I have wheels

After what seemed like an endless search I finally found a nearby shop that did beadblasting, so after a few days I picked up the newly powdercoated wheels.
This place- P&J Powder Coatings

They are more or less the same colour as the originals.
Its slightly exasperating that the removal of old, purchase and refitting of new bearings cost a lot more than the powdercoat process itself, especially as their was nothing wrong with them in the first place.
There is a little bit of overspray to remove from the drum brake to clean it up but thats them ready for refitting.
I've put off fitting tyres for a bit and will look around at my options, currently considering Bridgestone BT45's, but that may change.

Shiny forks

I've finally managed to put these back together
The fork legs were rechromed by Philpots and should last as long as the rest of the bike does now.
After a bit of fiddling I refitted the dampers and pushed in the new seals and they seem to sit well.
The only thing left to do now is add fork oil but I'll wait until I need to fit them before doing that.
The fork bottoms were cleaned as well as I could and sprayed black and coated with laquer, they'll probably need redone at some stage but they are much better than the horrible rashed red they were when I got them.



Shiny shocks

New shock arrived today, I wasn't going to replace these but the old ones did look really tatty,even if thats not clear in the photos.
The new ones are budget items from Tecbikeparts who mostly do Triumph parts and they were only £45 so I felt I could just get them without breaking any budgets.

Old ones on the left, new ones on the right with the black body. I did have a choice of colours but felt this one was favourite

Wheels

When I first got this bike I knew the wheels needed recoating and now I've started to get them ready.
I had already noted that the tyres were a bit past it...... that was the front tyre that was dated 2002, the rear was a much more vintage 1988! - probably April of that year, an impressive 24 years old and were so stiff I ended up cutting it off the rim.
To think it was riding about the streets less than a year ago.

The rear looks to be in decent condition but the front is fairly poor with lots of flakey paint and alloy corrosion all over it.
I may get them painted rather than powdercoated, apparantly the closest matching colour is 'Skoda' gray though I think a darker grey may look better.

Rattle can frenzy

I turned my attention to the alloy fork bottoms and finally finished them off, though not perfect a coat of primer and a few coats of satin black have made them look quite good.
I'll consider whether I should laquer them afterwards.
I've also started to refit the steering head bearings, the first piece to go back onto the frame.