'73 RD350 "Grape Ape" restore

[SoCal250]

You certainly have a lot of elbow room in your shop! That place is huge

[Cam]

Used Quick-Glo to polish the chrome, the stuff doesn't smell and gives great results. I get the "fine" grit that can also be used to polish glass. Works good on the tach/speedo glass.

[Cam]

You certainly have a lot of elbow room in your shop! That place is huge

Unfortunately its not my shop, but I'm very fortunate to be able to use it for my projects. The overhead crane is handy!

[Cam]

Frame was blasted, sprayed with PJ1 gloss. Used brass swingarm bushings, tried to use factory fasteners wherever possible. Economy and Yambits helped with the rest.

[Cam]

Front brakes were a mess. I was able to rebuild the caliper but the bore on the master was too pitted to be usable. Bike starting to go together. Forks were rebuilt, and the lowers were wet sanded using about 4 different grits. Came out close to stock, decided not to clear them for now. No pics, but the steering lock was busted in two pieces, so I used a spare lock and swapped out the wafers.

[Cam]

A before and after of the rear wheel. Soda blasted the hubs and did stages of wet sand and a light polish to get a somewhat stock look. The spokes are functional but corroded and will be replaced later. Finally back on two wheels!

[Cam]

Fuel tank was in good shape on the outside, no dents and the paint was rider quality. The inside however was a different story, in there was 30 years of varnish and rust. The first step was getting the big chunks out, and the best thing I've found to mechanically remove debris in tanks has been 1" drywall screws. I've used bolts, ball bearings, and even rocks before, but drywall screws work really well. After that, I filled the tank with E85, I wanted to see if that would dissolve any remaining varnish deposits. After a week of soaking I think it did an ok job, good enough to work on the rust. Already had a 5 gallon pail of Evaporust from another project, so that went in for about a week. The results were great, I will definitely use it again if I have it around. Not as cheap as phosphoric acid or electrolysis, I would probably try these out if I didn't have the Evaporust already. Immediately after draining the tank, it was flushed with premix. After about 4 months it still looks like new, the premix stopped any flash rusting. When the tank is repainted I will probably use a sealer.

[Cam]

Before and after of the toolbox.

[Seizer]

Coming along nicely. Drywall screws? Who knew?!

[dgorms]

Drywall screws? I should of known, been working on bikes for 45 years and doing drywall for 40 (ouch)...................................D

[Cam]

Coming along nicely. Drywall screws? Who knew?!

Thanks!
Two boxes of screws were just about right, you need some mass in there.  Used a little water and some elbow grease. So far it has worked great.
I used a bag of pennies once and that was a mistake. The water in there made the pennies stick to the inside and they were a bastard to get out.

[m in sc]

looks great so far. 

those bars 

[SoCal250]

You certainly have a lot of elbow room in your shop! That place is huge

Unfortunately its not my shop, but I'm very fortunate to be able to use it for my projects. The overhead crane is handy!

Regardless, I'm still envious. A borrowed shop can be better than your own in some ways -- no overhead to pay. 

Used Quick-Glo to polish the chrome, the stuff doesn't smell and gives great results. I get the "fine" grit that can also be used to polish glass. Works good on the tach/speedo glass.

That Quick-Glo looks like it works great on chrome.   I may have to pick up some

[Kawtriplefreak]

Plus one on the Quick-Glo. It works great on chrome and aluminium.

[Cam]

Interesting thing on the speedo and tach glass where I used the Quick-Glo, I had polished the outside glass but I was still seeing fingerprints. They really stood out and were annoying, come to find out they were on the inside of the glass! They were both still factory sealed, you could tell they had not been apart. So apparently someone in Japan was making RD gauges 40 years ago with no gloves!
So I took them apart and gave them a clean, the fingerprints were so stuck on I had to polish them off with the Quick-Glo. Glass cleaner wouldn't budge them.