Almost finished the bike this morning. Got all the panels fitted back up and a new fuel petcock fitted to the tank and tested for leaks.
Only the fuel hose has to be connected and she will be ready to fire up. That's for tomorrow morning when we have family coming over and it would be nice for everyone to have a rap around the park on the old girl.
But for now, it was time to take get her out for some pics....
This is how we got her last year.. very sad. None runner, snapped peg mounts, welded gear lever and just about everything rusted, worn, missing, leaking, broken and neglected. We decided not to do a full rebuild. Rather, get her running, then strip her down and clean, replace, paint, adjust and give her a birthday so she can live to ride another day.
This morning, the sun was out, and the bike took on a new lease of life. Even the neighbor came out to have a chat and admire the old girl..
A lot of parts were sourced as genuine Honda parts from Partzilla..
A lot of parts were sourced from Re-Mx, who do a lot of genuine and reproduction stuff for Honda mini bikes..
Some stuff was sourced from xrminiracer.com, who do a lot of power pipes and stuff..
The paint was matched with the rear mudguard that was under the seat and still had some perfect paint. There is a hint of green in the metallic grey. The panels are 2k clear coated to protect them. Some of the decals are genuine Honda, and some are replica from fastguystuff and re-mx..
Rather than paint the engine, we decided to polish it all up. We had to take the engine covers off anyway to replace the gear shaft and some seals and gaskets, so the buffing wheel was used then..
The forks were rebuilt with new oil and seals and then buffed. Sadly, the original rims were badly scratched up. They have been kept, but aftermarket ones from Thailand were sourced along with the spokes and nipples.
Levers, switch gear, throttle, grips etc.. are all original Honda. You can still source the rubber doohickies for the ends of the levers..
Warning decals are correct size, type and location. My old tank still had the marks where the old decals had been. Also, the tank still had the original Honda wings on, so the location was measured and the new ones replaced exactly in the original location....
Aftermarket petcock is exact Honda replica.. and works perfectly. New reproduction shaped seat foam for the 74 was from DC Plastics. Thats a 74 seat cover on there. The alloy engine mounts are from the same company who makes the power pipes..
And thats about it for now... hopefully pics to come of the old girl running. Then hopefully the boy will be riding her in a few VMX meetings just for a bit of fun. The old girl is not ready to fully retire yet!!
Cheers,
