'74 DT250 Bitsa. The "Aussie Mutt."

Just Another Tequila Sunrise.
Frame's painted. 1 coat of Mr Boeing's fuel tank epoxy, 2 coats of sunrise red and 2 coats of 2 part polyurethane clear. That ortta' get me another 50 yrs out of it. :smoke: I think the sunrise red gets me pretty close to Mr Soichiro's sixties red.

I filled in around all the brackets and tabs with J B Weld. That should keep all the oil and grime out.


DT frame JB Weld on tabs.jpg


Dt frame ready for prime.jpg


DT frame primed2.jpg


DT Frame painted red2.jpg


DT Frame painted red.jpg




Picked up a '74 bottom end off Ebay for 100 bucks delivered. Crank's a little rusty, but everything spins as it should. Haven't rebuilt a pressed crank since I was a kid at a Kawasaki shop. Hopefully it's like ridin' a bike. The early bottom end I have owes me nothing, so hopefully I can get my Franklin back from that.


74 DT250 Bottom End.jpg
 
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I'm jealous
As @fredintoon would say, you're not jealous... you're envious. :sneaky:
I bought that compressor in about '96 for 300 bucks. Replaced the motor once and the pressure switch once. Aside from that it's been rock solid. No telling the hours on it... somewhere up in the thousands.
 
Pure Zen...
Waitin' for some putty and primer to kick off on a tank, so I decided to play around with the Mutt for a bit. I'd painted the lower triple a few weeks back and ordered the All Balls tapered roller kit for it... so yeah... lets do that.
Jus' like I did on the SG, I filed two notches inside the head tube on the bottom and two on the top. If you don't do this with the All Balls kit, it'll be damn near impossible to tap the outter races back out should the need ever arise.


Triple install 2.jpg




Finished cleaning up inside the head tube, smeared grease everywhere for corrosion protection and tapped the races in. Here's where the Zen is....
Set the lower race in place, backed up by the old ball bearing race, with a 36mm socket on that. Then you just start tapping with a heavy ball peen. Tap tap tap... tap tap tap.... "ting." If you've never done it by sound, you prolly think I'm daft, but when the race finally seats against the shoulder, there's a very distinctive and satisfying change in sound. "Ting." Tilt the socket slightly and make sure you get your ting at all 4 corners and the race is in. Rinse and repeat for the top race.


Triple install 3.jpg



Triple install 4.jpg




The metal dust cover cup for the top bearing was pretty beat up... usable, but ugly. I bet we can make it look prettier.


Triple install 5.jpg




Set the same 36mm socket inside it...


Triple install 6.jpg




Then it's just a matter of taking some softwood.... Yellow Pine in this case, and jus' start tapping around the edge of the cup until the socket rounds it back out again. More Zen... tap tap tap.... take your time... soon enough it'll be round again.


Triple install 7.jpg




Happy with the results, I finished cleaning it up and set it aside.
Packed both bearings with wheel bearing grease and tapped the lower bearing into place using the old ball bearing race and a suitable steel tube. Same Zen... jus' listen for the tink. Don't forget the dust seal.


Triple install 8.jpg




Slid the triple up into place, top bearing, dust cup and nut... and snugged it all up.


Triple install 9.jpg




Overall, a very enjoyable hour spent in Zen meditation. You enjoy the task just for the ... well, the joy of the task. Doesn't matter if it's hard or easy, the act of doing is it's own reward... pure Zen.:cool:
 
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Overall, a very enjoyable hour spent in Zen meditation. You enjoy the task just for the ... well, the joy of the task. Doesn't matter if it's hard or easy, the act of doing is it's own reward... pure Zen.

Truly, you have attained wisdom. But seriously, I vicariously enjoyed the job you did. All too often, one ends up doing a job because something needs fixed, need to go somewhere, it's all a hassle, don't have enough time, don't have the right tools, don't have the right method, don't have the right attitude. It's probably why I gave up working on cars many years ago. Trying to get to the same place you have reached. Make the garage a pleasant place to be, adopt a quiet and patient frame of mind, look at the job, think about it. Still got a way to go to reach that level of inner calm. Will keep your example in mind . . . Thank's Jim.
 
Truly, you have attained wisdom. But seriously, I vicariously enjoyed the job you did. All too often, one ends up doing a job because something needs fixed, need to go somewhere, it's all a hassle, don't have enough time, don't have the right tools, don't have the right method, don't have the right attitude. It's probably why I gave up working on cars many years ago. Trying to get to the same place you have reached. Make the garage a pleasant place to be, adopt a quiet and patient frame of mind, look at the job, think about it. Still got a way to go to reach that level of inner calm. Will keep your example in mind . . . Thank's Jim.
Thanks Raymond. Yeah, I think most of us have a tendency to view a job through the lens of "are we done yet".... I know I certainly do.
 
Nice job Jim I generally have plenty of time but not the patience to go with it
Sometimes I just find another task for awhile (like pulling garden weeds) just to keep from pounding ahead to get the job done
 
How do you Eat an Elephant?


Here lately, about all I've done is work on other peoples stuff. Decided I'd sprinkle in a little of my own along the way.
I picked up an oil tank off Ebay. As usual, it looked much better in the ad than in person. :rolleyes:


Oil Tank Ebay.jpg



After cleaning some of the paint off, the pitting was much worse than I expected.


Oli Tank Pitting.jpg



De-rusted it in the bead blaster. Surprisingly, none of the pitting blew through, so I guess it's solid enough. Still, I decided to cover my ass and used J B Weld to fill in the pits and a few dings. That should get me another 50 yrs or so out if it. :sneaky:


Oil Tank JB Weld.jpg



That stuff's a right bear to sand down to a respectable finish.
In keeping with the 60's Honda scrambler theme, I finished it off in silver.


Oil Tank Painted.jpg



And here's where it gets a little eclectic, if it wasn't already... Diablo Cycle has the oil tank decal for a Japanese (only) market '69 DT1.
I think it sets it off nicely. Lighting isn't real good in that pic, but there's 2 coats of clearcoat over the tank and decal.


Oil Tank Decal.jpg



Installed a new sight glass from Sumo Rubber in the UK. Extremely pleased with their product and service.
And here it is installed with new stainless hardware.


Oil Tank Installed.jpg



Also picked up a tool tray off Ebay. Again, the pitting was much worse in person. Here it is after bead blasting.


Tool Tray Beadblasted.jpg



Two coats of red, two coats of clear, and here it is installed. Again, new stainless hardware.


Tool Tray Installed.jpg



The rubber bit on the dogleg isn't correct and new is NLA. I'll figure something out. :umm:
A while back I picked up a headlight bucket and ears from @YamadudeXS650C . Thanks Jeff!!
Gave them the same de-rust and paint treatment. Now, if I only had a set of forks. :(


Headlight bucket and ears.jpg



Still not much to look at. My assistant is completely unimpressed, but we'll get there....


PXL_20210926_222620942.jpg




That's it for now.

Oh yeah... almost forgot. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time my friends... one tiny little bite at a time.
Cheers.
 
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