Japan Meets Britain

[G-Man]

Davomoto

I've several of those dampers to restore by zinc plating. I'm going to make a peg spanner to dismantle them. I am concerned about ruining the surface of the internal bore. Do you take any precautions?

G

[davomoto]

Graham, no, just unscrew the cap, and slide hammer the seal out just like you'd do with a front fork. The trickiest part is getting the correct amount of oil in, so the damper retains full travel, but doesn't have a lag. I'll have to measure the correct amount of oil next time I do one. Do you mean ruining the bore when plating? I have all of my cad work pro done, and I believe they plug the opening before plating.

davomoto

[G-Man]

Davomoto

Yes, thanks - I was worried about the bore getting messed up during plating. I might make up a threaded plug to keep the plating solution out. The place I go to does parts for Aston Martin so they must know their stuff - I'll ask. Vince's chrome damper body does look tasty though.....

G

[G-Man]

Reading your post again. Surprised that you can get Cad done in the US, let alone California. Does the work come back with an EPA label on it?

Cad is very much a no-no in the UK. We ahve to make do with zinc.

G

[davomoto]

Yeah, I'm a bit suprised myself! Ca is full of tree hugging, dirt worshipping Nazis! We can still get chrome done too, no EPA label required. And yes, I agree, the chrome damper looks sweet.

davomoto

[jensen]

Hi Vince,

Well, that's what I mean, in the Netherlands we call that a show bike, but that isn't negative.
Here cad is not possible, but there's good alternative. It's sink cobalt yellow passivated, it's just as yellow as cad, and much more durable too. i did my ignition coil brackets that way.

I see that LM answered the question about the nut already, where I have to go to look he just knows.

Jensen

[Vince Lupo]

Davo -- it's interesting that you say that you can just unscrew the cap, because on mine they've put two punch marks on the side of the body just below the lip (if you look at the photo with the damper, you can see one of the punch marks), and I guess you'd have to somehow 'unpunch' them to allow that cap to be unscrewed. Ah well - fortunately I don't need to open it, as it functions just fine and the chrome plating is done. Of course, the chrome on that finish on the damper will be 'toned-down' somewhat, in that the rubber boot will be covering up much of the damper. I really did the plating because the old finish didn't look that great -- but yes, admittedly maybe I do like chrome too, and all these pieces that Ronnie did look fantastic in person. But I swear I'm not going to chrome plate anything else!

The front brake arm lockwashers arrived in the mail today, and I'm just waiting on the rear brake shoes, and the paint should be ready this coming week.....we're getting closer!