Slow burn project - JDM style RZ YPVS

[JonW]

Ok, lets get doing something...

3 - De-rust what is left of the frame.

I bathed the whole frame in vinegar for a while and it helped, but it needed ‘more’ so it went in the blaster.

I then needed to primer it to stop any flash rusting and decided to use a new weld through primer Id bought.

I have to say I have a love / hate relationship with weld through primer… It seems to either not be weldable or it just burns off and isnt being a primer any more. sigh… This one was meant to be the best on the market and was ‘high in copper content’… it certainly looks very coppery in the pic so it got that bit right.



A side note… You can really see the pitting in the frame from the rust in this pic. if you zoom in. hmm... We’ll have to address that later.



4 - Remake the missing U shaped lower frame bar

I searched high and low for a ready made U channel profile of this size to avoid making one. Just being lazy really lol.

I then searched high and low at home for a bit of steel the right thickness to make one from… nope, none.

I then took my trusty caliper to the local hardware shop (Bunnings, its like B&Q for the Brits) and walked around looking at stuff…

… and, it turns out a length of house plastering channel is the right thickness mild steel.

Not this exact one, but similar.



Of course I had to buy 2.4m of it and only needed less than a 12” strip lol

I bought this shape as I wanted to get an ‘L’ shape of steel. Having one fold already in it meant the 2nd fold would be easier to make.

After cutting the length i needed I cut down the side to fold leaving the other side long to allow clamping in the vice.

I then folded the short edge over a strip of alloy that was the right width for the mesh, ie. the same inner dimension as the OEM top bar of course. This was held in the vice against the return and clamped along with the long edge to provide a stable base for hammering the fold.

Once I had the edge hammered most of the way I crimped the rest flat with some wide welding pliers, then cut down the long side of the U.

Pretty simple really and just like that I had the correct U channel needed.

I trimmed the ends for the angle and it was time the first fit up.





The holes were the cut to match the ones I had to drill and grind out of the top rail to get the mesh out. The plan is to build the edge back up with weld which holds in the mesh and recreates the edge at the same time if youre careful or can grind well lol

Final job was to blast it and primer it ready for welding.

[JonW]

6 - Weld back on the lower spacer holder plate & 7 - Paint it

Let’s deal with these two at the same time…

The whole design of this guard is that the mesh is captive inside the U shaped channels top and bottom. Since the top is already fitted to the sides aligning it all wasnt too hard as the mesh slides into the top and as its a good fit it needed tapping into place. The lower bar goes on and the same happens and then the lower tips of the sides are measured to make them the same distance apart as the top. Clamp and then weld.

“Job done”… er. I wish. The bloody clever ‘weld through’ primer acted just like all the others Ive used and blocked the arc for a while and I ended up using much more power than I wanted. It all worked in the end, but was a total PITA. What should have been a few mins of welding took over an hour of messing about.

Ahh well, it got done so no compliants… here it is welded up and a first coat of normal primer:



Next this was hit with some high build primer and flatted back to get a smooth surface for the satin black top coat. It needs to be flat as black shows everything wrong with the surface it’s on.

Powder Coat would have been a great idea on this as its thicker and flows well into the divots, but I just didnt have the time to go to my mates place to do this and IMHO this is going to get chipped by stones and paint is easier to fix if that happens, PC not so much.







Not too bad for what I started with, I trust you’ll all agree.

Now onto the other parts of this puzzle...

[midlifecrisisrd]

Turned out really nice mate

One bonus of powder coat would have been it would have bonded all the cross points and stop any potential rattling

Steve

[andy748]

Nice job Jon, shows what you can achieve even if you think a part is scrap. Andy.

[JonW]

Thanks Lads!

I was going to post some stuff about refinishing the sides and the rad itself, but really it’s not perhaps as interesting as the rad guard from a refurb project perspective.

The plan with all these posts was not to lecture people who are experienced in any element of this work, more that I hoped by posting what Ive done with a part that most would say is beyond repair, that it might galvanise others into action to work on a project like this that they likely have at home at the bottom of a box or in the ’no hoper’ pile. lol

So, with that mind for the next tasks, let’s pick out the bits that seem interesting and gloss over the boring bits...

Below is what I thought would be the original plans for each part and then Ive written ‘what i did’ after:

The rad:
1 - Give the inside a good clean out and fingers crossed it’s not holed
2 - Fix the bent side where the rad/coverplate/guard side all were pushed bent in
3 - Clean up the rest of the oxidisation on the outside, again fingers crossed removing that doesnt hole it where there is bad oxidisingand
4 - Paint it

Cleaning with vinegar and water mix on the inside proved that the rad didnt leak and that it was actually not furred up or full of too much in the way of dust, bugs or other detritus.

Item 2 I think is the really interesting part of this for someone keen to work on something like this. In fact, probably fixing the twisted/bent in side of the rad is a job we’ll all have to do at some point on an old bike.

This was a bit of weird damage as it was pushed/bent in about 35degrees on the rear part of the side plate / rad and the damage was mostly in the centre of that side spar. I do wonder if this didnt happen when it was on the bike, rather in ‘storage' once removed. Its not like many things will smash into this when fitted to a bike and not leave a huge scar on the side plates, which we know had never been off the bike judging by how rusted on they were.

Bending this back so the folded side became 90 degrees to the level (when the rad was place on its front) was pretty easy by clamping the part where the side panel mounts (the extra length of the 3HM1 design helps us here) in a vice and listing up the other side using it as a lever until when at rest the whole rad remained level.

That was the easy part, the next work was more tricky. With the rad still clamped by the part that bolts to the side plates it involved pulling and pushing the body of the rad to and fro to manipulate the spar straighter slowly. At the same time it was pulling straight the cooling fins.

This took a lot of time and effort as each time everything moves only a very small amount and you dont want to wrench anything to far or too fast and break anything. I did try using some reversed clamps to push the edges apart but didnt want to stress the good side so went back to the vice and brute strength with my hands.

So, I just worked this little by little and over time the alloy spar gradually returned to be closer to where it was when new. Dented materials are often stretched so dont go back where they were plus you have to think about how much effort you want to put in as each time you pull or push on this alloy unit it might break at a weld and since it might not ever get to 100%, you need to know when to stop. Bear in mind this rad is behind the guard so its also not 100% seen when fitted to the bike, but I wanted to at least make sure the guard fitted nice around the rad, the fins were less important as they still do their job with a kink in them.

its worth noting that all our rads are alloy and very easy to twist and manipulate back into shape as needed, often thats how they got out of shape in the first place. Ive found you can easily with just your hands perform an untwist and get them to fit again etc.

Finally it was onto part 3 and with alloy the oxidisation is always a pain, especially on tubes. An example of this is on the short tube in the case from the water pump, Ive had a few LCs fail with pin holes due to corrosion there.

As I worked this rad I could see it was quite pitted and working with vinegar and also some commercial weak alumabrite style products I got most of it out and the wire brushed the rest.

This is the commercial product that I used. It was actually good for getting the rust from the steel clips off the rad but not exactly night/day with the alloy corrosion. With the use of a wire brush as well and letting it work when most of the corrosion was gone (after the brush and vinegar) I made some progress at least.



I dont exactly advise this product, but it does work and is akin to a weak mix of alumabrite. That said the ‘correct mix’ of that is 2%, but in the workshop this often gets mixed to a much higher concentrate by the lads so it works faster… if it foams up and you cant see the part in the bath, its probably not the advised 2%... lol.

Final job will be painting once the nasty clump of blocked fins in the middle bottom is cleaned out. I guess this solid blockage is spooge mixed with dust/small stones. We’ll find out...

[donkeychomp]

If there is a tiny hole my advice is chuck an egg in the rad. A Cadburys Creme one is ideal.

Failing that, soldering works.

Alex

[JonW]

No holes thankfully Alex.

With Creme Eggs, Ive found they work all year round now that they are sold all year round, previously they were only sealing at Easter.

[donkeychomp]

(slaps head) OF COURSE! Easter only, after 4 days they'd be useless. Sorry mate, I thought I had a top tip there.

Alex

ps nice work on the radiator

[Mr Kipling]

Great work on the Rad resto , top job!!!

[JonW]

Thanks Lads!

The rad itself gets finished...

I was going to head down and use my mates hot parts washer with the it’s ‘special juice’* fed through the fins on low pressure (its settable).

The low pressure is important with rads due to the thin alloy cooling fins and one of the reasons why you shouldn’t pressure wash a bike/car etc. Flattening the cooling fins ruins the rad and maybe also your engine as the rad wont cool properly etc.

In the end I didnt get to his place and instead spent a bunch of time at home with a bath of wax and grease remover and paint brush. This would cut the grease in the spooge and allow the dust/dirt to fall out.

I also make a tool using a flat piece of steel - it was an offcut from the rad guard's frame repair actually - to push the detritus though the rad and to also straighten some of the fins.

When fully dry, I tapped the rad on the bench and small piles of light grey dirt appeared. I kept doing the cleaning, drying, tapping until that no longer happened.

After too much messing about (what started as a 5min job etc) I finally had it clean, but I wish I'd just gone to the workshop and use the washer there really. I could have left the washer to run through the fins while we shot the breeze… hmm, I’ll note that for another time lol

When the rad was fully dry I hit it with some VHT heat resistant paint that I use for cylinders and am calling it ‘done’.



I reckon the fins pulled out ok on the damaged side that was originally pushed in. Result.



* - This is actually true and very clever. It uses a fluid that passes through an enzyme mat to charge the fluid to ‘eat’ dirt and grease. It’s an impressive setup and not cheap to buy or maintain of course. If only we could all own such a cool thing. :/

[JonW]

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now…

The alloy side covers:
1 - Clean them up and then decide if they are ok to re-fit or if they need re-anodising, paint or powder coating?
2 - Sort out the refinishing
3 - Clean up the original (or order some new) captive nut plates and locate new stainless screws

I had some chats with a few mates about anodising and PC’ing these… And then one day when I was waiting for the rad to dry from its washing I just got the sandpaper and primers out and started working on them myself lol

A few coats of a generic silver and layers of clear and these look great I think. And I can always do the other finishes later if decide to go that way.

What i started with:





….and after…






Ive added new captive nuts to my cart for an upcoming order so those will arrive down the track.

[JonW]

No sense stopping the updates now… this is the one youre waiting for...

The 'Webike Japan 3HM1 Rad Refurb Project' is done…

From this:



To this:







(The new stainless screws are not fully holding the guard to the rad as I dont have the nut plates yet of course and the rubber bushes for the lower mounts are yet to be refitted)

So whaddaya think? worth the effort? Have I excited anyone who wouldnt normally repair or restore something to have a go?!

[yamark]

Fantastic work Jon, recycling at it's best

[arrdy350]

Great job JonW 👍

[midlifecrisisrd]

Turned out brilliant Jon 👏

Steve

[Mr Kipling]

That,s brilliant , it amazes me what people can restore with a little faith n effort...A+++

[donkeychomp]

Totally amazing.

Alex

ps they need you on Shed and Buried...

[JonW]

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

I really hope that by going into a bit of detail with this project (rather than just doing it and showing the 'done' version) that the series has excited someone somewhere to have a go themselves. As bike builders and restorers we all have parts that arent perfect that we could use with a bit of work etc. There is also an great satisfaction from completing something like this and putting it in a box of other parts for when you build the bike, or simply bolt it on and use it of course.

[JonW]

Interestingly this Beet Aero CBR front mudguard unit popped up on ebay and painted up it looks glorious!



Not suggesting I'd do this, but it does look classy... a bit too classy for my build perhaps lol... very, er, Honda... lol

I do like the way this one has a small rear spoiler on it... wish mine had that... maybe it will grow one?! we'll see...

[donkeychomp]

This might sound odd. But I like that.

Alex