S'funny how things have a habit of coming about - Long story short I visited a customers house some 15years or so ago and dissolving in his back garden was a BMW R80 and a bigass furred up Z. My customer was about to leave the County and start a new life, I was living in a small Cornish Cottage and just did not have the room for either of them. Fast forward 12 years and I had self built a large garage with a nice detached house (priorities)! Somehow I had also acquired a stripped down Hodna Monkey bike (don't ask) which apparently some poor souls pass off as an interesting motorcycling metal.
My old customer had also found his way back into the County and when we caught up I asked him about his old bikes.
The BMW he had built into a very nice bespoke KATHY RAZER. No seriously! The Z he had passed on to a current work-mate of his who had stripped it from this -
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZ1GoqRPLHoO4nK1ODzM0eWEx1EVJi1Hfc6cMapPlqj1Yw5fRh2WhTgtoKDPXdAh5aUY4UOl5zDmSttJxnaKO3bTJWHuYv6-FVjckjRe_v3wtWK2yc2B661fe380pcmMd_RbNeezK9E_8/s320/IMG_1887.JP[/img] only significantly more corroded, to this -
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Apparently the fellow who stripped the bike had left it under his bench and all but given up on it as he was now consumed by a new passion. Yep he was into Hodner Manky Boikes!! So like a rat up a drain I accepted his offer of swapping his Z for my childs beach toy and promptly packed it into my van and got it home. [img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYf2m2Ps3k60CzSbHjVmQH5OhbMF29mEm2HHYpcK8SQuw8Xn9WDI7s6JQBHZ2i0eNZCoOkV_847kvM0t56QiRHbn8BuLS9VLgYFrVaRKNUvVOx5VvRTx3lU_U0m0IpR7rE68BW6zkL_zX/s320/IMG_1882.JPG[/img]
Roll on another couple of years and having finely honed my motorcycle de-construction skills on a Harley Sportster and an old Yam XS850 I decided that it was time to address the bleeding hulk lurking in the shadows of my garage. I'm not scared - much!
First job was sorting the usable chrome, tin ware, zinc bracketry etc. along with the frame and assorted ironmongery for plating blasting and powder coating.
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Calipers (of which there were several sets were sorted for the best specimens and sent to Powerhouse for refurb.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJfjgbmun7rEU6eJ4_9t36OGRiY-bdVnkr2sK_xrHzD-t6PYvSce1aE5gEVKJql0wJxDxCb5NtxGckovDFlTELqNKUHYNxE27IdxTMaMhjO5aoREl_wEh72s5xh3IlZb2ucPwSXcSuSy-Z/s320/IMG_3960.JPG[/img]
Assorted nuts bolts and brackets to Mikey for Zinc plating following recommendations from this club
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Switch gear was stripped, again several sets, and sorted with other alloy parts for vapour blasting, anodising and polishing. The wheels were stripped and the hubs relieved of there bearings again prior to vapour blasting. The spoke carrier on the rear hub was totally FUBAR'd due to terminal rot on the steel spoke carrier, so that went off to a local engineering shop to be heated and pressed off. The steel carrier will then be machined and heat pressed back - (so i'm told). The engineering shop will also black anodize my switch bodies and master cylinder bodies.
The exhaust with the bike is a decent Harris 4-1 but as I wanted it to be as close to the original look as possible I have been speaking to Roy at OSMC with a view to making me a set of these in Stainless 
I filled the larger of my two tanks with a solution of phosphoric acid to convert any rust lurking in the corners after years of neglect and the result looked like a new tank inside. The tank and panels were then sent off to my spray guy who fits my bikes in between car resprays. No rush.
That pretty much brought me up to Sunday when with a rush of blood and armed with this amazing Kawasaki training video poached from you tube I set about the motor.
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