Re: What did you do to or for or with your Laverda today?

Joined this forum, & went into the shed to contemplate getting my late Mirage (UK 'X' reg, engine no. *1200*3163) running & on the road.  It's been off the road for a decade or more, but as work decided to medically retire me at 57, it would be nice to get the old girl going again.
It was bought off the late Bob Milsom, who worked for Slater Laverda 'Back in The Day'.
He bought it from a firm in Evesham, who worked on/restored Laverdas.  It had been 'Jotarised' & sports a silver frame & red bodywork.
 
laverdabru said:
Joined this forum, & went into the shed to contemplate getting my late Mirage (UK 'X' reg, engine no. *1200*3163) running & on the road.  It's been off the road for a decade or more, but as work decided to medically retire me at 57, it would be nice to get the old girl going again.
It was bought off the late Bob Milsom, who worked for Slater Laverda 'Back in The Day'.
He bought it from a firm in Evesham, who worked on/restored Laverdas.  It had been 'Jotarised' & sports a silver frame & red bodywork.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good project. Pic?
 
Carlo, I'd suggest that you un-bolt your front mudguard and turn it around. It'll look better with the longer overhang at the back end. The extra length at the back will keep your engine a bit cleaner too.
 
Dellortoman said:
Carlo, I'd suggest that you un-bolt your front mudguard and turn it around. It'll look better with the longer overhang at the back end. The extra length at the back will keep your engine a bit cleaner too.
Click to expand...

Will check it out, does look pig ugly.
 
I picked my frame up this week, from the bloke who welded gussets in around the headstock, to fix up the cracks around the top of the down tubes. I gave him a copy of the documents showing the factory fix for it, and some photos of a repair Keith Nairn made. He said he did a combination of both.

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He recommended a place to have it sand blasted and undercoated. I'll give them a call next week.

These are the photos of Keith's repair I gave him.

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cbertozz said:
Sounds like a good project. Pic?
Click to expand...

I'll take some pics, & attempt to put them on.  I'm not very computer literate!
Bought the bike from Bob in the late '90's, used it until 2002(?), then put it in the garage.  With work, family & other bikes. to my shame it's not been touched since then, apart from an oily rag wipe over & being moved once a year.
Prior to taking it off the road, there had been some electrical issues.  It had sometimes gone onto 2 pots, then back to three.  There was no consistency about this - it would vary as to which cylinder 'died'.
 
Put some fuel in and started it up.  Will probably tax it in February anyway and I wanted to be sure that everything was in working order.  And it's been a long time since I heard it run.  Sounds like there is a slight blow down at the collector box, might just be a poor seal on one of the pipes.  I hope.

I dropped the needles a notch when I had the tank off.  Upping the pilot to 20 seems to have cured the slight spitting and somewhat iffy small throttle opening behaviour, but it did seem to be a bit rich in the midrange.  We'll see anyway.

Roll on spring.
 
Electrolytic de-rust of tank

thought I'd try this method out, its going well, started on Saturday and the rust is still coming out. The tank didn't look to bad to start with, but obviously wrong and expect another day or so to complete.

I'll then move onto shaking some nuts and bolts about, carefully using my cement mixer, to get a nice surface finish before completing with sealant (Por -15).

Paul
 

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Looks like you're using something that creates a lot of foam. I've used washing soda with the electrolytic method to clean a steel 3C Tank.
Wasn't to impressed by the results, even after letting it bubble away for almost a week with a hefty power supply hooked up.
A friend did a Kwaker tank with muriatic acid swooshed around in the tank, and it came up a treat.
But he recons that you have to get the timing right, or the acid will eat through the metal ;)
 
Using soda crystals.

It's a real pleasure to do some thing on the bike, that's so cheap. the Soda crystals are ?1 / $1, plus a bit of electricity :D

its a bit wearing when every improvement to the bike costs hundreds of ?/$?euro. this is a refreshing change, at least until the tank goes off for painting ::)
 
Muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid, a strong reducing agent.
I would use citric acid (as per De-ox C) as it is much milder and can be disposed of more easily when finished.
Dissolved in hot water speeds up the process.
No need for electrical stimulation either.
 
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