The perils of bike restoration

I went and filled the Chancellor's coffers a bit more yesterday (and
incidentally, put some petrol in the car) to go an collect a few painted
bits of bodywork from UKRM's resident paint master, Beav.

And rather nice the parts look, too. Unfortunately the fresh paint on
the Motosport tank is very likely to show up the rest of the bike -
TOG's seen that, and it was a nice one. But while I was busy ripping the
rest of the bodywork off it yesterday (long story, basically it looks
like the "original" paint wasn't, and it wasn't painted that well) I
noticed that the chrome was nice enough for the old paintwork but the
new one would show up the chrome. So that looks like I'll have at least
part of that done, too. At least that would give me an excuse to fit all
the other nice little NOS bits I've got for it, too.

Moral of the story - I should've just ridden the fucking thing instead
of "just getting this here tank resprayed so I can swap out the dented
original".

Oh well, I guess I better check with David Silver if they still stock
new exhausts for them so I can replace the one on the bike which has
had a couple of holes welded in the past...

 

You sorted the engine yet?

Last thing I remember you were having trouble getting the head off, or
is my memory fading with age?

Boxerboy

 

Your memory isn't fading, but it was the spare engine that needed a bit
more compression. Well, more than 0...

Thanks to a combination of corrosion and painted-over bolt heads, the
barrel is very reluctant to move, though. I'll probably stick that
engine on ebay as is once I stripped the side covers and the kickstart
mechanism.

The one in the bike is running, but it could do with some of the side
covers off the duff engine, plus said kickstart mechanism.

 

Bugger I had made note to self to make silly offer for pile of
motosport at back of you garage that you had not managed to fix!

JPEG?

Got some ossie mates coming over next week, scouting for MZ spares to
see if its worth taking bikes back as they have become all nostalgic
for the old days.

Ian

 

Heh. The one that's left was running pretty well once I cleaned out the
carb. The other two were fixable, but as usual, worth more in bits than
in once piece.

Not at the moment, given that parts of the bodywork are on their hols
Oop North. I'll probably post a few once I sorted out the remaining
cosmetic issues - well, with the exception of the chrome. Guess that'll
just get a polish.