Sanding and Painting

This is the part that took way longer then it should have, mainly due to me having to move midway through sandblasting and a lack of work space. I HIGHLY SUGGEST USING PAINT STRIPPER. I was stupid enough to take the time to sandblast the frame. Waste of time, money, and sandblasting compound. I used an 150 dollar 10 gallon air compressor I bought from harbor freight. Not a bad purchase. I ended up using it to repaint the bike. This is what I suggest using for removing paint. That paint remover coupled with a wire brush, and you'll get all that paint off in about 20 minutes. As oppose to three weeks of trying to find a buddy to let me use their backyard to sandblast, which I ended up having to do in my garage a week before I moved. If you do go the paint remover route, make sure to use 400-grit sandpaper on the frame, scuff it up a bit before you repaint it so the paint has a surface to stick too.

Sandblasting with Aluminum Oxide.

Sandblasting wasn't actual that horrible. I tarped off a room in my garage. Just make sure to use heavy tarps and set it on a wood backboard behind the frame so you don't blast through the tarp.

Blasting room.

Painting I fortunately didn't end up having to deal with. I was busy with moving and working and I paid my buddy 60 bucks to paint all my parts for me in his backyard. Took him a day. I supplied the tarps, primer, paint, clear coat, air compressor and accessories for him. He did a pretty good job. He didn't do it exactly the way I told him to. The best way to do it is apply the first coat of primer, use 600-grit sandpaper and after the first coat has dried, dip the sandpaper in water and wetsand any dripmarks or uneven paint. Continue this process through first few coats of primer, then move onto paint. For paint I would suggest 800-1000 grit sandpaper, and wetsanding through 3 coats of color. For clear coat, I would use 1200 grit sandpaper and only apply where necessary. My buddy ended up putting too much clear coat on a few parts, and they are shiny as all fuck.

Not bad for 60 bucks of paint and 60 bucks of buddy exploitation labor.

The frame he did a pretty good job on. He only applied 2 coats of clear coat and it got a good sort of shiny-matte finish.

A close up of the frame, matte finish.

The fenders I am most happy with. He applied 3 coats of clear coat on them and they got a damned good glossy finish.

3 coats of clear coat. Happy fucking camper.

Stripping it Down

Stripping down the bike was pretty straight forward. Took a long time because everything was pretty rusted, the hardest part was taking out the swing-arm bolt. Used some wd-40, dead blow hammer, and a 6 pack of beer. It came out eventually. Divided all the bolts into plastic cups and labeled them for each section of the bike. I suggest putting a cinder-block under the engine before taking everything apart, or a milk crate. It'll make things go a hell of a lot more smooth.

Surface rust. CDI/Ignition coil located under gas tank

After removing the front wheel, triple tree, fork assembly, and the swingarm assembly, I proceeded by removing the engine. That was a pain in the fucking ass. All of the engine mount bolts were rusted pretty horribly. Luckily for me, none of them snapped while coming out. After pulling off the engine, I took of the primary chain case cover. Shit was dirty. Real dirty.

Grimey as all fuck.

The original plan was to restore the engine. But after research, there was hardly any parts out there for this little old thumper. I ended up finding a 150cc Hensim engine online for 200 bucks, brand new. Hensim is a company that produces Honda clone engines. Almost identical, exact same mounting points for this bike. So, unfortunately for this bike, it would be parted with its original engine.

Degreasing the original engine.

For anybody interested, here is the link for 110-200cc vertical Honda clone engines. I called up the shop, and they shipped it to me for 50 bucks. A total of 250 dollars for a brand flippin new engine. Good deal.