The bike arrived in the back of my good friends “Tom Smith” van as a pretty tatty, but running, MOT’d & taxed bike..

So what do you do with a running bike….of course take it all apart and put it in many boxes, some for the chromers, some for the polishers, some for the powder coaters…and a big box of bits for me to clean and paint!

The state of the bike in October 2011.

The Bodywork

So the tank, tail, side panels & front Mudguard are all off. Front Mudguard is shot, so got another one from ebay.  Red tank is shot, so used the black tank from the spares or repair bike!

The tank, side panels, tail piece and front mudguard have all gone to be painted by Mick at:

CUSTOM PAINT STUDIO
Unit 1A
Ezekiel Lane
Willenhall
West midlands
WV12 5QU

Website: – custompaintstudio.com

Will hopefully have them back by the end of Jan 2012.

So with all of the bodywork off,  I start to see some of the work I am facing!

First off is the exhaust system.

All throttle & clutch cables removed.

Started at the front to get some of the wiring out of the way. The wiring loom has been butchered over the years and there was plenty of black tape covering lots of bodged wiring.

Carbs & Airbox off…..that was painful, not a lot of room, plenty of blood and a buggered tickover assembly.

Plenty of room when there is nothing there and I thought I had small hands.

Offending items on the bench!

Main loom off, its seen better times!

See what I mean!

Rear end is off, shocks, swing arm & mudguards.

Rear light and indicators.

Looks very naked know!

Rear wheel out of the way…

Need to decide what to do…..paint or powder coat?

Strapped to the ramp, next….time to get the engine out.

Last few bits off and on the bench ready to be sorted into boxes!

Engine out and on the ramp!

So thats it…its all apart, so some the bits go off for some work:

Powder Coating: Bournes – www.bournespowdercoating.co.uk

Chroming: ACF Howells – Croft Street, WALSALL, WS2 8JE

Engine rebuild: Zed Parts – www.zed-parts.com