My unnamed VX

[Kratoxy]

Hello
I'm fairly new here, also a fairly new biker, although I have been riding motocross, I've never been on the road with a bike(Legally/Except mopeds).
But that's about to change.

I thought a good way to get to know you guys might be a project thread.

Some of you may already know how I came across my VX, so I won't write on forever about that.
The short story is: I found a bike, dusted down and abandoned in a garage in the countryside, and bought it, borrowed a Transit and brought the bike home.

When the bike arrived in my garage, the brakes were shot, battery dead, it was dusty, rusty and pretty much in some real need for some caring.


I bought a battery to see if there was any life in it, and it was. The adventure begins.


She would crank, but the starter motor made horrible noises! Until it stopped completely... New starer and some service items were bought, oil, oil filter, spark plugs(regular), brake pads, air filters.

When I got the starter motor out I discovered that one of the magnets inside had cracked.. So lots of magnet dust and ruined parts inside.


With some new spark plugs and the new starter, she starts!
You may also see in this picture, that someone decided to paint the chrome exhaust black...


Now that I know she starts, I can begin disassembling, cleaning, replacing parts and assembling.


I bought a used front brake master cylinder on Ebay and a rebuild kit, bled the front caliper with some fresh brake fluid, and now the front brake work  
The rear one works okay, will look into that later.


Some cheap chrome mirrors, new OEM grips and a new clutch handle


New clutch wire


Renewing some plastic, I'll put some mesh in that later.


After a few weeks of cleaning she's starting to look better!


And today we had beautiful weather, so I got some work done today too!


After seeing it on tis forum, I installed this thing. I only need to make a bracket.


I used this to provide power for it, hope that wont give me any problems.



This headlight either needs to be rechromed or I need a new one... But for now I brushed off as much as I could with some WD-40 and aluminum foil.



I did a lot today, I won't bore you with everything, but it actually looks like I'm getting somewhere!


You guys have been of great help! Thanks!

[sushidor]

Great job of documenting most of what you are doing to the bike. It is nice to see the painstaking process that you are going through
Keep up the good work, little by little and you will have a nice looking VX soon

[bikemad]

Looks like your best friend will be the wire brush good luck !

[bexupnorth]

Looking good buddy, wish I knew if mine started!

You mention the "thing" that you saw on the forum, I haven't stumbled across it yet, what is it and why fit it?

Good luck with the rebuild, I'm betting you get on the road before I do!

Ade.

[Kratoxy]

Thanks guys   

And yes, the wire brush, let's just say I have a few

The "thing" is an electric fuel shut-off valve. So you don't have to worry about turning the petcock to off   
It's just a valve that's closed until you give it 12 volts and it opens.

The idea was discussed Here, the one I used was first used by Nick I think, you can see it on page 2.

Regards,
Kratoxy
Norway

[motorcyclist]

very good projekt posts- good pictures, text and discussion. Also cool that there is a place for projekt bikes now.
Keep up the good work and never give up!

[Nix]

Looks better and better with every photo, nice one!

[Kratoxy]

Thanks guys!

Eastwood paint(Detail gray seems to be the detail color of this bike) is in the mail! Along with some Aluclean snake oil thing.

New clutch perch and Bikemaster Euro chrome handlebar arrived in the mail yesterday! yaay!
I discovered a button on the new clutch perch... Investigating...

[tworide]

I just noticed this, on your fuel solenoid connection to the coil lead, the orange/white wire is the one you want to use, that's the 12v supply from the ignition switch.  The Black/yellow is the switched coil trigger lead that goes to the ignitor box....

[Kratoxy]

Hey, thanks for the info tworide

I didn't use the black/yellow one, I used the connector on the cylindrical rubber thing. Bad, good? Changing it over to the orange/white won't be much of a hassle though.

[Kratoxy]

Hello again! My job and the lady keeps me busy, so the estimated time for the completion of this is something like x+1, but it's fun.

I've painted some parts! Personally I feel like a professional painter, I'm over the top happy with the results! Quality paint must be the reason, since I am not a pro painter.
I'm not totally green on the subject, but not exactly experienced.


Until next time, pictures!

[Mad Max]

What type of paint did you use, Kratoxy? They say it's all in the preparation - tell us more about that too! It's produced a really good finish - good work!

Cheers,
Max in Melbourne, Australia

[Kratoxy]

Hello and of course I will Max!

First of all i used a glass bead blasting cabinet to get all the old paint off. Note that I used glass and not sand, sand is way too agressive and wil produce a very grainy surface, or dented, depends on the sand. Glass = good.

After getting all the paint off I cleaned the parts well with Eastwood Pre paintig prep. Any swax and grease remover will work I think, the Eastwood one dries pretty fast though.

Next, primer. Since most of the parts were aluminium I used an etch primer, more specific Eastwood Self-Etching primer. You can google why, but if you're gonna paint aluminium you need an etch primer I believe. Spray a thin coat and let it dry 2-3 minutes, repeat until even you have even coverage. Way to tell how is that it stops changing color after a coat, meaning you can't see the metal underneath. Then I let it dry for a few days in my garage.

Then the color.
I used Eastwood Detail Gray, sprayed using the same methiod as the primer. Thin coats, until you can't see the primer anymore, it stops changing color, sort of.

All of these products were easy to work with and laid evenly across the surface, very easy to work with, recommended.


Questions are welcome.

Regards,
Kratixy

[Kratoxy]

Hello again, and this time I could really use some help!

What on earth is this sort of bolt? Normal hex socket won't touch it...
It's what bolts the ignition lock barrel to the three-thingy.

[scootin800]

Torx, sometimes they'll come out if you can find an allen wrench that fits tightly.