I’m still waiting on one tire and the tubes, so alas, I’m still not done with my chassis. Next weekend.

Instead, I moved onto other parts of the bike and made a good amount of progress. I attempted to degrease the engine block (still a lot to go – it’s filthy) but am mostly proud of the handlebar switches I cleaned, polished and rebuilt. They look awesome!

Step one - beadblast before and after

After polishing

When I first set out on this project, my vision was a completely restored bike. I wanted every last part new, shiny and flawless. Now, I’m starting to become more and more endeared with the  imperfections and age of some of the parts. I swear it’s not because I’m getting lazy, though a complete restoration would be much more work and money. It’s just that there seems to be memory in the imperfections on some of the pieces. This is a forty year old bike – it’s got a soul. Completely replacing everything would erase all of that in a way. So, I’ve decided to restore more, where possible, instead of replace. Certain things I want to have new, re-chromed, etc, but some details I’m falling in love with more because of their aged and imperfect states.