MT Riders Club

It all started with wanting to change the head gasket due to a minor oil leak. I don't know how it escalated to a full rebuild! Anyway, I charged ahead and before I knew it my bike had been turned into a million bits all over the garage floor.

Took the frame and loads of other bits and pieces to the powder coaters, and a week later picked them up: playtime begins!




Stripped the engine down, looks pretty clean inside...




...which is more than I can say for the outside:




So it's off to the vapour-blasters for this lot:




Meanwhile, I couldn't resist putting the shiny new frame together (and to clear some space in the garage):




Painted the shocks with a spray can (Hammerite direct to metal gloss). The springs were powder coated along with the frame. The rubber/foam bump stops were completely shagged so I cut them off.




Reassembled them.




The swing arm, shocks, and back wheel are then fitted:




Yoke and forks are then fitted (with new seals)




Front wheel and brake and handlebars (from a 350 - for the barkbusters and pump grips) are fitted:




The first dash of red goes on - cowling, headlight and instrument cluster all go on, as well as the superb front rack by arceye:




Mounted the GPS and lockable Touratech RAM mount combo (a fantastic bargain ebay win), as well as the hand pump which will eventually be painted red.




Fitted tank seat and side-panels temporarily - just to clear some space. I will be getting the faded tank and plastics repainted along with two MT350 front pannier boxes.




While visiting the folks for Christmas, I took the engine down with me and repainted it using plastikote BBQ spraypaint. Gave a really nice satin finish and apparently doesn't need primer:









And that's as far as I've come so far. Can't wait to finish her off. When I do, I'll update this thread.

Thanks for looking!

Brilliant job Colin! Having just called it a day tinkering on various projects I'm going back out there to carry on!

that is quit nice ,, however (and not an arguament)

the BBQ paint needs to be hardened by heat for it to work , or it stays soft , ideally this is within 8 hrs,

I did a spare silencer/ex sys and the softness was apparent , I sorted this by simply applying a B+D heat gun on it , it then hardened quite well.

good luck with the rebuild

alan

Wow thats not the scruffy toerag of a bike I saw! Looks good.
Glad to see some rebuilding (other than Minter) from the 'no green thanks' arm of the club.
Top job Colin

Otto

I like the colour, great job. I hope it fixes the oil leak

Ta,

woodruff wrote:Wow thats not the scruffy toerag of a bike I saw! Looks good.
Glad to see some rebuilding (other than Minter) from the 'no green thanks' arm of the club.
Top job Colin

Otto

Looking forward to your forthcoming little project Otto! Will it be green or........??!!

the plasticote bbq paint does give a good satin finish.i have used the same myself.its not petrol proof tho.
nice build so far. just ashame about the colour ive heard it reduces top speed by 10mph.

brian

Not Petrrol Proof?

Please let us know how it goes with the plasticote. The finish looks very good it would be a shame if it does come off if you have a petrol overflow spill.

I've never had anything Vapour blasted I will have a look around locally and see if there is anyone who can do this.

Thanks,

Great progress Colin since I met you in Brighton and the 500 is really coming together, I look forward to seeing it completed, well done so far a fantasic effort

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

freddy54 wrote:that is quit nice ,, however (and not an arguament)

the BBQ paint needs to be hardened by heat for it to work , or it stays soft , ideally this is within 8 hrs,

I did a spare silencer/ex sys and the softness was apparent , I sorted this by simply applying a B+D heat gun on it , it then hardened quite well.

good luck with the rebuild

alan

Yes, I remember the the feeling I had when I read this bit on the can - about two whole days afterward!!! So out came the heat gun - the paint did still feel a bit soft - and I stood there for two straight hours making sure I got everything. I could smell some fumes coming off and afterward the paint was noticeably harder. Hopefully I haven't ruined it by waiting so long. Only time will tell!

bth2bth2 wrote:the plasticote bbq paint does give a good satin finish.i have used the same myself.its not petrol proof tho.
nice build so far. just ashame about the colour ive heard it reduces top speed by 10mph.

brian

It's disappointing that it's not petrol-proof, I'll have to put a longer overflow pipe on the carb and route it away from the engine.

Maybe you should inform Ferrari about your findings Brian - I'm sure they'd be very interested!