Manual Labor

Well, it's been nothing but manual labor over here. Monkey work. Sanding and polishing more aluminum bits than I feel I can remember. Hopefully there will be some updates to all the On The Bench posts that I've started. Basically all of those bits have been cleaned, wire brushed, sanded, polished etc. But they still need some finish work. Paint, brake shoes, bearings etc. I'll need to make a parts order soon, but I'm saving my pennies for the Davenport swap meet next week. I'll save the photos and update posts until each piece has been completely restored to it's full glory.

In the past month I've helped out a few friends that are restoring projects of their own. I volunteered my polishing services. Even though neither of them are Nortons, I still really like seeing old bikes come back to life, so if I can help out some friends that are doing amazing restoration work, then I'm up for it.

One friend is restoring an old 1960's Lambretta, so I polished all the little bits. Knobs, switches, trim pieces etc. Probably 25 or 30 pieces. Could have been 40 pieces, I can't really remember.

Another friend is restoring a mid 1960's Motobi, so I restored a primary cover, timing cover and 2 brake plates. He also had a set of Borrani rims that needed to be re-polished after becoming oxidized in storage, and a set of Bultaco TSS levers. All really good stuff, so I was honored to put in the work to help out. Hopefully the bits I worked on for these guys are up to par with the restoration work they do on their bikes.

With all the above mentioned work, it was time to clean out the remnants of the sand paper bin. I burn through a lot of sandpaper over here, and most of it gets tossed along the way. But I keep lots of the scraps to use as needed. You'd be amazed at how many times I need a 600 grit sand paper, but not a brand new one, just one that's been worked down a bit and isn't at full grit. As much as it's just work, there seems to be a bit of an art to it. In the end, I think it's just patience.

Hold tight, updates with pretty pictures of restored parts are coming soon....