Back to the beginning

Haven't done much work on the 19S over the last two weeks. I did manage to find a suitable paint stripper, and tested it out on an engine plate part. The plan is to strip all the frame parts and repaint them myself. I'm fairly confident in that. Fenders, oil tank, battery box cover, fuel tank, and headlamp bucket will require work that I'm unable to do to straighten them out. Right now, the main things stopping me from stripping and painting the frame are my inability to extract the steering head ball races with the tools I have available, and work/family time.

So in the mean time, here's a picture of the 19S shortly after it came into my possesion. Note the funny angle of the fuel tank. The original rear tank support is missing, and the previous owner improvised one out of a piece of angle iron. That part (and the center stand) are basically unobtainable. Certainly a suitable (and probably better than original) tank support can be fabricated. Not sure what to do about a centerstand.

The other bike in the background is a 1956 BMW R69. I got that bike at the same time as the 19S, and it currently resides in Montana with my parents. It even runs!