Honda 4-4 restoration Questions:

An updated website at http://www.artistic.flyer.co.uk/Honda.htm shows the
events of this weekend. To cut a long story short, the wheels are going to
take 3 weeks to get back from the wheel people, so I gutted the entire bike
and sent off the frame to be blasted and powder coated, along with main
stand / side stand / torque bar - swing arm and collar.

Two questions today:

1) There appears to be a crease / dent on one side of the swing arm. No
damage at all to frame, and although very strange, it may be that it is
meant to be there. Can fellow 400/4 owners check theirs to see if the same
thing is present on theirs, I think it was the side of the RHS arm almost at
the front. It may be to clear the brake mechanism, it may be damaged.

2) Attention now turns to the forks and engine. I now have 5 of the 8
exhaust studs out using methods described on this newsgroup. I am letting
penetrating oil do its bit on the remaining 3 having already applied heat
and a "tap" with a hammer. The forks whilst serviceable, are far from
concours. What methods have folks here used to restore the aluminium lower
fork to its former glory. The chrome is thankfully in good condition.

As always, thanks for your time. Motorcycle restoration is something that I
have not done for nearly 30 years, and this is the first one I have done
with any outside help, but the result should be gorgeous.

Regards

First outing of the completed machine will be to the Ponderosa Cafe,
Llangollen, North Wales. I`ll let you know when )

 

Metal polish and elbow grease. Lots of the latter...

Solvol worked pretty well on the XL250.

That's good news indeed!

 

Don;t think there is on mine. I'll double-check tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Nitromoprs to remove the old lacquer, Loyblox abrasive blocks, polishing
kit for a Black & Decker, Solvol and elbow grease.

Nothing else works.

 

I did a similar thing on the RD, 1200 wet 'n dry paper to remove the
lacquer and lots of elbow grease with Solvol. With hindsight a polishing
kit would have saved a lot of time.

--
Mike Buckley
RD350LC2
GSF600S
http://www.toastyhamster.org
BONY#38

 

What methods have folks here used to restore the aluminium lower

Polishing kits do save hours and tubes of autosol, but get a
bench grinder: They can take larger polishing mops, have
more torque than a drill and won't burn out (like your dril
motor) during an all day polishing session.

Remember to re-lacquer once you've got it nice and shiny or
the alloy will just start oxidising again - especially if
you ride in the winter.

 

Good call.

Except that the lacquer will fall off again.... I prefer justr to
re-polish from time to time.

 

No to mention the kind of laquer that slowly separates from the metal
surface, allowing water underneath but proves a complete barsteward to
remove...

 

I don't have mine handy, but I've got some pics. I'll lob them on the
web when I get caught up with my email.

It will rain.

 

I did find a solution for this to protect the corrode_very_quickly alloy
of an early K100 final drive box and swinging arm. Took it along to my
local powder coating contractor. They bead blasted the surfaces and then
baked on a clear powder coat which was hard and durable. It worked very
nicely and the finished result only yellowed the look of the aluminium
very slightly.

'Hog

 

Remember to re-lacquer once you've got it nice and shiny or

Eeeuww. Never had that happen (yet). Whole point of
lacquering was to cut out the regular polishing malarky by
stopping corrosion dead.

Mr Fastner (bless his little stainless bolts) sold a
paint-on lacquer that reeked like acetone. Several coats of
that have lasted four+ winters without flake or yellowing
and its petrol-proof. Unfortunatly they appear to have
gone out of business some years ago.

Recent parts were done with spray-on acrylic lacquer which
has yellowed, but only when sprayed with hot oil.

 

Blimey. Good stuff.

Ah.

Seriously, though - in this country's climate, if you ride a bike
regularly, lacquer is going to die whatever you do.

Re-lacquer regularly or polish regularly? I'll polish.

 

A brief hunt turned up the following nugget:
http://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=507053
Looks like someone still has stocks.

^^^^^^^
....and Chrome plate, paintwork, rubber, PVC and plastic.
Nothing wrong with fighting the inevitable though.

If those were my options, I'd paint it all black - except
the flaky black paint was why I polished it up years ago.

(..there's a hole in my bucket, dear 'Liza, dear 'Liza...)