1981 Yamaha SR250 Cafe Racer

all my bikes get the electric start (except the old SL I had which only came as a kick start). No shame in it as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah that polishing work looks fantastic! Can you share what the magic 3 step kit is?

It's a 3 step, 7 piece kit made my a company called Rolson, distributed by Specialty Tools in Australia. It's just like any other kit really. I start by cleaning up the parts with a wire wheel brush on my grinder, sand any bumps down with 400 grit, then polish first with the red compound, then white and finish with the green "high gloss" compound.
Cheers,
Ben

Hey all, a little progress ..
I decided to detail the carb in a similar polished/black theme to the motor, so I wire brushed and cleaned it, then dissasembled and masked off the carburettor body ..


Then painted the diaphragm cover and body with gloss black engine enamel as per the motor ..



I then polished the float bowl, throttle linkage, return spring etc using the same process mentioned in the last post, and reassembled it all with new gaskets. I think it looks pretty good.



Since the results of the polishing with the new kit / rouge I got were so much better, I went over all of the old stuff I'd polished before, I think I can safely say the results are a little better. Here's one of the fork legs! ..



I am still having trouble removing the old fork seals .. they just won't budge, I've got the circlips out but they're stuck in there. I need the dust seals as well now, they cracked when I was trying to get the oil seals out so I'll have to order them.

I want to get the forks back together, then finish the motor which just needs rings, gaskets and reassembly, drop that back in the frame .. and get the wheels sorted out and new tyres, then I can start fabricating the seat.

Next pics will probably be of the cylinder head and barrel with the polished fins .. I've been putting it off because it's so much work, but it's going to look so cool

Cheers,
Ben

polish looks great... not sure on what kind of paint you used on the carbs just be ready... the paint will peel, and run and bubble from the paint fumes... you actually may just want to polish the whole carb... be sure you ahve a good sealant or wax on all this stuff after you polish them... coming great!

man i want an SR soooo bad.... but they are so hard to find....

.

Hey, thanks!
The paint I used is fuel resistant and I had the carb pretty much perfectly clean before painting .. so I'm hoping it won't bubble for a while at least. Polishing the whole thing was just not the look I was going for. Where's a powder coating budget when you need it, huh?
Next bike I build I will be powder coating everything but the tins.. painting sucks!

why not powder the tins? i powder tins all the time for people... some sick metal effect and candy powders out there

May do in the future ..
The seat on my bike including the hump will be covered, ala Norton Manx, the only painting left to do is the front guard .. when I finish shaping it, and sandblast it.
Currently sanding and polishing the fins on the motor .. ughhhh, what a shitty job.

Well .. it sucks, but I had to repaint the barrel and head. Sanding the fins didn't work out very well because they are a little pitted and uneven. I would have to get in there with a die grinder and do a lot of sanding to get them even enough to get a neat result.

It's just too much work in the wrong direction at this stage, and I wasn't sold on the look so I repainted the barrels. The finish as a result isn't as good as it was before, but it's acceptable.

The cam cover has been stripped and polished now to match the valve inspection covers.

Not a good day..

This feels better .. I did a dry assembly of the motor to check out how everything looks when I got home from building someone elses toy up (Mini Cooper S) tonight .. I'm finally happy with the look of everything .. now it just needs it's new piston, rings and gaskets ..



You like?

Fantabulous work, Lunar.

Thank you very much it's nice to get positive feedback at this stage. I'm just waiting on funds at the moment to buy the parts for my forks, and motor so progress is crawling along at the moment while I do a few of the fiddly jobs I can do until I can afford more parts, like detailing the switch gear. Ugh.. so fiddly. It will make all the difference once it's done though.
I need to clean up my rims and hubs also .. which I'm doing with the wheels assembled as I can't afford to respoke them, so I've been putting it off as it's a very fiddly job with the spokes on.
Cheers,
Ben

this bike is going to look soooooooo good!

yeah lunar shes looking great!

Looks great and gives me ideas for my future project.

Good to hear it's inspiring you! It's going pretty slowly at the moment because I don't have the money to move on with it.

You've done a great job of detailing a lot of your work so far, which will help to inspire others to roll up their sleeves and start working. Keep us updated on your progress; your attention to detail is incredible!

any thoughts on the exhaust yet?

Hey all,
Well I'm finally about to order my engine parts, so the engine should be back together in the next couple of weeks and I can finally bolt it back into the frame! Same with the forks.. finally!

Here's the final mockup of the motor .. soon to have a ported head and higher compression - I'll be detailing the whole process.