DKW Panel Beating 2013

The DKW

Oh dear!!

They put the warning "do not drive or operate heavy machinery" on drugs for a reason. For a couple of weeks in August was laid low with a dose of the flu. In fact, this winter the flu has taken me down three times. On one of my days, wallowing around in man-flu misery, I had to move the DKW out of the driveway and, in my stupor backed straight into the fence. Great!!! Actually I said something quite else. So, the baby had to go for some medical attention.

I took the car to Karson at K-Paz Spray Painting, who did a great job repairing the damage. The panel looks fantastic and he was able to match the paint perfectly.

While the car was in the shop I asked Karson to look at the front wing. When I bought the car there were two small bubbles in the paintwork, both about the size of a ten cent piece. The front bubble cracked open shortly after the car arrived allowing moisture to get in, causing the bubbles to run. By this time the two bubbles had become one long cracked bubble, almost a foot long. The panel was removed, stripped back and repainted. Fortunately there wasn't really any rust under the bubble.

The bubble as it originally was. It got much worse!

And is now gone!

I am very happy to recommend his work. He can be contacted here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/K-Paz-Automotive-Spraypainting/128098420553883?fref=ts

New windscreen

About six months ago I bought a repro windshield from Draganfly. I was surprised to find that not one of the fixing holes in the windshield actually aligned to the bolts in the front shield so I abandoned the idea, at least temporarily. Over Easter I pulled the windshield out again and recut all the holes. Once recut the windshield slipped in quite easily. I couldn't get the upper fixing bolts secured however and had to make do with a temporary fix.

The bike had a come with a small, custom windshield. It vibrated alot when riding and didn't really serve much of a purpose. I didn't really expect too much of the new windshield either, except for appearances sake. In fact, the first thing I found when I took the bike out was that the windshield is really quite restrictive on the bike's turning circle, especially when turning right. There is very little clearance between clutch lever and the windshield. It has already cut into the perspex. But despite this inconvenience I was surprised to find that the windshield actually works. It creates a slipstream that sweeps up over the windscreen over the rider. I found that I could actually ride without my helmet visor down and not be blown away.

And here are a couple of shots of a nice BSA that I found while riding around. This bike was clearly being ridden as a daily rider. It wasn't fancy or over restored. The paint job was by hand. It's good to see an old machine ridden as the maker intended.