Engine in.

So I installed new tapered steering head bearings in the frame and onto the bottom yoke.

Next up was to reinstall the engine, I was dreading this part because of the danger of scratching the frame. As it happens I did manage to scratch it once on one of the exhaust studs, but I think it will be hidden behind the exhaust clamp where the down pipes connect to the engine. Made me feel sick when I did it though! Never mind...

I laid the engine on it's side and lowered the frame over it. Not as simple as it sounds I can assure you! After much wriggling around it went on, then it was a matter of getting a bolt in at a time and gradually line the mounts up.

Swing arm and shock is on, this was quite straight forward and ok to do. Started putting on footrest mounts etc so moving on at a reasonable pace for a change.

A special day.

Yeah!...the day has finally arrived. My frame is back from the painter.

Really pleased with the finish. It is satin black but in certain lights it has shades of graphite grey in it which is a good contrast to the gloss black wheels and yokes etc.

So the first job is to get the engine back in the frame. I have used some pipe insulation to protect the paint when I put it the engine back in.

That's as far as I got as I just remembered I need to paint the engine mounting brackets!Duh.
Tantalisingly close to rebuild now,stay tuned folks.

Engine clean up.

When I had it running for a brief time, the engine on this bike sounded pretty good and ran well with no strange noises or excessive smoke so I am going to run it as is apart from servicing.However it was in need of a spruce up cosmetically.
So I used some wire wool with Autosol to remove the corrosion and discolouration to the alloy. It's not 100% but it has a nice aged alloy look about it.

I got sore fingers trying to get in all the grooves with the wire wool!On the engine block itself I used high temperature satin black spray paint bought again from my trusty hardware store. I used four tins of it but they where only 300ml cans.It went on really easily in between gusts of wind.

Really pleased with how it looks considering I did'nt spend huge amounts of time and money on it.

So the painter says I might get my frame by the end of this week which would be great.The rebuild can then begin. Wahoo!

Shiny bits.

Ok, with the frame away hopefully to be painted soon I took the chance to clean up and paint some bits.First up was the shock absorber which appears to be in good condition under the filth!

So after a rub down and clean I sprayed it with primer and then some silver paint from my local hardware shop which is a very nice colour.Very pleased with it.

Next up the swing arm which is in brilliant condition so other than a clean up it was on with the same paint.

For the wheels I went for a paint by Simoniz called "Tough Paint", I have used it before on a previous bike and it gives a lovely smooth finish. If it's tough enough remains to be seen. Let's hope so.

This paint is very easy to apply.I used a 500ml tin per wheel.

Some other bits I painted with the same paint include the yokes, brake disc centres and cush drive carrier.

Bottom yoke.

Brake discs where a real chore to mask, should look nice on the bike though.

Loads more to paint and rebuild, looking forward to getting the frame back to start putting it all back together.