With the frame separated from the engine block and gearbox, it is not much extra work to strip the frame completely for a new layer of paint. There  was some rust on the frame in particular near the battery tray. We decided to go for powder coating. The end result is not as shiny as hi-gloss spray paint, but it is more durable. All openings in the frame must be carefully closed. We cut small aluminium covers and tapped the edges down a little bit to get a good fit, plus a metal strap to keep it in its place. Another pitfall is bearing grease left behind. The temperature of the baking process is about 200 degrees C. That will make grease run easily and with a bit of bad luck it can compromise the paint layer. It is also important to close all holes in the frame that are intended for mounting components. Especially the threaded holes. With normal paint jobs this a bit easier.

Some parts had bad chrome. In some cases the chrome was coming off like flakes. Clearly an example of bad qualify chroming. So that needed to be redone.During the re-assembly of the motorbike we made the wiring loom a bit tidy. In some places it had badly attached connectors, which we solved using a soldering iron and heat shrink. One odd thing we came across was that there were 2 flasher connected in parallel. I did not quite understand the point. According to the schematic, there is supposed to be only one. So I removed one and it works just fine.

Next the rear brake cylinder appeared to be leaking. Fortunately a good hone and new seals did the trick. With the filling up of the brake system we considered to use the modern DOT5 silicon based brake fluid. The main advantage is that the intervals for renewal can be stretched a little longer. Plus this DOT5 does no attach the paint. However we cold not be 100% sure that the seals were compliant with the DOT5 fluid. So we decided to put the good old DOT4 in the system and plan for a renewal of the fluid in 2 years from now.

With all the electrical components connected and a new battery installed, it was time to do some testing. During the test I connected a fuse in series with the battery in case we made a bad mistake. But fortunately everything worked properly, with the exception of an indicator: I must have swapped 2 wires for the left and right indicators. But that was easy to solve. The Guzzi still has the old fashion ignition with breakers. So to set the timing is easy enough with a meter. Once the engine is running we can fine tune the ignition with flash lamp. Now it is just waiting for the chrome parts.