Vintage Dirt Racing on a 350 Honda Twin

exciting stuff...that bike is going to be fast!!

Made a bit more headway on the old twin over the long weekend, but first we had two days rest on the boat (when you're on the boat you can't work on anything, therefore you rest), then came home and divided my time between the old twin and the wife's Sprite. Made great progress on both.

Here are the frame and swing arm after several more hours of grinding, sanding , priming and painting;



It feels good to be at this stage, now as parts are prepared or purchased, they can be bolted to the freshly painted frame, it feels like all forward progress from here.

Looking great!

Hey Rick,

You might want to talk to Total Seal in Phoenix for rings. They make all different sizes and probably have something that will work. If they need a piston I could run one down to them to measure. Let me know.

-John

Thanks John, when the rings arrive that I ordered from the Greek, I will do a quick test fit and if they don't look like they will work, will get ahold of you for more details. Thanks for the support!

So last night I had a few hours to devote to the old girl and decided to get cracking on engine parts cleanup, in the hopes of making some serious progresse this weekend. The Pow-Roll top end off of the parts bike had been painted with some kind of heat resistant black paint and was pretty beat looking, so the first order of business was to apply paint stripper.

Before;



First Application of Stripper;



First rinsing;



After the first application, about 90 percent of the paint was gone, so I applied the rest of the stripper and especially down into all the little nooks and crannies. After second application and rinsing and then a thorough drying with compressed air, the parts were starting to look pretty decent. I coated all the steel parts (especially the cylinders) with a heavy coat of WD-40 and let them sit overnight. Before I left for work this morning I gave these same parts a good shot of spray carb cleaner, and hopefully that will loosen up forty years of grime.

What a summer it has been, busy busy! The catchup process has gone really well, the house and yard look great, shop is beginning to look like, well...a shop and the wife's Sprite made it to an actual cruise-in, so other than not doing much of anything with the bikes, the summer has been pretty successful.

We've just begun another project that will make it's way South next spring, and although I'm not at liberty to say much more than that, stay tuned for a build thread for a bike that will have to be seen to be believed! In the meantime, while in the shop working on the new mystery project, I actually spent some time cleaning the SL350 cylinder head, in preparation for shipping it South to Mr Fast, so it can be reworked to Lameco specs.

Here is the head after about 15 minutes with the roloc bristles;





A little more cleaning and I will box it up and ship it out! I've also decided to sand and repaint the frame, it just doesn't look that great and since I now have at least til next spring to get it ready, want it to look a little more professional. Speaking of professional, the SL350 will also be getting another upgrade courtesy of Twinduro's upholstery skills, a custom aluminum based seat!

Oi. I give.

I've now beaten Luke into submission! Here is the link to his build thread;

http://www.advrider.com/forums<WBR>/showthread.php?t=823952

John, one sample piston is coming your way, it is packaged up with the cylinder head I'm mailing down to your dad. Thanks for offering to do this, I decided to see what Total Seal can do, the Greek rings would probably work, but more and more I want this bike to be done right and last a few seasons. Thanks!

As noted previously, Mr Fast has offered to have their machine shop go thru my cylinder head (for a small and reasonable fee) and regrind the valves, touch up the ports and probably check the springs. Yesterday I did the last and final cleaning before shipping, here's how it looked;

Before;





After;





And in the box;



I've included one of my Pow-Roll pistons for a sample since Azcagiva (son of Fast), has offered to go to Total Seal and see if they can provide a more exact set of rings. The rings bought off the internet from the Greek would probably work, but are just a little iffy.

Thanks to John Graves Propane and Lameco for helping get the SL350 properly built and race ready for next season!

Also thanks to OC for loaning me a plastic fuel tank for the bike, here is the test fit;



I think the tank can be color sanded and buffed, and would look pretty good. Originally I was considering a painted fuel tank with polished aluminum fenders, but I may go this route and see if I can find some cherry Preston Petty fenders in a matching red. By the way, Luke and I weighed the two fuel tanks and this one weighs 3 lbs, the stock unit is 6 lbs.

Rick, got your head & piston. Owen will get on it next week. I think you probably should get new springs. Will send you a pm tomorrow. After completion Owen will bead blast the head for a nice finish. Jr. will let you know on the rings.

Very much appreciated, I know you guys are really busy prepping for the Baja 1000, so a special thanks for squeezing me in!

the Graves are a great couple of guys!

very cool

The rain finally returned to Oregon after almost four months of glorious sunshine and with that the projects will start moving mostly indoors. This whole summer has been devoted to getting the house, shop and honey do's into a manageable state with an eye on next season. Although it will probably take another couple of years to get the shop really dialed in, took another small step forward this weekend, building a HD work bench to accomodate metal working tools and creating a storage space underneath to house welders, torches, sandblaster, etc.

Here is a before picture, lots of %$#^&*%#!!! clutter;



Another view;



After building a HD bench, still planning to make a backstop and cover with metal and also wiring in 220 for the welders, etc.;



Lots of room on top for the mill and perhaps a heavy vise, after this picture was taken moved the rest of metal working tools underneath. My wife came out to see what I wa sup to, her first comment was "will the motor home still fit in the shop?" DOH! :huh A quick measurement of the shop width and motorhome indicates that with care, it will still slide in (just barely ) WHEW!

true that Michael!

Rick, Master vintage mechanic Owen has finished your head & it looks great. When I ordered the springs & keepers there was some miscommunication & they sent XL350 springs. When we got the right stuff it was titanium instead of aluminum for the same price! We'll get it shipped to you next week.

Sue & I are headed down to the beach house in Baja on the first. We'll meet up with Jr., Allan & the rest of the Wounded Warriors gang for pre-running. I'll be following along behind on my new to me 2003 WR450. We installed a Baja Designs headlight & a GPR steering stab. on it. Should be fun! Then we're headed back down on the 14th to catch the race!!

Titanium, nice upgrade!! Once the head gets back I won't have any more excuses and will get crackin on the old girl again.

Sounds like you guys should have a great time, hopefully all will be safe and have a successful race! Hope you guys will do a lot of posting of updates so we can follow along.

Thanks again for your help! (and please give my thanks to Owen as well)

PS; is that steering dampner a one way dampner or two way? Am planning to put one on my TTR250 and Luke said that for desert only go one way and for enduro go two way. Any thoughts or suggestions?

The Scotts which is one way (away from center, nothing coming back) is probably the best. We couldn't get it in time so we settled for GPR which is both ways. I'll just turn it down so it doesn't wear me out. Still beats the Hell out of nothing.
John