29. SHOCK TREATMENT

ZX10 shock revamp

The monoshock,off a Kawasaki ZX10,was looking rather used so after dismemberment it was out with the paint stripper & wire brush,maskage, and on with a nice coat or 3 of VHTs black wrinkle from a spraybomb. Whipped out the heat gun to speed things up.

ZX10 shock b4

ZX10 shock during

28.REAR WHEEL BEARINGS

Checked the back wheel bearings & lo they were well past it so I found my home made 4 prong socket & whipped the locking collar off .Then out with the map gas torch to warm up the hub & then 'drift' ( a euphemism -for smack the hell out of-) the bearings/ spacer out.
A quick visit to the local bearing shop on the way home from work netted me a pair of 6302-2RS's.
Once more with the torch & job done.

Rear wheel bearings

27. REAR WHEEL FACELIFT

Spent some time bringing the tatty old 18" rear comstar back to life.
Used paintstripper to remove years of paint & grime then gave it  a good going over with wet & dry sandpaper before taking ages to mask it all off B4 spraying with matt black primer then a nice satin black.
Punched out the old knackered 6302 bearings & had a new Shinko 120/90 x 18 fitted.

Rear wheel B4

Painting rear wheel

Finished rear wheel

26.POWDERCOATING DONE

Picked up all the frame bits from the powdercoaters today.
After they sandblasted it got a 1st coat of silver followed by a see thru 'intense blue' topcoat.
It now looks very similar to blue anodising on alloy
Very pleased with the results although the bank balance took a direct hit.
This has now set the tone of the rest of the build.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!!

Intense blue powdercoated

25. IVE BEEN FRAMED!!

Final frame & swingarm mig welding all done.
We are now getting dangerously close to visiting the powder coaters,best I make the right decision for colour as its permanent.
For me,choosing the color scheme is always the difficult part, so time for yet more deep thought.

Welding done

Welding done 2

24. SLAVERY

In the interests of being able to quickly arrest unintended forward progress I decided to upgrade to hydraulic anchors both front and rear.
The front we've already discussed but the drum rear is a very different kettle of fish.
Originally Mr Honda had fitted a rod operated drum actuated through a crossover shaft.That crossover shaft got deleted a while ago thus the move to hydraulics.
The master cylinder is already adapted so on to the slave cylinder which was originally meant for a Toyota clutch.
Decided to drill a couple of holes & bolt it to the drum backing plate.
It's a little big so in an effort to hide it in plain sight I wound up filing the part numbers off then polishing it to match the, now floating, torque arm.

Toyota clutch slave cylinder as bought

Slave polished up

slave on brakeplate

hydraulic rear brake setup

original Honda setup

23.WHERE WE'RE @...

Pulled her outside for the 1st time today to stand back & evaluate her proportions & stance.

CX500 custom rebuild progress

CX500 custom rebuild progress 2