Beautiful finish from the vapour blasting on the cases, just how they should be from the factory, like the bevels were! Or they could simply just paint them properly!
I've read that the crankcases are painted because Ducati us a low grade alloy which corrodes easily. I have no idea if its true though. But you are right, our Italian cousins should have learnt how to paint by now.
todays job has been cleaning out the oilways in the barrels after being vapour blasted... To do this properly and get every last bead of media out I removed and replaced the core plugs... they are cheap to buy. There was a surprising amount of crud behind them... Made a couple of stepped punches so I could drift them in nice and square. Checked the bores for wear, there simply isn't any! Ground the valves in with some fine paste (how old is that tin of grinding paste ) and checked I had a continuous seal with a sharpie pen. Gave the guides a quick clean with the burnishing hone which just removes carbon, Finally, a good wash in petrol the tray and a check in the bottom for any blasting media. My mate who builds automatic gearboxes gave me the tip on the stainless steel trays... you really can see any debris in the bottom!
Would you be willing to share the contact details of the powder coasters need a frame going to White and wheels Black TIA.
certainly! its Redditch shotblasting https://www.redditchshotblasting.co.uk/... Ask for Paul and say Tony Lloyd recommended you... you wont get a discount just some abuse!!! he really is a good guy, a biker himself, and he has great attention to detail... Last frame I had done he called me up after it had been blasted and said it had exposed some marks and he was not happy to proceed until I had looked... most company's would have just coated it...
Waiting for the engine spares at the moment, so filled some time doing some bead blasting on bits and pieces… one of the best bits of kit I have is a blast cabinet… It used to live outside at the back of the garage because I could never seal it from escaping media as obviously the air tries to inflate the cabinet… with machines about abrasive dust is a no no… Then I hit on the idea of a centrifugal type filter, which offers no resistance to the air going through it. I made the filter out of an Ikea plastic box and some sink drain pipe, it vents outside…. the principle is as the air is made to twist and turn, the partials of dust and media centrifuge out and drop to the bottom of the chambers… so the first chamber gets the most, the second less and so on. there is hardly anything on the drive and nothing in the workshop. its difficult to get this level of restoration to a part without it… Bead also gives that nice sheen to alloy parts and they don’t pick up dirty finger prints. its very good at resisting oxidation as well, particularly with a coat of ACF-50… here is the fuel tap. I used to make a BIG mistake with bead blasting… I could never get a really nice finish except with brand new media… I moaned at the supplier once and he asked me what pressure I blasted at… high as I can I told him.. there is your problem then! you are shattering the glass beads and turning them into sharp dust, hence you get a dull surface! So I went home, filled my cabinet with new bead and got my wife to turn up the pressure as I cleaned a part… soon as it went shiny, that was the best pressure! here is the difference old bead high pressure, new bead low pressure! here is a before and after on some weber carbs I rebuilt... here is how the filter works
I'm a big fan of the old air cooled monsters... I have a M900 also. Love the black version, as it's just damn cool, but then I am biased! Thread looking great.
Great stuff buzzer! loving the detail, I'm looking to do something similar with my 900ie build (first one ever so I may end up badgering for advice!) Cheers Grant
50 years ago I was an apprentice to the best mechanic I have ever known…Gerry Lampit. He is 89 now and I still visit him… still sharp as a razor … He taught me that the hammer was the last resort… that’s always stayed with me. So when I needed to change the swinging arm bearings his words rang in my head Parts have arrived from Moto Rapido. What a pleasure it is to deal with Craig and Luke, they are SO helpful and knowledgeable! after years of suffering the ignorant local dealer, these guys are the best! The engine rebuild has started… the cases are together, crank and gearbox shafts shimmed, and I spent a couple of hours making a flywheel holding tool. it worked rather well. Don’t ask me why the hell I welded the bar right across it, had to cut it to get the socket on! senior moment!
the rebuild of the heads is going well… some of the clearances are out though, not surprising as I gave the valves a bit of a grind in and replaced the half rings. I have a little spreadsheet that I put the values in, which calculates everything from there, and also mirrors the measurements in MM rather than the thous I prefer to work in. Old school I know! Been doing the plating on and off, its time consuming, but I put parts in the bucket, set the timer so I don’t forget, and the magic happens… just a few parts to go… frame and wheels are back from the powder coater, and its another superb job….
Very cool! Nice work , I have a 97 M900 myself What really annoys me , is the front brake line , rubbing against the inside shock led and the front mud guard; Anybody find a good way to keep it out of the way , stop it rubbing ; not a fan of using a cable tie, trying to adjust the line position via the banjo bolt , wont give it the clearance it needs I would like to give it a fresh lick of paint
one of the things that has been niggling me is the engine oil pipes and oil cooler lines are badly corroded on the ends… replacements, even aftermarket are a fortune… So I decided to try and plate them… they actually came out rather well!
Some bolts I just tighten… but critical components I always use a torque wrench… in the past I have used a long series a spanner and calculated the pull I need on a spring balance… but for some reason I could not get the spanner on I have used in the past and its part of an expensive set, so I didn’t want to modify it by grinding… , so had to make a tool… I knew that old spanner and socket would come in one day! One tip I picked up years ago when I used to build Crossflow race engines was always mark the head nuts/bolts after the first stage torque. I would paint an arrow on them with tippex... then move on to the second stage torque, and then the final stage. then I would check all the arrows were facing the same direction, and if any weren't, I would give them an extra tweak until they did. the rational for this is that it takes much of the varying nut/bolt/washer friction out of the equation and you get an even clamping force. Of course that's exactly what you do in effect on modern engines, but now in a more refined way with an angle gauge... on a BMW engine I recently worked on the bolts were torqued to 40 NM, then 90 degrees, then another 90... I still put arrows on them! the reason for that is its all to easy to get confused as they need to be puled down in sequence, and there are 20 bolts! its all too easy to forget where you are... and its not like a torque wrench where you give it a click to check! All too easy to give a bolt 90, 90 and another 90, at which point it pings!
When people ask me why Ducati bikes are expensive to maintain… I say try doing the valve clearances and adjusting them to the correct specification… its a fiddly job on the bench, let alone in the frame! and this is just the 2V!
more or less finished the engine build, and also added some of the plated parts to the carbs, they have come up really well..
