And so after 6 years I actually began work to restore the bike. I set myself the goal of having it completed by December. Something I felt was achievable as I now had money to put into the project and of course now had my great workshop to do it all in.
I decided to swap the engine out of the last bike I had purchased as although it was not running at present it was only due to an electrical fault that I would look at later. The bike had been used as an off road bush basher so as you can see the engine was pretty dirty and required some work to clean out years of built up grease and dirt to make it presentable. I had abandoned my plan of a showroom restoration and decided that not unlike a rat-rod project, i would simply put everything back together and get the thing back into working order. Asthetics and beautification could take place later except for a respray of the tank and side panels.
I tried a few things on the engine block including chemical cleaners that 'restore' aluminium to its pre shining glory however, found them to be a waste of time and money. A good stiff brush and a few containers of degreaser did the trick. Whilst I didn't have a sparkling bright engine, I certainly had a cleaner one ready to be fitted into my frame.
I spent about two weeks preparing the tank and panels for painting. My tank had a small dent near the top where it had been whacked by a handlebar at some stage. This required some body filler work to smooth out and after a fair bit of sanding and rubbing back I was able to prime them with a can of spray putty filler.
I must admit for hand held spray cans these actually do a pretty good job. The trick being to put on lots of light coats, allowing the paint to fully dry between coats and then give each coat a light rub with 1500 wet and dry paper too.
I was finally seeing some progress on my project! Next update will be the paint job and all the shiny new bits I had bought to put on it.
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