Derelict PD

My plan was to keep everything as original as possible, so the plastic bodywork stays as is unless there are bits we feel need replacing or restoring. The problem with the plastic stuff is there's only so much you can do to bring it back to life, but I felt it important to keep it genuine where possible.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the colour scheme though :)
 
That's a great point Andi and one I hadn't really got around to thinking about yet. My plan as Mikey gets more and more together was to chat to him about ideas about how to make the most of what's there. I've not really done anything with lacquer before so I'm open to ideas and suggestions!
 
I was thinking maybe a t-cut to get the grime off the paintwork and either a coat of gloss or semi-gloss lacquer to bring the shine back. You could maybe do a test on the back of one of the panels.
 
My plan was to keep everything as original as possible, so the plastic bodywork stays as is unless there are bits we feel need replacing or restoring. The problem with the plastic stuff is there's only so much you can do to bring it back to life, but I felt it important to keep it genuine where possible.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the colour scheme though :)
I thought you liked the colour/paint,:nenau
Personally I’d loose the gravel graphics and paint it white/red:cool:

Edit,
I’ve looked closely at the bodywork,
It’s a bit more than patina:D
 
My supermarket sells a Armoral product, a cream cut and polish, and the reasonable price includes a foam application pad.
It is great stuff, it will take over from 2000 grit wet and dry and brings paint up to a great finish which can be sealed with a resin polish then finally glossed with a good hard wax.
I have tried clear over but couldn't find a decent clear in a rattle can, it was just too soft and yellowed.
Things are changing and my paint guy now has a premixed two pack in a spray can which they claim has a 14 month shelf life, but at five times the price I am only likely to use it if I have to touch up the two pack on the Subaru-------.
 
My supermarket sells a Armoral product, a cream cut and polish, and the reasonable price includes a foam application pad.
It is great stuff, it will take over from 2000 grit wet and dry and brings paint up to a great finish which can be sealed with a resin polish then finally glossed with a good hard wax.
I have tried clear over but couldn't find a decent clear in a rattle can, it was just too soft and yellowed.
Things are changing and my paint guy now has a premixed two pack in a spray can which they claim has a 14 month shelf life, but at five times the price I am only likely to use it if I have to touch up the two pack on the Subaru-------.
This is tomorrows job,
Clean the panel work and tank and t cut.
Unfortunately there is a lot of wear marks and chips.
We shall see,pics to follow:thumb
 
I thought you liked the colour/paint,:nenau

I do Mike, it's a bit gash but I've learnt to love it and it's also part of the bike's heritage so I'm keen to keep it original where I can.

I think it's a question of doing what we can with what we have, fixing the chips and scratches where possible and living with the rest.

Unless of course you've got some ideas on other options!
 
Introductions and background - Part 2

I bought the bike while living in Canada. I’d owned BMW’s for a few years (RT’s) but I’d always loved the GS and the PD was something extra special to me because they weren’t available in the UK where I grew up.

Although Canadian winters can be brutal, the rest of the year opens up some amazing countryside that just begged to be explored and the GS was the perfect bike with which to enjoy all that Eastern Canada had to offer.

Many weekends in the summer months were spent up exploring the logging roads and snowmobile trails in Algonquin Park, you could ride dirt trails for miles every day and see things you could never normally experience - these are the days I miss most of all now I’m back here in the UK.

I remember one weekend in particular where I had taken a remote trail and managed to get stuck in a marsh - I was maybe 20 miles from the nearest road, there was no cell coverage (it was the late 90’s after all) and it took me over 6 hours and some Ray Mears ingenuity to get back on the road - I can still remember the feeling of elation as I emerged back onto the highway, covered from head to toe in mud...

But perhaps the pinnacle of her Canadian career with me was taking her on a three week trip to the Trans Labrador Highway in the Autumn of 1997. I took the last ferry of the year from Newfoundland (before the passage starts to freeze up) and wound up in Goose Bay staring down the barrel of a three day ride through 300 kilometres of Canadian wilderness.

While in Canada I also fell in love with the Maritime provinces and New England both of which I found out could be reached within a couple of days (about 1,000 miles from Toronto) so we did a few trips out to the winding roads out east, mostly just for long weekends.

I used to love those road trips, this was way before the days of GPS routing software too. I had a basic GPS (Garmin III) that had a simple map and would just tell me a basic compass reading and if I was headed in the right direction or not. It turned out that was the perfect way to explore because you simply took whichever road you felt like as long as it was more or less in the right direction. I think we miss a lot of that kind of serendipitous discovery now because we just rely on instructions from the screen rather than leaving it (roughly) to chance. I would never have found any of the dirt roads if I’d used a modern GPS and would have missed out on a lot of the adventure.

After about three years of exploring and enjoying the beauty of that bike on Canadian trails, my job changed and took me back to Europe but not back to the UK, not yet at least. After a brief introduction to the UK at Dagenham where the bike was uncrated, I took her and her Canadian plates and rode on to our new home in Amsterdam...
 

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Naughty naughty

In my defense, it was probably me when I did the pushrod seals in the winter of '98 in Toronto. It was twenty below and all I had was a Haynes Manual, a six pack and a family of racoons sharing the garage... :D
 

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Time to don the marigolds and get scrubbing
 

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Even George is sad:comfort
 

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Great story about the canadian travels. I get a nostalgic kick out of using old stuff that reminds me of past adventures too, yuo did well to keep the bike with you and many such as me will have regretted parting with a machine with such nostalgic affiliations.
 
Great to see a bike with history and an obvious attachment being given the works and a bomb proof future .
Superb work Mikey !
 


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