1965 SUZUKI HILL-BILLY

FEATURED BUILD

1965 SUZUKI K15 HILL-BILLY

by Tom Owejan

Introduced in 1965, the Suzuki K15 Hill-Billy was a 7.3 horsepower, two-stroke, 80cc, on/off road motorcycle requiring premixed fuel and oil. It featured a luggage rack, high pipe, skid plate, and swappable on/off road sprockets. Dry weight was 155 pounds. It had a top speed of 38 mph with the trail sprocket and 60 mph with the street sprocket. It was marketed as an economical work horse and an all-around fun machine.

Marketing and advertisements for the Hill-Billy from 1965-1967

This small motorcycle arrived at my shop in sad shape. The drive chain was so rusted the bike could not roll until I cut the chain off. The tires were flat and cracked, the seat was disintegrated (the foam had actually turned into powder), the gas tank was a chemical sewer, the carburetor was seized and… well you get the idea. The saving grace was that it was very complete. The tear down was pretty straightforward. After completely dismantling it down to the bare frame, I media blasted all the painted parts, then repainted them in the original black and silver. I did put a lot of effort into cleaning the fuel tank, which weighed about twenty pounds—full of rust and petrified oil and fuel. First, I washed it out with solvents and detergents removing as much debris as possible.

I then added a couple pounds of assorted hardware—nuts, bolts, washers, etc. I sealed the openings with tape, wrapped the tank in an old quilt, and stuffed it along with a couple of old pillows into and old clothes dryer and tumbled it for four to five hours on a no heat setting. After removing the hardware and washing the tank out it was clean and ready to reseal. I am sure there are other ways to do this, but this method works well for me. Next, a fresh piston and rings. I disassembled and cleaned the clutch. I soaked the carburetor for many hours and was able to eventually get it apart. The old fuel mix had literally glued it together! So by now it had a rebuilt carb, new cables, new grips, many hours of polishing chrome and aluminum, and new tires and tubes on cleaned and polished wheels.

The teardown

New chain, brake… the list goes on. One of the things I have found on nearly all these old machine restorations is that they are loaded with incorrect hardware and much time is spent trying to sort this out. A shop can never have enough hardware.

So now that it is finished, this Hill-Billy will be added to the Japanese section at Motorcyclepedia Museum, an area of the museum we are currently expanding.

When you take into account how many new models each of the big three Japanese manufacturers had each year we have a big job ahead of us. For me it is one machine at a time.

This motorcycle—along with over 600 others—can be seen at Motorcyclepedia Museum located in Newburgh, New York. And check out their website at: motorcyclepediamuseum.org

www.motorcyclepediamuseum.org