SIDECAR
AFRICA

Welcome to Coenie & Lientjie Harley from Sasolburg, proud owners of a 2011 Tourist.

Phillip Hanekom is bringing an old lady back to her former glory.  Follow his story of "tender loving care" here...

Ural 650 – 1972 Restoration

From Start to parts in less than 1 week!
This is the story of how exercise and almost everything else has become less important than my obsession of getting this Ural 650 back to the original state, but better than before.
My first demonstration to my wife had me red in the face as the bike stalled about 300m from my home… due to a flat battery! I had to push it back home and put it on charge, saying it was due to the standing…not to worry we’ll do it again tomorrow.
After that 2nd run around the block and scaring myself half to death after almost tipping it over, I wanted to start working on it. Half past 1 that evening I went to bed, after removing most of the panels and the diligent labeling and position markings. The rest of the week and weekend it was pretty much the same story.

• Powder coating
• Zinc coating
• Re-chroming
• Painting of the panels. Which colour will be best? Should I be conservative or go all out and have a once off bike that draws attention?
• Sandblasting
• Polishing the engine

Surfing the net to find suitable guys whose willing to help and are fellow bikers was just as much fun, because everyone wants to know what bike, what year, how does it look and where can they find more info or see photos, which kept me very busy…Therefore next week is going to be a tough week at work with all my back log of work to be done.
Also what to do myself and what to be done by suppliers, who are really good at this, as it’s their job or should I just try and do everything myself?
So here I’m currently the whole bike in parts and all ready to go out for painting, chroming, powder coating and I have to wait for these guys to finish before carrying on. So in the mean time I plan to redo the electrical harness, do some cleaning and polishing of the remaining parts.

... Continued - Phase 2 - Getting all the parts back

Stripping the bike down to parts and finding guys to do the re-chroming, powder-coating and do the plating seemed to be the easy bit. Waiting to get these parts back was much harder…even when you know there was quite a bit of other work to be done anyway.

So after almost 2 months all my parts are back and most of the “fixing” and restoring of the saved parts are done. And most have survived...but it wasn’t as smooth and easy as it sounded as I found that service in South Africa is a relative term… and it’s even worse if it’s a privately own company, because everyone is doing you a favor.

- Waited 8 weeks for the chromed parts that should have taken 4 weeks,
- Had to redo the painting 3 times as I was unhappy with the spots or dull marks,
- And silently swear at the powder-coater, (ok - he was twice my size) for doing me a favor after he got paid to do a job.

But to be honest, putting everything together, it came together quite nicely.

So the following needed to be done and was done so far:
- Painting - DONE
- Re-chroming - DONE
- Plating - DONE
- Redo the wheels (Painting, chroming and tightening) - DONE
- Redo the electrical harness – I’m sure, I mean I hope everything will work again… - DONE
- Polish the aluminum bits - DONE
- Skim brake drums and shoes - DONE
- Redo the brake and clutch cables - DONE
- Clean and fix’s the lights - DONE
- Buy new bolts and nuts - DONE
- Open and check engine - DONE
- Polish the engine, but keep original “rough” look - DONE
Find new steering controls as the old ones were “ kaput” - ????

And over and above this trying not to bankrupt myself, because you can replace everything with brand new parts, but what’s the point. That’s not restoring – that’s just cheating from my perspective. For example – what to do about this steering controls?

So now the assembling can begun I find that exams and work is keeping me occupied with less Ural time…but progress is inventible…

So here we are currently. In the last edition I will show completed photos as well as before and after photos.

Regards
Phillip

.... And after a job well done .... Phillip rides off into the sunset ....

Yearly Sidecar Convention 4 - 6 March 2011
St Augustines, Modderpoort, Clocolan

Click here to read more about our yearly sidecar gathering.

Sani Pass and 9 Ural Sidecars - September 2010 Click here to read more

On Friday, 3 December Ryno got "dressed in his best" and set off to Memoire in Muldersdrift to play chauffeur for a bridal couple. We wish Miri and her husband a happy, long and prosperous road ahead.

Here is a lovely story sent in by Lindsay and Nicky Butler.  Nicky writes:  "We arrived at the wedding of our company driver in rural district outside Hammanskraal and were received like royalty because of our beautiful ‘Pushkin’ . The reserved ‘bridal’ car was summarily dumped and ‘Pushkin’ became the mode of transport to drive through the entire village with much hooting , tooting and cheering to the bride & groom! They were the hero & heroine of the village as everyone thought they had arranged this specially! Of course everyone could now see the bridal gown & suits!"

Join us on monthly Ride Alongs to various beautiful spots in the Hartbeespoortdam; Magaliesberg and surrouning areas;

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