I always remember a friend had a nc30, a second mate had a Yamaha FZR400 that had allegedly been breathed on heavily by vance and hines, and I had a lightly modified gpx600r. The FZR was blindingly fast, and my mate was a really really good rider, people always used to say if he had ever got the chance to race he'd have been someone well known, I used to struggle to stay with him on twisty roads and in the wet though I loved the razor steering of the gpx with that 16" front shod with a battleaxe that most people hated it for. We often were playing wait in a layby or at destination for matey on the NC30 though.
I think a lot of that was down to the rider not the bike though to be fair, lets just say he was much more conservative and less wanting to have to fix things when he fell off, though it sounded lovely on song.
The carb reminds me of the one on my XL600R, I fear that carb to be honest, I've never touched it in 10 years of ownership and it was onerous that it came with 2 spare sets too in a box, but this year I probably will have to. I'm supposed to fit a stroker rod to it making it a 650 with a XR crank and a new power rod conrod and big forged piston and a few other mods to try and make it less boring to ride, then if I do, I'll HAVE to go near the carb.
I have a early 90's 1000 exup engined bimota (yb8), and when I got it the carburation was terrible and the dealers who sold it secondhand tried to fob me off that was all I could expect from such a OLD bike (this was in 2000 or so) but in the end knocked a load of money off, so I paid woody of british drag racing fame the amount they reduced it by to sort them out for me, and a lovely job he did too of both them and the exup valve timing and it was transformed to something that wheelied off the throttle at 80mph and may have registered 170mph on a gps at one point on a autobahn, honest officer. Problem is now its a massive voyage to have him work his magic again when I get round to getting it back on the road and I'm not sure I bend like that to ride it properly anymore!
So tl,dr, I'm a big coward when it comes to carbs, its my kryptonite.. FI, beep boop, hack or rip the ecu out and fit a megasquirt, session with the wideband and all is nice.
Anyway, today I have fixed, or at least declared done, the following mega project.
Daughters 207, bought cheap (for over here) with issues and starship mileage for a 1.4 vti petrol at 160+ k, it rattled, made horrible noises out the exhaust, had terrible paint and pee'd oil out of every orrifice. But she liked it, so I promised to fix everything that needed fixing and pay for the parts as she was actually getting interested in mechanical things, which was only to be encouraged imho.
So first, the engine, out on a stand, flushed, new camchain set, new oilpump chain, new pump, all the seals, stretchbolts, probe round the variable valve timing gear but left alone as seemed in order, compression test good so left the cylinders alone, new stat and some other sensors that didnt look great with broken connectors etc fixed.
Then android auto and carplay screen that sat in the place of the infotainment display with a huge screen, 3d printed a holder to hold the original info display in the original radio space, new control arms, discs, pads, rear drums because lumps were missing and they were cracked, shoes etc etc, got peugeot planet and diagbox working and a vci interface, cut 3 new blank keys and programmed the immobilizers for them and remotes, yada yada.
On to the appearance, found some cheap alloys that someone had sprayed one in matt black to hide scuffs, making them really odd, with 40 series profile tyres, that when fitted made the car stupidly low. I trapped my arm between the rolling bridge and the sill at one point it was so low and had to get daughter to jack it up quick, completely impractical even if it did look mildly cool. So new set of matched tyres from the tyre shoppie on special offer for her birthday present, resprayed one alloy and dressed and lacquered it to match the others so they weren't odd.
But the paint... it was really bad. I've never seen lacquer that peeled off so easy, and the paint underneath was bleached pink in places too and there were loads of dings and dents & in fact the car was about 5 different colours.
I got the worst of the dents out playing at PDR with a lightboard and glue pulling etc, but I havent sprayed anything in 2 decades, and never used 2k or lacquer in the past only cellulouse and aerosol so wanted to try my hand because I have some really nice projects in the queue that need paint when they finally pop out...
Enter one chinese inflatable spray booth. Set up inside the barn because it was winter and below freezing outside, I heated it with a electric blow heater that I turned off between spraying and a chinese diesel heater outside. Lots of filling and sanding and primer etc.
Early experiences, better than what I had before (ie nothing), cleaner, but really prone to dust in the paint because of poor filtration and the inflator pump blowing debris round the interior.
If you look at this pic of the bumper on a body rotating paint stand (xmas prezzie!), you'll by now notice the booth isnt inflated, and is using a cheap old style metal gazebo frame and tethers up to rafters to stay in shape. A great solution, inflate with the blower, assemble gazeebo frame inside and tension tethers, then turn the damn noisy blower pumps off and let it all settle down. Bonus if you have a power outage, the tent doesnt end up glued to the fresh paint and you can keep tables etc in the paint lab at the end with your gear on.
The dust issue was partially solved but still no cigar. I think some was the heater in the booth had crusty bits inside and I was turning it on to bake the layer post spray that I found afterwards, but some was still the poor filtration system the booth has. But I have a better solution in the works involving a industrial high flow extraction fan and box filter elements in a cover for the window filters for mk3.
So fast forward a few more months when I got derailed by having to sort my lad's replacement car out after he wrote his off, and the mrs's car and other stuff and today I got weld on her heart shaped tailpipe on the new exhaust I fitted and french it into the bumper and to test drive it. It goes alright, quite happy to break the 80mph limit on the autoroute easily, doesnt overheat and doesnt leak though the battery tests as weak so will get a new one tomorrow. And she loves it. I mostly love that I get the workshop space back finally and she's happy even if I have lost the peugeot and 207 badges in black she bought to stick on, but I'll find them in the mega tidy up I can now begin doing. My wife says not bad for a 17 year old car.
Have to add, it wasnt all me, daughter helped when it was ok, not with the 2k because I only had one airfed mask etc, but for the black out parts she bead blasted and prepped them in the cabinet. She also has to wrap the door pillar in black tomorrow with my assistance after cleaning and polishing it herself. To be clear there's no polish on this yet, just finished off with 3600 grade compound. And having her interested and seeing progress was the best bit.
I think a lot of that was down to the rider not the bike though to be fair, lets just say he was much more conservative and less wanting to have to fix things when he fell off, though it sounded lovely on song.
The carb reminds me of the one on my XL600R, I fear that carb to be honest, I've never touched it in 10 years of ownership and it was onerous that it came with 2 spare sets too in a box, but this year I probably will have to. I'm supposed to fit a stroker rod to it making it a 650 with a XR crank and a new power rod conrod and big forged piston and a few other mods to try and make it less boring to ride, then if I do, I'll HAVE to go near the carb.
I have a early 90's 1000 exup engined bimota (yb8), and when I got it the carburation was terrible and the dealers who sold it secondhand tried to fob me off that was all I could expect from such a OLD bike (this was in 2000 or so) but in the end knocked a load of money off, so I paid woody of british drag racing fame the amount they reduced it by to sort them out for me, and a lovely job he did too of both them and the exup valve timing and it was transformed to something that wheelied off the throttle at 80mph and may have registered 170mph on a gps at one point on a autobahn, honest officer. Problem is now its a massive voyage to have him work his magic again when I get round to getting it back on the road and I'm not sure I bend like that to ride it properly anymore!
So tl,dr, I'm a big coward when it comes to carbs, its my kryptonite.. FI, beep boop, hack or rip the ecu out and fit a megasquirt, session with the wideband and all is nice.
Anyway, today I have fixed, or at least declared done, the following mega project.
Daughters 207, bought cheap (for over here) with issues and starship mileage for a 1.4 vti petrol at 160+ k, it rattled, made horrible noises out the exhaust, had terrible paint and pee'd oil out of every orrifice. But she liked it, so I promised to fix everything that needed fixing and pay for the parts as she was actually getting interested in mechanical things, which was only to be encouraged imho.
So first, the engine, out on a stand, flushed, new camchain set, new oilpump chain, new pump, all the seals, stretchbolts, probe round the variable valve timing gear but left alone as seemed in order, compression test good so left the cylinders alone, new stat and some other sensors that didnt look great with broken connectors etc fixed.
Then android auto and carplay screen that sat in the place of the infotainment display with a huge screen, 3d printed a holder to hold the original info display in the original radio space, new control arms, discs, pads, rear drums because lumps were missing and they were cracked, shoes etc etc, got peugeot planet and diagbox working and a vci interface, cut 3 new blank keys and programmed the immobilizers for them and remotes, yada yada.
On to the appearance, found some cheap alloys that someone had sprayed one in matt black to hide scuffs, making them really odd, with 40 series profile tyres, that when fitted made the car stupidly low. I trapped my arm between the rolling bridge and the sill at one point it was so low and had to get daughter to jack it up quick, completely impractical even if it did look mildly cool. So new set of matched tyres from the tyre shoppie on special offer for her birthday present, resprayed one alloy and dressed and lacquered it to match the others so they weren't odd.
But the paint... it was really bad. I've never seen lacquer that peeled off so easy, and the paint underneath was bleached pink in places too and there were loads of dings and dents & in fact the car was about 5 different colours.
I got the worst of the dents out playing at PDR with a lightboard and glue pulling etc, but I havent sprayed anything in 2 decades, and never used 2k or lacquer in the past only cellulouse and aerosol so wanted to try my hand because I have some really nice projects in the queue that need paint when they finally pop out...
Enter one chinese inflatable spray booth. Set up inside the barn because it was winter and below freezing outside, I heated it with a electric blow heater that I turned off between spraying and a chinese diesel heater outside. Lots of filling and sanding and primer etc.
Early experiences, better than what I had before (ie nothing), cleaner, but really prone to dust in the paint because of poor filtration and the inflator pump blowing debris round the interior.
If you look at this pic of the bumper on a body rotating paint stand (xmas prezzie!), you'll by now notice the booth isnt inflated, and is using a cheap old style metal gazebo frame and tethers up to rafters to stay in shape. A great solution, inflate with the blower, assemble gazeebo frame inside and tension tethers, then turn the damn noisy blower pumps off and let it all settle down. Bonus if you have a power outage, the tent doesnt end up glued to the fresh paint and you can keep tables etc in the paint lab at the end with your gear on.
The dust issue was partially solved but still no cigar. I think some was the heater in the booth had crusty bits inside and I was turning it on to bake the layer post spray that I found afterwards, but some was still the poor filtration system the booth has. But I have a better solution in the works involving a industrial high flow extraction fan and box filter elements in a cover for the window filters for mk3.
So fast forward a few more months when I got derailed by having to sort my lad's replacement car out after he wrote his off, and the mrs's car and other stuff and today I got weld on her heart shaped tailpipe on the new exhaust I fitted and french it into the bumper and to test drive it. It goes alright, quite happy to break the 80mph limit on the autoroute easily, doesnt overheat and doesnt leak though the battery tests as weak so will get a new one tomorrow. And she loves it. I mostly love that I get the workshop space back finally and she's happy even if I have lost the peugeot and 207 badges in black she bought to stick on, but I'll find them in the mega tidy up I can now begin doing. My wife says not bad for a 17 year old car.
Have to add, it wasnt all me, daughter helped when it was ok, not with the 2k because I only had one airfed mask etc, but for the black out parts she bead blasted and prepped them in the cabinet. She also has to wrap the door pillar in black tomorrow with my assistance after cleaning and polishing it herself. To be clear there's no polish on this yet, just finished off with 3600 grade compound. And having her interested and seeing progress was the best bit.
