Beezer Sidecover

 

I welded up a sidecover for one of Surly's buddies. It's somewhat of an oddity. It's to allow the use of a magneto instead of the conventional points ignition. If you look closely you can see where I welded up a crack in the left side of the photo between the bolt and shifter holes. I also filled up a couple of divots. Filing it down and making it pretty wasn't part of the deal but I filed the welds down to make sure there wasn't any porosity. When you weld a crack in an aluminum case like this, there's usually oil in the crack that turns to carbon when you weld over it. That prevents the weld bead from flowing together. I sandblasted the inside of the case and cut a slight groove with the die grinder on the outside but there was still a little bit of carbon formed when I welded the crack. I filed it down, put another pass on it and then filed it again to be sure it would clean up. 

You'll notice there aren't many screw holes on the cover. There are bosses cast in for them you can see on the inside but they were never drilled and counterbored. Might be why it cracked. I wonder how they ever got it to seal up oil tight. Those old British bikes were famous for dripping oil straight from the factory.

I cut the pieces to stretch the frame on the jitney yesterday. After finishing the steering wheel adapter, I sat down in the cab to see how I would fit and I definitely need some more leg room. The pieces in the photo are about 11" long - should give me what I need. 

I made a cardboard pattern for the firewall. I already have the aluminum one made but didn't have it trimmed around the transmission. Now I can do that and get a better idea about hooking up the steering. I think I've got it fairly well figured out. I'm going to order some parts in the next few days and it shouldn't be long after that when I find out if it's going to work or not.