Dig Out the Original Paint!

This bike had badly painted in typical Kawasaki's color, yellowish green. I found that original red-purple paint is hidden under the messy yellowish green paint at the tail end. I thought "If I can peel the messy paint layer, I may get the original paint!" and then I started the "dig out." I did the job carefully with a scraper so that the original paint layer did not damaged. I'm just like be an archaeologist! Gradually, the original paint was appeared under the gray colored surfacer layer. I think a archaeology may be more interesting than I thought. (No way!)

However, a life is not so easy. At the bottom part of the tail end, the original paint layer had already cut out and had a filler.

After all, I decided to do a repaint job. Okay, I'll try to make it to purple color of '75 H2C. (What a fast recovery! You may find that the seat had already repaired)

Preparation of Engine Fire Up (Electrical)

I installed a new battery and I turned on the key......oh no...the neutral indicator is not turn on. This may be caused by the bad electrical wiring.....I got nervous because I'm not good at electrical. I dismantled the spark plug and kick the starter to check a spark.....No sparking on the plug. However, the indicator lights slowly turn on and off. Why??? I checked the contact points. When I close look at.....all points are closed! When I turn the clank.....all are closed!!!

Honestly said, I once inspect the contact points when I started the restoration job, but I thought "Oh it looks clean!" then just closed the cover. The picture shown below was taken at the time.

When I close look at the picture......Oops! The linkage of the gear shift was set upside down! This is the reason why the neutral indicator did not work! The gear position I thought neutral was in between 4th and 5th gears! The neutral indicator was turn on after I fixed the linkage connection and change the gear to neutral. Problem solved. Also, the spark plugs got electric spark after I set the points halfheartedly. Nice!

Fire Up the Engine!

I poured oil mixed gas into the fuel tank (I got better fuel tank at a swap meet) and push the starter lever at the handle. After many kicks, the engine was fire up! I got it! The exhaust sound is better than H2. What a nice noise! (Need less to say I complained from my wife... "Noisy! Stop it!")

Someone may ask me that "Hey, did you do cylinder off overhaul, didn't you?" Actually, I did so for the right cylinder and I found that the piston and the ring was in good condition. So I did nothing for it. I thought the clearance of connecting rod was too loose but.....I closed the cylinder head! At least, the right cylinder was 0.5mm over bore.

Overhaul of the Rear Wheel and Touch up

The engine was fixed so I moved to the other part. I tackled to the rear section. The lever of the rear brake was stacked by rust and the swinging arm was not going down when I removed the shock units! I cleaned up and apply some grease to the brake cam and pivot of the swinging arm.

At the same time, I did a repaint of the side frame. The paint of the side frame had came off because previous owner may be clumped a back control steps at this pipe. I used urethane splay can for the repaint (the spray can said this is good for outside fence or iron gates, any way). As I previous did, I put a newspaper at the back of the frame and splay the paint. (Can you recognize which is the "after" photo?)

The result is fine.....at least for me! Any way, is this a single liquid splay real urethane? I think I can't expect the same durability as a urethane paint with a hardener.

Wow! It can be back on the road soon!

Please take me to the home, baby.