The bike arrived in fairly stunning aftermarket bodywork….it was a coat of many colors hiding some serious neglect….all of which is rectified. The bodywork is surprisingly robust.
The panels are reasonably thick and not flimsy at all.
Solid mounting points
The rear came without any of the fixtures or that rear double holed back panel surrounding the cool rear lights so I was in the dark as to how all of that assembled.
It was ziptied together.
At one point during my journey I bought a bag of random mixed fixtures from Australia which included the brackets I’d seen in the parts manual. So I had them blasted.
And then zinc plated….not sure if I got all the bits that should be zinc yellow correct but there’s not many rivet counting police around here so that doesn’t matter and what the hell…they look good…
Rear Panel came from Australia also..
The inside of the tank was very clean and the paintwork was actually pretty good so I elected not to refurbish it…I love the patina and that worn Castrol sticker.
Also it was my goal to semi faithfully copy Nick’s (rothmans_SPud-25 years of Neglect - MC18 R4J Rebuild) MC18 tribute to Wayne Gardner’s NSR500. Nick has been a huge supporter and helper in me getting all the decals.
He hooked me up with Graham at The Image Works http://www.bike-stickers.com/homepage.htm and I was able to benefit from all Nicks hard work he did in measuring and sourcing all the correct artwork.
He’s a true gent.
Nicks inspiration
My inspiration of Nicks inspiration… his (now award winning) MC18.
My side panels came without the ‘HONDA’, but I was able to find a complete Rothmans Honda decal from stickershop2007 on fleabay
(based in Macau of all places) and just sliced off the HONDA.
and then I've been wondering what to do about this mark left by some poorly fit aftermarket pipes...
...there.
more later!!