7/6/15

Z50R project

I bought this 1996 Z50R awhile ago for my son, and we're finally getting it fixed. It'll make a fun play bike for him, and give him an opportunity to gain some mechanical skills also. In today's world every other person can fix a computer, but not so many could fix a tractor or even a washing machine. This bike will be perfect for him to learn the basics with, and I've always wanted to mess around with a small Honda myself.
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The engine ran good, and the bike wasn't in too bad of shape. The biggest issue was a broken rear hub. The plan is to make it safe and look decent, but keep it basically stock and just fix what needs fixing.
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The first thing was to tear it down, inspect everything, and make a parts list.
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Here is the broken rear hub. The rim is also bent.
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I got an older 4 bolt style hub and rear wheel on ebay for $9. The 4 bolt wheels are supposed to be stronger that the later 3 bolt style.
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The 4 bolt wheels also have a larger rear brake. I'm not sure if this is much of a benefit, but probably doesn't hurt.
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I'd thought of just doing a good cleaning of the parts and over-coating some paint, but figured it wouldn't take any longer to just sand blast them. If I just over-coated I would have kept the same colors, but this way I can change the colors. Here the parts are prepped for blasting.
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Nice and clean and ready for paint. I had enough left over paint from other projects that I didn't need to buy any.
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First I put a coat of Dupli-Color self-etching primer on everything but the exhaust.
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The rims, handlebars, fork bridge, lower chain guard, and footpegs got painted with VHT 'cast aluminum' caliper paint.
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For the fork uppers I used VHT 'gold flake' engine paint.
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The exhaust got VHT flat black header paint, and Dupli-Color gloss black engine paint on the heat shields.
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The frame and most of the other related parts got Dupli-Color gloss black.
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For the tank I used Dupli-Color gloss white. The tank had some dents, but I figure it's just going to get more, so I didn't do any body work on it. It'll be finished off with some older style Honda winged logo stickers.
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