Restoration?

Seems that as crap like Superdreams and 400 fours are now looked upon
as "classics" that a healthy trade has grown up around "restoring"
this type of bike.

Its entirely impossible to do the work properly, as the final value of
the bike is only going to be a fraction of the cost of a proper resto
job.

This means that there are many half arsed but very shiny bikes out
there at the moment, which in some cases take in unwary buyers, who
end up paying a lot of money for a tarted up wreck.

 

Um, I think that's always been true of just about any restoration,
actually.

Um, I think that's always been true of just about any restoration,
actually.

Your point?

 

DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS

 

He's completely wrong again though (surprise, surprise). The fact that
the finished article is worth way less than the cost of restoring it
doesn't make it "entirely impossible to do the work properly", it just
makes it impossible to make a profit.

 

Well, yes, ISWYM. It's almost always cheaper to buy a really good
sorted running bike than to restore a wreck, but sometimes people
restore bikes just for the fun of it. That's how I'm looking at my
TS250ER.

And sometimes you can restore a bike for very little. I reckon my 400
Four owes me maybe £300, and it's worth six or seven times that.

 

The point is that the interest in mundane old late seventies and early
eighties bikes has meant that a fair few people have set up as
"restorers" who only have very basic knowledge, and whose standards of
workmanship are in some cases not as good as better DIY types.

To be able to do this type of work properly requires a wide range of
skills, and it does seem to be very silly that a lot of car bodywork
types with an interest in bikes, are now setting themselves up as
"restorers".

 

Exactly. Not that the reason this all kicked off has anything to do
with restoration anyway. Beav doesn't afaik claim to be a restorer, &
sealing the inside of a rusty tank isn't restoration, it's repair.

 

Lord, my 944 had something like £15k to restore it between me and the
previous owner. A minter is worth 5k.

The salvage was worth about a grand.

 

Just to prove TOG's first point, I paid 12k for my mint 944 Turbo SE,
thrashed the arse off it for several years including a few trackdays,
hardly spent a penny on it, then sold it for 11k.

Conversely a mate's spent tens of thousands on his DB5 (including 20k
for an engine rebuild), & he'd have to wait a loooong time for it to be
worth enough to cover the costs, but he doesn't care as he's ended up
with the car he wants & money isn't an issue to him.

 

Oh, quite.

Really? Name three.

 

TIG welding, machining/ engineering, tin bashing.

 

Sealing the inside of a rusty tank using the wrong materials and
preparation methods seems more like a bodge to me!

 

The dodgy commercial "restorers" do actually make pretty good profits,
as in most cases the paint etc is nice and shiny and the mechanical
parts are untouched.

 

Wotcha.

Very similar story with my BSA B33.
I dare say I've put over 6k into the rebuild, but it's the bike I've always
wanted . . . . . .it's just a damn pity that I'm not able to ride it now.
Maybe in a few months time.

 

Exactly.................thats the cost of doing a proper job, but the
value is far less, and the bodge merchants are selling fully
"restored" bikes for less than half the cost of doing the work!

Its very easy to make a dog of a bike look very nice with a good coat
of paint and a few cosmetic bits and pieces, but a professional nuts
and bolts rebuild is likely to cost 3 or 4 times as much as the type
of bodge jobs that those on there see as "restorations"..............

 

I think it's lovely, too.

 

No, silly Kenny boi, name three car bodywork restorers doing bike
restoration.

 

Why do you bother?

He had his ass kicked before and will again.

 

Oh, it's fun when someone tries to troll and fails miserably.

I'll get bored of him soon, but for the moment he's a bit of sport. It's
also funny that despite his morphing he was identified right from the
start.

 

It's probably worth noting that "Ken" AKA Chris Stevens ran a VW
"restoration" and car welding business that he had to close down after
a load of disgruntled customers sued the arse off him for dodgy
workmanship. Never mind TIG welding, this twerp would have problems
welding up an old bucket.

This is quite funny, particularly the pathetic attempt to avoid
getting sued (again): "Classictrial are not responsible in any
circumstances for damage or injury, that may occur as a result of
poor workmanship".

http://www.classictrial.co.uk/