dual sport restoration

[Westbay]

Hi, I have a 68 DT-1 yamaha enduro and want to restore the bike although I have no experiance in restoration. I bought the bike a couple of years ago and progress on the project has stopped. Are there any members that can provide some guidance.

I am considering the purchase of sand blasting, painting and possible powder coating equipment, although buying the wrong equipment only compounds the problem of getting the project completed.

The bike is now disassembled and I have thought of just taking the parts to professionals, though some of the "reward" of restoring the bike is lost. My plan was to have the tank and fenders finished and painted by a professional although I thought that finishing the aluminum hubs, engine cases and painting the frame could be accomplished myself.

If anyone has experiance in restoring bikes I would appreciate some advice on equipment and methods. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks , bob

[bmcdonau]

Hi, I have a 68 DT-1 yamaha enduro and want to restore the bike although I have no experiance in restoration. I bought the bike a couple of years ago and progress on the project has stopped. Are there any members that can provide some guidance.

I am considering the purchase of sand blasting, painting and possible powder coating equipment, although buying the wrong equipment only compounds the problem of getting the project completed.

The bike is now disassembled and I have thought of just taking the parts to professionals, though some of the "reward" of restoring the bike is lost. My plan was to have the tank and fenders finished and painted by a professional although I thought that finishing the aluminum hubs, engine cases and painting the frame could be accomplished myself.

If anyone has experiance in restoring bikes I would appreciate some advice on equipment and methods. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks , bob

Bob, I've restored a few bikes and can help you through the process. Does it run?

[budzrex]

If you need help with decisions on blast or paint or powder coat equipment I will give you my honest opinion. Its what I do for a living so I know the
equipment well.

My suggestion is to do the items you can and farm some out. You can blast,
prep and paint your parts with good results with some practice. Real quality
powder coat equipment is not cheap, plus you need an over large enough for the parts to cure the powder

Farm that out and do the prep and paint and final assembly yourself. You can buy some discount powder equipment but you will seldom get the results you seek, that is why no professionals use the cheap hobby equipment that is so often seen in discount magazines and tool stores.

You can buy a mid line gravity feed gun for a reasonable figure for your paint, as you improve keep it as a primer gun and move up to a first class finish gun. Blast equipment is not that expensive either but again you get what you pay for. Will you use it just once or will this be a new hobby. Make some choices first so you dont spend your cash too many times just to get results
you are happy with.

We see it all the time, guys come in after buying two or three so called bargin units to try to save some cash and are frustrated that they cannot get the results they need and buy a better unit they would have been cash
ahead if they spent money more wisely the first time.

And remember when you blast dont use Sand its bad for your lungs to breath
the free silica realeased when you blast with sand.

[Westbay]

Guys, thanks for responding to my call for help. Sorry for not writing back ASAP, I am still trying to learn how to navigate this site but the certainly enjoying the journey.

Dennis, I appreciate the offer of help. The bike was running prior to taking it apart. It has about 6K miles and was leaking fuel lightly at the petcock.
Budzrex, I appreciate the truth concerning the purchase of equipment by . I thought this may become a new hobby as I love vintage DS and MX bikes, though given the amount of time I have found to work on the DT-1 should be telling me something. However, some credit for my procrastination can be given to hurricane IKE for sending 4 ft of water through my garage. I am still working to remove all the shelving and cabinets, rewire and try to derust or throw out tools My plan includes a layout with more room for the possible purchase of new equipment if this “hobby works out.

My plan has evolved to having the tank, headlight brackets, fenders painted by a professional, though I was hoping I could paint the frame, pegs, swing arm etc.. I thought of the powder coating and appreciate the info on equipment. After watching some videos on utube about powder coating, I thought “heck I can do that”. But your info means a lot and I am sure you are correct. You get what you pay for.

I thought the first step would be to replace the spokes and during the process, polish the hubs to an original finish. So I watched utube videos on polishing and thought “heck I can to that” I bought a grinder, polishing wheels and compound. The first time I touched the stick of polishing compound to the wheel it broke in half. On “polishing some nuts and bolts, they flew across the garage and the polishing wheel looked like it would not last long. I saw “tumblers” in a northern tool mag and thought that may be the way to go on the small parts.

Concerning the hubs, is there a clear coat finish on the aluminum hubs and engine cases that needs to be removed prior to blasting or polishing? If so, how do I know that it has been entirely removed? If a coating is removed, is it best to polish with a wheel or can it be bead or gently blasted for a better finish.

Sorry for the long story and questions. I am probably making things harder than they are, but given limited time, I would prefer to do it right the first time.

When I learn how to compress my large image files, I'll upload some images of the bike prior to me taking it apart.

I appreciate the offer of help and the information!


bob

[budzrex]

Not sure about the cases on that model, but the rims and hubs are more
than likely just bare aluminum. Remember when you blast parts for polishing
to use a non aggressive sperical media so you do not etch the parts. You just want a clean smooth surface for polishing. If you are doing rims and
cases you plan to polish I would suggest #8 glass bead, it will give your parts a nice smooth satin finish. polishing from there will be fairly straightforward

[bmcdonau]

Guys, thanks for responding to my call for help. Sorry for not writing back ASAP, I am still trying to learn how to navigate this site but the certainly enjoying the journey.

Dennis, I appreciate the offer of help. The bike was running prior to taking it apart. It has about 6K miles and was leaking fuel lightly at the petcock.
Budzrex, I appreciate the truth concerning the purchase of equipment by . I thought this may become a new hobby as I love vintage DS and MX bikes, though given the amount of time I have found to work on the DT-1 should be telling me something. However, some credit for my procrastination can be given to hurricane IKE for sending 4 ft of water through my garage. I am still working to remove all the shelving and cabinets, rewire and try to derust or throw out tools My plan includes a layout with more room for the possible purchase of new equipment if this “hobby works out.

My plan has evolved to having the tank, headlight brackets, fenders painted by a professional, though I was hoping I could paint the frame, pegs, swing arm etc.. I thought of the powder coating and appreciate the info on equipment. After watching some videos on utube about powder coating, I thought “heck I can do that”. But your info means a lot and I am sure you are correct. You get what you pay for.

I thought the first step would be to replace the spokes and during the process, polish the hubs to an original finish. So I watched utube videos on polishing and thought “heck I can to that” I bought a grinder, polishing wheels and compound. The first time I touched the stick of polishing compound to the wheel it broke in half. On “polishing some nuts and bolts, they flew across the garage and the polishing wheel looked like it would not last long. I saw “tumblers” in a northern tool mag and thought that may be the way to go on the small parts.

Concerning the hubs, is there a clear coat finish on the aluminum hubs and engine cases that needs to be removed prior to blasting or polishing? If so, how do I know that it has been entirely removed? If a coating is removed, is it best to polish with a wheel or can it be bead or gently blasted for a better finish.

Sorry for the long story and questions. I am probably making things harder than they are, but given limited time, I would prefer to do it right the first time.

When I learn how to compress my large image files, I'll upload some images of the bike prior to me taking it apart.

I appreciate the offer of help and the information!


bob

Bob, I decide what equipment to buy based on how much it cost to get something done by someone else.

I farm out the sand blasting and powder coating--its just too cheap to mess with it myself. A frame can usually be sandblasted for less than $100 and powder coated for $200. It saves a ton of time and energy.

I do my own painting--its not difficult and with a little practice you can produce pretty good results. Having a set of tins professionally painted can cost close to $1000. You can see that its more cost effective to learn how to paint than blast and powder coat. Original decals can be purchased at reproductiondecals.com. I can give you a quick primer on painting if you like.

Aluminum colored cases are usually clear coated while hubs and rims are not. You'll need a stand and dial indicator to respoke a wheel. I've learned how to do it and its not difficult, just tedious. Buchannons' can do it for you for about $100 plus spokes if you want to go that route.

Its difficult to polish nuts and bolts so I skip that step. I use a small vice to clean hardware and then have them rechromed, anodized or whatever they were originally. Find a good quality plater in your area. Its not expensive if you do the prep work which is the stripping and polishing. To polish a nut, grip a bolt in a vice and then stick the nut on the bolt and go at it with a brass wire wheel in a drill. Stick the nut in the vice if you are cleaning a bolt. Once cleaned it can be recoated with your choice of finish.