tuscarora dave
Active member
- Aug 21, 2009
- 5,408
- 12
I took this bike into my shop a month or so back. It belongs to a friend of a friend. While this project will bring in some money, it's not necessarily a money job. It's more of a behind the scenes hobby project that would otherwise just be sitting in the owner's shed getting no work at all. My buddy called me about it and asked if I'd be interested in working on it to get it running and clean it up for his friend and previous co-worker. I told the owner that if I could have it until next summer that I would work on it on an as I get time basis more as a hobby than a paying job. I told him that there would be value in getting the documentation photos during the recon process so I can make up sort of an antique recon portfolio for myself to market this particular service into the future, and cut my labor rate more than in half for this particular project. I thought I'd share some of the photos here.
It's not every day you see a 1963 Honda Dream, let alone one in pretty decent original condition such as this one. This will be a therapeutic hobby activity for me as detailing in general has become more of a chore than a hobby. The plan is to clean it up as best as possible keeping all the original paint intact. The motor will be removed, disassembled, polished up as well as the replacement of any available parts that are in need of replacement such as kick starter gear (broken teeth) and any oil seals and gaskets along the way. The wheels will be removed, polished as well as the replacement of the wheel bearings, sprocket drive buffers etc. that may be in need of replacement.
I'll share some photos along the way as I work on this piece of history. Here are some photos of the bike upon arrival to my shop.
Whatever parts you don't see in the photos such as side covers, throttle grip, mirrors and a few other miscellaneous parts are in a basket along with a full set of repair and parts manuals and a CD-Rom copy of a Chilton manual on the bike. The bike is 100% original and is 100% complete.
This bike ran 10 years ago when stored in a storage shed. After soaking the inside of the cylinders down with WD-40 a few times over a month or so to free up the piston rings, I checked for compression then hooked the battery and ground strap up and checked for spark. We had spark so I injected a little gas into the cylinders and replaced the spark plugs and pressed the starter button and the bike started for a few seconds. The owner wanted me to confirm that the bike would run before getting started on the project. It's a go.
I bought a small hand held pneumatic rotary polisher last week and couldn't wait to test it out so I did a primary cleaning of the bike and then played around with the little polisher and a soft Cyclo polishing pad on the painted front forks and headlight cover this weekend.
Here's a picture of the bike after the initial cleaning.
Here's a photo of how the paint is turning out using Poorboy's World Polish with Carnauba Blue and my little rotary polisher.
This should be a fun project to be involved with as time permits and I'll update this thread as I get newer photos of the project.
Thanks for looking, TD
It's not every day you see a 1963 Honda Dream, let alone one in pretty decent original condition such as this one. This will be a therapeutic hobby activity for me as detailing in general has become more of a chore than a hobby. The plan is to clean it up as best as possible keeping all the original paint intact. The motor will be removed, disassembled, polished up as well as the replacement of any available parts that are in need of replacement such as kick starter gear (broken teeth) and any oil seals and gaskets along the way. The wheels will be removed, polished as well as the replacement of the wheel bearings, sprocket drive buffers etc. that may be in need of replacement.
I'll share some photos along the way as I work on this piece of history. Here are some photos of the bike upon arrival to my shop.
Whatever parts you don't see in the photos such as side covers, throttle grip, mirrors and a few other miscellaneous parts are in a basket along with a full set of repair and parts manuals and a CD-Rom copy of a Chilton manual on the bike. The bike is 100% original and is 100% complete.
This bike ran 10 years ago when stored in a storage shed. After soaking the inside of the cylinders down with WD-40 a few times over a month or so to free up the piston rings, I checked for compression then hooked the battery and ground strap up and checked for spark. We had spark so I injected a little gas into the cylinders and replaced the spark plugs and pressed the starter button and the bike started for a few seconds. The owner wanted me to confirm that the bike would run before getting started on the project. It's a go.
I bought a small hand held pneumatic rotary polisher last week and couldn't wait to test it out so I did a primary cleaning of the bike and then played around with the little polisher and a soft Cyclo polishing pad on the painted front forks and headlight cover this weekend.
Here's a picture of the bike after the initial cleaning.
Here's a photo of how the paint is turning out using Poorboy's World Polish with Carnauba Blue and my little rotary polisher.
This should be a fun project to be involved with as time permits and I'll update this thread as I get newer photos of the project.
Thanks for looking, TD
