Let the games begin...

[Sumfun4me]

As posted earlier, I finally found an affordable example of the Ducati 750 F1 that I had always wanted for a project bike. The bike in question is a 1986 (F1 model, which was an improved version of the original 1985 released bike. In 1986 the 750 F1 crankcases were strengthened, and now used straight cut primary gears driving a hydraulically activated dry clutch, and stronger gearbox. The valve sizes were increased to 41 mm and 35 mm, as used on the TT2, and this meant smaller 12 mm sparkplugs were fitted. Other features were 40 mm Forcella front forks, Veglia instruments, and a steel petrol tank. This bike was in pretty good condition, given that it is 25 years old and has been ridden regularly (69,000 kms on the clock). I picked up the bike on Thursday & found the ride home to be extremely enjoyable, more so than my 1198s Corse I have to admit. This bike is such fun to ride and you really can give it as much throttle as you like without worrying about being dumped off it or anything.





So I started the strip down yesterday after getting home from work. I hadn't really intended to get onto it so quickly, but I was looking at it & thought "what the heck'. I pretty much finished the strip down this afternoon (about 6 hours in all).

[Sumfun4me]

During the process of stripping the bike, quite a few things came to light. I dont think there were any 2 bolts, nuts or spacers that matched - some were allen head, some grade 5, some grade 8, some imperial and even a few stainless ones were found. Spacers had been replaced with nuts, washers were fitted in one place but not the other, etc, etc. I'm planning on replacing every nut & bolt with either titanium or stainless as she goes back together.
The electrics were an abomination, with wires taped together, dodgy terminal connections all over & one of the spark plug leads was even spliced together! I guess one could argue that it was all an improvement over the factory wiring in its day, from what I remember. I will be calling on a good mate of mine (who is a bike nut auto sparky) to manufacture a complete new wiring harness.
The instrument cluster has been bastardised & is beyond salvage, but I have already managed to locate a complete brand spanking new replacement for a very good price.
The front brake rotors are non genuine as far as I can tell. From all accounts, all 750 F1's came out with 280 mm full floating Brembos, but for some reason this one has fixed rotors. This is definitely going to be a labour of love and I'm sure it wont happen overnight (given the difficulty in locating parts these days), but I have decided to rebuild her back to original, just as Mr Taglioni intended. One thing I do have in my favour is the 30 years as a mechanic, which I believe will be invaluable with this little project.
The first step will be to get the frame, swing arm & centre stand cleaned, blasted, inspected for cracks/bends/damage and powder coated. Whilst this is happening I will be working on locating all the little bits & pieces needed to bolt them all back together.

[Falcore]

Dude you don't screw around eh?

Good luck an look forward to the updates

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Sumfun4me]

Well, it's been a while and I finally have some more info to add.
The frame, swing arm, wheel, & all brackets are all out with our very own Potato being given his loving care (should be ready soon). He's put a fair bit of work into it from what I saw a couple of weeks ago. In the interim I've been scrounging parts wherever possible. I've managed to accumulate about 75% of all the items I need so far.
So today I bit the bullet & started to strip the engine down. I was pretty happy with the internal condition. The vertical cylinder bore has about 5 thou of wear whilst the horizontal bore has nothing to mention. I'm replacing both pistons and ring sets as a matter of course. The oil pump looks like brand new, and there's no sign of wear on any gears. I didn't find anything damaged internally at all - not bad for 69,000 kays. The oil was pristine - the original owner did a good job of looking after her, with regular 500 km oil changes. The clutch was another story - absolutely fried! I've already managed to get hold of a NOS clutch kit.

[fatoxious]

looks awesome man, such a cracker of a bike. (not that i know much about them) great shape, beautiful lines. can't wait to see it finished. good luck amigo!

[rod]

I'm looking forward to seeing pics of this one when it's finished! Just about all the F1's etcetera I see are in "original" condition so I'm looking forward to one which has had a total strip and rebuild.

[Sumfun4me]

The only items I haven't been able to track down so far have been a new ignition switch & windscreen. Whilst it takes time, most parts seem to turn up eventually, and I have found out that these are possibly one of the hardest Duc's to find new parts for. There is very little in the way of repro parts available - it seems that there are more available for the bevels than early pantah's. Ian Gowanloch & his new off-sider Jim (in NSW) have been super helpful & I would highly recommend them to anyone who is going down the early bevel or pantah restoration route.

[Sumfun4me]

Not a great deal to add, but I picked up a pile of small parts that have been re-coated by our very own Potato (who did a great job I might add). I spent a few hours this afternoon re-building the master cylinders & this was the final result:

Rear brake:



Front brake & clutch:



Unfortunately the front brake & clutch reservoirs are no longer available so I've had to clean them up as best I could to re-use (I'll keep looking for NOS ones though). The plastic had discoloured a fair bit on the inside from the fluid, and I found that a lot of polishing with 1200 wet & dry seemed to clean them up a fair bit. Original Brembo overhaul kits are still available, so they've all been re-kitted with new pistons, seals, springs & retainers.

Not a lot more I can do at present - I've got the engine fully stripped & all the aluminium at a mates workshop being cleaned. When I pick it all up next week it's off for soda blasting before I drop it all off to Niall for painting. Once this is done I can actually start to rebuild it!

[stevo 1963]

Simply awesome...i envy you guys who have the mechanical knowledge to do this sort of thing...

[Sumfun4me]

Something else that's been completed; I managed to get the carbs all back together. I had them stripped, cleaned & blasted before re-assembling. All brass components were replaced, along with floats & slides. Luckily the barrels were in pretty good nick, which was surprising given the amount of wear on the slides. I've also replaced the choke assemblies, top caps, pump diaphragms & all external hardware.











I think I'm going to have the inlet manifold clamps chromed, as they didn't clean up as well as I'd have liked & they aren't available anymore. Apart from this I thought they came up well.


Just trying to locate an original set of chrome bellmouths to fit them now, then they're finished.

[lunar_c]

Beautiful bike and meticulous attention to detail! Good luck!

[F2thaK]

she'll be like brand new once youre done! sweet!

edit: scrap that, better than new!

[Sumfun4me]

It's been a while; the past 12 months have been a real struggle to locate NOS parts, but I'm getting there. I picked up the frame, wheels, forks & swingarm from Niall the other week & have started the assembly.

Firstly I cleaned the fork parts & tapped out all the threads for assembly. These went back together with new piston seals (no longer available, so I had Transeals make me up a set), new chrome stanchions (NOS), new seal retaining caps (NOS), all new hardware (NOS), new adjuster caps (NOS) and all new o-rings. The actual fork seals were good enough to re-use, which was fortunate as these are unobtainium these days (transeals wanted $8.00 a piece to make them, but with a minimum order of 500 units!).











Oh, and thats a custom made titanium from axle in the pic's. I had this made through a chap in the UK who specialises on TT bikes, along with a rear axle, swinarm pivot shaft & some nice aluminium wheel spacers.

[Sumfun4me]

Next was the cleaning of the frame with all threads being tapped out & cleaned, & the steering head bores cleaned up with a dremel & wire wheel, before fitting the new bearings (these were from Statewide bearings - great guys to deal with & they can save you an awful lot of money. "Geniune" Ducati bearings were over $50.00 a piece - Statewide were only $12.00 each). The original steering yoke & upper clamp were fitted with the original clipons (again painted gloss black by Niall - the photos really dont do the paint any justice, and again all threads were tapped out & cleaned), and a new bearing cover washer & nut (both NOS).



The original front fairing stay was fitted (painted gloss black again), with the new dash (NOS), new headlight (NOS) & new oil cooler (NOS). The oil cooler mounting brackets were also replaced with new NOS units, as the old ones were well & truely knackered.



After this was done, I mounted the 2 NOS Brembo P08 brake calipers with new hoses (genuine). The original brake splitter was re-painted & used, with new fittings & pressure switch.

[Sumfun4me]

New NOS plastics were fitted (the rear mudguard or undertray, breather reservoir and half guard around the shock):





These still need to be cleaned properly, as they are covered in a whitish wax from storage for the past 25 years.

I also fitted up the centre stand with new NOS springs & pivot bolts:



Last thing I did was fit the new NOS helmet lock:



Some of the more astute members may be inclined to pick out the fact that a lot of the hardware that has been used is a little "grubby". I have used the originals so that I was able to do a dry run & measure everything up. I've got most of the replacement items ordered already in stainless & will be replacing the whole lot once these arrive.

[Crashlington]

love it

[Brock32]

People like yourself make me feel like a single cell organism dreaming of space travel.

Stunning build.

I really need to clean up my shed