those years where it seemed important to go pants shopping.  The good news is that momentum (however slow) is being made.  It's time that a REAL cafe bike made an appearance.

Scully's BSA

While it's not the style that I'm shooting for, it's still gorgeous, and has a lot of the vintage qualities that I'm shooting for with my bike.  Brass accents, Deco-style straight lines, and a hand-made quality that reeks of character.

It's basically a similar bike to start with - a 1965 A65 with a hardtail conversion.  The motor polishing is absolutely incredible.  I love the antique details, like the copper tension knobs, and the front end definitely works for this bike.  It's definitely a beautiful 1930's homage bike with everything done just right.

It was made by Jesse Bassett out of North Olmsted, Ohio, in his shop called Gasbox Customs.  Chop Cult did a story on it:  http://www.chopcult.com/news/articles/scullys-bsa.html

22 Minutes

I was going to write a big instructional tutorial about how to achieve a professional paint job using spray cans, but then I remembered that I have friends who paint for a living, and why would I want to put them out of work?

If you ARE going to do your own painting, here's a couple of tidbits:

1) Prep your surface.  Do it again.  Do it again.

2) Spray the paint in a straight line, about 18 inches from your surface.

3) Spray a LOT of coats thinly, every 22 minutes.

4) Start spraying before you get to your part and finish after you've passed it.  Only hit the part with the middle 50% of a spray line.

5) Don't listen to me, I'm not a pro.

Cylinder Pt.1

When people think about motors, they think about pistons and spark plugs and carburetors.  The same applies when they visit the zoo.  The lions get all the attention - so much so that nobody thinks about how awesome the cage is.  People trust it, and forget about it.

With the BSA, the "cage" is a cast iron (rusts in 20 minutes), heavy as f**k, finned piece of frustrating motor meat.  Here's what I've had to do so far:

My old +0.020 cylinders were warped, so I got a new/used one ($90). They required being acid dipped to remove all old impurities ($35).  They required being bored out to a perfect +0.020 measurement to match the AWESOME hepolite +20 pistons ($90).  They required a full rub down with a scotch pad and a thorough cleaning with baby wipes.  They required a homemade ceramic paint job ($10).

All in all, it was $225 to replace the cylinders to a beauty.  My other option was to use my existing cylinders, bore them out and get new +40 pistons and rings.  It sounds like it might have been easier to do do it that way, but a) I would have spent $90 for a bore anyway.  b) new QUALITY pistons are about $400.  c) New +40 rings are $100.  d) I'd still have to refinish everything.

SO, had I used my original cylinder, I'd have spent $600.  I fixed it for $225.  I'm smart.

 

Little bits make all the difference.

This part is of almost no significance.  It's non-essential.  It's mostly hidden.  Yet, it's the difference between a good build and a great one.  Let me back up a touch to explain:

When a bike is in it's 40's, it has gone through a gambit of personalities, and a lot of different owners.  In the beginning it was an object of joy and admiration.  Somewhere in the middle, it probably got laid down, broken in some parts, serviced by an idiot, and eventually stuck into a corner of somebody's garage.  In the end, it rots away forgotten, until a nostalgic jackass decides to resurrect it.

In all of that time, there's 1 thing that happens, again and again and again - BROKEN STUDS IN CASES!  Every bike I've ever bought (dozens and dozens of them) has had this same issue.  Some dingus has overtightened the stud on the exhaust, the stud on the intake, etc, and it's broken off inside the case.  Sometimes it's a simple matter of PB Blaster and a lot of elbow grease.  Sometimes, however, you just have to drill it out and hope for the best.  That's the last case scenario.

In this case, it was the mounting screws for the tachometer cable to the engine.  One was broken off inside.  It was a lost cause.  It happens.  It took 3 hours to get the machining right, to drill and tap it to perfection, at a new 1/4-20 size.  We moved less than a gram of metal, less than 5 millimeters...

...and it made all the difference.

Top End Pt.2

Big strides were made in the garage last night, the best of which was the complete rebuild of the valves and top end.  Nice.

It's not hard, but it's not easy, either.  The parts go together fairly obviously, and you can see the process in any haynes manual, so I'm not going to jabber on about it.  However, there IS a step that was new to me - lapping in the new valves.  (Yes, Roy, I know how dumb that makes me sound.)

After all of our fidgeting with the head, we've badly tarnished the aluminum, so it's going back to polish again.  After that, it's ready to install.  Awesome.

Polishing Pt. 1

They say the difference between an award winning bike and 2nd place is two things: a patient girlfriend and the extra hours of polishing metal.

With the BSA engine, there's basically 2 big aluminum mirrors on either side that have to be perfect.  Unfortunately one of them is right behind the kick (kick-start only, by the way).  That means that there's a whole lot of guys that tried to hill climb this beast wearing metal tipped boots, scarring the metal again and again and again...

On the left, you can see what the piece looked like "before".  After 4 hours of rigorous work with the sander, it's now smoother than when it came from the factory.  However, that's only 1/3rd of the total polishing work that goes into this 1 piece.  There are 3 pieces total in JUST the engine covers.  30-36 total hours of polishing and I'm just starting.  Crap.

 

P.S. The above 4 hours of polishing were done with 80 grit sandpaper over 3 evenings, since after about an hour of using the electric sander, the tendons in my hand were flexing involuntarily. 

 

P.S. This marks the end on the "dry" sanding.  400 grit, single direction, looks like brushed aircraft aluminum.

 

From here on out, it's a game of polishing compounds and buffing to a mirror finish.