Went for a little 1,085Km drive to central Queensland to pick up my next project. Has not been started for about five years and apart from some home made bits is fairly unmolested, just neglect and weather damage. This one has higher bars and proper seat than the MC-19 that I sold last week so I may be able to ride this one for more than an hour. I wonder if Kiffsta's magic windscreen polish would work on this one? Seems to have adjustment knobs on top of forks. Look at this piece of engineering. I thought somebody had spent a bit of time with aluminium, but it looks more like some house guttering and Tek screws. I might be able to rework this leftover bit from my VT to fit. Going to need a hose to evict the mud wasps. This one is going to need a full strip down and rebuild. The paint I may be able to touch up with the airbrush and clear coat. It has clean oil in the sump but it smells of stale petrol. The tank will need a liner. Seat to be recovered, forks rechromed and the front guard should be white. Lots to do and no rush to do it in.
Looks a winner ... my FZR , the bodywork was held on with roofing screws I noticed your Premium membership must of lapsed ... I reinstated it for you Theres a parts cat. for the MC14 https://www.2fiftycc.com/index.php?resources/honda-cbr250-mc14-mc17-mc19-parts-catalogue.65/
Unbelieveable, David Silver Spares in Pomland has 4 tail pieces in stock, red, black and two white like I need. I thought it was going to be THE hard to get bit that would be a problem. Sometimes you can just look in the right place.
There is David Silver Spares in the US as well.. sometimes has different stock to the UK. Not sure if shipping is any better from one or the other.
UK = better ...royal mail rocks...aussie customs tend to stand an salute your parcel rather than tear into it Also If using paypal you dont get as big a $$$$ conversion shock as you do with USD...The pound dosnt seam to bounce around as much........
So today I started on the strip down. I needed to check the Litetek radiator hoses for Maelstrom and just kept going after that. 'Looky here. I got meself one of them BOBBERs. Wheres me flat black paint?' NOT FRIGGIN LIKELY. Pipe has had a repair already. End of day. Off to blasters tomorrow and paint shop on way home.
That one was in Gladstone, right? I'm impressed by the work you get done. It takes me a week to change a tyre!
Today I got the frame cleaned, tyres off and wheels stripped and lots of small bits cleaned, blasted and undercoated. Repaired the rusted and broken baffle in muffler. Front and rear frame and exhaust to blasters, wheels to powdercoaters. Drying rack.
Picked up all my blasted and powdercoated pieces and home for a big day with the spray gun. New tyres fitted tomorrow and then the good/fun bit of any restoration begins, assembly.
Got a bit done. Have the electrics cleaned and repaired ready to fit tomorrow. I did a compression test before I lifted the engine from the frame. No1 had no comp and No2 had 35psi. Didn't waste my time testing the rest as engine will have to come apart anyway. I lifted the head to see if needed new pistons. All looked clean and 3 bores good, No 1 has a rust mark at bottom of piston stroke so that is why no comp. New +.50mm pistons ordered.
It usually takes me three complete weeks to get this far..good going fella! haven't seen an mc14 in the flesh before..nice bit of kit..
Got all the wiring fitted today and found the wrong solenoid has been fitted. It would work to turn the starter but the wrong wires have been fitted and would rather have the correct one to fit the plug. I like to pull apart the speedos on my restorations to clean and lube them so they don't give problems later. A bit of plastic polish on the inside of the covers keeps then shiney and fog free. Being a JDM from the 1980's it has the red 'speed' light that is controlled by the disc on the needle shaft of the instrument that cuts the light beam between the sensors at 80Km/h. I was just going to disconnect it and then thought why not leave it but modify to around 120Km/h to suit aussie speed limits. Held the needle at 120 and marked then cut off with snips. See how it works when I get it on the road. I like to check and clean all the fuses too. Nothing worse trying to find a fault only to discover a blown/corroded fuse. I like to run an extra earth (here the brown wire) from loom to battery to engine to frame to be certain of good contact. Lots of electrical problems turn out to be bad earths.
Got into the thermostat housing and found this. Could have been a problem? Looked clean inside though. I striped and bead blasted the lot and it came up nice. Checked thermostat and it works at the temps given in the manual. Win!
I'd check the hoses, too. Stick a hose in it and flush the system. What's your radiator like? It may just be a local congelation. But I'm sure you're already on to it, and you'd do a better job of it than I would.
Looking really good @Murdo I am jealous as my builds seem to take so long and yours are done in the blink of an eye to a standard the rest of us can only dream of Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Block looks clean in the water galleries and the rad had had a 'repair' with some goop on it and was 32yrs old, so a new one on its way. Decided on an MC-19 rad which is twice the thickness of the standard one and will only need to have the top mount changed to suit the MC-14 frame. Hoses are being replaced with some pretty blue ones from Litetek.
Has taken me a few days to get the frozen up water pump out. Looks clean on the inside but both outlets are badly corroded. Would be easy enough to cut off the old ones and turn up some new ones to weld onto the housing, but the bearing needed a lot of persuasion before it would turn so a new pump on the way from evilbay.
Worked on the air box today. Some 'ham fisted plick' had over tightened the 5mm bolts that hold the airbox to the carb plate resulting in two broken off and the rest stretched and about to break. Also one was missing. I tried to buy some long 5mm hex head bolts and was going to make some sleeves, but decided to cut off the damaged bits and fit new thread. I bored the ends about 10mm deep in the lathe and threaded to screw in a high tensile cap screw. A dab of low melting point silver brazeing rod to hold in place and cut off the head. Using a piece of 10mm mild steel bar I made another bolt and fitted the cap screw into the end. A clean up and ready to install. Used my left hand drill to get the broken bits out.
How about I make a "badass" button ... then we can all be total tossers at will Now where did I leave my bandana .....