So I've put up a post about how I came to own the bike - Here's the ongoing story of what I'm doing with it.
Where I started:
Fairly clean, good runner except for a bit of dirt in the carbs causing a cylinder to cut out every now and then (got in a few EXCELLENT speedway-style, foot-out laps of the front yard before pulling it apart). No major rust, scrapes or damage. Tank and sidepanels painted in housepaint, tank was originally Verdoro Green, side panels were Candy Lavender. Not sure what the factory colour was.
First job: Pulling it apart
Awesome redneck cafe bars (stockers turned over and upside down):
Where did the bike go?
No nasty surprises while pulling it apart, no stripped threads, bodged fastners, bent brackets or hidden rust. Wiring loom is probably serviceable, but it's also 40 years old and a fire hazard, so will be rewired.
Next step was sandblasting the frame, borrowing the blaster from a mate who runs a custom paint and restoration business in Brisbane(http://www.karnagekustoms.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
Then we painted the frame in semi-gloss car chassis enamel. Powder coating may have been better, but this stuff has been great on frames/suspension parts on cars, so I thought I'd give it a crack.
From there, back to my place for building up.
Swingarm goes on. Already had good bronze bushes in the swingarm, massive bonus. Cleaned all the crappy old grease out, installed a new grease nipple, end cap o-rings and pumped it up.
Brand new shocks from Paul Miller in the States
I don't know if people will jump up and down about this, but I'm replacing all the made-of-cheese, rounded off, 40-year-old Japanese bolts with allen screws. All of them - engine, frame, the lot. Be interested in your comments on this - I've never been involved in bike-building culture. If a mate told me he was replacing all the panel and engine bolts in a car with allen heads, I'd punch him. However, I reckon it's good-looking and practical for a bike.
I think it looks great.
Stands on, with spring kit again from Paul Miller.
From here, it's fork rebuild time. Only limited pics of this so far, although the taper bearings are in the triple clamp and the new fork seals have been installed. Just sourcing new o-rings on the tube nut things and waiting for the fork gaiters to come from...ahem... Thailand and I'm ready to put the front end back on the frame.
Cleaned, but not polished top triple clamp:
This stuff holds the wheel on if it goes back together in the right order:
That's about where it stands at the moment. Will give the bank account a couple of weeks to recover and then re-spoke the wheels. This will give me a rolling frame that I can push in and out of the shed to work on.
In the meantime, here's some stuff I've collected for the build.
How hot are grey cables??
Repro taillight
New clocks from the UK at great expense:
And that's the story so far! Any comments or input (good or bad) are welcomed!!
NH
