Counselling....?

The true purpose of this blog can finally be revealed, as we begin the story of the wheels. I have a deep seated need to get it all off my chest and return to a normal life, now that they are almost completed.

In an earlier post, I talked about one of the reasons for restoring this bike was that it had alloy "Comstar" type wheels rather than chrome spoked wheels. "These will be a doddle to tart up" I thought "and so cheap". Little did I know....

The plan was to rub them down and spray them with silver wheel paint - £10 for aerosols and a sunny Sunday afternoon in the garden. But then I noticed how badly corroded they were on the inside of the metal spokes. Hmm, difficult to get in there and it will look rubbish if I leave it.

Around this time, the powder coating was due to be collected, and I had a natter with John at Elite about it. They could blast the wheels and powder coat the inner bits, but I wanted the "alloy" rim bits leaving, as they should polish up nice and easily. Ah, now that will be costing somewhat more, as they have to be masked for blasting, cleaned up, masked again for powder coating again etc. I decided to have a think about it.

A few weeks later, I'd decided I was going to change the colour of the paintwork from the pretty yucky (to my eyes) blue to a deep metallic burgundy (same colour as the 400-4 F2, for those that know it.) I suddenly had MY VISION. "Wow, what would look really great against that metallic burgundy is a metallic pewter silver wheel with bright polished rims." And I was right - it will look great, but boy it's been a hard road getting there!

Here's the state the wheels were in at the start:

This doesn't really show how rusty the "spokes" were. I decided to bite the bullet and get Elite to powder coat in a metallic deep silver coating. This was quite a lot more expensive than normal and he also wanted to wait and do it as a batch with something else he had coming through - fair do's, but it ended up taking several weeks longer (not really an issue on my timescale!) It was also really expensive because of all the protective masking of the alloy rims.

Anyway, I got them home and set to for a quick job polishing up the alloy rims with a bit of chrome polish. What I hadn't realised was that, though the rims are alloy, they have an anodised coating.... What a bugger that stuff was to get off! It was tough as old boots and I had to sand it from every nook and cranny. It took probably a full day on each wheel just to get to a surface ready for polishing. And I had to buy a "mouse" palm sander with a pointy nose to get into the corners that I probably will never use again  :(

Of course, I had to protect the beautiful pewter powder coating that I'd paid a bomb for, which made it even harder. In hindsight, I could have just asked John to blast the lot off and wouldn't have had to pay for all that pre-masking! To protect the spokes, I'd wrapped them in cling film, then newspaper and duct tape - nothing was going to scratch them! But when I "unwrapped" them, the cling film had stuck to the powder coating! I spent 2 evenings getting it off with my thumbnail and thankfully it was OK.

With that out of the way, the polishing would be easy! I bought a kit from Halfords - good effort but not man enough for the job. Bigger mops and abrasives were ordered from specialists. This is more like it...... but I can't get into the nooks and crannies.

Smaller mops and abrasives for the trusty Dremel were ordered from the same specialists. Now we'll be getting somewhere. And that's where we're at currently, with just the detail polishing to be done. But they do look fab - well to my eye at least - and will make the bike I think.

Thanks for listening. I feel much better getting that off my chest.

The Grand Plan

Having stripped everything down into a hundred boxes and bags, it was time to think what needed doing; what I could do and what needed to be sent off. In no particular order, this was the plan - some of it now with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

• Powder coating - the frame, swinging arm, main stand, side stand, footrest brackets, engine mounts and loads of other bits and pieces were sent off to Elite Engineering in Aintree to be blasted and powder coated in gloss black.
  
  I spent ages putting old bolts in all the threaded holes etc but this was a waste of time as John took them all out again and used his own tapered plugs! I was really pleased with the service, but make sure you allow a couple of extra weeks! Speak to John Heckle 0151 524 2838
• No Honda rebuild can survive without copious amounts of money being spent at David Silvers of course! http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/
  
  Great service and very helpful. I got loads of stuff: full exhaust system, new seat, indicators, bearings, brake pads etc etc - the list was endless and the boxes big..........
• Paintwork: I changed tack several times. I'm no stranger to using aerosol cans and was going to DIY here. But as more money got piled in, I just thought I wouldn't be able to do it justice. Finally I took the plunge and got a local guy to blast and repaint the tank and side panels. I also got him to apply the nice reproduction decals that I obtained from Sunrise Graphics in Lytham. http://www.sunrisegraphics.co.uk/sunrise/
  
  Would I recommend them? Well the decals are great, but I don't rate his customer interface highly if I'm honest - maybe it's me, but he seems to do nothing but moan whenever you talk to him.
• The wheels. The plan changed lots here. I was originally just going to rub them down myself and repaint them in silver. But the inside of the "spokes" was very corroded, so I decided they needed blasting and might as well then have them powder coated. Then I had THE VISION that ended up costing me so much time and money......... See the section later on wheels.
• Chromework: most of the chrome was in a pretty horrible way, but was straight. The grab rail had been damaged by fitting a rack which rubbed against it, so I knew I needed a replacement. Over a number of months, I managed to pick up a number of new old stock (NOS) or good secondhand chrome parts off EBay and from the wonderful Stafford auto-jumble. Anything that I couldn't get was sent off to Niphos in Crewe for rechroming. http://www.niphos.co.uk/
  
  Lesson learned here is to be clear about what you want from them. I told them that I wanted the chrome to be good for everyday use, not show standard. And that is exactly what I got - can't fault them. But I probably would have been happier in hindsight to pay a bit extra for them to have put more time into the prep to end up with a better finish.
• Zinc plating: I decided not to go down the "stainless everything" route, but wanted to re-use as much of the original bike as I could, so sent most of the nuts, bolts and brackets off to Niphos again for zinc plating, after I'd degreased and cleaned it all up with a wire brush. This is relatively cheap and looks fantastic! I subsequently also sent the wheel and swing arm spindles there as well and decided to get the tool kit replated, which is a great finishing touch.
• Engine: I'd decided to take a risk that the internals will be OK, having done only 10,000 miles. The casings were shockingly dirty and corroded and I spent loads of time cleaning and preparing these for re-painting, which I did myself. Following an internet tip, I used silver alloy wheel paint. It looks great but we'll see how it stands up when used in anger.
  
  The side cases will be polished by me. The barrels, head and cam cover will be vapour blasted and the cam cover will be sprayed like the cases.
• Carburettors: I sent these off to CCs http://www.carbcleaning.com/ with a Keyster overhaul kit for them to fit. What a fantastic service - they vapour blasted the outsides, stripped them down, ultrasonically cleaned them and re-assembled using the new jets, gaskets etc from the kits. The choke spindle bush was still a little tight when they came back but after lots of 3 in 1 it is fine.
• Sundry brackets etc; I've spent ages cleaning, rubbing down and repainting brackets, master cylinder, brake caliper etc etc. But I like this bit - lots of job satisfaction at getting something looking nearly new again. Just the deep cleaning and polishing can make a huge difference.
• Alloy polishing: I bought a polishing kit from Halfords - not up to the job for motorbike stuff at all - you need heavier duty mops and abrasives from somewhere like Polishing Supplies on EBay. I did the fork legs, footrest mounts, brake back plate and will soon be doing the engine side cases. But the hardest thing I did was the wheel rims - see later story. Polishing is a horrible, horrible job but with a very, very satisfying end result.
• And finally for all those cables, chain and sprockets etc I used good old Wemoto.  http://www.wemoto.com/