Looking at fixing older bikes, input

[lowlife]

too many bikes are going for too little money in my neck of the woods. kinda burned out on fixing cars in my shop and next year will likely be our last year of racing.
I am looking at starting to aquire motorcycles that need work, I will need some specialty tools, thinking right now that a ultrasonic cleaner and a carb synch tool would have a decent payback, as carbs always seem to be gummy and 2 cycles would pay fo rthat. (snowmobiles too0 though I've played that game b4. I have more tools than god, so basics are already covered. Have roughly 5000.00 in engine building tools but i don't expect to get in that deep unless it was a rare bike. Will also need some manuals but will do that on a case by vase basis. What else would you guys look into. The money tree isn't bottomless like my daughter thinks.
I think a HPLV sprayer would be a good idea too as my DeVillebiss is the old syphon kind, still works well just outdated.
Also if SOME of you needed specialty tools, i might be coerced into loaning them out on a limited basis, but I would have to be choosey. sorry playground rules. :nonono:
Always ran some sort of business out of my shop just looking for a possible change,

 

[zlMark]

Yea awesome idea.

I've often thought about doing the same. I just have a hard time letting something go after i've done the work to it. I wrote elsewhere in these forums, I could spend $500 in just carb tools alone. Then I could go for a nice bench, manual tire changer would be handy too. I too have the old school Devilbiss siphon style so some new spray equipment, oh and may as well get me a nice mig welder, then upgrade to a nice tig welder.

**** now I've out grown the 2 car garage! Well there's an old vacant car dealership few miles away. Maybe if I spend a few bucks on a EC997 and rent time, tools, and working bays, while selling products I WONT HAVE TO WRENCH! Except on my toys!

Can anyone float me a loan? :thumbright: dink

 

[lowlife]

I know the feeling, being in the business though I have a lot of friends that have different specialties, as I like to say we have all sat at the feet of different masters.

Any machining can go to my neighbor, another friend builds rat bikes. We used to race stock car together. He went into making stock cars for a living, though his cars saw great success around th ecountry it was still a tough living. So he has the equipment to straighten frames of bikes bend sheet metal pipe etc. Another owns a high performance machine shop, god friends are great huh, I could never do what I do without their help and its a 2 way street.

I'm just a lowly wrench with some painting and fab skills. When my daughter goes to school there will be a large void in my life which needs to be filled. Notice I said void in my life, NOT my pocketbook. Thank God for friends

Anyhow, I had to take my carbs in from the baby ninja to be sonic cleaned and synched. This was almost half the cost of a smaller sonic cleaner. My regular bike wrench got out of twisting them and i couldn't coerce him into changing his mind for me. I didn't try too hard as I know the feeling. Been going to randy for over 20 years now. I might be able to have him teach me some stuff. All I know is there aren't in my opinion too many quality bike wrenches in our area that do it as a hobby. I'm not sure if I want to go that route but doing the restoration thing might be my thing. I cry when I think of the vintage muscle I had let slip through my fingers (cars) now I can't afford them, I have seen the same things happening to snowmobiles and have a couple that need resto, I am now seeing the same things with bikes but can still get in while I can afford it.

So what would you havew bought for carb tools?

 

[zlMark]

Muscle cars,,slipping through fingers. OMG I've been eyeballing a 70 mach1 for a few years now, just sitting there hasn't moved. Now I see a 4 sale sign on it. I'm not much of a Ford man other wise I'd be all over it but it is a muscle car! Damn I may go see them today,lol

Carb tools.

Factorypro Float Tool

Morgan Carbtune

Bevel drive adjuster (Dale Walkers?)

Remote fuel tank

I'm sure there is more can't remember now

 

[acp]

Yeah, now there's something I love, old Muscle cars. My favourite has to be the old Mustang, like the Shelby GT 500, or the Pontiac Firebird. Love the looks of both of them. Rare to find out here though. A dealership in Bristol has a GT 500 going for £50k, that's about $100k US.

 

[wuputt]

Jeez, I wish I had my old '69 AMX back! Sold it for $650 (bought it for $400) and thought I was smart!!!
Then theres the Olds 442 and the '61 Ford Starliner (my dad sold for $50 when i was in the military!) they only made 2100 of them! Bad part he sold it to a guy that already had one! Had a '66 corvair monza and a '61 Ford Ranchero and a '49 Dodge Pickup!

I WANT EM ALL BACK!!!