Planet Minis

sanigene

Our bone stock ‘76 Z50 is in great need of a ground up refurb and resto. The bike has been with our family since 1980 and the only thing ever replaced was the oil, plug, points, and condenser. Everything else is 33 years old. It ran last summer ('08 ) but nobody tried to get it running this year. The bike is kept at our cottage in the East Coast but my home has been between 1500 – 3000km away for the last nine years…and the cottage is not equipped with a decent work shop to do a full resto. But all that has changed ‘cause I moved back ‘home’ and now I’m about 80km from the cottage and I have a good enough workshop at my in-laws…actually living with the in-laws but that’s a whole other story

I’m gonna use this thread to document the refurb process. We are not going for a full showroom spec resto because our budget is just not in that range – not even sure if we’ll replace the fenders because the chrome ones are expensive. I’m gonna get it working, clean, and keep it stock wherever possible – i.e. no engine kits.

Here are some pics of the starting point:

http://planetminis.com/members/sanigene-albums-76-z50-refurb-resto.html

mexicanyella

Looks like you've got a good, worthwhile starting point, but--sorry, I have to say it--I like the way it is now.

50-50

You don't necessarily have to replace the fenders. The option of getting them re-chromed is there. But that's not cheap and it's getting harder to find places that do this.

sanigene

I like it too...but the fist sized hole in the exhaust and the argumentative electrical system and tires that spin in the swamp need attention. It really doesn't need much, just a good cleaning and tune up.

I was thinking about that too...I need to find a local supplier and find out what kind of cost we're talking about. I may end up sand blasting and then spraying them black or silver with a rattle can, we'll see.

sani

sanigene

Well, I didn’t get far into the project to make the first unfortunate discovery. Pinholes in the bottom surface near the petcock and also along the weld seam. I’m gonna JB-weld the holes, I did this before on a car restoration and it works really well. I’d like to electrolyze the rust out of the tank…but now I’m worried there won’t be much material left!

I also started to restore the chain guard. Banged out the bigger dents and bends and started sanding the rust and paint off. It’ll clean up nice.

Pics:
http://planetminis.com/members/sanig...ank-resto.html

sani

cdoublejj

holy freak'n lord look how big the tank is on the under side i am wanting to relocate the petcock on my tank but, the area to where i can move it to is small, but looking at your tank wow it must hold a lot of gas compared ti the 74 tank yous is bigger.


oh btw jb weld does work great thats what i did with mine except i used an filter or 2 and left the rust inside. if it takes gravle and hour upon hours to remove the rust out a tank i doubt gas will do a better job and haven ever had any carb troubles due to gunk

mxr33

looks like its a good project bike, i agree with the above post a little rust never hurt anyone and adds character, have fun working on it and keep us posted.

sanigene

I had the same idea about double filtration. One in the tank petcock and one inline between the petcock and carby. That settles it, I'm leaving the rust!

sani

cdoublejj

thats what i did and i had little dip on the hose to catch debris there was hardly any. as fasr as movign the pet cock to the right side idea i have i so envy your tank, for me i liek the big mill engiens and the pet cock gets in the way of the carb. i like how your keeping it stock how ever i couldn't do that as far as the engine is concerned.

sanigene

I have a chinese framed, modified-honda-engined (70cc, big carb, big valve head, honda stock bottom end) frankenbike that I mess with...I want the '76 stock. If I only had one bike I'd modify it but having two gives me options

sani

sanigene

I finished sanding the tank tonight. Not surprisingly the pin holes got a little bigger.



http://planetminis.com/members/sanig...ank-resto.html

sani

mexicanyella

Do you have an oxyacetylene rig? I'd be tempted to try a low flame on a small tip and try brazing those holes shut. On the other hand, if that effort would fail, you'd have really have some bigger holes to deal with...

sanigene

mmm...I'll stick with JB for now, like you said, I could end up burning a big assed hole in the side of my tank!

Tonight I polished up the rr brake linkage & spring and the rr wheel locating tabs. Before and after pic below. The front and rear sprockets need replacing in a bad way. They've been sharpened to a point and the rear is so worn out that the teeth look bent, but it's really asymmetrical wear.



more later...proly take tomorrow night off so I can get some beers in.

sani

jymisuncst

You can solder the gas tank like a brass Radiator. It works great and the low heat will not make the holes bigger.

zeeman

I like your 76. I am doing sort of the same thing to my 74, and have a 125 in my 78. I painted my 78 yellow like yours because my wife's 1970 ct90 is yellow and I wanted them to match. Let me know how the tank turns out. I tried fiberglass on one tank, and it was a terrible mess! I have some putty like stuff that I am going to try along with sealing the inside of the tank.

35mastr

Before you put any kind of torch near that tank. You need to run an exhaust pipe in there to a running motor. To get the fumes out. Or it will blow.

sanigene

Good advice.

sani

jymisuncst

Use a Propain torch, Brush on flux and some Solder.
Vent all the gas fumes out with a shop vac that is set up to blow and not suck. I used an electric leaf blower. It will totally dry out the inside of the tank. There will not be any more gas fume problems.
I have used this method on three tanks and it works great. You can D/A the solder like it was body filler to make the holes look like they wear never there. It wont delaminate over time either. This is a permanent fix.

sanigene

Started to prep the pegs for paint - the 50/50 picture tells all. Also messed with the rear wheel. Usual nightmare there. Rim halfs were rusted together and the tire was rusted to the rims. Took two nights to deal with that. Good news is I still have to do the Front. I prepped one half for paint and then called it a night.




sani

mexicanyella

jymisuncst, what is "D/A?" Aside from not knowing that term, I have patched a rusted out float bowl on a Briggs & Scrap'em 11hp with solder, and it's really close to the 5,000,000 degree muffler, and it's held for several years. I wish it would've occurred to me to try that on my old hardtail tank.

Sani, I'm not sure how committed you are on looking absolutely stock, but I painted a couple of Z50 wheels with silver hammerite hammered finish, and it's held up pretty well. It was for a beater and I just wire-wheeled the rust first to knock off any loose junk inside and out, then sprayed them with rust converter spray to hopefully halt further corrosion, then after that dried sprayed them with the hammerite. The bumpiness of the hammered finish hides rust imperfections, plus makes it look like you got your wheels at Harbor Freight. It's pretty tough for rattlecan paint, if you spray it right at a good temp and humidity and de-fingerprint it with brake cleaner spray or something similar first.