Ducati Cucciolo

[pete]

I know some guys were interested in seeing the Ducati Cucciolo I was given by my dad a while ago, so I'll stick some progress pic's up in here now that I'm finally starting on it.

It appears to be a T2 from the late '40's or early '50's according to the knowledgeable folk over on the Ducati pushrod twins mailing list.

I just realised it says no technical questions in off topic so I'll just post progress and won't ask questions ok?

Anyway, this is what I was given:





Overhead valves are a little different to what I'm used to:



Gotta be the smallest carby I've seen, I think it's a Weber from memory:



The tank and everything is unrestored in original condition, and the decals are still pretty legible:



And yep, that's right, that's where the push bike pedal goes to start her up:



And definitely Ducati:

[pete]

Tonight I started the clean up.

Soaked some of the brackets and nuts in kero to start cleaning them up and sprayed a whole bunch of DWF under the fuel tank cap as I can't budge it loose.

I'm sitting the tank upside down to hopefully let it do it's work and let me get the cap off. From the outside it doesn't look rusty but I won't know for sure until I can see inside.



The fuel tap unscrewed really easily which is a good sign I reckon.

Then I sprayed some degreaser on the engine and got stuck in with a paint brush to start cleaning all the crud off the outside.

It's going to be a slow process given how much there is and how caked on it is, but it's already looking 100% better than it was:





I'm running low on kero and have run out of degreaser altogether, so I'll have to pick some more up this week.

Going to be some messy fun ahead...

[greg78gs750]

looks like a project, for sure. keep posting pics!

greg

[pete]

Cheers Greg, will do!

Gonna be a slow one this time... actually the 450 took nearly 10 years... maybe this will be a quick one then? Haha

The game plan right now is just to get it cleaned up and see if it works, then I'll think about what's next.

I expect I'll try to find a similar vintage pushbike to mount it on for some authenticity.

[cowboyup3371]

Looks good Pete. Actually, if 7981GS can have his Trizuki project over in the Projects section, I'm not sure why this couldn't be there too. I'm looking forward to seeing you fix it up and the frame you decide to throw it on.

[pete]

Looks good Pete. Actually, if 7981GS can have his Trizuki project over in the Projects section, I'm not sure why this couldn't be there too. I'm looking forward to seeing you fix it up and the frame you decide to throw it on.

Cheers Scott! I think the difference with Eric's is that he at least will have some Suzuki parts on his... the only thing Suzuki related with this will be the 450 parked beside the work bench

[SVSooke]

ARE YOU DONE YET? ARE YOU DONE YET?

[Baatfam]

Looks good Pete. Actually, if 7981GS can have his Trizuki project over in the Projects section, I'm not sure why this couldn't be there too. I'm looking forward to seeing you fix it up and the frame you decide to throw it on.

I agree...this should definitely be in the projects section....
We all love motorcycles and this is motorcycle history...(It's not like your adding chrome to your Harley)

[pete]

ARE YOU DONE YET? ARE YOU DONE YET?

Hahahahahaha I can assure you it ain't gonna be a 10 year one this time

I agree...this should definitely be in the projects section....
We all love motorcycles and this is motorcycle history...(It's not like your adding chrome to your Harley)

Hmmmm fair enough... maybe I shall ask our kind administrator Frank if he'd mind moving it... see how we go... I could always start a poll I s'pose...

And yes, no Harley and no chrome! Unless of course Harley made a push bike in the 40's or '50's?

[landshark]

Hey Pete, im very interested in this. Have you been checking out some board trackers for some ideas?

[cowboyup3371]

Why not just delete this one (under thread tools) and restart it under the projects sections.

[pete]

Hey Pete, im very interested in this. Have you been checking out some board trackers for some ideas?

Cool Tim, glad there's a few more interested... this is gonna be a fun little project I reckon

Haven't looked at board trackers at the moment, mainly just concentrating on seeing if the engine is a goer or not.

Once that's done I can decide a direction.

My only concern with the board tracker thing is the practicality of it... not exactly something you can ride very often!

I like the idea of getting something going I at least have a chance of riding...

Mind you I liked what that guy in NZ did with his mate for some board tracker style bikes... he was the guy who stuck the bandit engine in his 750.

[pete]

Why not just delete this one (under thread tools) and restart it under the projects sections.

I'll shoot Frank a PM and see what he says... can't hurt to ask right? Just don't wanna lose the replies and subscribers so far

[pete]

I picked up another three cans of spary degreaser on the way home this avo' and I reckon I'm gonna need 'em! Man this thing's disgusting.

Still can't get the fuel cap to budge so more DWF soaking in there, might need to find a stronger penetrating oil though.

As for tonight, I dismantled the throttle lever and got it all cleaned up and started cleaning the clutch lever up.

The cables are very much had it, frayed at the ends and so forth, and unfortunately I had to cut the ends off the clutch cable to get it out. They don't look unusual though, just a ball on one end and bare cable the other that is screwed in.



The carb is definitely a Weber, and I gave it somewhat of a clean as well:



Throttle lever cleaned up:



Started on the clutch lever and you can see the much cleaner carb there again:



That's basically a puddle of grunge soaked into the newspaper there, almost completely black and disgusting:



Definitely looking somewhat cleaner though!

[Nessism]

Super cool project Pete.

That grunge, as nasty as it looked, has protected the metal pretty well. Better to clean grunge than rust.