RD350N1 Mild Restoration / Build Thread

[Skub]

We used to use Acetone,MEK and Trichloroethylene,all potent stuff.

I still have about 5 litres of acetone in a big glass bottle. Nasty gear all of it.

[crust]

You can get acetone easily, just go into Tesco and ask for nail varnish remover.

[Skub]

You can get acetone easily, just go into Tesco and ask for nail varnish remover.

It's ghey weak stuff tho....

Brake cleaner is a bit better.

[crust]

You can get acetone easily, just go into Tesco and ask for nail varnish remover.

It's ghey weak stuff tho....

Brake cleaner is a bit better.

You want to lay off the bright colours and go for lighter shades :p

[Skub]

You can get acetone easily, just go into Tesco and ask for nail varnish remover.

It's ghey weak stuff tho....

Brake cleaner is a bit better.

You want to lay off the bright colours and go for lighter shades :p

[Tricky]

Well, with the amount of time I (in theory at least) should have on my hands these days, the LC should be all back together by now , but other aspects of day-today life admittedly including track days, the odd little trip away , and more lately some fettling of an old shonker ( which probably warants a thread of its own but that’s another story ) for @2xtwins are all contributory reasons as to why the LC is still in the state it was when I last posted in this thread, but this morning I did something positive and shot down to my vapour blasting man to pick up the old girl’s barrels which have been sitting waiting for collection for the last few weeks , and as expected they’ve cleaned up nicely and not uncovered any nasty suprises





Vapour blasting is probably the least intrusive of all the blasting methods, and not the method you’d use if you wanted to get rid of paint or rust etc, but it was perfect for what I wanted here, namely to remove the old carbon and gasket remnants and any loose paint, ready for their new coat.
So that’s what I’ll be doing today/tomorrow and when they're painted to my satisfaction the motor will go back together as all the new pistons, gaskets etc were purchased weeks ago and are just sitting there waiting for me to get my arse in gear.

A few weeks back I rubbed the swinging arm down, primed, and put the first coat of silver on ( which has now had plenty of time to harden ) so it will get a light flattening with 1200 grade and another coat today, allowing me to re-assemble the rear end of the bike.



I then need to turn my attention to sorting the set of much better nick standard pipes too- I need to fabricate a new piece to hold the baffle in one of them and get it welded in, they will then get a coat of satin black and greatly improve the cosmetics of the bike as externally they completely scrape and dent free- pics to follow on that when I do it

And finally for this update, I am very sad to report that unfortunately, we have a casualty of the rebuild process, caused by my laziness/doziness

When I took the tank off all those weeks ago, It was fairly full of fuel, and rather than draining it I simply plonked it on a bench- due to the shape of the tank it sits nose down when not on the bike, and unbeknown to me had a leaky cap, which meant a steady little stream of petrol was tricking out, there was obviously a chip or two around the filler neck and this is the result.



Feck eh!

I’ve dropped it in with a guy in Wokingham (Triple C Paintwork) who was highly recommended and although not an LC specialist, he does lots of Ducati stuff, particularly the older ones, and what I've seen of his work looks good.
He was initially looking to see if he could just sort that area, but after taking it down there and a proper detailed look we've jointly decided that he's going to re-do the whole tank properly- I’m so annoyed with myself as that’ll be another £400-odd and it won’t be ready for another couple of weeks yet, but I guess realistically it would probably have happened sooner or later anyway.

So that’s where we are at the moment- all being well there will be a flurry of activity on it over the next week or so, with my aim that as soon as the tank is back it’ll be MOT and shakedown ride time, so as The Missendown Flyer would say, "stay tuned kids!"

[weeksy]

Whoops on the tank !!!! i hate it when little things fuck up a good plan !

[Tricky]

Yep, I could have cried, but I guess it would have happened at some point anyway!

[weeksy]

Yep, I could have cried, but I guess it would have happened at some point anyway!

I assume that's non-factory paint currently then ? I'd have thought factory stuff would be OK with petrol.

[Tricky]

Yep, I could have cried, but I guess it would have happened at some point anyway!

I assume that's non-factory paint currently then ? I'd have thought factory stuff would be OK with petrol.

Thats what I thought too (and still think it must have been resprayed at some point, albeit a decent job if it has) but he said not necessarily on older stuff if it's able to get underneath.
Anyway, I dunno, but whether it was or wasn't original paint , it's definitely not going to be any more

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Your not the first person to have done that with a YPVS tank

[Bigyin]

Yep, I could have cried, but I guess it would have happened at some point anyway!

I think i would have probably caused some damage to myself by kicking or punching something if that happened to me. I admire your restraint

[Tricky]

Time for another little update.
Unfortunately we're not quite there yet , primarily due to delays on the tank where a couple of weeks is looking like turning into a couple of months, and I've still got to sort the replacement set of pipes I have for it, but we're not far off.

The swinging arm and linkages are all back in with the new YSS shock



And I sprayed the blasted barrels with Simoniz gloss before the motor went back together with new pistons/rings and small-end bearings-one thing that is massively apparent is the difference in compression just feeling through the kickstart to what it was before the rebuild, which is very pleasing.

And I know I probably keep banging on about it, but the simplicity of these bikes and ease of pretty much any job on them really is a joy compared to current, or even post-90s era stuff which is typically almost always covered in plastic and wires and full of fussy little fasteners.....

Anyway, I was bored of waiting for the tank so yesterday I bolted the original exhausts on and lashed up a temporary little fuel tank from a plastic bottle to allow me to start it



And this was the first attempt at starting

Fired first kick - what a difference to previously where it would always take 4 or 5 kicks, and usually a lot more than that when it had been standing.

I've replaced all of the oil and fuel lines with new ones so I'd I mixed up some pre-mix to tide it over whilst it works its way through on the engine side, and it's getting there...



So I'm happy. I'm going to crack on and sort my "new" replacement standard exhausts, strip back, and also re-finish the clutch cover which I haven't touched yet as although it's OK from a distance, it really isn't up close as you can see and has to be sorted


I'll treat it to a new set of tyres to replace the legal but aging BT45s it's currently wearing, and then as soon as the tank is done, I'll run it down for an MOT and she'll be back on the road, and ( any shakedown jobs aside if relevant), once I've put a few miles on it I'll then I'll turn my attention to the front forks to see if I can improve their performance before the Pembrey showdown!

[Skub]

Sounds sweet. Nice to see that Multistruddel getting a two-smoke facial.

[Tricky]

Frustratingly, the tank is still not back yet, and that's the only thing stopping me from getting an MOT and putting a few miles on it.



Apart from that only thing left to do really, aside from anything that pops up once I get a few miles on it is to repair the replacement pipes I have for it.

The originals, whilst sound, and not the worst in the world, do have some dinks and unsightly gravel rash as can be seen in this pic



These are the replacements I have- they are dent and rash free, and cosmetically they are A1 (or at least will be with new paint)



But do require some repairs, namely welding up a crack in the LH one



And a bit of re-fabrication of the back-ed baffle mount in the RH pipe



I'll get them sorted over the next week or so, give them a coat of VHT satin black, by which time hopefully the tank will be back and it will be MOT time

[Tricky]

Looks like we at last may have some light at the end of the tunnel- I spoke to my paint man today, he's now back at work after a bout of covid , and the holiday s before, think the dog may have ate his compressor at some point too, but anyway, the really positive news is that the LC's tank is finally just about done, he says he's just got to cut it back and finish it, yay!.

In fairness some of the delay was due to a small hole appearing in the usual (lowest) place on LHS when it was blasted



That's been welded and rubbed back




Ando this is how it now looks, awaiting final finishing







Fingers crossed I'll have it by the end of the week, so I'll be able to run it down for an MOT , get it taxed, then I'll start showing the residents of Southern England what a proper motorbike sounds and smells like

[BBB]

That's looking lovely, now you'll have to repaint the other panels.

[Supermofo]

smells like

Had a scoot mob come passed us the other day, out on one of their jollies on their old Vespers/Lambrettas. Kids thought I was a mentalist as I spent about a min taking massive sniffs saying 'cor smell that kids, magic'

My daughter asked me what it smelt like and I said 'Daddy for about 2 years'

[mangocrazy]

then I'll start showing the residents of Southern England what a proper motorbike sounds and smells like

If you're like me, you'll also be checking your mirrors constantly in the first few miles just to check out the blue two-smoke haze following you...

[cheb]

And to confirm there is some, and it's about the same on both sides, while your hand hovers over the clutch lever.