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My First Vintage BMW Restoration Project
By Ron Long I decided to get a vintage BMW shortly after my wife and I returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon on our K75RT. I knew that my days of touring the country two-up were numbered because of the frequency of complaints from my spouse about soreness did not diminish after the trip was over. The flat front tire on I-10 East of El Paso on the way back is an experience she would rather not repeat, but that's another story. I found my first project on the Internet BMW Riders Marketplace want ads in October 1999, an all-original 1967 R50/2 with 35,000 miles located in central Oregon. The seller said the bike was "ready to ride to Houston." This overly enthusiastic description should have been "Tip-Off #1" that the bike was a rolling basket case. The seller mailed me some pictures. They confirmed that the bike was indeed a BMW, was black, and that it looked complete. I did not care about the cosmetics but was concerned that all of the parts were there since this was to be a restoration project. But the pictures were not close-ups and lacked definition. This should have been Tip-Off #2. My brother Bob lives in Portland, only 15 minutes away, and was willing to check the bike out for me. It should be noted that my brother rides a Harley. The only BMW he had seen up close was my R1100RT which I had ridden to Oregon that summer. He and I swapped bikes as we rode around the Oregon countryside. I asked him if he would drop by and look at the R50/2 for me. We fixed a time to talk on the phone, so I pulled the R1100RT over in Bandera to place a call to Oregon. I was on my way to camp out with my nephew at Lost Maples State Park. Bob confirmed that the engine would start, and informed me that he had cut my offer by 10%, and that the seller had already accepted. This should have been Tip-Off #3. Bob had never seen a "Black Bike" before, but saw enough to know that he should cut the price. I arranged to have Federal/Allied pick up the bike and ship it to Houston. My friend Leo Ahearn went with me to pick the bike up at Allied. The first impression both of us had when we saw the bike was that we had never seen so much rust. The brakes would barely stop the bike when I rolled it down the loading dock ramp towards the trailer. The non-BMW mufflers had been welded to the frame. I wondered if I had made a big mistake. If I had purchased the bike with the expectation that it could be safely ridden as is, I would have been greatly disappointed. The good news was that the bike was largely complete, but there was no part, including the horn, that did not need to be restored. I spent the next several months getting to know the bike, studying Slabon's book on restoring BMW twins, getting the engine to run and the brakes to work sufficiently for me to ride the bike and determine exactly which components needed to be rebuilt. There was a strange noise coming from the back of the engine, which later turned out to be a bad rear main bearing, but the transmission and final drive seemed to be OK. The restoration began in earnest in January of 2000 when I took apart every single nut and bolt. I spent the better part of the next 18 months collecting parts from Mark Huggett in Switzerland and Craig Vechorik in Mississippi. Craig's wife Elaine, who also rides an R50/2, has gotten to recognize my voice when I call to order parts. I got new spokes, rims, tires and wheel bearings and reworked the wheels while other components were sent out to be redone. Ron Reed removed the old swing arm bearing races with his welder before I had the frame powder coated. Mike Haven did the slinger service and reworked the crank bearings and heads. Leo Ahearn helped on jobs that required more than two hands such as riveting on new brake shoe linings. John Borella did the sheetmetal restoration and paint job. The original Wixom fairing cleaned up well. I got Ed Korn to make a replacement windshield for the fairing that is 3/4 height. I found the original windshield to be too tall and too close to the riders face. I replaced the original large bench seat with solo saddles. Finally after almost two years I can say that the project is complete. The bike will hold 65-70 mph with two-up. You can actually start it by hand when the engine is warm by pushing down on the kickstart lever! I love the symmetry of this bike - two wheels, two seats, two cylinders, four gears. You can often find the old black BMW parked outside of Orsak's cafe on the square in Fayetteville on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Was it worth the time and effort? Would I do it again? Did I mention the 1966 R60/2 I found. |
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