Thought I'd have a crack with the DIY aquablaster... Unfortunately my 100L compressor was just not up to the job, both for max pressure and flow rate. Luckily my house has three-phase (scary when fiddling with the electrics!)..so I managed to purchase a decent compressor from a motorbike shop that was upgrading...bought untested..(the guy was selling from home - single phase only) so I was only willing to offer 200€..and the guy was happy with that! Bargain!
So..it is ok...not as "perfect" as I had hoped... I will play around with larger media. The finish is correct.. (it wont hold a oily fingerprint)..but I have to go very slow to get the uniform finish. All parts will require paint stripping first too...
It's a funny thing working on motorbikes.. I just love working on the engines.. the rest of the bikes...yeah..ok...I guess it is necessary... but there is some strong satisfaction in the precision of the pieces you are touching...perhaps a counterbalance to the hammer and rough engineering that is sometimes necessary... Same for restoration...you absolutely cannot consider the work to be financially productive...but in terms of "Zen" there is defo something there... Tis funny "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (Robert M. Pirsig) was one of the first books I read (quite young) that blew my mind.. I think I had to read it three times it is so dense.. (Ps: it isn't about motorcycle maintenance!)
That brings us up-to-date...got lots of work on in the coming weeks..so hopefully attacking it again second week of April! (moral support gratefully accepted!! )
Royal, Great thread, seeing all that dirt, oil and internals brings back memories. Look forward to next intalments. Cheers Gaz
Cheers Gaz, Grant is better, please! I did have a post on the old Ducatisti uk forum explaining where the "The Royal Maharaja" came from... I used to have this habit of naming my vehicles using the letters of the number plate.. had an old VW Beetle called Norman as it's plate was NRM 299F... My first Ducati was RMJ...
Well done on the horizontal cylinder!! it took me 3 afternoons to take it off. The crap and corrosion building between the studs and cylinder passages is unreal, the worse one was the lower right.
Little bit more headway...I was kinda disappointed with the finish from the DIY aquablaster, so really set about to maximise the settings of the compressor and the water to bead ratio. I tested the max pressure of the system and promptly blew the safety valve at 14 Bar, too high anyway for aquablasting.. new part ordered and played around to settle on a working pressure of 11 bar with a kick-in when the pressure drops to 10... so the output is as uniform as you can get. Super chuffed with the results. It is still time consuming, but clearly not anything like how long it would take to manually get the same level of finish. You do have to go steady otherwise some areas end up more polished than others, I found a good trick is to mark areas that need going over with a sharpie pen, otherwise you really can't see in the mess of pressured water bouncing everywhere inside the cabinet.
Decided to manually clean and paint the cases, I just couldn't face removing and replacing the bearings if they were blasted(!) Probably should buy a press, but the workshop is small and the amount of stuff squeezed in is already insane! (note correct use of a wastebin!)
For the cases this is a near perfect match: I did try the Simoniz Aluminium Engine Enamel on my 999 engine. While bright and a close match for Aluminium it lacks the metallic fleck that is in the OEM paint Ducati uses. You do need to cure this paint with iirc 1hour at 100deg C... luckily the wife and boys were away for the weekend last week, and the oven is a perfect size...dinner is served!
... this did make me question the potential for a dishwasher to be a perfect "degreasing station"..???....
Unfortunately the other half of the case needs a bit of TIG welding... Like I said at the beginning the previous owner was a bit of a cack handed yob, clearly the sidestand fixing bolts were loose at some point, allowing enough leverage to break the case. The previous owner was a floor tiler by trade...I dread to think. Anyways, managed to find a friendly TIG man this afternoon, so hopefully back on it on Monday!
Looking forward to the next installment. I love the fact you take time to build/adapt your own equipment instead of just farming out the work.
Yes ! ..... words of wisdom Peanut butter tubs ..... the best workshop containers ever invented ? Yes ! ..... Great build thread BTW ...... I love a good one of these Please keep us updated .
