Thanks for joining us in our first web based restoration.

I have been  restoring BMWs  30  years. We have several good vintage BMWs in our warehouse just waiting to be brought back to their original glory. In this series we plan to take you through the entire restoration process of a BMW R60/2.

We will start with the teardown and assessment, go thru the power train rebuild, wheel relacing, electrical, paint, plating, assembly and so on. This is not meant to be a "how to" article as it would  require way too many details for that. Instead we hope you get some idea of what goes into the restoration process and we hope some of you will be encouraged to undertake a restoration yourself. Enjoy our work and send us your comments.

Meet Adam Hamel, Blue Moon Cycle's ace technician and our Virtual Restoration candidate BMW R60/2. Adam will be doing most of the work on this project and today we start with the tear down. We have chosen this R60/2 because it's just the way we like to get them for restoration. This bike is cosmetically challenged but very complete and original. The sheet medal is straight and only showing surface rust on its factory original paint job, and the engine has good compression. The numbers match so when its finished it will be worth more.

The speedo shows 20870 miles. Since the foot peg rubbers and kick start lever show very little wear we believe it could be all the miles this bike has seen. Once we get into the engine we'll know more; if the pistons are the standard 72mm size then the mileage is probably correct. The previous owners could have show a little more care for keeping the bike out of the weather. The speedo only needs a cleaning and lube.

The standard 4 gallon gas tank has only slight dents and surface rust. The inside still has it's original red oxide coating in great shape. Even the porcelain emblem survives chip free. At first look this bike looks to be very rough, but when you look at the components separately you see its mostly paint and plating that brings it down.

The rear fender is rust free, straight, and not drilled with extra holes. The hinge area is often a problem and very difficult to repair. This fender is excellent, same goes for the tail light. Notice the rear shock adjusting handles, they haven't been cut as is often the case. Paint and plating is all that will be needed here.

The front fender and shock covers are straight.This bike has never been in a crash, the alloy rim is only oxidized, sorry to say the Avon speed master has seen better days.

Next week in episode 2:
We will get deeper into the internals and see if its really a silk purse or a sow's ear.

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