Not meant to imply a factory-correct resto, just trying to clean up a nasty old bike. A while back, Son of Weldangrind and I traded our '78 MX175 for an '81 XL250S (plus cash
). This bike was really rough, but it started on the first kick and didn't smoke or make ugly noises. I originally planned to obtain the title and ride it on the street, but I have other plans. I'm just cleaning this bike up for sale now.
Here's the ugly bike when we brought it home:
I picked up antother XL250S a couple of weeks later in even worse shape, but it was nearly free and had some good parts. The tank was not quite as bad as the one pictured, but it was rusted through in one spot. I ground out the rust, hammered it in and filled it with Permatex Cold Weld. I didn't use JB weld because it doesn't actually say that it resists gasoline.
I picked the best exhaust header out of the two (which was still very rusty) and tried the electrolytic de-rusting trick on it. Wow! It really works. for those who aren't familiar, you fill a large plastic container with warm water, add some Arm & Hammer washing soda and stir it up. Place a large piece of clean steel (ideally larger than your rusty part) in the water and connect the positive clamp from your battery charger to it. Connect the negative clamp to the rusty piece, put it in the water and plug the battery charger in. Ten minutes later, this was the result:
One shock bushing was beat to death, so I popped the metal sleeve out and removed what was left of the rubber. A quick measurement revealed that 5/8" heater hose is a good match.
I pressed the metal sleeve into the heater hose and called it done.
This is the assembled bushing next to the wasted one:
The muffler was a rotten mess. I cut off the offending garbage and bought a piece of exhaust tubing to weld on. Welding rusty metal is no fun, but it stuck. Here's the mock-up:
I used a leftover from a Beast ATV muffler for the exit pipe, because it will act as a spark arrestor without compromising flow too badly. I cut a disc out of some plate and ground a hole in the middle to match the exit pipe:
I then welded the disc into the exhaust tubing and then welded the original bracket in place:
This is the muffler after some heat paint:
I filled the dents in the tank, painted it with Krylon Fusion Red Pepper (might as well be called Honda Red), recovered the seat with an eBay score and painted the fenders and side panels with Krylon Fusion. This is the result so far, with many parts left to reassemble:
The brake pedal and footpeg assembly was terribly bent, as were the handlebars. After much heating and bending, those parts are looking more respectable and will go on the bike after some paint.
More to follow as I find time.