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FTS DKW NZ 350

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:02 am
by AchimEngels
My name is Achim Engels and I am from Germany.

Recently I bought the following DKW NZ 350.

frame number
628 219

engine number
1408 049

date of manufacture
1944

Unfortunately there are no original vehicle registration documents of the war time years availiable.

The first vehicle registration document I have dates back to 1958, when the vehicle is registered with a mr. Paul Möller who drove it in the German Democratic Republic (DDR) in Magdeburg.

The bike was then registered with a side car. It is not known whether or notthe side car actually was used with the bike during WWII, but I asume this unless I discover that the sidecar itself is of post war or russion manufacture. Perhaps anybody of the other forumities could shed some light on this for me. The sidecars fender does look a bit strange to, especially since I have never seen this style on any of the German war time or pre war time side cars that have been used with the Wehrmacht.

In the following I would love to show you some photographs of the bike.

First allow me to tell the following. When I received the bike it was in fairly good condition and has obviously been restored 10 or 15 years ago. Unfortunately the "dark yellow" colours used was way off from what I know so far.

My plan is to restore the vehicle fully soon. In the meantime I just deceided to fix the optical side and only give it a new paint as well as to repair all tachnical matters it has. Next week we have a local veteran vehicle show to which I would like to take it, just for fun.

From the following photographs show it right after it received its new paint. You may see that it is made to sport one of the dark yellow base painted vehicles that was camouflaged in the field with olive green and dark brown.

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One of the first things my Alexandra did was to make a new number plate for the rear end of the bike.

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Right after the new paint was applied....

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Enjoy!

Achim

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:11 am
by AchimEngels
Next step was to apply the markings. The markings shall represent it as a "Kradschütze" of the 25th Panzergrenadier-Division that also fought at the Seelower Hills. This may fit with the timeframe. The new made number plate belongs to a vehicle of the Wehrkreiskommando XIII at Nuremburg which issued vehicles to that Unit.

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our little son Finn, could not resists to give it a try...

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When judging those clours and markings, please take into acount that this is only supposed to be a interim optical renovation and only serves to judge the overal appearance. Any comments that may help me to improve the final thing once I start to restore the bike would be highly welcome.

The correct markings and readings on the fuel tank and other locations will be properly made later, according to the downloadable help files on this website.

Enjoy!

Achim

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:22 am
by AchimEngels
Yesterday I started to fix some of the technical problems.

First thing was to adjust the front wheel brake, which was more then soft. Now it works fine.

The engine starts up and dies immediately. It also bounces back into the carburettor. I think it is a ignition adjustment problem. I wanted to adjustthat. For this reason I tried to remove the side car, but noticed that the main stand was broken. So I had to fix that first. The stand obviously was welded some time in its history and that job was done more than poor.

I took it apart, cleaned it and welded it again. During this I discovered that the first coat of paint that was originally applied to the bike must have been olive green already. You may see it in the photographs attached.

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AS you can see, my dear Alexandra also started to make a front light cover according to an original piece made from leather.

Enjoy!

Achim

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:34 pm
by AchimEngels
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Alexandra finished up the head light cover today. In the foreground you can see the original WWII piece that we used as a pattern for this.

And some close up shots of it in the following....

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And then I seperated the side car from the bike, after the repaired main stand was back in place again. I did that to check the ignition which apeared to have a problem.

I thought it was a adjustment and timing problem, but we figgured out that it was just a short circuit produced by one cable attaching the body. We will fix that tomorrow after hours.

Here are some shots of the lovely thing solo.

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Enjoy!

Achim