Restoration Project Knowledge

[ghostrider]

 all of nathans points and in particular:
6. Don't kid yourself that it's a money-making exercise - it's the opposite. If you're not in it for the love of it, do something else.
 

[crossedup2]

If the bike appears to be reasonable and all there, as you pull thing off it and your going to bag and tag, clean it up, inspect it and if its all ok then tag an bag. If its not ok then put it on your list and start looking for its replacement.
That little piece could be the project stopper if you cant find one straight away. Start looking sooner.

When you start putting it back together all the parts are there, clean and ready to go back together. 

Good luck with the journey.

Peter B

[evo550]

A sound piece of advice was once given to me....If you can't fix the problem with a hammer, it must be electrical..

[Michael Moore]

Yamahas seem to have a lot of reasonably-priced NOS parts available, both from eBay as well as Speed & Sport (the Yamaha dealer on the USA east coast, not Matt Hilgenberg's S&S in California).  Some of the Japanese manufacturers seemed keen on clearing out their inventories as soon as they could.

I think the best bet is to budget more money and then go looking for a bike where someone else has already done all the hard work restoring it and now wants to move on to another time/money pit.     Let them spend the time chasing parts, repainting, etc. 

If I'd bought more nice ready to ride bikes over the decades I would have gotten orders of magnitude more riding done.    

Of course, you may still want to strip even a nice bike to check for DPO (dreaded prior owner) issues that weren't dealt with, but a quick dis/re-assemble is a lot different deal compared to a ground-up restoration.

There are also times when you'll be time and money ahead if you just pay a marque expert to do their marque expert's magic instead of screwing things up on your own.

If you can get access to parts books be sure to get them along with a good (preferably factory) service manual.  There are often parts shared across a wide number of models, and you may find that you'll spend a lot less on Part #333 from the plebeian trail bike than you will on the same part advertised for the MX model.  You might go weeks not seeing the part listed as for the MXer on eBay while in that same time there have been 5 of them listed for the more common bike.

cheers,
Michael

[Nathan S]

COTPO = Curse Of The Previous Owner.
It's a very real disease.

--------

I should also add:
Lots of people miss out on a lot of riding time because they think they need a pristine, perfectly set up race bike. You don't.
I wasted 13 years by not taking my old DT250 to a race meeting because I didn't think it was good enough. Eventually, I just went and did it. I turned up on a rattly YZ125D and a hideously ugly YZ250G and had a lot of fun - and I'm still kicking myself off the 13 wasted years.

This applies doubly if you want to ride practice days and/or Vinduros (but can be ignored if you just want a shed queen).

[Michael Moore]

Nathan, one of the most fun MXs I did back in the day was when the end of the shift shaft broke on my 1972 125 Maico.  Since we'd driven for several hours to the track and camped overnight, I dragged my tattered 1966 B105P Suzuki (my first motorcycle) I'd put on the trailer just for balance/ballast, slapped some paper plates on it and raced it.  Talk about zero pressure!  My friends who were spectating were kicking dirt clods at me when I'd pass them during the race so I took an off-track excursion to do some doughnuts around them, then went back into the race wondering if the stock foot peg bar was going to completely collapse before the end of the race (my boot soles were starting to be scraped over even modest bumps).  Every time I "caught air" (for certain very small values of air) I made sure to try and cross up, but since I was only off the ground for microseconds I had to be quick about it.  Big fun!

Sometimes you need to race with the bike you have, rather than the bike you want. 

cheers,
Michael

[rocketfrog]

That is sound advice being posted here. I have broken most of those rules of yours Nathan. I agree that your points carry a good deal of weight having found out the pedestrian way.

[Iain Cameron]

WD40 is your best friend , buy it in the 4ltr plastic drums . before you go belting out some stuck shaft or forcing some stuck bit leave it in a ice cream container covered in WD40 for a Cpl of days . Ive even got a half 44 drum  length way cut to soak frames , swing arm bolts .
Don't touch the angle grinder or CIG hot spanner until you have double checked there is no other way .
If your counting dollars don't start . buy one someone else has already done it will be far cheaper .
I only disagree with Two on Nathans list . 1 On the topic of multi resto's Im a supporter of more than one at a time . Reason that that last bit your chasing will take years to find . The only thing I would not do again is restore more than one brand at a time that leads to a nightmare . 2 never keep a tally of your out goings on a resto , first you will never do another , second the wife or partner will find your list .
Iain .
ps I love the hunt for parts , the pride of bringing something back that others thought was scrap .

[Mick D]

WD40 is your best friend , buy it in the 4ltr plastic drums . before you go belting out some stuck shaft or forcing some stuck bit leave it in a ice cream container covered in WD40 for a Cpl of days . Ive even got a half 44 drum  length way cut to soak frames , swing arm bolts .
Don't touch the angle grinder or CIG hot spanner until you have double checked there is no other way .
If your counting dollars don't start . buy one someone else has already done it will be far cheaper .
I only disagree with Two on Nathans list . 1 On the topic of multi resto's Im a supporter of more than one at a time . Reason that that last bit your chasing will take years to find . The only thing I would not do again is restore more than one brand at a time that leads to a nightmare . 2 never keep a tally of your out goings on a resto , first you will never do another , second the wife or partner will find your list .
Iain .
ps I love the hunt for parts , the pride of bringing something back that others thought was scrap .

No offense Iain, but it has recently been renamed to "Cancer in a Can"

[Mick D]

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[GMC]

WD40 is your best friend , buy it in the 4ltr plastic drums . before you go belting out some stuck shaft or forcing some stuck bit leave it in a ice cream container covered in WD40 for a Cpl of days . Ive even got a half 44 drum  length way cut to soak frames , swing arm bolts .
Don't touch the angle grinder or CIG hot spanner until you have double checked there is no other way .
If your counting dollars don't start . buy one someone else has already done it will be far cheaper .
I only disagree with Two on Nathans list . 1 On the topic of multi resto's Im a supporter of more than one at a time . Reason that that last bit your chasing will take years to find . The only thing I would not do again is restore more than one brand at a time that leads to a nightmare . 2 never keep a tally of your out goings on a resto , first you will never do another , second the wife or partner will find your list .
Iain .
ps I love the hunt for parts , the pride of bringing something back that others thought was scrap .

No offense Iain, but it has recently been renamed to "Cancer in a Can"

If you drink it maybe!!

[Mick D]

WD40 is your best friend , buy it in the 4ltr plastic drums . before you go belting out some stuck shaft or forcing some stuck bit leave it in a ice cream container covered in WD40 for a Cpl of days . Ive even got a half 44 drum  length way cut to soak frames , swing arm bolts .
Don't touch the angle grinder or CIG hot spanner until you have double checked there is no other way .
If your counting dollars don't start . buy one someone else has already done it will be far cheaper .
I only disagree with Two on Nathans list . 1 On the topic of multi resto's Im a supporter of more than one at a time . Reason that that last bit your chasing will take years to find . The only thing I would not do again is restore more than one brand at a time that leads to a nightmare . 2 never keep a tally of your out goings on a resto , first you will never do another , second the wife or partner will find your list .
Iain .
ps I love the hunt for parts , the pride of bringing something back that others thought was scrap .

No offense Iain, but it has recently been renamed to "Cancer in a Can"

If you drink it maybe!!

   

[GMC]

Decide early on if you want to build the show queen or rider/racer.
I see guys trying to build a rider but then get tempted with every little NOS widget they see and then it gets all out of control. You don’t really need that NOS split pin.

Often you will want to make it look like you have started the resto so you start painting things like the frame, but before you get carried away trying to make it look like you have moved forward from a pile of parts make sure all brackets are straight and that all captive bolts are in good condition etc.
Do a dry run fitment first.
I have had fantastic looking bikes come in with broken bolts (or worse, broken easyouts) and if a new nut needs to be welded in then out goes that perfect paint job.
Straightening brackets also makes paint flake off

[Slow Pete]

Great thread guys.    Lots of good tips that I have written down, that I'm sure will help me in the years to come. 

[HL500]

Agree with all the comments to date.  I actually make up the parts list and obtain most bits before I pull the bike apart.  The longer the bike is spread around the shed the harder it will be to assemble it even with all the photos etc. Finding them can be a problem if you share the shed with sons!!

You also need to decide the level of the final product.  Will you use all OEM nuts and bolts or substitute. Will you try and source all new plastics or go aftermarket?  Will you try and restore the original rims, etc.

On average I take around two years to restore a bike and most of that is sourcing the right parts which I enjoy, but I guess that's a personal thing.  Generally even though I do the engine rebuilds and the like, I still fit new rims (outsource) and some painting/powdercoating so including the purchase you could easily blow +$10k.

I just completed a BSA A65 Lightning 650 twin and that would be around $15k out of pocket including the $3.8K I paid for the bike.  Nice ride though and worth the expense.