Project Virago

The beauty of chrome casings lol watch that lawn mower doesn't take your foot off Doc!   Nice trolley 

looks like a useful bit of recycling Nigel! Pity you cannot power the trolley with the engine starter motor to drive it along to where you need it! 

Don't give him ideas Peter, nothing would surprise me with the Doc.

he he he it's ALIVE muhahaha..... 

Now that,s a good Idea Peter,  I have a spare electric motor and gearbox 

Nigels formula one "E" trolley,sound m8,dont crash it.

Oh god I've said something again! 

Some times a spark can lead to an explosion   Talking of explosions have done some more on the exhaust, had to cut and re-weld the "y" piece as it had badly distorted on the first welding session, here it is after a cut and re-weld,
















The system is virtually ready now, just have to make three heavy duty clamps  as the ones on the market are a bit flimsy, regard
s to you all Doc Cox.

I'm looking forward to a soundclip where you open a close the butterfly valve. 

You have a great one of exhaust system there Doc, will also look forward to the sound with the butterfly.

Looking good Doc! You've made a nice job there 

Doc on the Velo exhaust we/I use stainless steel clamps that have 2 trunnions in them. One has a thread in it & the other a plain hole with an allen bolt through.
They can be really tight fitting & can be bought in numerous sizes to fit your particular job.
Starting to look like a bike more n more now as well Doc!

A good set up Sir.

Looking well Nigel.

Thanks everyone, I definitely want to see and hear how the valve and exhaust system perform, before I purchased the bike the previous owner told me it had a set of Jardine headers fitted that he changed for a standard set  :7348:  but, that it ran rich afterwards and didn,t need the choke to start it, makes me think that whoever fitted the Jardines also changed the jets to compensate for the better breathing so maybe it will be OK now the system is once again breathing freely 

Yep ... its Doc .... Very neat looking exhaust system you've created there.

I hope you can soon do some test running of the engine, as you say - it will be trial & error with the jetting - but it might not be too far out with your 'less restrictive' exhaust.

Evening everyone, have been concentrating on the electrics this week now the exhaust is virtually finished, have decided to use the old horns as they do work well, but, need a refurbish first......


Looking a bit rough





First drilled out the old alloy rivets to be replaced with some stainless Allen bolts and washers




Trial fit of bolts, looking okay






Totally stripped, not looking too bad inside




These are the operating contacts inside





They looked OK but still gave them a clean with the trusty old diamond points file





Here are all the external parts after a good wire wheel brushing





The cleaned parts with a good coating of Plasti-coat





Coming back together




Back fully assembled and looking good, they now have a bit if a retro look to them




Next on the list is the smaller light panel, until then regards to all Doc Cox 

Looking good 

Why did you go with Plasti-Coat and not normal primer and paint ?

Will it keep the rust away ?

Vast improvement Doc 

Excellent job as always Nigel.

Looking good Nigel.

Keep the mods coming Nigel they look good for not a lot!

That is going to be one heck of a bike, slowly but surely your rebuilding a lovely ride

Thanks everyone   Hi Kim, the reason for not using normal spray primer and paint is because plasti-cote is the nearest thing you will get to powder coating, this is because Plasti-cote is not as porous as normal paint, if at all, and keys well to the surface if it is slightly rough, the best way to apply it is with quick thin coats starting with a light dust coat and then just building it up, have been refurbishing a set of idiot lights and will be putting them after tea, see you in a while 

I also have good experience with Hammerite paint and POR15 paint, but it cures to a hard finish.

I actually used a Spray foil on the rear indicators and the speedometer cover, because I was not sure if I would like them painted, and because I wanted to try the spray foil.

Here they are, purchased off Ebay not too long ago, looking a little scruffy but basically sound,




First step pull it to pieces




Very lucky the lenses just popped out as the glue was old, will try to get some new ones as they look faded, preferably made of glass,





Looking a bit mucky





A quick clean in petrol,





A couple of coats of plasti-cote, will let it dry a bit longer give it a light scuffing with wire wool and then some more coats





Wiring just looking a little tired




Wiring ready for new bulbs, Spirap and connectors, will keep the old block and connectors as these can be grafted onto wiring for future projects,




A trial fit but not there,




That,s better, all is needed now is a suitable bracket fabricated


 

Hi Kim, when you say foil spray does this mean it looks like chrome and do you have some photo,s of the sprayed, would be interesting to see them

That will be a good mod Doc.

STOP PRESS


                 Just found some excellent instrument lights on Ebay 

Doc Cox wrote:

Hi Kim, when you say foil spray does this mean it looks like chrome and do you have some photo,s of the sprayed, would be interesting to see them

I think I misunderstood the name "Plasti-coat" as plasti dip, and see now the Plastikote is a spray paint.

The one I used is the Motip variant of Plastidip, and was used to make the speedometer cover and rear indicators glossy black with the possibility of going back to the original chrome finish.

Regarding the lenses, maybe try to wet sand them and polish them afterwards.
Otherwise you could make some new ones of clear plexiglass, with a matt finish on the inside, and change the bulbs to colored LEDs.

Brasso does the trick on lenses mate

Thanks for the tip guys, have already tried that but the plastic has been exposed to the sunlight for so long it has turned powdery and very opaque, this is where it has also absorbed water over the years, 

While working on the electrics just needed a bridging wire, pulled out my  trusty old wire and realised just how old it was   both of the crocodile clips had fractured in the same place as you can see in the photo, This is a weak point on all these clips.




So thought there must be a way to repair and make them stronger, had a root around in my brass
box and came up with an old plug prong





This was then cut in half and the top cut off for use in later projects




Here they are tinned and ready for soldering to the clip






In place, looking a bit messy but a quick rub on the wire wheel cleaned them up nicely








On with the covers and ready to do a few more years service

Neat job that Doc! My soldering always seems crap by your standards!!!

peardrop3 wrote:

Neat job that Doc! My soldering always seems crap by your standards!!!

Well done Nigel.

OMG Doc your  wonder to simpletons like me & I agree your soldering is shit hot. I will pop that video on here at some point that I shot of you explaining soldering techniques while doing them.
I like your style mate, waste not want not.    Great job done .

I like the use of plug prong Doc - very inventive  . I used one of the same to replace a Harley choke knob which pulled off in my hand. I love my box of bits - one man's cast offs are another's jewels.

Glad you all liked the article, made it well worth doing, one of the main things when soldering is to keep the tip clean all the time and to use the right iron size, also don,t use anything abrasive to clean the tip as this will remove the hard coating and the tip will quickly corrode, also have a look on EBAY and try to get hold of a large soldering iron, the jobs you can do with this are wide ranging and with the extra heat will make jobs like soldering battery terminal clamps a doddle 

Very interesting reading this thread.

Thanks for the advice Doc, very useful!

Always pleased to help   a little more on the horns !! after the rebuild one worked and the other didn,t, obviously slight adjustment needed   ( I do like this Icon ) also had a bit of luck and found the stainless acorn nuts I had ordered off Ebay, 




Had to grind the bolt down as it was just a little bit too long






So pull the horns to bits, another wipe with the points file




Loosley assembled the faulty horn, this then worked, but, when the bolts were tightened no go, obviously adjustment needed, removed this washer and all was fine





This had been holding the points open and not allowing a current flow, as you can see it didn,t need much thickness to mess every thing up




And here are the finished articles, the Acorn nuts were the finishing touch,  



PS. These are seriously loud, nearly gave one of our older neighbours a heart attack when testing them.

Nicely refurbished 

Haven,t forgotten about Peters comment on a motorised engine trolley, won,t be using the Virago engine as I think this might be a touch of overkill, someone left this outside my garage the other day for recycling 




  just the thing for the trolley, a few minutes of spanner work and here it is complete with subframe



 The initial offering up and all looks good, this golf buggy even had a variable speed control on it




Shouldn,t take too much more work to finish it, plus the wheels are wider this will give it more stability in fast corners    Ah! just remembered have another one of these in the substore (Caravan) could make it four wheel drive, thanks Peter...

Thanks Kim,  how is yours coming ?

Nice job on the horns Doc 

I can picture you arriving at the pub on the trolley, using the Virago engine as a seat     

My project has not got much attention since the last coat of base paint on the tank, because I'm waiting for an airbrush from ebay china. The paint and masking tape has been bought.

I did pull the crank case covers the other day, to start cleaning them up for flaking chrome, to get them ready for paint.
But I think I'll put them back and clean the engine with the pressure washer before continuing.

Right now I'm looking at options for the starter idler setup, as the teeth looks ok on the idler gear #2, but the rubber on the ends are chewed up.

Oh no what have I started Doc! 

You crack me up Nigel, love it.