www.site.libertyvintage.com
You gotta check out this guys web site. I took my engine to his shop today. What an interesting guy! He lives and has his shop in the Northern liberties section of Philadelphia which is where all the artists and off beat weirdos have their studios and shops. To say this guy is a mechanic is a misnomer.
He does metal sculpture and portraits and makes films. He has the most eclectic group of college interns in mechanical engineering, ex-cons, recovering drug addicts, juvenial delinquents and "retarded" people working in the shop. He has a girl that is getting her masters degree in mecanical engineering at University of Penn, he showed me some tech school kids that were interning... they were out in the back yard digging holes, when they think the hole is perfect like a perfect round sculpture they come get Adam. Adam always gives them a thumbs up then tells them to dig another one but, try to make it different and an expression of themselves. If the kids come back the next day he lets them work on a bike with one of the mechanics for an hour or two then back out to the yard for hole sculpting. He does this for at least the first week and by the end of the week the kids are asking for pieces of junk to adorn the hole. Then when they graduate from hole duggery he let them work all the time with a mechanic. Sometimes he lets the retarded men be the teachers to the interns in what they know how to do. like cleaning and picking up tools.
The graduate student was a girl and the mechanic gave her instructions and the reasoning behind what she is supposed to do. Then the mechanic said repeat what I said like you were going to teach me. The image was funny here is this one eyed, dread locked, ex con tutroing this sweet little college girl in the art and mastery of motorcycle mechanics and they were both taking it as serious as anything I've ever seen. It was one of the most human scale operations I think I've seen.
I felt like I was in Mr Miaggi's... wax on wax off. Then he said sometime during the day they, the whole shop, all walk to the ice cream store or corner store for a drink and more life instruction. He just works on vintage bikes. He has a helicopter hanging in the middle of his shop. which is like a motor museum.
Like I said he is one of the coolest people I've met. read his stuff on his site.
Any way the engine is at his shop ETA February first 2013. He is going to make a video about the rebuild and polishing of my engine... I guess for the site or a teaching aid for his tech school kids. I told him I wanted to paint the engine and he said no, I will polish the engine and you won't paint it... I took that to mean I won't want to paint it... oh well I guess I have to rethink my build again!. I fear what this will cost, LOL!
1980 CB750C DOHC
It's never too late to start something new!
Locked
