Couple of paint questions and one other

Now that my bike is pretty well sorted, there are a couple of issues I would like to tackle in the next few months.

1) When I put my '73 together, I was told, erroneously, that the cylinders should be painted black. I know now that they should be silver. I was wondering what the proper silver should be. I plan to use VHT barrel paint.

I plan to take the head off and clean it, anyway, as its pretty well stained around the front valve covers and exhaust ports from the various oil leaks. I figure its just another step to repaint the jugs.

2) The pakistani gas tank leaks around the filler neck. I'm hoping to solder the neck without totally ruining the paint job, and figured I could mask off the top of the tank where the pinstripe would go, patch the tank, repaint the top, add the stripe, then clearcoat the whole thing.

Am I right in assuming that the '73 had the stripe that started below the end of the 'Norton' logo as a double stripe, merged into a single and ran around the back top of the tank, up the side and around the other logo?
Are there any detailed descriptions of this, or do I try what just 'looks right'?

3) Will changing the head steady to a heim joint style improve high-speed stability? I have the original head steady that came with the bike, and have fresh rubbers on it. I believe the bike is set up pretty well and seems to track pretty true. I've played with the isolastics (vernier-type); I've played with the wheel alignment, and have the rear wheel offset from the front by about 3/8". I replaced the shocks with the Emgo lookalikes, and replaced the swingarm bushes and pivot. Under acceleration, the bike is pretty solid up well past 90, but gets a little squirrelly on trailing throttle anywhere above 75. It also doesn't like going over drawbridges, but I think that's just incompatibility between the TT100s and the steel gratings on the bridges. I have to hit them at just the right speed (around 40) to make a comfortable crossing.

BillT said:

Am I right in assuming that the '73 had the stripe that started below the end of the 'Norton' logo as a double stripe, merged into a single and ran around the back top of the tank, up the side and around the other logo?
Are there any detailed descriptions of this, or do I try what just 'looks right'?

Click to expand...

The pinstripes were always done freehand as far as I know, but what you've described would be right for the 850 Roadster models, and there are plenty of examples of that design in Norton books, however even some "professional" painters seem to have difficulty reproducing the tank and panel stripes correctly.

Bill, There is a product categorized as 'heat sink putty' you can build a dam by hand around the area to get your silver soldering done with out hurting the paint too bad. Did you also find that you had to trim some excess metal to get the cap working? I also found that the cap sits on the tank a bit crooked.

You can probably fix your leaking tank with JB Weld around the neck if you already spent a lot of money on your paint job and don't want to ruin it. If you can do the paint yourself or have it done reasonably then it would probably be better to have it fixed properly by someone experienced with this. There are right ways and wrong ways of welding, brazing etc. a fuel tank. Also whoever does it needs to be familiar with the safety aspects of flames and gasoline tanks. You should be able to get more info on this by doing a web search.

I'm a firm believer in the link rod headsteady but this is controversial also. Try it you'll like it.

Russ

LAB-
Mine is an 850 Roadster, so I take it what I've described is correct.

Norbsa-
I was thinking along those same lines, heat sink putty and silver solder. I tried JB Weld, but the alcohol still managed to find a way around it. It did slow the leaking down to a minor weep when the tank is nearly full. Its kinda hard getting it packed in well under the lip of the neck.

There were issues with the tank - uneven seam from one bottom edge to the other, rear cutout for the frame tube uneven, and I had to trim and tweak the cap mount to get the cap to open 90 degrees and sit well on the lip. On the plus side, It'll hold just over 3 gallons once I get the filler neck fixed.

batrider-
I painted both tanks myself - the 'glass one that came with the bike and the Paki one I replaced it with. I probably have enough Red to paint the tank again if it came down to it.

I will try to make a head steady from ideas posted on this site.

Thanks for your input, guys!

I still need to know,What is the correct silver for the barrels?

My 73 850 - one of the first 500, per serial number - has black barrels.

As I am not the original owner, it is possible they were replaced or painted at some point, but it doesn't seem likely.

FWIW.

I thought that '73 850 barrels were black.

Regarding any leaks in the body of the gas tank, Caswell says that their epoxy tank sealer will stop leaks. You just need to use tape or something similar to stop the epoxy from leaking until it hardens. And my experience tells me that you will probably need to slosh it twice.

Yellow_Cad said:

I thought that '73 850 barrels were black.

Click to expand...

As I understand it, the company was eager to distance its products from the problems associated with the troublesome Combat models of the previous year? '72 Combat models had Black barrels, the standard tuned models had Silver barrels, so they went back to using Silver barrels for 1973.

Why they then chose to go back to Black for 1974 is a mystery? Personally I think the barrels look better Black, so maybe that's the reason they did it? Or maybe the Black paint was more durable than Silver?

http://www.reproductiondecals.com/image ... 850_73.jpg



.

Yellow_Cad said:

I thought that '73 850 barrels were black.

Regarding any leaks in the body of the gas tank, Caswell says that their epoxy tank sealer will stop leaks. You just need to use tape or something similar to stop the epoxy from leaking until it hardens. And my experience tells me that you will probably need to slosh it twice.

Click to expand...

Caswell is the reason I had to buy a new tank. My bike came with a fiberglass tank and side covers, and I did a double application of Caswell's sealer - it lasted two days with 10% ethanol fuel. Mike Caswell said he'd send a 'super' mix to re-apply, but never came through with it. My steel tank problem is a leaky filler neck - nothing a decent silver soldering can't fix. The 'glass tank is hanging on my garage wall.

Since it seems that the barrels should be silver, what silver should I use? I would assume flat aluminum, mimicking a cast aluminum part like the head.

LAB - I've got that ad hanging up in my garage, which I found after I painted the barrels. It looks to me, though, that the 850 pictured is polished a bit more than stock would have been.