Painted with high heat paint. It turned out a bit lighter grey than I wanted, but this was the closest to the factory semi-metallic finish. Options were limited, the other was flat black, which I think would have looked worse. TBH, I am not sure how good the paint will hold, although I prepped and cleaned the surface as best as I could. Surely it will not be as durable as the factory finish, but hopefully it will bake good enough once it gets up to temp. At the end of the day, if it gets messed up, I easily drop the engine during winter, paint with engine enamel and be done with it.
Great progress. Paint colour is fine for a track bike. Will even look darker with the fairing on etc. Don't be upset, but I actually enjoyed reading the Bulgarian newspapers more than looking at your bike!!
Paint stripper is nasty stuff, definitely a good idea to work outside. I did consider sending it for sand blasting, however with what was available in my area did not give much choice of media. And they usually use very coarse sand, so I was concerned they will mess up any machined surfaces. This is after the first pass. VIN tag was safely removed and will be riveted back in place after painting.
This is after 3 passes with ps and power wash. Very stubborn in some places. I got tired so finished it up the next day and finally wire wheeled all the leftover paint and oxidized spots. I didn't take pictures, but afterwards the frame was masked very carefully - all bolt holes, machined surfaces, headstock bearings etc. and sent for powder coating.
Engine covers removed. Will be stripped, sanded and powder coated. Removing the alternator as it will need some attention too. Alternator itself is fine, but the external wire is a bit burned so it will need to be replaced. Also notice the DIY block off plates on the valve cover made from a steel plate... I will either paint these or have a friend cut out new ones from aluminium, we'll see.
Engine covers, block off plates, lower triple, water pump cover and cylinder block water connection pipe - sanded down, prepped and ready to be masked. And finally painted. I think they turned out quite well. Again I wanted to make them a little darker, but still OK. Metallic effect is quite visible and they will contrast well with a matte black frame.
Frame also came back from paint. Masking tape is still on and turned out a bitch to remove under the thick powder coat.
I really like the paint you've used. Looks great. I cant wait to see how this turns out. It's like watching your favorite TV show eager for the next episode
Thanks, but you guys do realize that I have been working on this almost every day for the last couple of months and I am now posting pictures of the whole process
Yep I started taking it apart end of March and was hoping to have it running by end of May. It turned to be much more tedious than I anticipated. I also have a tendency to get caught up in minor details which unless I do exactly as I want them would bother me tremendously Not to mention waiting for parts from Honda requires serious patience.
Assembling the water pump I ran into an interesting problem... New gasket - 2 weeks from Honda. Racing front fairing stay (sandblasted), a little tweaked from the crash but will straighten no problem. Bolts and other hardware (semi)organized and also 2 crates of various parts and wiring. The fasteners are a combination of what I stripped off the donor bike and what I was able to clean and restore to a good usable condition from mine. TBH, cleaning, sanding and restoring the frame, engine, engine covers, bolts and other small parts like the starter motor, water pump, brake calipers, etc. was the most tedious and frustrating part of the whole project. It took me many many hours of scrubbing which left my fingers sore for days. Anyways, the dirty work is now finished and its time to start putting it back together.
A couple of months ago when putting on one of my numberplates, I somehow mismarked the position about 2mm to the side, thereby leaving the plate off-centre. A professor of mathematics wouldn't notice - but I did. You know the result: I ordered a new plate!!
