I know after reading on here a few people have done Kuwahara ET restorations. This is my actual bike from Christmas 1983 - I loved that bike more than anything & rode it everywhere, I broke the world record for front wheel hops (at the time the world record was 140 & I did 165) & over the years it was sprayed white, green & finally blue. Theres not many bits that I didnt break & up graded but the frame stayed strong.
Now its 2009 & the poor beast resides in a damp shed feeling abit sorry for its self
. Time to restore it to its former glory & get it back to its original condition. Heres how I found it 3 months ago in the shed where I left it 10 years ago:
Getting it home:
'Eddies handles'
Skyway spinmaster!
Mushroom II's!
Then down to work, out with the spanners & i was amazed how easily everything came apart. the bearings well still well greased & nothing was a problem. Some bits like the haro tyres had seen better days.
I then began stripping the paint, just using a bit of wet n dry sanding paper & it came off pretty easy
The weld on the tube on the right was actually done by my Gramp at Rolls Royce. He took a break one lunch time & stopped making Tornado engines at Filton to weld a small crack that started to appear,probably the strongest bit of the frame!
After 3 resprays in its life I was surprised to find original red paint:
Back to bare metal & ready for the first undercoat:
First coat:
After completely screwing up the first attempt at the white I decided there was only one thing & that was to start from scratch again. So paint stripper, rubbed down, bare metal, undercoat then white again, second time around & it went beautifully, no runs, good even coat, well happy. I was then on the look out for the right red, as you know its more of a metallic deep cherry.
Bits & bobs kept arriving, I was keeping an eye out for a 44t sugino black chain ring & the elusive Elina Et seat. Seen a couple selling between £70 & £100 & I cant bring my self to pay that for a seat.
... the quest continues...
After a couple of weeks I finally found what looks like the right red, you never can really tell but thought it was near enough. The spray job went perfectly, no runs or drips. Here its just after I sprayed it:
Now drying:
This is of course what we are aiming for, the advert for the bike back in '82.
I ordered a full set of ET stickers (all the way from Oz) & the plan was to then wait for the red to dry in a few days then ill sand it smooth & get a nice even matt finish then stickers & a few coats of lacquer. Let that dry for a couple of weeks then build it!
Some before & after pics:
I finally managed to get the red/white fade fairly good, not perfect by any means but its the best I can do. Stickers arrived from Australia & the blue (soon to be dyed black) genuine ET Elina seat has arrived from America.
I'm happy with the stickers but now I look at it I should have had the 'Kuwahara' on the down tude slightly lower & one of the kuwa's on the forks have a bubble but its ok. Again, best I could do.
Its now lacquered, that went on perfectly, a real deep shine & nice & even, its now in the dining room drying for a couple of weeks. Not the best of pics but here its is:
A shiny new old stock pair of V bars arrived and so when the paint has hardened i'll build it, looking forward to that!
Now the lacquer is a few hours dry I cant leave it alone, how can I wait 2 weeks!
Thats it, not touching it now for ages. Another job to do was to dye my beautiful ET Elina seat, all the way from California, its blue & needs to be black. A lot of ET builds have Elina lightning bolt seats but mine had the ET seat, it doesnt have the lightning bolts on the side but ET logos on the side & top.
I followed Waxintaxin guide to dye it so thanks for that, a great help, here goes:
Then simmering for 2 1/2 hours heres the result, before & after
Well happy with the end result, the gold logos stayed exactly the same. Now starting to build it:
Yesterday I started to put it all together & I wanted to get it finished that evening:
Now some of you will think i'm a soft tw#t but as this was my bike from 1983, it really was quite emotional seeing it come together, sliding the crank in, putting the wheels on etc, an odd feeling.
Then completed:
Some before & afters:
And finally!!
Thats it, I'm really happy with how its gone & the final result, I now just need to find a place to hang it up.
