Monster rustoration

[crust]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

I sprayed mine black. It looks less like plastic and hides the chain goo.

Tbh, I was looking on Stein Dinse last night and they sell black ones, not unreasonable price too.

The yellowy one will do until I need enough parts to justify the postage cost. In the meantime I'll give the splendid chaps at Moto Rapido a ring and see whether they've got black ones.

[Albie]

Originally Posted by crust

Tbh, I was looking on Stein Dinse last night and they sell black ones, not unreasonable price too.

The yellowy one will do until I need enough parts to justify the postage cost. In the meantime I'll give the splendid chaps at Moto Rapido a ring and see whether they've got black ones.

Most are grey now even though they advertise them as another colour hence why I sold the new ones on when received I have kept the white one. I have a spare but not perfect. People want the white ones but they wont mould them in that colour for some strange reason.

[utopia]

Its only a footling little part but the yellowed white does look a bit grim.
I wonder whether it would respond to the fabric dye treatment that is said to work so well on belt covers and the like ?
Haven't tried it myself but others have reported great results.
Then again, years of soaking in chain grease might affect the results.

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

I sprayed mine black. It looks less like plastic and hides the chain goo.

I replaced the original yellow slide/guard with a dark grey unit, don't remember where it came from but I think it was a Ducati dealer so presumably they make them in that colour now?

Must say it does look better than the yellow.

[Albie]

Originally Posted by utopia

Its only a footling little part but the yellowed white does look a bit grim.
I wonder whether it would respond to the fabric dye treatment that is said to work so well on belt covers and the like ?
Haven't tried it myself but others have reported great results.
Then again, years of soaking in chain grease might affect the results.

It's only the top sealing layer of plastic loses its colour. Like trials bikes mudguards and side panels whiten. Can be improved by scraping or sanding then reheating with a hair dryer. I removed most of the yellow with a scalpel. I get the colour change to black it makes sense. It's just a rub guide. I think the 888 boys want them as much because they restore them more than monsters.

[crust]

Sometimes I do things and almost instantly step back and think - why the f#@k did I do that.

Last episode I’d stripped and cleaned the swinging arm, shock and linkage, this one was supposed to be:
Strip and clean rear brake, back of engine, start re-assembly. Instead I picked up the rear part of the exhaust and gave it a gentle rub with a polishing block that was sat on the bench in a bowl of stuff to be put away.

“Ooh, that’s coming up OK”, before I knew it there was a shiny patch and the polishing mop was on the bench grinder and a bigger shiny patch.



Oh dear, a while later….



Why - "Oh dear" - well now I've got to do the rest of the system and its got 26 years of crud on it

[crust]

Having done the rear section of the pipe I had to do the front section which is a lot longer and has the cruciform bit on the end = aaargh.

Set up the grinder with a mop on it outside to avoid spraying polish snots everywhere, scruffy gear on and set to it.



That’s the easy bit done.



Not the best but near enough, the stainless is poor quality and I didn’t have the right bits to get in all the corners of the cross-over.

[Darkness]

Nice. That’s how stainless should look!

[Darren69]

When I got my first Ducati I never even realised they were stainless because it looked like rusty old regular steel. I don't know what grade of stainless they use for those standard systems but it is not the best.

[walkingpictures]

Those pipes came up really well,good on ya

[crust]

A mixed couple of days on the Monster.
Some good progress on the exhaust flanges, started out rusty and caked in oil. After a quick scrub with a wire brush and some brake cleaner.



Then into a Deox mix and left to bubble.



After a few hours and the occasional scrub with a wire brush, that’s better.



A couple of coats for VHT silver, looking good.

[crust]

Swinging arm in, oh, whats that on the floor – that’ll be one of the shims that go between the arm and the frame, so out, then back in again. Linkage in and out a couple of times as I worked out which order to assemble things in.



Next, the exhaust, complete with new shiny stainless clamp and nuts.

[crust]

Now for the not so good bits.
Gave the rear wheel a wipe down with brake cleaner to get rid of the last of the grease residue, clean off the glue residue from balance weights, quick spray with some pledge.
Something didn’t look right about the rear disk, ok it needed a good clean and repainting but it didn’t look right. A quick check with a steel rule and oh. Took it off and yup, it’s well dished. That'll be my exhuberant right foot.





Time for a new disk.

And some shiny Ti disk bolts

[crust]

While waiting for the new disk I looked at the silencers, yup, they didn’t look good against the headers



So back out with the polishing gear. Halfway there.



Sorted.



That’s better.

[crust]

Avoided the temptations of jaggedy death star Chinese disks on ebay and went for a straight replacement disk from the nice people at Bike Torque racing.



Couldn’t resist the temptations of shiny loveliness from Race Ti though. Well, shiny new disk, be wrong to put the rusty originals back in.



Sorted