Resurrection of a wreck

[Geoff Hastings]

Have you tried tweeting Donald? He might be prepared to pop a few spares in the diplomatic bag!

[G-Man]

John

I wouldn't hold your breath on theat one. I have been selling products to the USA for the last 20 years and there are a lot of obstacles other than tarriffs.

When we sell to state-owned companies 'over there' they insist on US content (as high as 45%) or that we employ local (disadvantaged) businesses to do part of the work of assembly / installation etc. You do not get the job if you cannot reach the quotas.

The playing field will never be level.......

There will also be 20% VAT to pay when the items enter the country.

I've had better luck with Japan lately for Honda parts. The stuff turns up quickly, is of good quality and, so far, no duty payable....... :-)

Just my two-pence worth

G

Now then, absolutely nothing to do, directly, with this restoration, more of a random thought.

Donald Trump is visiting shortly in an official capacity and has often spoken about a trade deal with the UK once we have exited Europe.

If such a deal comes about, I would assume that parts from the US would be much more affordable, customs duty pretty much kills the deal at the moment so I would hope that in the wake of a trade deal, things might well get much better, thoughts anyone?

[Tim Allman]

I've had better luck with Japan lately for Honda parts. The stuff turns up quickly, is of good quality and, so far, no duty payable....... :-)

Just my two-pence worth

G

Graham, where do you shop for parts in Japan?

[G-Man]

Tim

Several places.

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/d294168680 (A yahoo company)

These guys - all their stuff comes to me straight from Japan....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/cruzinimageuk1484

And....

http://www.yamiya750.com/index.php?main ... &cPath=179

The second two are for my CB400F project but the top one is a kind of Japanese eBay which carries some super-rare stuff.

G

I've had better luck with Japan lately for Honda parts. The stuff turns up quickly, is of good quality and, so far, no duty payable....... :-)

Just my two-pence worth

G

Graham, where do you shop for parts in Japan?

[John Watson]

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks, none to report at the moment, more illness in the family has kept me out of the workshop for all but a few hours. I've only had time for messing around with, and cleaning up a few minor components.

[Geoff Hastings]

Hope the family are improving John, at the end of the day, it's just a bike.

[John Watson]

I've not been completely idle over the last couple of months, things have improved with regard to the family's health and I've been able to slip into the workshop now and then to have a bit of a play with my tools.

I do need to get back into the habit of taking more photos of my progress, I always tkae dozens when I'm stripping a project down but when rebuilding I tend to become rather engrossed in what I'm doing and the work is left unrecorded.

So, I built a couple of wheel jigs ready for when I have rims and spokes ready for rebuilding, I'm very tempted to buy fresh rims and stainless spokes from Central Wheels in Birmingham, they're selling them on eBay for £136 per set at the moment for C77's.

The wheels are now stripped down and rather surprisingly, I only had to cut two or three spokes, the rest simply unscrewed with a minimum of effort.

PA166323 by Happy Grandad2010, on Flickr

I hate with a passion, the old style Honda grease nipples, so I removed the ones from the front suspension arm, removed the nipples, and drilled and tapped the holes and fitted conventional M6x1 straight nipples.

PA316324 by Happy Grandad2010, on Flickr

I bought a working speedo some months ago, and as the photo shows, the glass face was fogged over on the inside , so I took it apart so I could clean it up and found the face of the speedo was also discoloured and had some blotches, which won't wipe of, that has me completely bewildered as to where it has come from, as far as I can tell, the speedo hasn't been taken apart until now.

PB186337 by Happy Grandad2010, on Flickr

At this point I am looking for advise, if any of you would be so kind. I don't want to leave the speedo face in this condition and I have seen on eBay, adhesive overlays for both types of speedos. My question is this, are they any good, please?