Isetta - Misc. Updates

I said I've been slacking on my Isetta restoration, but I have been working on various things. One of the things I was working on is refurbishing the the under seat heat heater. It's been bead blasted, painted, and like many heaters, the lever for the flap was broken, which has been replaced with a reproduction heater flap from Isettas R Us.

I also needed to shorten the length of the heater cable.

After shortening the cable I also needed to adjust the castle nut on the heater and choke levers just a little tighter so that they would hold the cables in the desired position.

I've also been working on the wiring harness.

One thing I would really recommend when you're working on a wiring harness is picking up a booklet of wire markers. While all the Isettas wires are color coded, wire markers make it much easier referring to the black and white Isetta wiring diagram. I might also mention that if you need replacement terminal strips, Radio Shack sells the European-Style Terminal Strip. Additionally a good source for wiring harness supplies is the ebay seller 4RCUSTOMS. 4RCUSTOMS sells color coded wire, PVC sleeve tube, shrink tube, and a variety of wiring harness supplies for very reasonable prices with quick shipping. 

I had a minor snafu when I began doing the wiring on the Isetta dash. My body shop had got the paint a little thin in one spot where the primer was showing through. I had to have them respray it. So after a small delay, it's back now and I've begun working on the wiring of the dash.

Another dash related item is I picked up a gas spring to help out the tired original spring in the Isetta door shock. I used a German made Bansbach spring, model # 1 6EYA9. I purchased it from Grainger. I had to fabricate some end pieces for the spring that fit inside the original spring and keep the gas spring centered.

I've also installed the rear and side glass. I can honestly say it was a royal pain in butt. I hope the front windshield goes a little smoother. I've also installed the interior luggage rack and net. Next up is getting the front door on the car.

1956 Csepel Danuvia 125

I've been slacking on the Isetta restoration recently because I recently acquired a new toy. It's a 1956 Hungarian motorcycle called a Csepel Danuvia 125/D. It's basically a Hungarian version of one of the most copied motorcycles of all time, the German made DKW RT125. This bike received a very thorough restoration in Hungary a few years ago before being imported to the United States. Generally I like to do my own restorations, however being a big fan of DKW's and this style of motorcycle, I jumped at the opportunity to acquire this bike.  

Some of the original Hungarian paperwork that came with the bike.

The bike runs great, but before I start riding it, I wanted to do a few little things. The spark plug cable that was on the bike seemed too short and was a little too modern looking for my taste. I replaced it with a vintage style woven cable. Also the wiring on the bike was done with a brown wire that looked a little too much like lamp cord, so I replaced the wiring and used a vintage style woven sheath over the new wiring. I also eliminated all plastic cable ties and electricians tape and instead used vintage rubber John Bull type rubber ties.

The bike didn't have a fuel filter, so I added a fuel filter that looks period correct. While I was at it, I pulled the carb and cleaned it. I drained all the fluids, so that when I start riding it it will have all fresh lubricants and fuel.

I also noticed that the bike was leaking a fair amount of oil out of the clutch side engine case. While searching for the source of the oil leak, I did find a few other minor problems. As you can see in this photo, the threads for the oil fill hole are stripped. The cap was basically just sitting in the hole. 

The source of the oil leak was that the shaft that the gear shift lever attaches to had a bad oil seal. Not a big deal, however there was another problem that put a slight delay in my riding plans.

Before the engine case can be removed, the kick start lever and the gear shift lever have to be removed. I had noticed that the bolt on the gear shift lever was so over tightened that it was bent. I had to cut it in the middle to get it removed from the gear shift lever. I soon realized why it was so overtightened. The splines on the gear shift lever and the shaft that it connects to were completely gone. If I had to, I could juke up a repair, however hopefully I think I've located a gear shift shaft and lever with good splines. I'm hoping I can get these parts fairly soon and get the bike back together before winter sets in. Oh well, I guess I can get back to work on the Isetta now.

Incidentally, there are also some weirdly awesome Hungarian microcars.

Isetta Interior Panels - Part 1

The Isetta's original interior panels were made from a textured black panel board that was usually painted grey. I couldn't find a source for this material, but I wanted to replicate the original panels as closely as possible. What I decided to do was to bond a textured vinyl to regular panel board. In this photo, I'm tracing the original parcel shelf panel onto a piece of panel board. 

Here I've removed and am tracing the parcel shelfs two side pieces which were riveted to the larger main piece

Once the parts were traced onto panel board, I cut them out close to my pencil lines with my bandsaw.

I used various edge, spindle, and hand sanders to get the pieces smooth an to their final shape.

These are the pieces after sanding to the final shape. The next step will be to roll out glue on the panel board, lay my vinyl on top with a cover sheet (caul) and put the hole thing in a vacuum press.

This is one of the side pieces in the vacuum press. You really can't see anything because it has a cover sheet over the vinyl, but the vinyl over hangs the panel board all the way around and will be trimmed with an x-acto knife when the glue is dry.

These are the two side pieces after coming out of the vacuum press and having the vinyl trimmed flush to the edge of the panel board.

All the vinyl has been bonded and trimmed and in this photo I'm in the process of riveting the side pieces to the main piece.

A few photos of the finished parcel shelf interior panel.

And a few photos of the finished parcel shelf panel installed in my Isetta

Gould's Microcar Event 2012 - No.17

Charles Gould now has photos of the 2012 17th Annual Gould's Microcar Event up on his Bubbledrome website. As always, it looks like a great turn out and a good time. One of these years I'm going to be there! Click on the photo to go to the Bubbledrome page with several photo albums of this great microcar gathering.