What's the Plan, Stan?

If you have read my other restoration blogs, you'll know that I like to have a fairly clear idea of what I'm trying to achieve before I start. This helps to avoid "project creep" where the whole thing can become a huge money pit!

So, overall, what I'd like to achieve is pretty much the same as I did for the Crusader. I'd like to bring her back from her "hipster cafe racer" experience to looking pretty standard and end up with a presentable bike that I could happily roll up to a classic show on and display, safe in the knowledge it would never win a prize for best in show, but also that I won't be afraid to sling some camping gear on the back of and head off on a weekend camping trip. 

Here's what she would have looked like as standard:

In terms of paint, I'll probably do the same as the Crusader, as I was pretty happy with the finish from the Halfords enamel rattle cans. And then I'll apply 2-pack lacquer from spray cans again for fuel protection. I think the colour will be the Italian flag colours - mainly red but with green on the lower part of the tank and white on the panel below the tank badge. Then I'll use my pinstriping tool again and do a gold stripe betwen each of the bands. Although that also sounds a bit cliched, so I might change my mind! I do think it looks quite nice in the pale metallic blue as well....

Another influence might be one of the Guzzis that first piqued my interest many years ago, the original California:

Hmmmm ... a baby California sounds like a nice idea 🤔.

I am not aiming for 100% originality. So that gives me free rein to be a bit creative in whether I paint the engine and forks black or silver, for example. I would like to reuse or repair rather than renew, although not where the economics of doing that are ridiculous. Similarly, to the Crusader, the bike is probably never going to be worth more than about £3000 maximum and I have spent just under £1000 on the purchase - however, I don't think I'll need to spend anything like what I did on the Crusader, as a lot has already been done or doesn't need doing this time. e.g. I probably spent £500 on the Crusader's wheels and tyres, but the alloys have already been powder coated and have new tyres. My rough target is to spend betwen £1500 - £2000 including purchase.

While I was still kind of evaluating and planning everything, it was obvious that it would be very helpful if I could find a decent second hand frame to use to reinstate the back end. No sooner said than done, I found one on EBay that was only £40, but "collection only" about 150 miles away. I suddenly realised that my son would be passing that way and could pick it up on the way home from a festival in a few days time - love it when a plan comes together! So we now have the necessary bits to start reinstating things.

Thinking through what I would need to do to get those bits attached to my frame, I reckoned I'd be paying £50 for the welding. I've done a bit of gas welding and arc welding in the past, but never had access to a mig welder, which would be quite a lot more suitable for this type of thing. I decided I'd put the £50 towards buying myself a welder and that would be a much more effective way to do things for the future. 

When I started researching that, I found that there are loads of small hobby migs for sale that are not working due to wire feed issues. A bit of googling later showed that there are some pretty straightforward and cheap fixes for most wire feed issues, so I thought I'd take a punt on one of these "broken" ones, as a mini project.

I got this for £20 locally. Watch this space....