VFR Refresh

(RIP) Tunneruk

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Some of you may know that I bought a 1995 VFR750 in the summer. It's a decent, tidy bike with 35k miles and only two previous owners. It is however approaching 19 years old and as such is starting to look a little dull around the edges.







Up until now I've been riding it as I bought it and looking at the less than perfect bits through squinted eyes!
Well the inevitable happened and I finally cleared myself a bit of time to make a start!

Originally my plan was to give her a full paint job but looking at the bike I've decided that I will just give her a good machine polish and focus on the 'spinning bits' at either end. The forks have been poorly painted black, the front discs have a little overspray on them and the rear end could do with brightening up.

So, up on the bench she went ........

I forgot to take a fully assembled 'before' photo which is very unlike me but I'll let the rest of the photo's do the talking. I will update further as and when they're finished

Fortunately all the hardware in the rear end is absolutely spot on mechanically, the bearings are perfect as are all the seals, it was just the cosmetics that were suffering.



It appears that this gravel has made it's way through here over the years via the pinch gap at the rear of the swing arm :eek







I'm a big fan of wire cups and find them particularly good at cleaning tarnished drive chains, this one has served me well for a while now but I have been asking a lot of it when using it in my die grinder at 16,000 rpm! It was only a matter of time before it'd had enough :eek (I think I fairly comprehensively exceeded it's rated maximum RPM - whatever that is :D)



I pressed the rear wheel studs out and had all the fixings and a few other components either zinc or passive plated.

In the mean time I painted the various brackets and mounts in 2k satin silver. Once the plated parts were ready I started reassembly



I used all of the original fixings with the exception of the sprocket nuts which I replaced with Stainless items.

When stripping the bike down the main rear hub nut was unbelievably tight, so much so that I actually snapped my big breaker bar trying to undo it. Paul Rochdale of this parish was present at the time, it was a good job too, I got him to sit on the bike, in gear, both brakes applied. Alas it wasn't to be so back on the bench she went.
The following day I persisted with the windy gun and finally managed to persuade it off!





This was a quick dry run assembly ....... why? I don't know :D





The calliper was in already in great condition but none the less I prepped it and treated it to a coat of 2k satin black. Pointless not doing that one thing after all!



The calliper pin rubbers had seen their best so I replaced them along with the tiny screw cap that protects the end of the brake pad pin, these always seem to get a hard life.
The original pads are really new and just required a bit of a clean.







Next up is to paint the hugger brackets and fit them in preparation for the hugger.

I've decided to paint the hugger in the same anthracite colour as the lower fairings (which I am also going to paint as they're a little knocked about)

I am going to carry out the same level of refresh on the front end which is already disassembled but i won't start that until the rear is finished and I can strap the back of the bike down tight on the ramp. Currently being perched on it's centre stand and strapped at the back just 'floating' is less than ideal :eek

From the moment I picked the bike up it was my intention to do this work over the winter. I'll be honest, I'm writing this thread with a tinge of sadness as I was looking forward to having a bit of back and forth with the late MScotts who I know would have enjoyed seeing this work:( Hope you appreciate it up there fella. This one's for you :beerjug:

More to follow .........
 
Good for you :thumb2 I had two VFR's - great bikes .... :beerjug:
 
............. I'll be honest, I'm writing this thread with a tinge of sadness as I was looking forward to having a bit of back and forth with the late MScotts who I know would have enjoyed seeing this work:( Hope you appreciate it up there fella. This one's for you :beerjug:

More to follow .........

Hopefully he's watching.
I did actually talk to the man about buying his VFR but it didn't quite work out.

I shall follow this with interest so thanks very much for taking the time and posting.
 
Subscribed and looking forward to the updates. My old VFR was one of the best bikes I had ever owned. Looks like a great project.

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I had to pop down to the workshop to shoot a coat of primer on a customer mudguard that I'm wanting to base coat 1st thing in the morning so I decided to hang about for an hour and do a couple of bits to the VFR.

The hugger bracketry was ready to be fitted to the swing arm so I cracked on with that, which meant I could give the rear wheel a wipe over and fit that too, it's nice to see it back on the bike!





I went and found the hugger lying neglected on the shelf and after half an hour of scraping nearly an inch of old chain lube off the inside gave it a thorough clean in the parts washer .....

There was one fixing hole which had broken away so I fashioned a steel circular plate to go over it and bonded it on, by the time it's painted it'll look like it was always supposed to be there.





Being a hugger is a bit knocked about so I hit it hard with an 80g disk to roughen it right up and gave it a couple of heavy coats of Ti high build primer. It's now sitting in the residual heat of the booth hardening up.
If I get the chance tomorrow I'll flat it and paint it ........



 
Well work has been bubbling away in between jobs I'm actually being paid for :blast

I moved to the front of the bike and closer examination of the headstock revealed horrendously tight and rough bearings.
I went straight ahead and ordered a set of All Balls taper bearings including new seals.

As it turns out, when I removed the headstock assembly I found that the bearings weren't actually that bad with only slight witnessing to the bearing faces, they had just been hugely overtightened!










The horn / brake line bracket was rough as rats so I bead blasted it and gave it a coat of paint.





I carry Durite 112db horns in stock ......... well it would be rude not to eh! :D








The fork oil seals are in lovely condition, as is the chrome on the stanchions. While the forks were out i decided to change the oil. It's entirely possible that it's the original oil so for the sake of £12 and an hours work it's a no brainer!

I will replace the dust seals.









I decided to do this work before I prepped the forks for paint to avoid damaging the new paint by trying to do it afterwards.

Next up ..... Paint the forks!

The forks should be silver but somewhere along the line someone decided to paint them black (and not very well) then someone (else probably) decided to touch them up whilst the front wheel was still position, all in all a great scenario.

I did start to strip them manually but soon realised that I was rubbing through layer after layer of paint. ay one point I went though a layer of red oxide!:eek:






So ......

I refitted the dust seals and masked up the stanchions. I took them into the blast room and wound the pressure right down. A gentle blasting soon saw the paint gone leaving a perfect finish for painting




A coat of etch primer ..







Then 2x coats of 2k silver at 40% gloss




Time for the callipers .....

They were in very decent condition with only minor marks but if I'd bolted them onto pristine forks they'd look awful!
Nothing else for it ..... I stripped them down, popped all the fixings etc in for plating, blasted and prepped the calliper carrier and painted the calliper












Just a quick dry mockup ..........





The disks were spattered in black paint (from the forks) so off they came, the bolts went in for plating along with the wheel spangle + spacers and the disks were treated to a scrub with acetone prior to reassembly.






With all the sub assemblies now finished I re-fitted the forks and bolted everything back up!

This is actual blood from a knuckle which I skinned while twisting the forks back through the yokes ....... that'll teach me to fit that new horn!!









I bled the brakes up and she's ready to come off the ramp! :thumb
 
Your work is, as ever, first class fellah......

Hope the new business is going well.

Cheers

Pete
 
Lovely work:beerjug: It's certainly bringing back some VFR memories!
 
I love this sort of stuff...very well done sir, looking good....;)

Just my opinion, but the gold wheels don't look right....Got any of that black paint left ?.....

Great job though....:thumb2
 
Just my opinion, but the gold wheels don't look right....Got any of that black paint left ?.....

When I had my first VFR, I wanted the wheels done gold. Today, well, maybe not. But my biggest bugbear was the actual style of the rear wheel. I just wasn't fussed on the curved design of the spokes. Hence I bought the rear wheel of the previous model which is still, IMO, the nicest wheel for a pro-arm VFR.

bigred1.jpg


When I got my second VFR750, I wasn't able to find another 8 spoke wheel, so got one of a VFR800 instead. There was a bit of machining to do to make it fit the hub, but again, I prefered it too the oe wheel of the last of the great 750 viffers.

v29.jpg



Still, keep up the great work as you are doing a fabulous job. :bow
 
I love this sort of stuff...very well done sir, looking good....;)

Just my opinion, but the gold wheels don't look right....Got any of that black paint left ?.....

Great job though....:thumb2

Oh no! Gold wheels always reminds me of F1 Ferraris so to my mind looks perfect. Chris, I'll bring some 'helicopter tape' down this morning as you might choose to stick some to those newly painted silver fork sliders.
 
Why on earth did they bother putting rotational direction arrows on the wheel castings? :nenau

11499814106_52440df1d3_b.jpg
 


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