Thursday 29 December 2016

Today I've been working at height. It's not by choice but a necessity.    Treasure already occupies almost every square inch of the garage floor, expanding on that has been achieved by the use of 6" nails and old rope. Suspending W.I.P. from the roof does increase space available within the same volume but decrease access.
That's why I have step ladders. Today I spent time up them reattaching the freshly painted and plated ignition coils and condensor.



Man, have I got a load of maroon stuff hanging up, or is it hanging down? 
What else can you see?


Wednesday 28 December 2016

Don't want to get too Geeky about nuts and bolts but thought it would be nice to try get it somewhere near visually correct if possible. Instead of 13mm hex headed bolts the Belgium Honda (and probably other models of the 1960s) has 14mm. ....Stainless ones are available from Phil Denton Engineering but thought it may be neat to try make my own. A 300mm length of hex bar was purchased on eBay and today I had an attempt at making a set of 4 to use on the handlebar clamps.


 Looks like it's going to work out OK.


4 x made.....took me a couple of hours but hey, happy at the lathe with the radio on...
Proper peace and quiet


Now I even surprised myself once I'd given them a good buffing on the polishing mop.
Do like the sharpness of the edges and have left the head deep too, 
thought it looked 'old skool' Feeling confident I can try some of the more complicated fixings now.

Tuesday 27 December 2016

It's no good living in denial anymore. The rust spots that didn't turn dark grey after a lengthly dip in phosphoric acid but remained a red/brown were in fact solid rust....Tapping with a screwdriver blade (gently) revealed more than a couple of holes. Ohh, ohhh.......
Setting new metal into delicate surrounding areas would have stretched my MIG patching to the limit...and beyond...I decided to solder on an over patch........What a cheat!!!!....Hey, there becomes a point where massaging old crap can start becoming more important than real life...and taking up valuable drinking time too.....




 Both surfaces tinned with solder paint.


Government department solder used - Grade ? Unknown.


Happy with that for an old 'un


Painted with Government department Silver Enamel.
Hanging to dry.

Phew, now that's posh ! For a Belgium Honda.

Thursday 15 December 2016

Albert here. What's been happening in Oilyracer land?.....Well I've been doing a teeny weeny bit on the Belgium Cb72. Sticking with the theme that if I can use any of the treasure that has been stored for many years under my floor then I will.
Rear mudguard. Do happen to have an example of one.....Not the best example in the world but with some effort could be made to keep a Belgium downpour off my backside...
Looking rusty before the phosphoric dip.....looking very holy after....



The front mounting point is rusted through and the number plate mounting area is also in the same condition. I've been thinking best plan of attack for months, today was a vacation day, what better than to spend it trying to recover old crap back from the dark side....
Cutting the rust out is surely the only option..replacing it with similar gauge metal (cut from an old welding machine guard) will make it good.




That's the front mount area, now for the number plate mounting area.





I've dressed the welding but I don't want to disguise the repair either. I could cover my shed standard welds with Bondo body paste but I'm into leaving scars of ageing in my rebuilds too so that's a days work done. Another dip in the phosphoric bath now, will update with further pictures when this original 1960s piece is rust free and ready for paint.