Vale of tears

Every endeavor has its vale of tears, which you have to go through. Otherwise you can't climb up and reach the peak of success. To restore a nearby 40 year old bike, the vale of tears stands for the disassembling and inspection of the various parts.
Everything is oily and filthy, corroded screws and bearing cups driving you nuts. By every part, which you're able to unmount, new surprises reaching the surface. Unfortunately, these surprises are usually of bad nature. Useless to say, that these kind of surprises manage to let your money run through you fingers like sand.

Completely new front and rear wheel - including new tires and also new front fork tubes are one of the major cost factors. But even those numerous spare parts also sum up to a significant amount. Meanwhile I was able to establish a certain kind of friendship to all parcel carrier guys, because we met us on a daily basis at my front door. No, I will not analyze, how much shipping cost I've spent in those weeks.
Under some circumstances there is now choice, whether to replace or reuse. The brake system is such a field of no compromise. If you look to the pictures, you may find out by yourself what could been inside the brake calipers. I don't know, if it is just the dirt of the last 40 years or they had mixed different types of brake fluids. Nevertheless, it has to be taken out and the brake system has to get cleaned thoroughly.

Erich and myself started to manufacture the solo seat and also the rear muffler brackets. The oil filter also needs to move to a another place, the current location close to the rear wheel is inacceptable. Afterwards I have to do the dirty job - according to my project plan. To completely disassemble the bike - except engine and transmission. Getting the engine sprocket off was a two-men´s-job. On mid of March this awful job was done and the parts were given to sand blasting and powder coating.

Focussing on the fenders and gas tank was the the next task. Holes for the tail lamp and the license plate bracket were drilled. Before the gas tank will be sent to the paint shop, it has to be tested against any leackage. This was done by using bicycle stuff - it worked well. Afterwards the parts were brought to the paint shop.
In order not to delay the paint job, the gas tank emblem has to be produced right now - I worked on the design since December, evaluating different layouts. I got inspired by the US muscle cars in the sixties, like a Ford Mustang Shelby 350 GT. The white stripes of the tank emblem would be a nice contrast in combination with the blue metallic colour.
A highly professional design studio produced the laser-cutted stickers for the paint shop. After putting the stickers on the painted gas tank, it was coated by several layers of transparent varnish. Both, the design studio and the paint shop were absolute professionals - everything went like a charm.