The next part of the restoration was the front suspension. This was something that I wasn't looking forward to for some reason but in the end it turned out really well and was quite enjoyable to do.
The forks were leaky, the front wheel had been painted in thick, black paint and the spokes were mismatched and rusty. That's probably why I wasn't looking forward to getting stuck into it!
The last time (a looong time ago) I've been involved in stripping down a set of motorbike forks I ended up getting stitches in my head (thanks Dad!) - maybe another reason I was apprehensive! This time it all went well, no trips to emergency.
The forks had no oil in them, just some old gunk. Plenty of cleaning of all the parts and then re-assembly with a rebuild kit and they came up really well.
The triple clamps were cleaned, blasted and painted in the closest silver I could find to the original finish. All I have is a before shot of them:
The handlebars were next. Unfortunately they had a bend in the crossbar so some heat and some persuasion and they straightened up like new.
And then the part I dreaded most. The front wheel. No better way to do it than just get stuck in. First, the easy bit. Strip it down - with bolt cutters of course!
I then stripped the flogged out bearings out of the hub and blasted and painted that. With new bearings pressed in and new seals, it came up like new.
The rim required heaps more elbow grease. The black paint was very thick and hard to get off. My little sand blaster struggled with it so I had no choice but to paint strip it. I hate paint stripper!
Underneath the rim was in decent condition but still had some light scratches and corrosion so I need to fix that up. The original finish would have been silver anodised I think. Rather than have that done and potentially not be right, I thought Id have a go at painting it. Glad I did because it came up great - the finish looks just like the original.
The paint is actually a chrome plate look-alike. It costs about $20 per can but it's good quality and well worth it.
I managed to find some NOS (New Old Stock) spokes. So, next job was to re-lace the wheel and hub. This turned out to be much easier than expected and was good fun. On these rims the spokes are all the same length and bend. So, they can only really go in one way. If you are methodical and patient about it, they all go in easily. Best tip is to have a photo of the rim with he old spokes handy.
I then trued it up on the bench, tensioned the spokes and temporarily installed it on the bike. I've managed to find the original style Dunlop tyre for the front which hasn't been made for a while (you can see it in the pics below). I'm still looking for a rear.
I had a NOS brake disc so I put that on the hub with new bolts.
So, it's getting really close to complete now. Brakes, rear wheel, tyres and then the decals.
