The Restoration of The Starship Snoopy.

“Life is what happens while you’re making plans for the future.”  That’s a pretty good explanation of why my Norton sat under a tarp for 18 years.  The last time the “Starship Snoopy” had been on the road was in 1984 when my wife and I rode it from Phoenix to Flagstaff for the International Norton Owner's Association's "Rally on the Rim."   Then we rode it home, parked it in the corner of our patio, covered it with a tarp, and there it sat while life got in the way of all my plans.

Then, right after the devastation of 9/11/2001 I went into a really deep depression and withdrew into myself.  My wife decided I needed something to focus on and suggested I restore the Norton, saying,  “If not now, when?”  So I decided the time for the long awaited total restoration was at hand.  

I had bought the Norton new in 1974.  The figure $2300 sticks in my mind and I think that’s what I paid for it.  In 1975 I installed a seven-gallon Interstate tank, a touring fairing, saddlebags, named it “Big Red”, and went off exploring America.  First stop, Sturgis ’75.  In the early 80’s I exchanged the touring fairing for a café, and added rear sets, clip-on bars, and a Fastback seat and tail section, but kept the Interstate tank.  This was when I painted it bright yellow, christened it  the  “Starship Banana” and rode it to the ’84 rally.

Now, having decided to do the restoration, I rolled the bike into my shop and did a quick audit.  No compression, the pipes had rusted out, the seat was dry-rotted, and the tires were cracked.  On the other hand, all the major parts were there and sound.  I figured, “OK, let’s put about 3 grand into it and get it back on the road.”

Ha!  Silly me.  Six months and $9000.00 later I have the Norton in better than new condition.  Now christened “The Starship Snoopy” she’s totally rebuilt from the ground up and is beautiful.  By the way, the Snoopy figure on the dash was given to me by my wife’s daughter and has been on every bike I’ve owned since 1979.  Now his permanent home is on the Starship.

I did all the disassembly and reassembly.  I also did all the electrical work and in doing so I put the whole system together with NO SPLICES!  I put a large terminal block inside the fairing, and another terminal block inside the battery compartment and ran every electrical circuit to or from the two terminal blocks.  No splices, no inline connectors. 

Another neat thing was that I replaced all possible nuts and bolts with stainless steel duplicates.  And before I installed them I put all the bolts into my drill press, spun them up, and polished the tops of the heads with fine files and sandpaper.  They look great.

Here’s a very, very abbreviated list of what went into the restoration.

Complete engine and tranny rebuild by Phil Radford at Fair Spares America.
(This was back when I was renting bikes, not repairing and restoring them, and Phil is a really good guy.)
Powder coated the frame, by local vendor.
New pipes, brakes, tires, oil lines, hydraulic lines, cables.
Rebuilt front brake master cylinder with Clubman Racing re-sleeve kit.
Rebuilt front forks with Rocky Point Cycle Damper Kit.  
New Hagon rear shocks from Dave Quinn Motorcycles.
RMA Engineering’s Cam Chain Tensioner.
Podronics Power Module.
Rebuilt the Mikuni.  Reinstalled the Boyer.
New wheels, spoked with stainless steel spokes by Buchanan’s Wheels.
George Scholtz’s Rocker Shaft Covers.
MK3 Isolastic Conversion Kits.
New front fender, new tail lamp assembly.
Candy Apple Red paint over White Pearl base coat, with gold pin stripes.
 

So that’s it.  

I now have a $2300 motorcycle I spent $9000 to restore that is probably worth about $5000. 

 Once the restoration was complete I groused to my wife that $9000 was a lot of money to have spent. 
She replied, “Yes, that’s true. 
But you could have spent the same amount on therapy and you wouldn’t have a motorcycle to show for it.”

 Goodness, I love my wife!

Keep the rubber side down, the shiny side up, and . . .

Ride On!
Frank Del Monte
USNOA #1