Right, I got on to the guy about the re-spray quote and asked him for some pics of his past jobs .. appears that he's been doing this for a while and that he makes the graphics himself. The lead time is three weeks and going by the photos it looks good, so I've booked him in (although I've not decided on the scheme yet).



Anyway, I've got pieces of bike piling up everywhere, think I need to make some progress on actually cleaning bits up.



Rads in bad shape as with every NC30 you hear of

Had a bit of tough time getting the carbs off today The upper screws on the clamps (of the two most inaccessible inlets) were rounded off so obviously someone had, had a go at them before. Anway, after 20 mins of cursing, faffing and thinking of what to do I decided to leaver them off in the hope that they would come free. Low and behold they did. Needless to say I lost two of the rubbers on the jammed inlets but I was glad to get the carbs off. As you can see from the photos its not looking to trick in there at the moment.



Now, I'd already flushed the cooling system (having run a hose through the rads when they were on). Once I'd got the carbs off I could get at the water pipe union, when I removed this I found that there was still some stagnant murky water/coolant there is this normal ? (don't have a pic but can post one tomorrow).

Poor, poor negleted NC30; keep at it and it should come up trumps in the end! :)

I'd go with the RWB scheme and in imo, powdercoating the subframe is a better option than plain painting; I just got my Bandit4 frame/subframe, swingarm & fork bottoms shot blasted & powdercoated for £130; done by SPC in Slough: http://www.sloughpowdercoating.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Speedy wrote:Poor, poor negleted NC30; keep at it and it should come up trumps in the end! :)

I'd go with the RWB scheme and in imo, powdercoating the subframe is a better option than plain painting; I just got my Bandit4 frame/subframe, swingarm & fork bottoms shot blasted & powdercoated for £130; done by SPC in Slough: http://www.sloughpowdercoating.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hey Speedy,

Long time no hear, how you been? Thanks for the link I've been looking around the area for powder coaters, going to get some quotes lined up in the next week so will give these guys a call.

it's looking good so far but if you want to smarten things up you could put a little hammerite on the bare alloy engine parts,i used silver on the thermo,water pumpa and coolant pipe work under the carbs,purely for cosmetic reasons with good results

padawan wrote:Now, I'd already flushed the cooling system (having run a hose through the rads when they were on). Once I'd got the carbs off I could get at the water pipe union, when I removed this I found that there was still some stagnant murky water/coolant there is this normal ? (don't have a pic but can post one tomorrow).

There are 2 x drain screws underneath the front two cylinders that drain this water out.



have you checked the waterpump yet? Mine rusting up was the cause of my murkey water

Neosophist wrote:There are 2 x drain screws underneath the front two cylinders that drain this water out.

Hey there, yes, as per the Haynes manual I'd removed these two screws (pain to get to) previous to removing the union but the water is still visible, is this bad?

Neosophist wrote: have you checked the waterpump yet? Mine rusting up was the cause of my murkey water

I've got the pump off but can't get the housing off to check properly, I've checked for play and rotation it seems to be ok but like you say this could be the reason

Didn't get to work on the bike today

padawan wrote:

Speedy wrote:Poor, poor negleted NC30; keep at it and it should come up trumps in the end! :)

I'd go with the RWB scheme and in imo, powdercoating the subframe is a better option than plain painting; I just got my Bandit4 frame/subframe, swingarm & fork bottoms shot blasted & powdercoated for £130; done by SPC in Slough: http://www.sloughpowdercoating.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hey Speedy,

Long time no hear, how you been? Thanks for the link I've been looking around the area for powder coaters, going to get some quotes lined up in the next week so will give these guys a call.

Been away for a couple of weeks on hols and just got back; seems I brought some sunshine with me but I'm sure it wont last long, so get busy on that bike!

Found 3 other coaters in Middx when I was looking for them and they're all in Slough; the lowest quote I got for my frame/subrame (it's 1 unit), was £80 for powdercoating only, the prepping would be up to the customer as they don't have shotblast facilities, (the guy suggested Nitromoors [sp?] to get rid of the old paint); I can't remember which co. it was though. The others had quotes of £150 & £180

http://www.chingfords.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.cpkindustrialfinishers.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.nationwidecoatings.co.uk/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There's also: http://www.triple-s.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which are apparently well reputed!

padawan wrote:

Neosophist wrote:There are 2 x drain screws underneath the front two cylinders that drain this water out.

Hey there, yes, as per the Haynes manual I'd removed these two screws (pain to get to) previous to removing the union but the water is still visible, is this bad?

Didn't get to work on the bike today

Ah thats alright then, you'll never get all the water out by the drain screws. If it was still murkey though sounds like you need to do a bit more flushing out with a hosepipe.

It helps if you remove the thermostat, then flush in all possible directions.... Hosepipe into the the top of the rad, into the thermostat housing, into the waterpump out hose etc etc to dislodge any crap.

You'll be surprised what you can get out of a neglected engine.

If it is bad, when you get it all back together a chemical treatment might not be a bad course of action, holts do a 2 step treatment you can get from halfords thats really good.

If your waterpump rotates ok should be good, theres a drain hole on the underside of the pump, this should be clear. Also you can shine a torch into the hole and see if the blades look clean!! the cover can be difficult to get off as it's on locating dowls that sieze but tapping it lightly and rocking it back / forth will get it off.

You want it to look like this:



NOT like this:



The murkeyness / rust is usually caused by lack of antifreeze (corrosion inhibitor) combined with tap water (excess minerals) which corrode the water linings, hence after a good flush a chemical treatment might help, just make sure you flush it good and proper and use proper coolant / distilled water from thereon. Mine was rusty sludge on the 24 partly due to the bearings of the waterpump and the general neglect, looking into the rad looked rusty but after good flush / chemical treatment it's shiney aluminium again, and coolant is still blue coloured after 2 months of use.

Thankfully NC35's coolant has been looked after and is nice and clean ^_^ While your sorting the coolant system out might be worthwhile replacing the rad-cap if it's looking tired.

what condition are you water hoses in as the rest of the bike looks quite bad, i have a set of oem ones you can have for £5 (not including the lil one that is under the carbs)

its just sitting arround from when i put samco's on mine, although i would recomend putting samco's on if you can afford to as nc's do have temp problems and every little helps.

Hey Guys,

Flurry of activity on the post there. When I flushed the system I stuck the hose in all the parts until the water ran through clean then when I took the parts off I flushed them again for good measure, the water is going in and out clean.

The lower rad looks knackered the inlets and outlets have mild signs of rust but I can't see through the fins at all. At the moment its dunked in "gunk" and will stay there for the week. The upper rad looks very good no signs of rust etc. I will try and get the pump housing off and check the state of play there.

I thought I'd try some radiator treatment once I'd got the bike back together again. I'm thinking about getting rid of the bottom rad and following Chris's idea of using a speedfight rad (anyone else done this)? I know Rick'O does rads for the NC but they'd be too pricey for me.

The samco hoses do sound and look great but agian £80 for a set hmmm not sure I've got a pretty long list of parts to buy chain, sprockets, front and rear shocks so its adding up already although at the same time I don't want to cut corners. Maybe I need to raid my kids piggy bank