During restoration... stripped & looking rather sad at friends garage.
What once resembled a motorcycle, took on the form of something completely different today. The rare as rocking horse sh*t, UK Spec 1992 Honda VFR400 NC30, was stripped for stage one of restoration. First stop & a jet wash helps to rid years of built up grease & grime. Staring at the bike in it's naked vulnerable state, I can't help but think of the film Wall-E, as the headlights stare at me with a slight look of fear. And for a very split second, I could have sworn it winked at me.
Stage 2 comprised of cleaning the wheels, polishing, masking & spraying. As a girl who will climb walls to escape any sound that resembles filing or drilling, I left that part to the boys & was given the job of masking the brake discs. To say this was more fiddly than trying to paint your nails in the back of a car driven by a learner for the very first time, might be a slight exaggeration, but nonetheless it caused me to curse a few times. It was then sprayed with a heat proof black paint followed by a clear lacquer to make it look shiny & brand new again!All foot pegs, hangers & anything else that was metal & needed a scrub, was cleaned & polished. The masking part was pretty painless compared to my next task, which was straightening up the radiator fins damaged by stones. Using a very thin screwdriver I had to push all the *wafer thin* (french accent) metal back to it's original position, to ensure that the air could pass through successfully.
Stage 3 tomorrow night! HUGE thanks to Andy at Gavin Fleet Care & Gibbo who is probably the coolest Fettler in the world.
