Oh dear.... what have I started.

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 3, 2011

Well feeling a bit out of sorts today due to my recent Chemo session so I decided to take my mind off it a bit and have a look at the RT. Super bike , goes really well and in pretty good nick overall. However there is a crack on the right hand lower fairing panel that needs fixing and painting so I thought I would take off the panel and sort it out. Took the tank and seat off and that exposed the rear frame, engine and various other bits that to be fair were in reasonable condition, but you know how it is, Should I strip it down a bit further, get rid of the bits of surface rust........ the crankcase and gearbox could really do with a good clean...... that slight noise from the front... timing chain, should I do that while Im at it... it has done 55000 miles.... the push rod tubes look a bit rusty so might as well replace with stainless,, you get the drift!!!!. :blast

So Ive spent the morning wrestling the crash bars out of the fairing, lower panels off and started stripping the top part of the engine, might as well get it out on the bench and do the lot.
Well the weather is not the best and I will probably be out of sorts for another couple of months, Austins are both well sorted so I suppose I might as well.

Knackered now so might just go and curl up in front of the telly :rob

BigyellowGS · Jan 3, 2011

once you start taking one apart (even for a small job) you know your going to end up rebuilding it from the bottom up! lol.

Go-on.. show us some piccies of the austins... 7's are beautiful cars!

Devon · Jan 3, 2011

I know exactly where you are coming from. I put my RS on the workbench to tidy it up: by the time I have finished I reckon I will wish I bought the bike Rob Farmer had for sale a few weeks ago :blast

Hope you are feeling better soon Pastyman.

Qmouse · Jan 3, 2011

I am in a similar position myself. Just brought back my R80RT Mono 6 years after I sold it. I owned it for 8 years and rode it over 90,000 miles in that time , so it’s looking a bit tatty now.

I was going to run it into the ground as a winter hack ( well that’s what I told the wife!). Now I am going through it top to bottom and its going to be a money pit for about a year. But I have photos of this bike with my kids when they were little and I had some great times on the bike. So it’s a mission from the heart not the head.

Brian

DrFarkoff · Jan 3, 2011

Ooooo Nice I have a full fairing and bits and bobs for one of those Hibernating in my loft that I was gonna bung on E bay

Complete with spotlamp kit and side panels etc etc

pastyman said:
Well feeling a bit out of sorts today due to my recent Chemo session so I decided to take my mind off it a bit and have a look at the RT. Super bike , goes really well and in pretty good nick overall. However there is a crack on the right hand lower fairing panel that needs fixing and painting so I thought I would take off the panel and sort it out. Took the tank and seat off and that exposed the rear frame, engine and various other bits that to be fair were in reasonable condition, but you know how it is, Should I strip it down a bit further, get rid of the bits of surface rust........ the crankcase and gearbox could really do with a good clean...... that slight noise from the front... timing chain, should I do that while Im at it... it has done 55000 miles.... the push rod tubes look a bit rusty so might as well replace with stainless,, you get the drift!!!!.
So Ive spent the morning wrestling the crash bars out of the fairing, lower panels off and started stripping the top part of the engine, might as well get it out on the bench and do the lot.
Well the weather is not the best and I will probably be out of sorts for another couple of months, Austins are both well sorted so I suppose I might as well.
Knackered now so might just go and curl up in front of the telly

Voyager · Jan 4, 2011

Oooooh . . I had a 1988 R80RT in Colorado Red.

I had a scrape on the lower fairing panel, bought all the right paint and tried to match the colour - no chance. Its a complete respray and re-line or nothing I'm afraid.

I hope you feel better soon, maybe this will cheer you up.

My eldest Nephew got married in October (Taunton area !).

This is what took the happy couple to the Reception . . . .

If my memory serves, its a 1927 Austin 20.

It was going very well

.

Bob.

BigyellowGS · Jan 4, 2011

Nice to see three of my favorite vehicles in that last pic.. an old Austin, a defender and a disco.. Just need a few airheads and that would be perfect!

Voyager · Jan 4, 2011

BigyellowGS said:
Nice to see three of my favorite vehicles in that last pic.. an old Austin, a defender and a disco.. Just need a few airheads and that would be perfect!

I was looking at Defenders and Discos when I replaced my 1974 88" Series III LandRover.

I ended up buying a 1998 'Series 95' Toyota LandCruiser 'Colorado' - 3 litre diesel, manual with full-time four-wheel drive and centre and read diff locks :

I have spent a lot on it over the last couple of years but its an awesome vehicle when the going gets tough. I have had no trouble at all getting about in the heavy snow and ice we've had up here recently.

This was taken when we had the first snowfall - before it got to wheel height :augie

(Tyres are BF Goodrich T/As 265/70/16s - excellent

).

They do have their faults though and I doubt I'd buy another.

Sorry . . . Off Topic :topic

Bob.

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 4, 2011

Voyager, Big Y and others, Thanks for the replies and especially the pics of the 20. Untill a couple of years ago we had a 16, 1931 vintage that I had owned for over 30 years, Eventually sold it and bought two 7's which are much easier and lighter to manage, getting on a bit now. Here's a pic of the 16 and also one of our outing on new years day.

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 4, 2011

Oh and just to get back to the subject of the thread..... here's where I got to today

jaber · Jan 4, 2011

Bloodyhell

pastyman said:
Oh and just to get back to the subject of the thread..... here's where I got to today

BigyellowGS · Jan 4, 2011

such pretty cars :drool

Makes my recent "classic" purchase (a bright red (er pink) 924) look rather bland and boring..

Looks like good progress on the RT though! Certainly faster than anything I've managed on my cafe racer project.. In fact I think mine might have been in hibernation due to the temperatures in the garage

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 4, 2011

jaber said:
Bloodyhell

Hi Jaber, was going to ask you if you know if anything has been done to the bike engine wise before you got it, I've got it in mind to do the valve guides, timing chain, clutch etc. If any of them have already been done it would save me a lot of time not to mention expense. It does look as if things have been done frame wise and in taking it apart there was only one bolt that refused to undo, everything else came off beautifully.

Now also looking at cleaning it up with soda blasating, I will have to buy a compressor but it could be worth it. wonder what size I would need

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 4, 2011

BigyellowGS said:
such pretty cars Makes my recent "classic" purchase (a bright red (er pink) 924) look rather bland and boring..

Looks like good progress on the RT though! Certainly faster than anything I've managed on my cafe racer project.. In fact I think mine might have been in hibernation due to the temperatures in the garage

Big Y, If you like 7's check out the Cornwall Austin 7 club site. its pretty good and shows a lot of the different cars plus buying tips :augie

. Great little cars that are cheaper than most new bikes and very useable and cheap to run.... The collectores and speculators hav'nt got to them..

BigyellowGS · Jan 4, 2011

would love an Austin 7.. But tbh my classic car money will never stretch that far and right now I have a spitfire/midget itch that I want to scratch.. always fancied building a lightweight hillclimb style car out of one of these 1500cc BL cars..hence I've just put the 924 up for sale.

anyway.. back on track.. The rebuild sounds like it's going to be pretty intense.. if you do the timing chain any chance of a few photos as you go throught it? as I think I'm going to have to do the one on my cafe project when I rebuild the lump.

Flipfly · Jan 5, 2011

Let me know when it's finished pops, I've got my eye on the RT now

Love Bertha and she'll be staying, but a nice RT to sit next to her in the garage would be nice

Voyager · Jan 5, 2011

BigyellowGS said:
If you do the timing chain any chance of a few photos as you go throught it? as I think I'm going to have to do the one on my cafe project when I rebuild the lump.

I took photos when I did mine.

If Pastyman doesn't do it, I'll put up a new thread.

Bob.

(RIP) pastyman · Jan 5, 2011

Voyager, yes please, I could do with some help on this too.. I seem to remember when I did it once before, I had a hell of a job getting the split link in from the back.. Thick fingers etc..

(RIP) Proff · Jan 5, 2011

BigyellowGS said:
always fancied building a lightweight hillclimb style car out of one of these 1500cc BL cars..hence I've just put the 924 up for sale.
.

Do NOT repeat NOT have anything to do with the 1500cc engine

It's basically a bored out version of the old Standard 8 [1953 ]
It's never been any good..
Whereas the 1275cc BMC A type engine was developed from the original 803 cc A30 engine....
When Triumph was merged into BLMC they decided [stupidly in my opinion ] to use the existing Toledo engine [ instead of the 1440 cc A series upgrade that was nearing end of developement.] in the Midget and Last Sprite...
Never known one [1500 engine] last more than 50k miles, without catastrophic failures.

EDIT !!
Back on topic..
I posted a thread on replacing cam chain 2 years ago.. on my R65g/s
Can't find it now

jaber · Jan 6, 2011

Hi Tony sorry mate dont know if owts been done, guy who owned was a very good bike mech, but was into old brit stuff and at one point had 15 greeves in his shed, he didnt know a great deal about bms I think he had it about 5 or six years though, and changed all oils etc on a regular basis, just used it to ride out with his pal on a sunday, unfortunatley his mate passed away and he no longer felt like riding her.

This is going to be one cracking bike grommit, still miss her :comfort

All the best

Steve

pastyman said:
Hi Jaber, was going to ask you if you know if anything has been done to the bike engine wise before you got it, I've got it in mind to do the valve guides, timing chain, clutch etc. If any of them have already been done it would save me a lot of time not to mention expense. It does look as if things have been done frame wise and in taking it apart there was only one bolt that refused to undo, everything else came off beautifully.

Now also looking at cleaning it up with soda blasating, I will have to buy a compressor but it could be worth it. wonder what size I would need

Oh dear.... what have I started.

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