Restoring a single - questions and advice

[thefathippy]

I'm pulling my finger out! ;D

After 20+ years of having a wide-case 250 Mark 3 sitting under the house in bits, I'm finally starting to do stuff. I saw a similar bike at the DOC concourse, and fell in love again.

Top of my to do list are the seat, the tank, and a stuck ring giving almost zero compression.

I need to re-upholster the seat, but the base also needs de-rusting and painting. Should I do all this before sending it off to the seat repairer? Any recommendations for seat repairers?

I need to stop the tank leaking, and get some dings knocked out before re-chroming and spraying. Once again, I have no real clue who to approach, or whether I should give the tank to someone to do the lot, or just get it repaired and prepped for chroming and painting. Any thoughts?

That stuck ring. I bought the bike as a non-goer, and the stuck ring was (I suspect) the main reason it wouldn't start. I pulled the motor apart, and promptly lost interest when I couldn't free the ring. I'm wondering if I should just bundle up the motor and send it away to be brought back to life (Road and Race, Gowanlochs, somewhere else?). Maybe I should just whack in a new piston and rings - oh, and gudgeon pin - I'm sure it wasn't that rusty 20 years ago. Maybe it's easy to remove a stuck ring - just not for me.

There's plenty more to do, but I think these will give me some visible progress, and therefore the impetus to keep going.

I'm going to get Mick Walker's book, but any advice would be welcomed.

Bear in mind I live in the Blue Mountains, so your local expert probably won't be mine.

[Nev]

F hippy
It will come down to Time v Money. You will save money if you have the seat pan stripped clean of rust etc ready for the upholsterer. Most auto upholsterers have small bead blasting units in their shops and will charge you for cleaning. As far as painting, talk to the upholsterer first as some glues will not stick well to paint sefaces.

The tank. 1) clean tank
2) fix dings and if it is a join in the tank causing the leak now is the time to fix it.
3) chrome
4) Paint.
5) install
pick the points you can or wont to do and go from their.

The Motor; if was me i would have a go at repairing it myself. But i have the time and not much money. And i enjoy the rush of doing it myself.(when it works )

Again depending on the time you have, skills you know, compared to the money you can spend will dictate what direction you take.
Cheers
Nev

[thefathippy]

Thanks Nev

I like the idea of doing as much as I can myself, and recognise that rush. ;D I did quite a bit of good stuff on on the 860, but also thingyed up sometimes...

I guess my fear is getting in over my head. I'm competent enough to do basic dismantling and assembly, but I know I have severe limitations on my knowledge (and tools, for that matter, but less severe) - such as removing that bloody stuck ring.

I think I'll send the tank off and get it to the stage where it's re-chromed, then I'd like to paint it <prays to god of spray painters (and wife) > with a proper spray gun. I resprayed the 860 with aerosol cans, and it came up damn good, if I do say so myself (and so did the guy I sold it to), but it was an expensive, slow process that way.

I'm toying with powdercoating the frame, but I've resprayed frames satisfactorily before.

Thanks again

Tony F