95 CR 250 Honda Rebuild back to mostly stock

689 it is amazingly easy to do. Watching the tutorials I felt they made it easier then what it was. It will come apart very easily. You can use plastic wrap as a means to slide seals over. Don’t forget to push down the valve inside and on the top of the dampening rod when you go to put it back together. Take your time bleeding it and pump slowly. Like I said the 2nd video was better.

Yes Moto they did. I tried a welding supply place first. It’s the biggest motorcycle dealer in Fresno. But that may not say much after all.....Fresno.
As for rebuilding others shock. Just like you I also had the same thought of being able to rebuild friends shocks when I was done. Years ago it never occurred to me I should be doing this with used bikes I purchased. Before the internet you just didn’t have the resources for information or videos.

Forks.
I didn't even bother taking the ones on the bike apart. Having spent some time on here I quickly realized that the twin Showa design was an significant improvement over the 95s KYBs.
Went to Ebay and readily found an complete front end off a 97 minus the front wheel. It had at least one blown seal which I didnt care since I was going to fully rebuild them anyways. Having very little clue on what I would ultimately need to do to get them mounted.
Watched this video and read through it. 1997-2001 Honda CR Fork Rebuild
I had my various fork tools and was still worried I didn't have enough. Ultimately outside the huge like 32mm socket, common hand tools, all I basically needed was the seal drive tool.
I purchased the 48mm not the 42mm Press Me
I had ordered a RaceTech Gold Valve set up to do my own re-valve. I had a little anxiety with actually doing it since all I had was in this image.



Got the forks and the exteriors looked pretty good. I drained the fork oil.



Using my Honda Service Manual copy I was ready to start disassembly.



I get them unbolted and proceed to simply hammer them apart. And hammer, and heat gun, and lastly propane torch. No way they would come apart. The issue was when you went to hammer the seal out the inner bushing was trying to come out and jam at full extension. So I would rubber mallet back collapsed and try again.




I gave up after several hours of messing with it. I didn't try the other one since what was the point. I contacted the Ebay seller and these guys were super solid. They ended up refunding me a $150.00 from the original $300. Since they knew it would be expensive to ship them back they just said keep them. Very cool. I ended up finding the nicest restaurant in their city and purchased a $50 gift cert and had it sent to them.
Back to Ebay and found another set of Showa which were supposed to be 99's. They were cheap since I wrongly assumed due to the broken off bolt in the lower leg.
I waited a couple months before rebuilding those and by the time I go to them I noticed there were 2 different caps on them. Not too alarmed as I again wrongly assumed they came this way since the condition of them was so similar as to think they were both on the same bike.
The easiest way to remove small broken screws is using dental bits in a Dremel. The easiest way to remove bearing races after breaking off the shoulders is with the same dental bits. I haven't found a screw I couldn't remove by using those bits. I go in and cut a slot quickly and then just unscrew. On some more difficult ones I have been able to hollow out the center of the screw and just collapse it and remove.

Ebay is a great source for a bunch of these. Or call your Dentist and see if he will save his old ones and give them to you.





The oil in these was significantly cleaner.



Remove the bottom bolt and pull the adjuster free.



These came apart just as they should. Very easily



You can see the 2 different cap set ups.




So inspired by my success in taking apart the others and seeing how they are held internally I decided to try again the 97s. And for some unexplained reason a couple hard jerks and I was able to get it apart.



The only real difference I saw with the 99 fork and 97 was how the cap for the cartridge or fork cap screwed onto the actual chamber part. The newer design does not require the threaded locking allen screw. Outside that I saw no difference in any of the interior parts.
Seeing this I decided to just run the 99 internals with the 97 lower and upper.
The service manual was an excellent once again in helping me understand the springs and how to tell the difference between the weights.
Being me and for the hell of it I polished the spring coils exterior.




Now to re-valve them. Getting the cartridges open was as simple as putting the the lower part which has the notches for a tool in my vice. Next I used my huge socket and unscrewed them. Those caps are under considerable spring tension so be careful.
I had no instructions for the Gold Valves. I assumed I would just get on Racetechs website and unlock the secret of installing them. No way. Since I purchased them through Tucker Rocky they had come very simply. A phone call to Racetech I believe on a Saturday and Tyler hooked me up. What an excellent asset for Racetech. Great guy. Once I was able to get him on the same page which Gold Valves I had he emailed me the set up for the shim stack.
I ground down the flange over the nut and took them apart.



I was amazed at the sheer volume of shims and sizes. The big brains that developed this technology was impressive. How or why these are stacked in their proper order and size and affect anything is all a mystery to me. Yes oil flows past them. Beyond that I have no clue. I wouldn't even know how to create a shim stack without Racetechs and Tylers guidance.



Calipers are the bare minimum to figure out which shims are which. There are so many variations that without knowing the sizes of what you have along with what Racetechs gives you this job would have been considerably harder. I would rate doing a revalve at least a 7 in difficulty out of 10. I have no idea how many hours I spent just doing the revalve.
Here's an image of the shim stack I created. Amazing that affects anything.



Gold Valve vs stock. I have no idea of the quality of the Gold Valve setup in improved suspension. But I have them.



I decided to clean up the axle carriers, rebound and top caps.





I followed the Service manual on how to charge the cartridges and with standing over the top of the cartridges I was able to get them screwed back together.
Next was all the seals, bushings and orings replacement and followed the Racetechs amounts for volume of oil in each leg.
I used my Motion Pro easy measurement and dump of oil to get that Honda SS-7 oil in each leg. It has a magnet on the side of it which will easily hold it against metal and being full.
Motion Pro Quick Dump Container- Press Me

Back together and would do the re-valve again easily on my next set of forks.

Thanks for recognizing the detail. It’s posts like yours and others that make it all worthwhile to go into detail.

I actually recorded in fair detail how I have cleaned up all the bolts, nuts and washers. And I am reusing just about every one but they look like new. My process is easy but time consuming with the steps. Just like any other rebuild for members here.
I’m getting to that post and will make it the next.

Thanks again.

Hardware Clean Up.
I had purchased one of those 250 now a super deluxe 340 piece spec bolt kit. Spec Bolt kit NEW and Improved 340 pieces- Press Me
So it was my intention to use these fasteners. Because I was working on main pieces and realized the kit would not cover axles, motor mount, swingarm, linkage and others I gravitated towards cleaning up my stock fasteners. What also put me in that direction was evident rust pitting on several of those along with the cost to replace them with other used ones.
A wire wheel on a grinder is very effective on cleaning up all kinds of debris along with rust.
Harbor Freight Wire Wheel- Press Me
It only becomes difficult to use the smaller the item you are trying to clean.
Harbor Freight Bench Grinder- Press Me
I would have purchased one of these over the top one since the shafts stick out further and allow you to manipulate a part without contacting the motor housing.
Matt suggests this one- Press Me
It turns at a slightly lower RPM and is the same HP.
It was after getting some of those 3m rounded pads that can be ordered from Pryme MX - Press Me.
The last power tool I used was another Harbor Freight quality item. HF Belt Sander Cheap- Press Me
This is a very useful tool for wood and other soft materials. I would have this machine along with the grinders for everything else a home hobbyist might be doing.

Like I said when I saw what those fiber wheels could do quickly and even on very small items my confidence rose. Ultimately re-using all the fasteners was never my original plan. It morphed into that for nothing more then what kind of moron would spend the time re-surfacing every bolt, nut, washer and mount when he has many of them zinc plated and new. This guy.

As I have said before a Dremel is invaluable. Time and time again. Being a shade tree wrench my drill is my lathe and my Dremel my mill. I have acquired bits and pieces overs years. Just another example of more desire then maybe getting the right tool. I'm somewhat cheap and never afraid of hard work. These skills play well into going forward with cleaning those bolts up.

It started with just trying to see if I could make these main parts look better with using my Dremel.


This was the condition of all these parts.






So this is some Dremel work on the rear axle.


I could immediately see this was going to work well for me. As long as I went slow and did not get too aggressive with it.
I used some of the smaller Dremel stone grinding bits to reshape several of the nuts that had lips for nylon/plastic/metal inserts to lock them on. I used the sanding/grinding drums to clean up the chain adjusting spacer blocks.



My blocks came out very well along with the rear axle nut. If I tried to remove all the damage I could compromise the integrity of the blocks and they could crush easier. At some point you have to say enough.




So here are the steps. I purposely chose 2 bolts that were typical examples of what I cleaned up. The steps as follows was what I did for most of the fasteners. If you use the equipment I did or similar there is no doubt you will have the same results as I did. Understand I coated every single one after clean up in a attempt to control rust. Since I removed whatever Honda coated them in as a rust preventive I did not want more work later on after washing. Next CR I do I may look into sending all the fasteners out to be plated. The Cerakoat will not handle sockets and paint is removed on the lower corners of bolts.



I start with the wire wheel to knock the hard stuff off and clean up threads.



They do not look too bad with just the wire wheel. I still have a long way to go.


See those bolt bottoms? Yeah, the bottoms. Who in their right mind can leave that??? Again... Not this guy. This may very well be a needless step but I imagined a factory mechanic many years ago doing this step. I'm hoping on those parts that the bolt ends stick through at least one person will ask me if I actually flattened those.



Ahh, much better.



And since I'm doing that might as well smooth the faces where the wrench/socket hits.



After this it was on to the more aggressive 3m fiber wheel. Here I would get rid of any nicks in the heads of the bolts and insure the bolt shafts were well cleaned. I also made sure on EVERY nut, bolt and washer to spin the edge of it on the side of the next two wheels. This way I would have uniform edges to all those. Now that step was insanity. But look at some of yours. You will see how irregular they actually look.


This next step is where I have the finer 3m wheel on the other side. Be careful with this wheel. Its easy to rip it apart. The medium grit one lasts a long time. I'm finally on my second medium and on my 3rd or fourth fine one.
But this wheel puts a noticeable even better finish. Its smooths just slightly where the medium will cut metal down or grind a valley if you are not attentive.



Next is cleaning up the dished heads. The wheels just do not work well for this. I found a fast solution.
I use a firearm cleaning rod with a metal brush for bore cleaning on it. I next cut out a small square or rectangle piece of 3m abrasive pad, normally red colored. I chuck the rod up in my drill and wrap the small pad around the end. I have used this method for cleaning out shotgun chambers, revolver cylinders and heavily lead fouled barrels. It works fantastic for cleaning out anything similar.


If the dished heads are smaller I used this method.


Next on those axles or bolts that were hollow inside I noticed rust and other contaminants. Again the bore brush with liberal amounts WD40 to help drain out the debris and my drill I attacked those.







Like I said earlier I coated everything. Just one of 4 colors I used.




And lastly here are some before and after shots of parts I cleaned up.

Thanks guys for the props. If even just a few like my posts or get inspired themselves that's great.
As much as I wish I had the discipline of Cameron above and shoot video I'm too ugly and my voice sounds like kermit.
Just the cards I was dealt.
At least I have a smoking hot girlfriend.

I still need to compose the following..
1. Crazy involved rebuild of swingarm and all other
2. Silly amount of work on brakes
3. Grinding it out on my triple trees
4. Tank, radiator louvers, radiators, frame and handlebars.

I'm actually at completing my engine rebuild right now. That post above took me like 2 hours to make so bear with me.

Cameron I hope you are solidly in remission along with improving health. You are far too young and serve the moto community impressively with your videos.

You Da man Godcho... High praise for sure from you my friend doing that unbelievable 92 125. I have a 92 250 that I bought recently that is a super roach. Meaning it’s in horrible condition. I may do that next or my other 95 CR.

Adding oil to the rear brake was super easy. Got all the air removed in a flash. Still have a spongy front. Tried the back filling with no luck.
I may just try how I did the rear. I opened up the rear bleed screw and just started pumping oil through. Closed it when I had oil coming through. I did like 3 pump and bleeds and it’s done.

Rear Swingarm and linkage.

This also just evolved for me. I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to refinish all of this at the beginning. I just knew I wanted to change seals and bearings.

I went with All Balls product line simply because it was all the parts needed for each aspect of what I was doing.
Not having much experience with this manufacture at this time I would use them again to simplify.
All Balls Bearings and Seals Website- Press Me

I purchased no special tools for this and used much of what I already had used. My Dremel and those excellent 3m wheels comprised the majority of the effort to clean up.

Swingarm off. No real issue to remove the main hardware at this point. It has not been serviced in some time.
Just another aspect of maintenance that I rarely performed my self years and years ago unless there was an obvious issue. Ignorance is bliss.
The confidence that comes from properly servicing these components is enormous.
I stopped power washing motorcycles years ago. Way too easy blowing grease out and water into areas that I wouldn't want water in. I have used Simple Green mainly and enjoyed tremendous success with that and a water hose. I tried Shout and simply was unimpressed. But Simple Green will react with certain metal finishes and plastics.







Obvious evidence of lack of servicing. Nothing new to many of you.





Most bearing races were fairly easy to remove. Proper socket catching the edge and driving them out.
Not this one.



Since the lip of the race broke away I used a Dremel and my dental bits to cut along the width of the race. Then I used a small screwdriver to peel it up.




I cleaned that area up as best I could. Shotgun cleaning rod with a square of 3m wrapped about a old bore brush. I have used this technique before. Works great.



Oh wait.... Another problem race in the linkage. Same process as above. I did use a sanding wheel on the Dremel lightly to bring any edges down.








Next was cleaning up all the metal. Dremel mainly doing all this. I had no intention of getting rid of mold seams before starting but the sanding wheel on the Dremel worked so well it was fairly easy to do it. So I went for it.
You really have to look at your own CR swingarm to understand of just how much material I actually did remove.






















Inspired by this effort I applied the same techniques to the chain guide.







Some before and after of part clean ups.








I cerakoated everything since I wanted more of a stock appearance vs custom.






To put bearings in I used this kit.
Step Key and Bolt Kit from Harbor Freight- Press Me
That kit with some large washers and sockets is all that I needed to seat all my bearings.

Thanks Ian. It has been an extremely satisfying project. It sits in my garage with no fluids in it. I will wait until this coming winter to fire it. I will absolutely be riding it. The 92 I'm getting ready to start will be a rider also. The other 95 will be back to complete stock appearance and I will more then likely sell that one and either this 95 or the 92. I will keep one.

Mcfan that would explain those marks on it. I wondered how those dents got there. I enjoyed reading through your complete rebuild thread. I have referenced it many times when I was pulling together parts.

Godcho my French brother, I always appreciate your most generous words to my humble thread. Thank you.

Frame wasn't exactly next but it shouldn't take me 2 hours to make this post.

I wasn't sure how to address the obvious issues with the dents. I had it sand blasted and despite taping over the Honda head stay sticker that was promptly blown away. I had read about getting an replacement made here on the forum so I went to Ebay and got fixed up.
Label Maker Dude- Press Me
Great service and he sends you multiples.







I did cruise through the forum looking for information on how to fix the down tube dents. Some had had those tubes cut out and replaced. I knew in my area finding a welding shop remotely familiar with this process was slim and none.
I will admit it took me some time just to address those issues with the frame and finally do something proactive.

Out came the epoxy.

I have used this substance for many things firearms related. From bedding actions to using it as a base for silicon carbide to enhance grips on handguns. Seemed plenty strong to me.

I made sure the surface areas were clean and started laying it on all the dented areas.






I think I waited a day or so. Not that I needed to. Next was an old friend by the name of Mr. Dremel. My miracle tool. Lathe, mill, sander, extractor, polisher and grinder all contained in that small tool.








I wasn't too terribly worried on good or bad it would look since I was going to run a skid plate.

Back to Ebay for that. Yes it was for a CR500. I figured I could make it work by cutting it if need be. Plus it was half the cost of anything that was from Factory Connection and correct.



I made short work of the clean up using those magnificent 3M wheels introduced to me by Cameron through his videos.
Get your 3M wheels here- Press Me





I had seen those super trick case savers on the Factory Honda's along with some fellow restorers here on Vital using them. I initially wasn't going to do it but became emboldened by if they can do it so can I thought process.
These can get crazy expensive for what it is. I did consider an outfit in England manufacturing some exact copies of actual HRC fabricated savers. But in the end went cheap and purchased the one below. I had no idea if it would even work. It was cheap and I figured I could make it work.




Armed with these screenshots and confidence I went over to my buddy Jim's house to get the tabs welded on.







Maybe not as clean but at least I went for it.





My welding buddy fashioned the rear stay for the case saver because the kit I purchased only came with one. It was thinner material but it worked.

Time to spray.





I would have gone powder coat but since I had the epoxy on there I was concerned over the forced heat drying it would soften and come off.
I had stepped up and purchased Imron which is not cheap. It is some of the best spray able paint. This stuff is thick, I had my air too low on my 1 quart gravity feed and it sprayed very thick. Fortunately the paint is very forgiving and you can apply it pretty heavily without worrying about runs.

I did not use that siphon fed touch up gun.



Out in the shed to dry for a week.
I had been given the Moose Racing bike stand when I purchased another 95 CR. It was green so I shot that too to get all the use out of what I had mixed. You do not let that Imron sit for long in anything.




Another aspect of this very involved process completed.

Brakes.

Here was another subject matter I had no experience with. I just never had an issue with the need to rebuild disc brakes. I have changed plenty of brake shoes and pads but never a complete rebuild. I was not discouraged since other members had done this so could I.

They are actually very simple. For some reason I anticipated a great deal more internal parts. They are actually pretty darn reliable and amazingly most do not leak despite what I believe to be simplistic design and seals.

Here is just one video I watched. This guy does a series of them and they are actually well done.
https://youtu.be/E54KXp3rGgI

K&L Caliper Rebuild Kits -Press Me
All Balls Front Master Cylinder Rebuild Kit- Press Me
All Balls Rear Master Cylinder Rebuild kit- Press Me

I have no idea if this stuff is good or bad, just what I used.
Auto Zone DOT 4 Brake Fluid -Press Me

I don't remember needing any special tools to do any of this other then the Snap Ring pliers. Here are some cheap ones- Snap Ring Pliers Harbor Freight- Press Me
I should add the value of some Dental Picks. These were great for helping remove some of the seals.
Harbor Freight Dental Picks- Press Me

For pads I went genuine Honda and purchased some new retainers and at $4.00 for those from Rocky Mountain ATV.

This was the condition of the front and rears after removal.







The disassembly is very straight forward with some decent tools. I had already emptied all the oil when taking off the lines.
I did use compressed air to get the pistons started on their way out. On the front this will get at least one piston out and hopefully far enough for you to grab the second piston with something that is non-marring pliers. Watch your fingers when using air. That piston will be driven out very quickly. Avoid getting your fingers in the path of the piston travel. I shot air through the inlet for the hose with the bleeder fully closed.



I had to make short work of a common issue with front master cylinder reservoir covers. Those screws strip easily. As you can see they have become rusted. I once again used a Dremel and some of those wonderful dental bits.





All apart with some detail shots showing the sum total parts which make up the brakes.





After this I did Bead Blast all these main components before doing a further work. Another invaluable tool that makes clean up before painting incredibly easy. Much less work to get parts clean. I have exclusively only used the finest sized beads and never sand. I tried a heavier material but it just wouldn't spray well.

Once again the Drenel came out with some sanding drums. I had seen where some other members had cleaned up casting on their calipers. The Dremel worked so well that I just went after every casting seam. Again for wonderful 3M abrasive wheels make a huge difference for cleaning up the sanding drum scratches.



You don't see it here but I did remove that outline or raised area completely off the caliper. That took some time to remove but was well worth it.






It takes some time to clean them up even with those wonderfully effective sanding drums. I have at least 3-5 hours in these parts. I plan to do it again as you can see the difference in appearance. Obviously that difference would be ,more readily seen if I left them unpainted. I was going for a more stock appearing bike that would look unique and show all my work if you knew what you were looking at.

On this image below you can see where I had removed the raised area from the caliper. All done with a Dremel.




Prior to painting I did go through with the dental pick and chase the threads as to remove any debris. Lots of that every where.



Rebuilding them was following the Honda Service Manual. Whatever that said is what I did. I used another Auto Zone
purchased product to lubricate parts that moved under the rubber boots. I wanted something that would stay and not easily be washed away.
Silicon Grease High Temp - Press Me

This is the brakes painted and installed on the bike. Bleeding the front was a 3 hour process for me. I unfortunately do not know what I was doing wrong. I had a vacuum pump that I used. Another fine purchase from Auto Zone.
Auto Zone Vacuum Pump good value would buy again- Press Me

The rear was super easy to do. Maybe 3 pump and bleeds and it was done. Very fast. The front was tough.
Here is a video on reverse bleeding I watched-


Here is Cameron using his method-

Thanks for the encouragement gentlemen.
Yes Godcho, every bolt, nut, and washer. There is some satisfaction in knowing that I addressed every one. The amount of work it took was monumental. I would not go that route on another. The biggest issue is despite how durable Cerakote is it will still break or chip off when applying quite a bit of force on bolts.
I have a 92 CR 250 I started on and I have that taken apart. I will clean up those fasteners but will send them out to be re-coated.
Since I have that and a 94 and another 95 my plan is to restore the 92 to look like a 93 and the 95 to look like a 96. This way when I'm all done I will have 4 years of CR 250's appearing mostly as they did for those years.
I do not anticipate doing build threads on all of them. It is a load of work just to photo all the steps much less do the actual restore. Not that I have done more or less then anyone else.

Another installment...

Radiators.

Since I had a slight bend in one of them I watched another Cameron video about repair.



His was quite worse then what I had to contend with. I used wood instead of anything steel to make adjustments.
Be sure to be careful when or if putting into a padded vice. I was not careful enough and smashed inward the top and the bottom of the one I straightened.
Remember that it takes very little effort to move the frame. Go slow and check your progress.





The aluminum is very forgiving. Thankfully this process was so easy.



Since I wanted to make these look reasonably better I decided to try and straighten the cooling aluminum in between the passageways.
This is very, very thin aluminum. Such that it wrinkles super easy. I had read on Vital where another member doing a restore had used two small screwdrivers and flattened and straightened his. It sounded simple in theory. In application it certainly made a difference but not as much as I would have hoped. This takes massive amounts of time to do and so I brought them both inside and worked on them while watching TV.

Here is one that I fixed up the best I could.

Before...



And After...



Next was to clean up. I had no plans to Cerakote these and would just leave them in their natural state. Again the Vital Collective directed me to a Napa product called Aluminum Brightener. This is inexpensive and can be purchased here.... Napa Product Make that Aluminum Shine- Press Me

I did this in my garage. There is a strong acid smell and it would be better to apply outdoors. I gloved up and used a 5 gallon bucket as a receptacle.




The stuff starts working immediately. I sprayed it heavy and left it to soak for an unknown time. Not overnight just like an hour or less. All I did was wash it off with plain water a bunch. I have no idea if I should have used an acid neutralizer like baking soda. I used battery acid to eat sediment in a radiator since boiling it did nothing. That acid worked extremely well in that application. Completely opened up the passageways. But it was time consuming to neutralize it. Many flushes and just soaking in a bucket full of water. But the interior was clean and free.

After image of the brightener next to an old one.



The last thing I did was take one of the worn down 3m abrasive pads that I had on my grinder and attach it to a 1/8" arbor mandrel.
This type here to use as a mandrel- Press Me
I used this just to spot clean up the tight areas. This actually is an amazing cleaning tool. Not only could I clean up most tight areas but nothing else worked as efficiently as one of those old wheels chucked up in my Dremel. The real value was to be seen later when I started scraping old gasket material on my engine cases. I just tried a small area and it quickly cleaned up the edge. I then carefully started doing all surfaces for the gaskets. I even did around the locating dowels. Head studs and base too. Amazing how easy and professional it all came out. Much better then just using a razor blade. I did start with that but finished with the Dremel.

Try it yourself, its amazing how well it works. When I get to the engine rebuild part you can easily see the end results of this technique.

Radiator covers.

Those who have tried to find those extremely elusive radiator louvers understand how difficult it is to find any. There are just none to be had. At least none that were in better shape then what I had from the bike.
So more research on how to clean these up. There are a number of ways people have tried to clean these up.
I tried the following..
-Soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide
-Soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide and a 50% mix of bleach
-Soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide and a 50% mix of bleach and dusting baking soda over it
-Lightly bead blasting
-Going the hair salon route and painting the 40% gel over it and placing inside plastic in the sun
-Going the hair salon route and painting the 40% gel over it and placing just in the sun uncovered

Finally giving up and saying good enough.


Covering with







I recently purchased the CR 125 series which require some slight modification. But they are available and are brand new. I purchased two sets for the other Honda's I still need to do.

Rocky Mountain ATV Honda 1997 CR 125 Radiator Grill- Press Me

Since I am talking about restoring plastic I also attempted my tank.







I tried another laundry list of methods tried and true from the forum. Sanding, hair gel, scraping, and other substances. What I found worked the very best and was the fastest?

The Best way to CLEAN up a plastic CR tank- PRESS ME

Yes, that worked absolutely the best. Hands down I will be doing that method again. Now there is an outfit that you can send your tank to and have them clean it up.
Plastic Tank Restore. They do the work so you don't have to- Press Me

I still may use them and report back how it went.

Thanks for following the thread.

Air filter

I certainly wasn't looking forward to this. I knew I was in for a bunch of work when restoring this. White plastic sucks hard. It shows most everything and such even small scratches in the plastic are pretty obvious. This like the radiator louvers is near impossible to find something better.



But I knew I would totally disassemble it and go from there. The pipe had scorched the box and this was quite deep.





I was able to clear out all the debris and it looked much better.





Bead blasted the hardware and then cerakoated everything a gloss black.



I tried sanding with different grits of sandpaper to minimize the cuts to the plastic. Tried my tested and true dremel with different wheels, rubbing compound followed by wax and finally said F it and sprayed the whole thing the white I had left over from when I shot my bars. A price will almost certainly be paid when the bike actually gets some use. I failed to use any plastic prep on it prior to spraying. I'm not worried about washing since I never use high pressure. But this is not the way to do it. I lost patience with it and just wanted to move on.






For now it looks fantastic. For now.


Throttle...
Here's an image of washing the plastic.... Yep, that's it. I did re-use it after cleaning it all out and sprayed it gloss black cerakote. Tough to take images of every process. It's a throttle.... Big deal.
And to stay consistent with my posting of too much...
Wallymart has smoking prices on this excellent cleaner- Press Me



The triple trees really deserve their own post. Those I have quite a few images of.