This bike has undergone a total refresh, includes many new components, and runs just like you’d expect after undergoing our tune up.  With a new ’68 Bonnie paint job to match, this is a great chance to own one of our favorite classic machines.

Read more in our bikes for sale section.

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Recently, a valued customer came to pick up his tank, and we were able to give him a quick tour of the paint room where we have a number of ’68 tanks in progress.

As part of our extensive collection, we have a pristine NOS ’68 tank which has only seen the light of day one or two times in it’s 45-year lifetime. The color and pattern we use for our customers matches this tank perfectly.

In the first of three photos below, the NOS tank is closest to the camera. Next to that hangs one of two ’68 tanks which have been prepped with a gold base coat over which the Hi-Fi Scarlet is applied. Between those two gold tanks is our customer’s finished tank. Also, note our NOS ’70 Daytona tank in Jacaranda Purple on the shelf in the background.

This tank was prepped extensively prior to applying the Hi-Fi Scarlet, Silver Sheen, and hand-applied gold pinstripe. Before he left with the tank, Hutch made sure the mounting bolt holes on the bottom were properly cleaned out with a tap, and that the bolts fit without issue.

Needless to say, our customer was pretty thrilled by our results and the behind-the-scenes tour.

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In this case, he’s just completed a 1965 Bonneville for the very well regarded Wayne Hamilton collection.  Leroy and his team have done wonderful work, and we’re proud to have played a small part.

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We’re thrilled, of course, with his recovery and return.  Our shop is finally back to normal.

While Hutch was away, we did everything we could to keep things moving exactly as he would want.  One project which made it’s way to the top of our list was the restoration of this fine 1968 Triumph T120R Bonneville.

This bike began as a complete core, found in a shed, covered with dirt and rot.  We completely disassembled the bike, powder-coated all the black parts, re-chromed the chrome parts, cad plated the proper parts, and replaced a number of components.

Most of the parts are original, including all chrome parts and sheet metal.  Look for our special touches, such as the original white plastic front brake cable router, bakelite Champion spark plug caps, and restored Lucas ammeter.

Needless to say, the paint job is one of our finer efforts.  The Hi-Fi Scarlet and Silver Sheen with hand-applied gold pinstripes is just outstanding (if we say so ourselves).

We’re proud to say the result is pretty typical of our shop, and we look forward to the owner of this bike enjoying it for years to come.

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We’re thrilled with the results.  While it was a wonderful bike to begin with, it now stands out as a near-flawless example of this legendary motorbike.

Please see additional photographs, and links to prior blog posts regarding this machine, in our “Customer Bikes” section.

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By late February, we’d sandblasted our frame. In early March, we’d sandblasted all other parts to be powdercoated, and had sourced an original fuel tank.

As we moved towards April, the powdercoating was completed, our tank was prepped for paint, and we’d begun the enjoyable task of filling our parts table with new and NOS components.

In April and May, we continued sourcing rare parts, and painted the tank to exactly match the original.

Since that time, we’ve been busily assembling the engine, and in turn, the completed machine featured here. It is an outstanding motorbike in every way. The engine growls, the suspension and controls are precisely calibrated, and the bike is every bit as beautiful as we’d originally envisioned.

As the build of this bike progressed, we were pleased to arrange to deliver it to its new owner immediately on completion, so it is not available for sale. However, we’ve already begun restoration on a 1970 Bonneville, which is available to build to customer specification.

Check additional photographs of this bike out in our “Customer Bikes” section.

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See if you can spot the NOS ’68 headlamp & wiring harness, and the box full of grey Amal grips.

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We’re not fans of tank sealer, as it eventually fails. We prefer to find and weld leaks shut, and ensure our tanks are properly repaired for the long term.

We recently performed some repairs on a tank which had a faulty repair carried out in it’s lifetime on the mounting studs. The original studs had broken off, and in their place were badly misaligned heli-coils with incorrectly threaded studs. To make matters worse, the new studs were too long, and punctured the tank when installed. The owner then soldered around the base of the studs in a poor attempt to fix the inevitable leaks.

Our typical repair involves removing the faulty studs and bottom caps altogether, and then sealing the holes completely with white brazing flux (which we also use, incidentally, to seal leaks around the filler neck).

Once the leaks are thought to be sealed, we use our gas cap pressure test assembly pictured below to ensure no leaks remain. We affix the cap to the tank, pressurize it with air, wet the outside of the tank, look for bubbles, and re-solder pinholes as necessary.

Finally, we weld and tap new bottom caps which will accept the proper studs. The end result is long-lasting and undetectable.

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That said, as we’ve been making some big efforts to restore this bike to factory condition, we decided to source an original tank and fenders for this special bike.

Not that the reproductions are bad.  In fact, they’re very good, fairly inexpensive, and we gladly make them available to our customers.

In this case, we searched our warehouse and located the original components.  One telltale sign of an original fender is the subtly rolled edge, versus the more pronounced edge as seen in the photos below.

These parts have been sandblasted, and now wait in the queue for our famous Don Hutchinson paint job!

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As we’ve mentioned previously, this bike started as a fine build from a reputable shop.  We’ve been helping to make this bike an even more correct and perfect restoration by applying the correct paint scheme, among other things.

We’ve gone through the bike twice, and swapped out incorrect bolts, nuts, fasteners and other small parts.  Pictured below are a few of the parts we’ve removed and replaced recently, including the crossover pipe and clamps.

The original ’69 Bonneville crossover pipe clamp was a double clamp measuring about 3″ long, and included two bolts on each clamp.  You can see examples of this original clamp on one of our core bikes in the photo below.

Later in 1969 and into 1970, these double clamps were replaced with single clamps.  While high-quality single clamps are readily available, the double clamps simply don’t exist.  We’ve never seen a good-quality reproduction, as those which are available are just not correct – and it shows.

We love our customers, and love helping them make their bike as perfect as possible.  In this case, we were able to find a single set of NOS clamps.  After taking some time to clean the dried masking tape off of them, and shining them up, we installed them on this bike, helping bring this restoration up to snuff.

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