Shopping Mayhem

I know that it's been more than a month, but no, I didn't give up! I should admit that I didn't do much in the meantime, if at all, but I'm still going on slowly but steadily.

You remember my long and ever growing shopping list. During my "silence", I worked to fill it in with as many check marks as possible. I believe I'm pretty successful, of course until the next surprise.

I started the first wave of shopping in Germany. Uli's Motorradladen is a parts specialist for all sorts of old Beemers, located in Frankfurt. They have got a huge inventory, are very supportive, helpful and very fast. (The last one is a rare virtue in Germany) I purchased a lot of parts, especially the essentials to revert to the original state. Unfortunately, they are very expensive, even if you would earn in Euros, but the parts are such good quality that they still deserve it.

The headlight glass for instance. On the lower part, you see the original Bosch logo used until 1955. So the Chinese plastic that is glued with plenty of silicone can go to where it belongs to - trash.

I mentioned about the poor footpegs before. One is still usable, one is completely replaced with a steel piece welded to the frame and needs to be cut off, and the remaining two are in the photo. One resembles the welded one and the other is welded to the side stand.

They all must be sorted out. Now I've got three brand new footpegs.

The rubber pieces, not just the footpeg rubber in the picture, but everything including the air filter hose, handles, battery belt and a few smaller others, are made by a local rubber shop in another city. Very good quality, but the ones on the two sides of the tank did not fit. Must be some kind of model confusion.

The top covers of the rear shock were dead, too. The new parts are not cheap, but it would have surely taken much more to recover the old ones. I believe, if I had known an aluminum shop, I could have made them much cheaper. Anyway, money has to go, not much to do about that.

This is my favourite. Replica of the Everbest fuel petcock. Just a little detail, but so elegant and in such a harmony with the rest of the bike.

The original ignition key and the ignition cover in the photo. I got the whole lock assembly as well.

Here's a fun fact - although the key has changed a few times, but up until seventies, all bikes were provided as "one key fits all"! That means, if you've got a key, all Beemers were yours!

The ignition assembly has been replaced with a cheapo lock, probably ages ago. They had to modify the headlight body to fit it in. So one of the very expensive parts that I bought is the original ignition circuit assembly. There is no apparent reason to be so expensive, not even a single electronic part, very straightforward build, but probably just because it is so specific. I'll need to correct the headlight body to fit it in.

This is another piece that costs way more gold worth its weight. The switch for the headlight and horn. Incredibly expensive but so neat and elegant, just like the others.

I bought a new left lever clamp, too. It's amazing that you can find absolutely any part for the 60 years old bike. I don't think you can have that abundance with any other brand at all.

The new left and old right together in the photo. Right side is okay, just needs a thorough sanding and matt black paint.

I also ordered the gasket and seal set for the engine, transmission and final drive. I could have had them made way cheaper here, but as I didn't have anything that I could use as a sample, or the sufficient knowledge about the parts at all, I let myself to the German precision. This one is for the engine block.

Here's the transmission. I thought about taking them to a specialist to be replicated, but well, how often would you replace engine gaskets at all, right?

And the final drive.

Last week I overhauled the carburetor. It wasn't complicated at all, but of course instead of cleaning and putting all together right away, I left it there to make sure I forget how I removed what!

The little plastic bag in the foreground is the carburetor gasket set. There were a few gaskets missing in the carb, I hope it will work better with the new set.

And last Saturday, I left home for the Ankara part of my shopping. First, I went to the infamous industrial area packed with all kinds of car mechanics and found an engine shop to show the valve head, piston and cylinder. Good news is that the valves are good, but the piston and the cylinder are not. The guy cleaned the valves, too. He suggested that I should definitely replace the piston, and preferably rectify the cylinder to the next half millimeter, too.

I left there to find an even more infamous classic Beemer handler, in another, way larger industrial district in the city. I had the address but it took me two rides up and down in the street until I realiyed the three hand painted letters on the brick wall in a side street. The guy used to be the first authorized BMW mechanic in Ankara, and then decided to collect and restore classic bikes. In the net, people say that he's such a grumpy old guy and you should be careful not to piss him off. Well, he didn't turn out to be a sweet grandpa anyway, but we got along quite well.

He offered me a newly rectified cylinder block and a matching piston in good condition in return for my cylinder block. It saved me all the fuss with the engine shop, and will look much better after I clean it up and paint with matt black spray paint. Above, the old and new pistons and the cylinder block. On the right, you can even read the diameter markings on the pistons, 69mm on the old one on the left and 69,50mm on the right.

Also got my "torpedo" model exhaust muffler. Looks beautiful.

And last but not least, a used piston arm to replace my cracked one.

So the most significant shopping is over. What's still left is "just" the bearings that I'll decide to replace, and every single nut and bolt, and that's it!

I also spent quite a lot on various tools. A grinder to cut off the mess and clean up the frame, and the polish set for the Dremel.

I tried it very briefly on the old left lever clamp. The first photo with the dirt and rust of the past half century.

And this is the other side. I roughly experimented with the toolset, without any care or precision at all. I did not even use any polish. I like the result, I believe, with some more practice it will get much better. I have a lot of parts that must shine at the end, the exhaust pipe, wheel hubs, handles, etc...






Now that we're in the daylight saving time and the days are geting longer, I hope to proceed more steadily without being this lazy anymore. Let's see...