The Project Begins

After 25 years of riding small 2 stroke motorbikes I decided it was time to take on a small project. My son is now 16 and of legal age to ride a 50cc so I chose the first bike I ever owned and rode, a Honda MT50SG.

The bike is a 1987 model and is quite a mess so it's going to be a complete strip and rebuild from the ground up. The engine was taken apart by the 2nd to last owner and then left in a damp shed so most of the engine internals are rusty and pretty much useless so money will need to be spent on new/second hand parts and plenty of time cleaning parts that can be used again. with a full restore in mind I have bought a compressor and a big bucket of sodium bicarbonate so i can soda blast the engine parts before painting and rebuilding.

I'M NOT AN EXPERT! I am going to make mistakes but the best way to learn is by making those mistakes and I want you to share those mistakes with me so we can learn and teach together.

I am qualified as a mechanic, although once qualified I never put the qualification into much practice other than servicing and repairing my own bikes, so this is more than I've ever done in the past.

So now I've introduced the project, here are some pictures.

The bike is a rolling chassis with 2 boxes of engine parts.

As you can see the engine is in a really sorry state and the internals are a mess.

So that's where I'm up to on 17/02/2017. Next job will be inspecting the individual engine parts I have and determining whether they are salvageable or if they are trashed and buying replacements as needed. 

Soda blasting will commence as soon as the compressor is delivered and the system is set up. I'll post some video of the process and report on all the problems I encounter.