MKL's 1973 R75/5 LWB Toaster
A Work In Progress - The R75/5 on 8-4-03
Removal of Rear Subframe and Fender: I abandoned my plans to begin taking the /5 apart in September, and got a head start. The way I see it, everything that could go smoothly probably won’t, and I really want this thing to be ready next spring.
I removed the subframe without a hitch, and brought it to work (we have a machine shop in our building). There, I had all of the extra holes which were drilled into the subframe tabs over the years (mostly to mount the Wixom saddlebags, but some other sloppy holes were there for no apparent reason) filled by the welder. I then took to the subframe itself, and straightened the tabs to closely match the lines of the tubing. Finally, I sanded all of the filled holes and other slop off of the subframe, so that all the metal is now nice and smooth. Here are some pictures of the right and left sides of the subframe taken after the work was completed. It should look nice once it's painted! A trip to the hardware store was in order, and I now have a complete set of stainless steel hardware (non-metric knurled allens all around, for a more tasteful look) to re-mount everything.
I visited the local dealer to ask about the pins for the seat hinges. I managed to buy some pins (block pins for a later model, apparently) to weld onto the subframe – problem is, the dealer had no seats, so I have no way to accurately place the pins for the welding. Thus, my next step is to buy a seat, so I can place the pins and be done with the subframe section of the bike. I bought some hinges as well, for the new seat.
While I’m at it, this may be a good time to look into a whole new subframe lockset, since I don’t have a key to this old one – but I really don’t care too much about the lockset, and may just live with the existing one. Given the prices of some of this stuff, I don’t want to go nuts on stuff that I don’t care about. The lousy pin for the seat hinge cost $9!
