Rescued NC29 - rebuild thread

[boredus]

Hi all,
Just about finished my NC29 project that I took as PX on my Aprilia RS250 in July. I was actually after a 250 crosser but this was all that came up near me. The previous owner bought the bike in 2001 for his wife to take her test on etc but it never happened. The bike had spent the last 7 or so years in a shed with a working washing machine and tumble dryer so it was covered in rust and clothing fluff!
Beware!! this thread has lots of pics!

[boredus]

As soon as it was at my place I started stripping it down and giving it a wash before work commenced.

My first thought was start looking for all the broken bits and cost up getting replacements. The bike has been down the road a few times, which from what I have seen is not uncommon. The first things to be binned were the fairings as nearly all of them were cracked / miss-matched or broken, brake pads shot and the rear sub frame plastic mounting points had been broken off.

Rear sub frame was removed, brackets welded back in place, rust removed and sprayed silver.

[boredus]

As the bike had been standing for several years the carbs needed stripping down and cleaning. All the alloy had gone furry with corrosion so cleaned them up ready to go back on the bike. Replaced the float bowl screws with Stainless allen cap head bolts.

[boredus]

Opened up the air box and a field mouse had taken up residence, it had had a chew at the dirty, oily old air filter but it looks like it only tried once!


The rear shock on the bike was shot and badly rusted. I was given a good spare with the bike so I started off by taking it to bits and cleaning it up before fitting.

[boredus]

The wheels, swing arm, forks and frame had all been polished in the past, but were all very badly corroded so spent a few days polishing it all back up.

I found the bike really difficult to move around and felt way too heavy so had the bike on stands and as suspected the front brakes were binding terribly. Calipers removed, pistons and seals removed and checked over, seals were good so soaked it all in fresh brake fluid and re-assembled. Chucked the old pads in the bin and replaced with Galfer pads. The discs front and rear are as good as new.

[boredus]

The petrol tank had a dent in it, looks like something fell on the bike, it needed matching to what ever body work I got so I stripped off all the paint, filled the dent and sent it off to paint along with the single seat cowl.


With the bike serviced and new fluids in, it fired up all too easy. First time in about 5 years so I was chuffed with that. As soon as I had got the bike I was looking online for fairings. What to get was a bit of a tough decision. I was never planning on keeping the bike so ploughing loads of cash in that I could not get back was pointless. That took the Tyga and the K-conversions out of the equation. I worked out that the Tyga road kit plus a nice paint scheme would probably cost about £1500. I spent a few hours reading on here about the fairing kits coming out of China. Cheap and cheerful but difficult to fit. I reckoned that for the money, they would be worth it so went with a Honda West scheme and spent the £350 delivered to the UK. The kit arrived in about 6 days and slipped through customs so that was a relief.
Now the fairings….. are not badly made to be honest. The kit looks good when it is in bits, the paint was good but the stickers have not been stuck properly in places before being laquered in. All in all I was very happy with them because for the price you get a lot. Straight away I noticed that at least half the holes are not there so I needed to use the old fairings as a template. The front fairing is missing the plastic brackets that hold the fuse box and cable junction box so I would need to find somewhere else to fix them in place. It took me about 20 hours to fit them and I am pretty sure it is impossible to get a good fit! I also did not use the bits that run along the frame under the tank as the holes were not set deep enough for the panels to fit right. The rear panels went together ok but not perfect.

[chrisja2]

Good work my man, looks like a fairly unmolested bike. Have you sorted a set of plastics?

Chris.

[boredus]

The front mid panels, left and right refused to come together under the indicators so I made up some fibreglass pieces that would fit up the inside that I could drill holes through and bolt together, pulling the panels together and adding a bit more strength to the front.

Not perfect but better than the half inch that was there before on both sides!

The tank and rear seat cowl were sprayed up at a local coachworks, the stickers I had made by a guy off the RGV250 forum. Tank came out really nice.
[img]

The screen is a tyga light smoke double bubble screen, adding a bit more shape to the front end. The exhaust on at the moment is actually off a ZX9 but it will do for now. I will ream out the silencer mounting bolt holes so if needed an original NC29 or NC29 fit silencer can be put on but also allowing me to turn the zx9 can so it sits right.

[boredus]

you beat me to my last post :) all fitted now.

[boredus]

A few little changes over the last week. Firstly the proper indicators arrived from Lings offback order last week so need to fit them. Took the bike for an MOT last wednesday, failed because the front RHS disc was badly cracked... and it sure was! disc looks / feels new but on closer inspection it is full of tiny cracks, some going nearly all the way from top to bottom. The exhaust also cracked near the top of the headers, just badly rusted so it was an expensive week. New discs fitted from Jap4Performance and a 4-1 stainless exhaust header from Wemoto. Only read on here that the 4-1 systems have a bad flat spot in the reve range The Stubby can was a left over from another bike, but it fit....