Update! Progress is under way on the Bonneville, and the engine is now in the final stages of the rebuild.

After disassembling as much of the donor engine as I possible could, I finally gave in and found a pro to help me finish the job – and I’m glad I did. Not only is this FAR too mission critical of a job for me to be “practicing” on, but it’ll now be better than new, and my engine also turned out to be a pretty big challenge in and of itself. So here’s a shout out to George Kraus, who’s here in Portland. Based off his past projects, I’m pretty confident my bike will be insane when it’s done. Check out his website, he’s legit.

In any case, the cylinders are re-bored, the crank is grounded, side covers are polished and/or chromed, hardware is plated, and the machinist is finishing the pistons and rings as we speak. Turns out the sludge trap on the crank is being…. cranky. But we’re close.

Now, I need to find a fantastic painter asap. Got a recommendation?

And to solve this puzzle of making two bikes in one. I’m going to try and find a way to swap out the aluminum tank and cafe set up with the original tank/ fenders and seat. Yeah – wish me luck.

Here are some of the latest pics of the engine in process