Refreshing Glenlivet's ride

EUGENE said:

Was it baby blue or royal blue wires?

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Baby blue wires only flow electrons from left to right. Royal blue wires flow electrons from right to left only.

Friedle

^ That’s just funny stuff right there....

Great thread. Currently my favorite. Informative, interesting, funny, just plain good.

Keep up the GOOD work, you've uncovered a lot of things that needed attention. Probably will be the most cared for hack out there this summer. Looks like there's hardly a place to stack the snow. We're getting another foot Sat. Thanx.

Like all rural Vermonters, Miyagi-San helps those in need when he can. Since he has a full machine shop, is an expert at stick/MIG/TIG and OxyAcetylene welding, and is very outgoing...folks in need sort of drop in with every minor disaster. Today he was visited by a cheese maker who has won International competitions for his products. It seems their small tanker truck used to haul milk had such a severe rust issue that the battery box fell apart and the pair of enormous batteries were dangling by the hot and ground cables! So he fabricated an enclosed replacement battery box out of 3/16 steel, sandblasted it, painted it and with my help installed it in the decrepit diesel truck. When he started it in his clean shop the truck shook like a dog and it seemed like POUNDS of rust scale fell to the ground. But the batteries stayed put, and that's the important thing. With that task out of the way he turned to the sidecar tub.

Miyagi-San insisted on using the buffer and a series of compounds to bring the paint back to the high gloss state after my wet sanding to eliminate tiny defects in the clear coat. It seems the last time he let an amateur use his buffer he had to repaint a previously near perfect Porsche Carrera. He did not want a repeat of that experience and to be perfectly honest, neither did I. Today he went over the tub with rubbing compound. Next is cutting polish, then an extremely fine grained glaze. It's essentially sanding with increasingly finer grits, but in liquid form instead of being stuck to paper.


Before: the finish is dull from me wet sanding with 1000/1500/2400 grit paper.


Miyagi-San going to town with the buffer.


The bike side (with scoop) looking much better after the first round.


The side the public most often sees looking particularly good. There are some sections with hard edges that will have to be done by hand. I get to do those parts. Tomorrow we tackle the clamshell, the trunk lid, and the fender...then do it all over again with a finer grit.

Wow!

A full day of buffing and polishing today. It's oddly tiring, with that monotonous whir of the buffer, the swaying motion of keeping it moving so the paint isn't burned, the boredom of inactivity while struggling to remain mentally sharp so you catch and correct all the tiny imperfections. I can see why beer is often a staple in body shops. We started with a rubbing compound by 3M called Perfect-It, then switched to Ultra Cutting Creme, then Ultra Polish, and finally Machine Polish, the last three by Presta. First the tub, then the clamshell, then the fender, and finally the trunk lid, working our way through the grits on each piece.


Tub after the first full round of the 3M product. It took about three hours to work our way through all four products, doing the top then flipping the tub over to better reach the bottom half.



By the time we reached the Ultra Polish it looked pretty good



And by the time we put the parts up for the night the depth of that shine was jawdropping gorgeous!

Nice.

It was a gloriously sunny day with highs two degrees above freezing, which passes for a heat wave in Vermont! I took a short day in the shop as Kazoo had feasted on a deer carcass and barfed it all up...and while I was fussing over him Glenlivet scarfed up Kazoo's vomit. Ten minutes later the recycled vomit came up again and before Tulliver could recycle it a third time I scooped it up and put in in the poop bucket out of reach. It might sound gross to some, but dog people can relate and accept it as a fact of life.



I started installing weatherstripping and hardware this afternoon, but soon ran into an issue. The replacement cockpit strip Hannigan had sent wouldn't seat in one short section. I tried several times, then eventually peeled it back to find a two inch region that had been crushed. Rusting metal was visible in that area, and it was clear it couldn't be salvaged. I sent pix and an explanation of the issue to Hannigan, and am sure they will make it right.


Next I installed the trunk lid but it was crooked. I removed the latch and striker plate to eliminate that variable. Once I get things straightened out I'll reinstall those parts taking care that they don't through the alignment back off. But it was very cool to see just that tiny lid back in place!


The holes for the clamshell latch screws had been covered in the fiberglass phase, so I redrilled them from the inside where the outlines of the original holes were still visible as light spots. As the drill bit broke through it chipped the paint. Though the chip will be covered by the hinges, I coated the wounds with epoxy primer.

Slow but steady progress. I can't take any huge leaps forward till the subframe is painted with chipguard, and being low on propane we can't fire up the paint booth till the next delivery. Unfortunately the driver of the propane tanker is from Massachusetts and while he has seen snow before, he is intimidated by snow that falls on hillsides. Twice now he has reached the base of Miyagi-San's hill and fled in abject terror. He's supposed to try again tomorrow, so we will ensure the hill is freshly plowed and sand has been spread for traction.



In the meanwhile I'm reattaching little parts: the twist-locks for the tonneau cover, the front and rear marker lights, the hinges and piston for the clamshell. I've also installed the new and improved brake/tail lights




Unfortunately, in the process of riveting the twist-locks in place, my hand slipped and the rivet gun hit the side of the tub creating a small scratch clear down to the primer. If it didn't happen today it would have been another scratch from another incident, and this is exactly the reason I opted for a solid paint instead of a pearl or metallic. My batch of DupliColor touch up paint in Dodge Viper Yellow is on order and will arrive in a week or so.

In the above photos you can see the marker light is black with a clear lens. I thought it would complement the black subframe, but it clashed with the other hardware, all of which is chrome. So I polished the old set and reinstalled them. I like them better with chrome trim.

The day didn't start well, but rallied in the afternoon. We've had a bit of snow this year. It's been melting for two days but we still have three feet on the ground...and on the roof of Miyagi-San's shop. As the day warmed up (it hit 50 today!) that snow melt formed a liquid layer on the roof. Liquid is a lubricant, and that mass of snow and ice slid off the roof with a HUGE crash! Unfortunately, it also sheared off the exhaust pipe to the paint booth. We had "fixed" it earlier this winter with a nylon strap holding the insulated pipe to a cricket on the roof, but even with the insulation that pipe got hot enough to melt the strap, so by the time the snow and ice hit it there was nothing holding it in place but hope and glory. That proved about as effective as thoughts and prayers.

So I lifted him to the roof with his forklift, then dismounted and ran inside to stand on top of the paint booth with self-tapping screws and a drill. It was rather harrowing, as it was still slick on the roof and every time Miyagi-San started sliding I imagined him going over the side and falling eighteen feet to the ground. But he managed to stick the pipe back through the hole in the roof and replace the melted strap with braided cable and a turnbuckle while I drove several screws to secure the sections of pipe from inside. With that, the paint booth was again operational and the subframe received three coats of satin black chipguard, that tough paint used on the rocker panels of trucks.


Bike subframe


Tub subframe


Tub skidplate and lightbar

It will cure overnight. Tomorrow, barring more weather-related mishaps, I can begin the work of putting it back together. With luck, I'll have no leftover parts this time.

It was almost a banner day. The subframe's chipguard coating had cured overnight, so I dragged all the pieces-parts out of the paint booth, carefully laid them out on an old blanket, then started arranging the bits that bolted up to the subframe. It was then I noticed I'd forgotten to chipguard a bracket that served as the upper attachment for both the sidecar shock and the electric camber control unit. I'd used up all the chipguard yesterday, but had several struts hanging in the booth ready to paint satin black. Since the offending bracket mounts pretty high and doesn't get pummeled by grit, I figured paint would be good enough.

So those parts now have a hardened basecoat and will cure overnight.Interestingly, PPG used to recommend laying down a basecoat, then adding hardener to the clearcoat. For applications like this that are subject to abuse they are now recommending no clearcoat, and adding the hardener directly to the basecoat. So we gave the new method a try. Will let you know how it holds up in five years.



There wasn't much else to do and watching paint dry isn't particularly productive. I installed the altered light bar to the subframe, admired the sidecar's shiny paint job from multiple angles, then left for the day, stopping by a hardware store on my way home to pick up some odds and ends I'll need tomorrow.

I felt pretty worn out this morning when I arrived at the shop. Felt like I needed a few days off. Or perhaps it was the multiple shots of tequila last night coupled with dread of things mechanical that I had little experience with.

But as the wheel hub assembly was painstakingly put back together- with occasional colorful language as I realized some parts had been installed incorrectly or out of sequence - I let go of the stress of a self-imposed timeline and started enjoying myself again. The brake caliper was rebuilt, new pads installed, the swingarm reinstalled, the shock and camber control unit bolted into place. The bolt at the lower shock mount had always been too close to the subframe so I removed the thickness of a washer from the head on a lathe. Tentatively. With great care to keep my clutch and throttle hands out of harms way of that strange machine that created miracles. When I got stumped by something I'd sit in a beach chair and ponder the situation. Eventually the solution would come to me. Like why the heck won't the brake caliper pistons retract so I can slip the new pads over the rotor? Oh, the brake line quick disconnect doesn't allow leakage; open the bleeder numbskull!

In the past I drew diagrams and took copious notes, but for this project I relied on many photos taken with an iPad. Today I discovered that most of the photos did not show the particular areas I needed to see, so there was much trial fitting of parts using various fasteners...and a few half hour drives to the nearest hardware store in search of a replacement fastener. But the day ended with a feeling of accomplishment.

Back in the days of middle school I took a few shop classes and truly enjoyed them. I was looking forward to more shop classes in high school, but that opportunity was denied me. It seems my score on some test we all had to take was high enough that the powers that be labeled me "college bound" and I was only permitted to take classes that would help me achieve that assigned goal. Though I went on to graduate degrees I've been cursing those "powers" ever since. While I can perform complex statistical analyses, if I need to conduct the simplest repair around the house I am forced to watch YouTube videos to see how it's done. So this sidecar rebuilt process has been a blessing, though one that has been marked by moments of sheer anxiety. For the past few days I've been removing sidecar-related parts from the donor bike (2010 GSA) and transferring them to the recipient (2012 GSA). The wiring scares me...

Among the things I never learned beyond the very basics was the art of soldering wires together. I found some connectors that combined low-temp solder with shrink wrap and watertight seals that sounded like an easy way to cheat, so I bought a set. It sounded so simple. Strip the ends, unravel the braid, intermingle the ends and twist together, slip one of those little babies over the junction, heat till the solder melts, then shrink the ends.



I tried first with my micro-torch, but in order to get the solder to melt had to get the heat source so close the plastic caught fire. Next I tried my small heat gun; while it doesn't get as hot as the big one it has a smaller tip that lets me direct the heat more accurately. That sort of worked, but the low-temp solder didn't get hot enough to fully wick its way between the wire strands. I'll try again with my larger, hotter heat gun but thus far the results are not what I'd hoped for.



Back to YouTube to watch videos of how to solder wires together. The methods I viewed seemed pretty much unchanged from my junior high days, so I gave it a try. Okay, several tries.



The above photo was my fifth attempt; the first four were shameful affairs but this one, while fugly, is at least functional. I'll have to take more care to avoid having wire strands sticking out, but the concept is sound and my difficulties appear to be related to my vanity in refusing to wear reading glasses. I need to get over that, as applying heat to the wires is probably much easier when one can actually see the wires!



Once I had good solder joints I covered them with dielectric grease then slipped shrink wrap over the union. Heating from the middle caused excess dielectric grease to be squeezed out the ends. That gets wiped off, then a second layer of shrink wrap goes over the top, slightly longer than the first. Okay, back to the shop for more practice!

On the non-electrical front, the spoked rims have been replaced with cast (front is an R1200RT rim and the rear is a K1200 rim) which will let me run wider profile tires. The 120/17 up front cleared everything just fine and I could probably go 130. The 180/17 in the rear rubbed the OEM exhaust so that was replaced with a smaller aftermarket can. I went with Akropovic since they aren't obnoxiously loud but gave me plenty more space to work with.

I have the best luck using an ordinary Weller pistol-grip style soldering gun with a medium tip.

PGlaves said:

I have the best luck using an ordinary Weller pistol-grip style soldering gun with a medium tip.

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Thanks! I just came home with one. My little 40W job wasn't up to the task.

PGlaves said:

I have the best luck using an ordinary Weller pistol-grip style soldering gun with a medium tip.

Click to expand...

+1...inherited from my father and still going strong. Also important for those that might not know...heat the wires, NOT the solder. Then, let the solder flow into the joint.

glenfiddich said:

Thanks! I just came home with one. My little 40W job wasn't up to the task.

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I tried for a frustrating number of joints to use a small soldering "pencil" iron. It worked on tiny wires but not on most connections I tried. I finally got a good soldering gun and things have been much more pleasant.

For what it's worth, I've seen reviews by a Broadcast Engineer that couldn't get those low-temp solder connectors to work. He tried a couple options including a hot-air rework station (highly focused, really hot heat gun).

If you want to boost the strength of the joints, you could use a line mans splice. It would help with the stray strands and add some strength at the same time. It's supposedly what NASA uses, so it should work on motorcycles. (Search or use the link to a demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ymw7d_nYo)

+1 on the Weller Gun.

Best of luck - love the pictures.

Monte

Again, some general information. Perfection is nice but a little less may be good enough. Over my 48 years of real motorcycle ownership (not counting my moped or mini-bike phases) I have soldered several hundred or maybe a thousand wire connections. Many were less than pretty, and several would have been flunked by a tech school instructor.

But never has one failed. Decent contact among the braided strands and a reasonable amount of solder on each conductor, with shrink wrap and occasionally some dialectric grease seems to work. With apologies to NASA, my bike is not the space shuttle and pretty fails to count for much. And no heat files fall off. And no O rings have failed to kill a few excellent people.

Do the best you can and forget the electronic techs and electrical engineers who profess perfection. It ain't so!