I typically do my detecting a few acres to the east, but the woods were under water and the trails were impassable. The good news was that the grounds near the river, which include several former home sites, were fairly dry. The bad news was that the ground was full of old construction materials and aluminum cans that were simply buried when the home sites were bulldozed years ago.

The only coin I found was a relatively modern clad penny. These coins, being made primarily of zinc, tend to fare very poorly in the soil, so I wasn’t even able to get a date from the coin. Aside from the aluminum cans and bottle caps, I pulled up some copper tubing, which went straight into the recycle bin at home. The most interesting piece of garbage I found was a steel rosette of some sort, with a threaded section behind it. Possibly a plumbing piece? I’m not sure.

While this trip yielded nothing of interest, I did manage to get several hours of experience with the settings of this new machine. I plan on using it in northern Michigan within a week or two, so the experience will help.

The first thing I noticed was how smooth the ride was.  The crude original wheels were anything but round and balanced, so these new rims and tires felt great.  The new leading-link front suspension handled well and tracked nice and true on the road.  The custom wiring design has been good so far, with all-LED lighting and an electronic turn signal flasher.  No blown fuses so far.  The hand-made leather seat was much more comfortable than I expected – a very pleasant surprise.  I could ride in that seat all day.

The test ride did reveal a few minor issues.  The ignition timing needs adjusting, and the clutch cable could use a quick adjustment as well.  The neutral switch is wired correctly but the neutral switch isn’t working reliably, so I’ll need to look into that.  Otherwise, the bike feels good and ready for use.

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.

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.