Mine was very clean 'on the outside' when I got it, but once the fairings were off I found it was absolutely filthy......it seemed that previous owners has simply cleaned what they could see and even when fairings had been taken off nobody had bothered to wipe the inside of themn down, let alone clean the frame or engine. With a lot of patience, I was able to clean virtually everywhere without stripping the bike down, although it made things easier when I had to have the carbs off at one stage....... ......it astounded me how much road crap and brake dust was stuck to the underside of the dash and top yoke though.
Yes Al! Well the red 750 has lain dormant for a while and it's now full-steam ahead. I managed to get a decent wheel and some careful scotchbrite work brought both wheels back. New rear sprocket fitted, and front sprocket, chain and bearings on order. Front carbon fender will be red and the rear carbon hugger is going satin black so other than the mono seat unit it will look more like it did when it was built. The rest of the paint is being sympathetically brought back. New clocks are in order as are some new link pipes, a standard screen and mirrors, tyres, fully serviced and a few other bits and bobs. The goal isn't to have a factory-fresh resto, think of it more as a recommissioning and repair job. Hopefully it should look like the 21 year old bike it is, but loved and sorted. We are looking forward to having it on the road!
Just in case anyone thinks I've forgotten about this one... Decent day of cracking on in the garage today. Good job I have a second bike for reference as I couldn't remember where half the air-box/electrics went. I still have two triangular breathers to rehome, but I've had a glass of wine now and can't go up to the other garage. I managed to track down some chain adjusters and eBay came up trumps there and also I purged the carbon cans in favour of these obscure "Carbon Can Company" shiny jobs. I seem to have lost the high level hangars I bought, which is annoying, and so I've reverted to low pipes... but CoG and all that, and they look good so I'm not stressing. Just need a polish and all will be golden. Dropped some fuel in it but I've no spark so it won't start, no major worries as I'm still coming across bits of loom that need reconnecting/soldering/insulating after digging the "special" alarm out of the wiring during strip down. Plan is to get it warm and then drop the oil and do the filter etc. if I get it running before doing the belts then I will know carbs etc are not the problem if it doesn't run after doing those... (Will be referring to Al's bloody excellent tutorial rather than Haynes for that bit). So yeah... it's all looking good. Just need to keep on keeping on, get it finished and MOT tested and then hopefully do a few miles and check/tighten as appropriate before handing over to my Dad (best if I don't hear from him what I forgot to tighten ) ...then there's something Japanese to fettle
Improvements continue... It dropped onto rear cylinder only when my dad was out and so a new pair of OE pickup coils were fitted today to cure that, and some good used clocks with vibrant orange needles were brought into play too
