Click The Pictures

Wild Guzzi
April 2005 Guzzi of the Month or My April 2005 Winner

 For decades I have enjoyed buying and selling motorcycles as much as I did riding them. I have owned or ridden almost every commonly known brand of motorcycle distributed in America.

    Recently I ran across the Cycle Garden web site and it stirred memories from 1978 of my 72 Moto Guzzi Ambassador. After weeks of drooling over Cycle Garden’s pristine custom restorations I set out to find an Eldorado to restore. Finding this 74 on the MGNOC classified ads that was only five hundred miles away was all it took. It was a citizen model with less than 15,000 mile on it. With the exception of the tires and mirrors it was totally original.

    Within two weeks after bringing it home I had totally dismantled it.

       To do a restoration that would rival those I’d seen took meticulous cleaning, scrubbing, stripping, polishing, and intensive labor until all of the components were as good as new . Here are some before and after samples. Rims before & after polishing.

  Here is the engine before restoration and the transmission afterwards.

    A pedestal buffer with two cotton wheels for coarse and fine buffing compounds proved to be absolutely necessary.

    I was amazed at the great condition of everything. The bottom end of the engine looked like it was barely used. Verifying that was easy by taking a few measurements and comparing them to factory specifications. Convinced that it was the right bike for restoration, I proceeded.

    After mind numbing hours of asking questions to sources about powder coat painting, chroming, decals, instrument restorations, and so on, the components were shipped all over the US of A. The tank went to PA for chroming, the instruments went to CA and a local powder coat painting company that was familiar with tubular construction did the frame and a few of the other components.

     Finally the assembly begins. There was only a couple of thousands inch of ware in both of the cylinders but since the bike was in such great condition it warranted replacing them and the pistons. Also all of the seal, o-rings, and gaskets were replaced as I went through each component of the bike.

Here is a sample of before and after restoration of the dashboard and instruments.

    I already knew who would be doing the custom paint job on the sheet metal and gas tank. One of my relatives has been doing muscle car restorations for at least 30 years. I went down to the local Harley dealer and was immediately drawn to this year’s Smokey Gold and Vivid Black two tone and pattern combination.

Side cover and tool box before clear coat.

   Just a few miles around the neighborhood let me know that something had to be done about the transmission vent. It slobbered oil as the tranny heated up. Checking with my resources revealed that this was common among some of these models. The most common solution was to add a pipe to the vent to act as a reservoir. I wanted something neater than that. Here is my solution. I modified the vent fitting and added a small plastic tube to it. The tube goes to a plastic bottle that is secured to the top of the battery with Velcro pads. A small hole drilled in the top side of the bottle replaced the vent. As the tranny heats up the oil goes up into the bottle and is sucked back down into the tranny as it cools off. So far it works great.

    In addition to the total restoration I added, original replacement rear crash bars and some chromed floorboards, front shocks, and fork tube covers that I got in another deal. Custom saddlebags, seat, spotlights, and paint job really topped it off. The Smokey Gold & Vivid Black paint turned out better than I imagined. I get "That's a beautiful color" from every woman that has seen it. Of course men like it to but they just say "I like the color. The old sealed beam headlight was replaced with a halogen one. Couple that with the halogen spotlights and it really lights up the road nicely.  

    I enjoyed this project so much that I bought three more, two 1973 Eldo’s which I am already restoring to sell and a 75 Convert for parts. I plan to use some of the parts to make me a hybrid loop frame with disc breaks.  

    I’ve learned a lot during this project and plan to do this as a hobby for years to come. I’ll pass on any information that I can. Just email me at dave@guzzidave.com . It might take a couple of days for me to answer so be patient.

Dave

Note from the previous owner: