Saying hello! & Rebuild

[H_Lime]

Hello,
Just thought Id introduce myself!
In brief my DR story goes like this, I bought a DR750 bout two years back. Drove it home and tore it asunder with aspirations of Dakar reps and such.
Anywho, like many good projects its stalled due to option paralysis. Now id just like to put it all back together again lol.
So far the frame, swinger, bracketry, bars, mounts, pegs etc are powder coated and thats it.

Feel free to offer advice and or criticism on anything below!

Things to do are:

1/ Decide on engine colour and how to remove old paint. Nitromors aint cutting it..
Thinking vapour or soda blasting?
Thinking silver, with blue clutch and genny covers as a part homage to the original comedy blue engine.
Any experience you may have in painting the engine would be appreciated. Im guessing get it clean and etch prime...

2/ Find and fit a petrol pump. Is there a plug and play unit from another bike? Anyone ever gone facet?

3/ Paint the fairings and tank, source decals.
Plastics are bendy, mmmmm what to do...

4/ Maybe fit a veypor dash as the original didnt show speed.

5/ Sort the tanks. Originals were blasted revealing filler and holes. Have a clean set bought but i notice the fairing bracket tabs are different shaped to my 88 750 tanks??? They seem to locate the holes in the same place but go about it differently..they are the same size as my originals, go figure.

6/ Exhaust, I want to fit a standard sportsbike one preferably in the hope of maintaining some back pressure. Also im not carb savvy so something approaching a standard set up would be nice.

7/ Brakes. I want to fit a 4 pot caliper. I have access to folk with a 3 axis cnc mill to make a relocating/offset bracket. Anyone ploughed this furrow already?

In hindsight i should have put more miles on her before breaking her down :oops: , i absolutely loved the 250 mile ride on it, very involving bike to ride .

Also any advice on where to start on putting the whole show back together would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[BigBob]

If I replied to this post in full it would be as long as the manual :o
Better to phone me You have a pm

[H_Lime]

Cheers Bob, will take you up on that.
Whens good to ring you?
I warn you in advance i have many questions lol!

[BigBob]

I have many answers!

[H_Lime]

He soooo does!

Its true lol. I wore the ear off the poor fella!
Many thanks for all the info Bob, its appreciated. Im in deep and would love to transform my boxes of bits back into a bike again :oops:

I opened the float bowls and one had a fair bit of what i can only guess to be rust from the tanks At some stage the filter must have been bypassed.. Hoping it has not worn jets/slides or the like (i almost sound like i know what im talking about there eh? :D ).


No real experience with carbs so im cleaning em bit by bit and following the manual. My little ultrasonic cleaner did a good job on the hard varnish and gunk. Now im happy it wont wreck anything il plough on with it.



After that its time to paint the bad boy.



Will try and source some PJ1 as per Bobs recommend. Still not sure what colour(s)? to do it. I have a feeling that for it to 'look right' it will have to be the same as the fork lowers and swinger linkage pivot, well at least in my head.
Either way, must not get ahead of myself, still loads of scotchbrighting and wire wool to get through before degreasing and etch priming the engine.
Anyone with experience criticism and or advice feel free to shout.
Wish me luck!

[spendango]

i use simoniz (tough)satin black its the dogs balls you can get it here on ebay.heres my xt500 i restored and used it on the engine . your doing a great job .arms must be sore getting all that paint off,I"m tiding my 800 up and have loads of pics if your stuck for anything.



if you think your DR was rough look at the pics of mine on here. :D

[spendango]

What did you use to strip the paint from the engine ?

[H_Lime]

Spendango, thats an inspiration man. The level of finish you got on the xt is a credit to you!
Im looking for more of a gloss or satin finish on the engine but id be happy to get mine looking half as well as yours.
How many man hours went into that?

[spendango]

i have tried gloss and its a bit cheap looking. why not get the outer casings powder coated and paint the crank casings and barrels.I have just preped my tank and plastics for painting.got a decal set from "Image works" i plastic coated my frame swing arm and footrest hangers loads of bits. my bike was in a state.

[H_Lime]

Update for anyone bored enough to read it! My sr41a will have a top headrace diameter of 48mm it seems. Well my verniers hasnt lied to me yet so im gona order this. Yell 'stop dickead' if im wrong.

http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/advance...&x=39&y=14

In further news Irelands a bloody backwater. No pj1 anywhere so far. Search continues tomorrow.
Bought some more steel wool and a new drill to help with prepping the mill for silver paint, yes i want silver or grey (and blue alt and clutch cases).

Spend, i got to where i am now with paint removal by getting high off my face on nitromors. 'Good shit' as the hippies might say, actually its bloody evil gear but relatively effective. But not as effective as soda blasting! And lo theres a comapny here that does it, so ive mailed em for a quote on the engine and tanks.

I know this is probably not very necessary for an acceptable finish but i want something that looks better than how it rolled out of hamamatsu, at least in my head. There, ive gone and cursed it.