1969 Diecast/ K0 restoration

[UK Pete]

Hi chrisD, thanks for the comments, it would be good to see pictures of your K0, as for the forks the surface rust is common on all the early forks, because they only plated the travel area, which is good on mine so i dont think another £200 or so is worth spending on something not even seen especially as i have just about run out of money, speaking of which , you are right about expensive bits , i can't believe how much i am spending on this bike,
I was going to buy a set of HM300's a couple of years back for my k1, the whole kit was about £900 inc vat,  then VAT went up to 20% and also Dave silvers increased the price to nearly £1200,  then earlier this year they discontinued them, i have contacted DS and they are thinking of doing repro Hm300's in the future so i am waiting in hope, if not it will have to be a set of 341,s
i am thinking of doing a valve job on my head while its apart i have the new guides and the valve seat cutting tools so there is no excuse not to do it
Good luck with your bike keep us posted on your progress
Pete

[ChrisD]

Cheers Pete. I'll try to get some pics on but have trouble with the file size and no program to squeeze them to 300mb. At the moment things are waiting on bits and pieces and of course dosh. As soon as i get moving i'll get back to the forum hopefully this wont be to long things seemed to have stalled a bit. Anyway looking to get completed around june/july time so better get my finger out. I too have a new set of HM341,s but hopefully DS will come up with the goods at a price we  can afford. Cheers Chris.

[UK Pete]

Wish me luck as i am starting my gauge restoration, it is amazing just how much money there is in getting hold of a decent set of restored gauges, even the cost of home restoration on old gauges is high, with the potential to f--k it up as well
Anyway here goes

First of all snap of the rear plastic lip



Next carefully prise off the needle, this is the part where i wonder if i should be doing this myself


I got myself a small philips screwdriver which fitted the two face plate bolts and removed them, to reveal  beautifully preserved internals, even the light shaft rubber boots were intact and looking good,


The damping all seems fine, so i dont think there is much else to do in here, so i stick the the new jewels to the new face plate


Dab of paint on the needle tip, put it all to one side , let the paint dry and i come back to it for reassmbly later

[UK Pete]

Ok so here are pictures of the gauges back together, there is still more work to be done, i will put new shrink tubing on the wiring, as it is getting a bit hard , also i wont seal up the bottom with silicon until the clocks are up and running on the bike, other than that, here they are for now, all the hard work done











The rear chrome plates are ok but not perfect, thing is that the replacement ones from Honda are not the same as the originals, so its either keep as is , rechrome or replace with modern alternative


Here are the originals



here is an original left, next to the new style  right

[Green1]

Hi Pete
Clocks look good mine were a pig as they were bent and full of sand
Don't silicone them until you test them the needle fell off mine and so I had to pull them apart again.
It feels really strange going into a bend with the speedo reading 150mph

[Waggles]

Really interesting and informative thread Pete, keep it coming!

My vote would be to rechrome the originals. With the value of K0s and the weight given to originality I'd say its a no brainer. I got replacement ones for my bike and had to make up rubber grommet thingies to fit which don't look too good but then mine is 'only' an F1 so don't think it matters so much.

All looking brilliant so far, perticularly like the ghostly floating gold thingies you fitted into the rev counter 

[UK Pete]

Thanks for the nice comments guys, as for keeping original you are right, the more original parts the better, the cost of restoring these early bikes is unbelievable, my re-chrome list is getting bigger all the time, i am hoping that if i find a decent plater and give him a job lot of K0,F2 anf F1 chrome to do i might get discount, i seem to spend lots of time doing all this, yet i still cant see it being done for about a year, plus i have run out of money and also i have no work to earn any more money for a while, so i am going to sell off a few bikes and some spares to raise money to continue this project, ideally i would like to have this bike on the road this summer
Pete

[mick]

Your doing a cracking job Pete please keep us update with photos etc  cheers Mick.

[UK Pete]

I was about to reassemble the bottom end the other day when i realised that the engine bolts were looking a bit scruffy , having gone to the trouble of restoring all other bits on the bike it would be a shame to leave out the engine bolts, so i spent a whole day yesterday blasting each bolt, then cleaning the threads followed by zinc/ nickle plating, i finished at about 9 in the evening,  i even did all the washers

Here are some pictures, i think a combination of passivating too long and the temperature gave mixed results, they have a sort of yellow hue to them which is exagerated by the flourescent lights, but on the whole i am very pleased i did it now, another job out the way
Upper and lower case bolts and washers seperated

[kifer]

Hi Pete, not been on forum for a while [ building a little yam ] just read your thread and had to comment you are doing an amazing job there and the end result is going to be fantastic keep up the good work its a pleasure to follow the thread you are a very skilled man  Tom.

[ChrisD]

Hi Pete. Well have moved on a bit since my last post. The cylinder head is now in the hands of the cylinder head shop and when xmas is over I have to get some oversize valves due to the seats needing cutting, also the case barrels and head have been vapour blasted so look great, will be having the cases painted soon (its all money) still have a list of stuff to get like bearings ((roller) and chains and stuff to bring it up to a good motor, but looking at the componets all seems to be in good order. Looks like I'll be fitting a 4 into 2 exhuast system (only becuase allready have) untill the HM300's are in stock with DS if and when they do them. I plan to get the engine up and running via the bench test method first before it goes in the frame as to ensure nothing leaks and oil is getting to all the right parts icluding the head as have had problems in the past (wrecked cams). Not sure if anybody knows if the oil ways in my head are fixed as in the later heads as the head I have is an early 1(short intake stubs) as I would like to take them out and make sure the are clear. The wheels are also away to be respoked (stainlesss) so should be getting them back in the new year. They are fitted with alloy rims I am aware these are not the original but they are what was fitted when I brought the bike in 1980. Anyway all the very best for The new year and hopefully there will be another K0 giving it what for on the roads where they belong. Safe riding all. Chris D.

[Bryanj]

Chris, i think you have it the wrong way round mate--its the later heads that have the removeable oil restrictor jets, the early ones were machined as part of the casting

[UK Pete]

Fork lowers now polished, i stripped the laquer which appeared to be etched in to the ally, quite difficult to remove, non of the usual strippers seemed to work, anyway once i got it all off i polished up the aluminium and i will stop it oxidising by wiping over with ACF50, this also takes off some of the gloss and so will make it quite similar to the original, i still cant make up my mind wether to buy new chrome fork tubes or use the originals,

[UK Pete]

a little bit of progress, i installed taper roller bearings on the steering stem and re- fixed the aluminium date plate using new rivets, but best of all look what father chrismas got me, a nice new set of rear shocks, i can't believe how much David silver charges for these shocks, they are one hundred and ninety nine pounds each plus 20% VAT plus six pound delivery total just short of 500 pounds, fecking daylight robbery
needless to say i bought them elswhere much cheaper, in fact a good percentage of the parts i buy now come from USA or Germany as they are cheaper than our Usual UK suppliers





http://cb750sandcastonly.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10004/007%7E6.JPG

http://cb750sandcastonly.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10004/008%7E3.JPG

[Green1]

Looking good Pete
I also buy allot of stuff from the USA and Germany. 
DS seem to be charging whatever they want laity.Did you buy the shocks of eBay as they seem to cheap to be true.
My gold bike is still in bits allover the garage floor   But on the plus side I got the triumph going today.   

Mick