Converting a Spada into a Cali t3 lookalike

A few years ago I sold a t3 Cali to humbug on this site. I didn't want to sell it but a friend had passed and left me three bikes so I was a bit swamped with bikes and something had to go.

this summer I picked up a rough Spada as a project bike. The plan was to turn it into stripped down bike without spending too much money on it :





one thing ink lead to another





i couldnt get get on with the foot pegs they're far too high so a t3 Cali lookalike seemed the obvious choice. Surprisingly things you'd expect to be hard to find are readily available. The hardest thing to source were the wire wheels. A pair turned up fairly quickly but they were missing the bearing/disk carriers. I finally tracked a set down so the projects moving again

Still a way to go but it's getting there

That looks great!

Looks great, admire your skills

Any more 'in between' pics to whet our appetites

JohnnyBoxer said:

Looks great, admire your skills

Any more 'in between' pics to whet our appetites

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Absolutely!

OG would quite likely break your arm for that Screen and Fairing after his got trashed a week or so methinks

I've sold all the parts for the original fairing. The screen is in the wheelie bin if it fits I'll pull it out. I thought it would be too scruffy for most people's bikes but it wouldn't look out of place on ogs

JohnnyBoxer said:

Looks great, admire your skills

Any more 'in between' pics to whet our appetites

Click to expand...

To be honest there isn't much to show.

The original idea was to build a cut down roadster on a shoestring budget. I tried a few ideas out but I really couldn't get on with the high footpegs. the relationship between the footpeg and the seat means you have to squash your legs up putting a real strain on your hips. theres no way to drop the pegs lower because they foul on the exhaust system.




The frame was too far gone for the originally planned spray over and touch up so it was off to the powder coaters for blasting and coating



The rest of it was just a reverse of the original strip down



I was lucky that a previous owner had removed every last nut and bolt and greased them before refitting them, even the dreaded front engine bolt had been removed and greased so hadn't seized up.

Im expecting to spend another £1000 on it to finish it off by which point it will be pushing £3,500. I've sold a lot of the original parts and and still have a spare engine, carbs, wheels and a few other parts that were part of the original deal. By the time I've done I should get back the best part of a £1000 for all the parts so the bike should stand me around £2.5k

Guzzi parts are still very cheap. The black tank in the photographs is an unused old stock tank from Holland. £165 delivered, however it has a dent in the other side so needs filling and spraying. The biggest expense was the wheels and the seat. The seats a high quality reproduction and has a leather cover. I'll be happier when the white settles down a bit as its very bright at the minute.

The cali frame rails, side stand and running boards were very reasonable, a few years ago running boards were and frame rails were big money but theyre out of fashion at the minute. my orignal frame rails fethched good money so went a good way to offsetting the cost of the cali bits.

The box of spares that came with the bike had a load of new bearings and other useful parts that have saved me a lot of money, unfortunately some of the parts with a potential high resale value have proved to be knackered (camshaft and a few other bits) but I do have a few choice parts in there like Le mans breathers, distributors and a complete alternator/ diode board/ rotor setup and starter motor which will all fetch good money.

Biggest mistake was buying the shock factory shocks. They were three hundred quid for the pair and initially looked to be really well made, however, the bodies are wider than most shocks which fouls the rear brake mounting plate and if you mount them upside down (as the stickers would imply they should be mounted) the shock also fouls the bevel box. The springs are incredibly hard and supposedly sized for me but even with my 18.5 stone jumping on them they barely move which is going to cause issues on the road. I've spoken to them about it and was basically fobbed off with a suggestion that I need to ride the bike to give the springs chance to bed in and soften up (if it smells like bullshit...)

I'll post more as it progresses

Cheers Rob
Keep it coming, enjoying the prose and pics

Nice.

Rob Farmer said:

I've sold all the parts for the original fairing. The screen is in the wheelie bin if it fits I'll pull it out.

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If you do that please and I'll pay the postage. I Owe og a favour. An early Christmas present!

The screen won't fit ogs fairing.

DrFarkoff said:

OG would quite likely break your arm for that Screen and Fairing after his got trashed a week or so methinks

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Well, i dunno about breaking his arm for it / but i'd certainly give him a chinese burn at least!

Smelly Old Boots said:

If you do that please and I'll pay the postage. I Owe og a favour. An early Christmas present!

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Wow - (you've a better memory than me! )That's very kind of you.

Rob Farmer said:

The screen won't fit ogs fairing.

Click to expand...

aww feckit! - i was nearly sure they were the same / just the Cali had a vinyl strip at the bottom to make it look ...... better.
Rob,
a conservatory door wouldn't look "out of place" on the front of my Bike.

Ah that's a shame. In fairness, you convinced me to buy my first big bike all those years ago and it's still one of the best things I've done.

Ogmios said:

Well, i dunno about breaking his arm for it / but i'd certainly give him a chinese burn at least!


Wow - (you've a better memory than me! )That's very kind of you.

aww feckit! - i was nearly sure they were the same / just the Cali had a vinyl strip at the bottom to make it look ...... better.
Rob,
a conservatory door wouldn't look "out of place" on the front of my Bike.

Click to expand...

Unique to the model i'm afraid



Just looked up a replacement
http://www.harpermoto.com/windshield-california-iii.html?currency=GBP

Teo Lamers have one for 94 Euros http://www.tlm.nl/webshop/en/windshield-cal3-ff-295772600000-moto-guzzi

Thats a wonderful resto., would love something like that in my garage !

I'd also love to be able to restore something that looked like it was fit for the scrapper.

RBW.

It looks like this at the minute. The damp is making it hard to spray, anything I paint is blooming which is holding things up.

Tracking some of the harder to find parts down has been a nightmare but I've pretty much sourced them all now.

Did you get the foot boards and rails from a guy called Pete in Bournemouth by any chance?

No cookie they came from Reboot.

I'm after a complete exhaust system, four indicators and a screen if he still has any parts kicking about.


(actually isn't Pete from Reboot from there - are we talking about the same bloke?)

Looks great...