Well, I seem to be over-using the term fuckwittery, so lets just leave it there, at the start and assume there is a lot of it from the previous donut of an owner. That said, the forks are OK, the only thing they need is the lowers polishing. I will refresh the fork oil and thats about it. The tubes are just about salvageable, the potting not being bad and the seals being ok, again i may replace them to refresh the forks.
Now then, the rest of the front end.....Clocks, binicle, trees, handlebars, headlight and indicators (or lack of them). They all have suffered from storage in a resty puddle or loss over time.
The headlight seems to have faired the best of the bunch, the only bug bear being the surround, the chrome is severely rusted and bubbled out. No issue I thinks to myself, I have watched Henry Cole on mumerous TV productions, will get it and will throw int a few other items to join them in the acid bath. The light mounts, side stand, surround and some sundary parts would wing their way to a local chromers. Hmmmm, firstly Scotland is bereft of metalurgists, secondly - it would appear unless you are Henry Cole or the like, the cost is rather prohibitive, quotes north of 300 of the Kings finest pounds have been bandied around. Rather eye watering when you consider the purchase price of only £225.00 And a selling of parts balance of £25.00. As this is being kept true ot the cafe racer mantra and keeping it clean, stylish (in my eyes) and cheap I have elected to sand out the chrome headlight, etch prime and paint in satin black, along with a lot of other parts. Hey ho, Henry Cole is a blagger of the finest kind, gave me a little false hope to join the chrome gods, but also inspiration on my build.
First decision - after market or OEM.....well, the only thing that kind of scares me is 40 year old bike wiring, and i did not fancy rrying to re wire / fit new swanky dials to an old loom, so OEM dials it was - now to find them. Turns out their is a lot of variation - even within model production. And price, every one selling dials for mid 80's bikes are very aware of the paucity of availability and hence proud of their possesions and price accordingly. I did find a set for £100, made a pleading offer of £50, and to my delight, it was accepted. New clocks, but not quite right, so I have had to replace individual wires with a 3 block as per my bike. Soldering - I have learnt is a skill all of its own, and flux - in copious amounts is always preferable to little balls of spent solder on my bench. Once attached, all good, apart from a redesign of the chrome rear support for each clock and the mount being the same but differnt! Also, the inner plastic is orange, not white as on mine and the needles are also a different colour, i will frankenstien the construction with some artistic melding of dials etc and then paint the surrounds, that are long past a clean ad put them back together.So all that is now being sorted.
So now I have a good set of functioning clocks, a mount and centre consol that appear to be functional and look good, or will once painted in satin black and assembled. I have ordered some appropiate handle bars from China, they are at present - clearing customs at LHR and should be here withing the week or so. Then, once all the little taskes are done, all will be assembled and reunited with the very nice brakes and will await the frame to catch up once it is powder coated and the rolling chassis can be compiled.
So, lots of prep work, rubbing down and parts picking to be done, and then priming along with the application of satin black paint, to start to bring the scheme together. Oh, and of course, all of the fastenings to be polished and used too, to which end i had to order a new belt for my lathe. Noe, Halfords used to be my go to, they offer Blue Light discounts and stock ,ost things. But you go to their web site and try to just find a 35" V belt......tis nigh on impossible. What I am finding more and more is that most places now want to know what you have and tell you what you need.....not trusting you to know what you want, so I have consigned Halfords to the archives of my buildong and now am a convert to Amazon prime and eBay, Halfords stock will plummet with the withdrawl of my custom.
Part 2 will have the finished pieces and hopefully - and assebled front end (minus the hideous gold wheel, that should get powder coated along with the frame and swing arm) when the finacial gods deem it possible. Again, my estimate of costs will almost certainly be blown out of the water, but am hoping fro around £250 mark for the work....... I must stay focussed on my vison:
