The rear tubular tail light housings were purchased unpainted, and had to be manually ground to fit the unique curvature of the motorcycle and sidecar fenders.  Once fitted, the housings were painted black to match the fenders.  These round lights have a vintage appearance and look much nicer than the original Dnepr stamped sheet metal mounts and rectangular tail lights.  While appearing vintage, these tail lights will house modern LED bulbs for improved brightness and reduced electrical draw.

The wiring for the turn signals is complete, and the turn signals on the motorcycle itself are working well.  I still have to wire the right turn signals on the sidecar, in addition to the running lights, headlight and brake lights.  I also have a few dummy lights left to wire, such as the neutral light and oil pressure warning light.  A month ago I completed the wiring for the alternator, voltage regulator and discharge dummy lights and all are working perfectly.  The voltage is as 12.5 before starting the engine, and 14.3 when the engine is running.

I have about 3 to 4 hours left to complete the wiring, at which point all the wires will be bound into a harness to keep things tidy and protected.  The rear brake linkages are connected as well as the sidecar brake cable, but I’m not yet satisfied with the adjustment, so I have to look into that too.

I’ll not make much further progress in August due to a packed schedule, but I do have the entire first week in September off work, so that might be the best chance to finish the work and get the bike back on the road.  We’ll see.

Since the Dnepr didn’t originally come with metal toolboxes, there were no existing mounting points on the frame.  After some searching I decided to use brass plated copper Munsen rings, which are designed to suspend pipes from above.  The Munsen rings were available in the diameter I needed, and the brass looked great against the black painted frame.  Since the base metal was copper, the rings should flex as needed under stress and not crack.  Besides, the toolboxes were not heavy.

To mount the electrical components inside the toolboxes, I planned to use 1/4″ plywood.  I could have simply painted the plywood, but in a case of overkill, I naturally chose walnut burl veneer to cover the plywood.  The veneer was inexpensive and readily available, and while nobody would see it unless the toolboxes were open, I thought it would add a classy touch to the project.

I used a contact adhesive to glue the veneers to the plywood.  Once the panels were cut out, I lightly sanded the veneers before spraying a satin polyurethane on all sides to seal the wood and bring out the beauty of the burled grain.  The location of the toolboxes couldn’t have been better, too – right next to the battery box.  Therefore, most wiring will be completely concealed from view – a big improvement over the original Dnepr design.  The left toolbox would contain a new switched fuse panel, electronic turn signal flasher for the LED signals, and the master battery toggle switch that previously hung below the rider’s seat.  The right toolbox would house the voltage regulator, rear brake switch, and another toggle I added that would allow the right turn signals to be switched between the motorcycle and sidecar in the unlikely event I ever opt to ride the motorcycle without the sidecar.

I’m pleased with the appearance and functionality of the toolboxes.  While I won’t be doing any intentional foul weather riding, the electrical components will be shielded from weather and dirt, and there will be no ugly exposed wiring.  I still need to mount the rear fender lights before I begin creating the custom wiring harness.  I should make more progress at the end of May.  Stay tuned.

I didn’t want to get into wood fabrication work, so I set off searching the web for a small wooden knob.  Proving that just about anything can be found on eBay, I found a seller in Ashington, West Sussex, England, who appeared to have just the piece I needed.  $6 for a set of 4 wooden tool handles and $5 to ship them.  Certainly reasonable prices.  These handles are designed for use on awls or files, for the serious woodworker.  For me, they are Dnepr reverse lever knobs.

I took a rotary tool and cut around the original plastic knob until it came loose.  Not much on the Dnepr is over-engineered, but this knob was incredibly secure – obviously molded in place.  I reshaped the tip of the steel lever on a grinder, and drilled a few holes in it to help give the adhesive something to grab.  I then drilled a series of holes in the wood handle to form a slot.  The drill press made this work fast and easy.

I intended to use a regular wood glue like Titebond, but I came across something in my adhesives inventory that I didn’t recall buying … JB Weld Wood Weld.  It’s a 2-part epoxy that has a wood-like appearance, and should be relatively hard when cured.  I filled the handle slot with epoxy, as well as the lever tip and the holes I drilled into it to ensure that I had epoxy in all the right places.  I tapped the handle into place and wiped away the excess epoxy.

Hopefully the handle will stay in place – I think it will.  It will certainly look nicer than the ugly mustard-colored plastic knob, even if nobody notices.

I lubricated all 5 cables before routing and connecting them.  Once I get to the point of securing a wiring harness in place, I’ll do my best to hide the cables, or at least mount them so that they are less noticeable.  On the handlebar, I had to make some adjustments to secure the inverted hand levers, but I love the vintage look of these levers.

The rear axle and drive shaft were also installed.  Since many fasteners were only hand-tightened to test each part for proper fit, I removed many fasteners and applied a thread lock compound before re-tightening.

It will probably be a few weeks before I make more progress.  Thanks for checking in.

I then slipped the left exhaust pipe and muffler into place for a few pictures.  I like how the bike is coming along so far, but as the temps slip into the freezing range, I’ll soon be setting up the heater in the garage for future work.

I also mounted the rear swing arm with new bushings.  In the picture below, the seat is just resting on the frame for visual effect.  I hope to mount the engine in the frame next weekend.  Stay tuned!

Before Saturday’s rains I was able to hand-sand all the primed pieces, first with a 360 grit then a fine 600, per the paint manufacturer’s instructions.  The 2-part urethane paint was mixed at the recommended 3:1 ratio of paint to activator, then loaded into the paint gun.  The paint was much thinner than the primer.  This stuff is also nasty to breathe, so I donned my respirator and safety goggles and tested the spray pattern against a cardboard box.  The pattern was a perfect oval, so I moved on to painting the parts.

The paint went on very well, with no running.  All parts received at least 4 coats of paint, using nearly the full gallon I had.  In the end, the painted surfaces were quiet smooth – better than I had expected.  I’ll be away for the next 2 weekends, which will give the paint more than adequate time to cure before I wet-sand and buff the paint to a high gloss.  When the buffing is done, I’ll work on the white pinstriping on the fenders and sidecar body.

The pictures are difficult to see, since the bright sun was in the way, but you’ll get the idea.  Hopefully soon I’ll be mounting the front fork and rear swing arm then installing the new wheels, then setting the engine into the frame.  The project now enters the fun stage – reassembly.

Getting the sidecar frame ready for priming was a big job.  The accumulation of rust on the frame required tedious work to remove.  After many hours of sanding, the sidecar frame was shiny bare metal, ready for priming.  Glad that’s behind me.

Over the next few weeks, I should have the parts painted, sanded and buffed.  I can then begin the assembly of the parts, starting with the newly trued and balanced wheels on the frame.  Assembly is the most fun part of these projects, and I can hardly wait.

I sprayed the fenders with a very thin black guide coat before sanding.  The guide coat gets sanded away except where there are low spots, providing a visual indicator of where I need to spray more polyester primer.  Fortunately, the low spots on the fenders are quite minor and will be easily filled with the next few coats of primer.

I’ve used body filler/surfacer to correct some issues and smooth the contours on the sidecar body.  The filler is no more than 1/16 inch thick, so it’s being used appropriately.  I’m also working to fill the edge seams so that the edges should have a nice radius when finished.  Before, there was simply an exposed sheet metal seam, which looked unfinished.  I still have maybe 4 hours of work left on the sidecar body before it’s ready for priming.

I’m working as fast as I can to get everything primed before I leave for Memphis in September.  It’s dirty, dusty work.

The paint stripper is nasty stuff, but works very well, and is probably the fastest way to get to bare metal.  It goes on thick, and starts working in seconds.  You can actually hear the paint bubbling up and falling off.  Sometimes a second application was necessary.

The leading link fork I bought from a seller in Poland was mostly “new”, but the fender that shipped with it had the same horrible quality black paint that the rest of the bike originally had.  So, the paint was stripped from the new fork and fender.  When the black paint was stripped away, the original “God-awful Orange” paint was revealed.  What factory paints motorcycles this color?  The original fender had the same terrible white pinstripes that appear to have been applied with a white magic marker.

A few weeks ago, while test-fitting the new fork to the frame, I noticed that the upper half of the fork yoke threads were stripped.  I had no metric dies this large, but since this part had the critical job of keeping the front of the motorcycle connected to the rest of it, I decided to buy a replacement, along with a new nut, to ensure that all threads were good and strong.  A seller in Kiev, Ukraine had one for $27, so I bought it.  The new yoke had great threads, but was painted in “Gloomy Gray”, so it too was stripped of its paint.  I would love to chat with the Ukrainian that selected the original factory paint colors.

The sidecar fender was almost perfect, but the original rear fender had some damage that Uncle Graham artfully bent back to shape nearly 2 years ago, before selling the bike to me.  The fender still had some ripples in the steel, but I figured that I could further work the metal and apply a body filler to smooth the ripples.  A few weeks ago I noticed a rear fender on eBay for a good price, located in Ohio, so I grabbed it.  This rear fender has no damage, so that will save me some time and should look better.

I’m currently stripping the paint from the sidecar and sidecar frame, but once all the paint is removed, I’ll spend a few days fixing some dents and ripples in the sidecar and hand-sanding all the parts.  I have a gallon of 2-part automotive primer waiting to be sprayed, but not until all the body work is completed.