Edited Date/Time:
Hi all ! With the 2001 Ricky Carmichael MXdN build being done it's time to move to another build !
Some months ago i came across the internet a picture of a mini vintage dirtbike that immediately pulled my attention !
After some research i found out this little bike was a Honda MR50 built and customized by Terry H.
It was at that moment i decided to do something similiar with a MR50, make it look like vintage works bike !
After some more research i found out that MR50's only were available from 1974-75 in USA, Canada and Australia ! So here in Belgium/Europe these little MR50's are very rare.
I found one for sale in the U.K. across the channel, all original and 95% complete, i immediately bought it and picked it up. I know it's not perfect condition but still it's all original.
Then some weeks later i found another one for sale in The Netherlands, totaly f*cked and screwed up ! Missing alot of the major parts… At that moment i decided to buy that one too and use that one for the project.
To be honest, the first MR50 i bought was too nice and too original to rebuild it into something completely not original ! So it's stored away in my mancave for now and will probably restore it back to showroom condition in some years.
Enough talking and let's get to the actual project !
Everything stripped.
Started with restoring the forks. Cleaned and degreased all the internal parts and lower fork legs.
Then glassbead blasted the old paint off the lower legs and repainted them in a dark grey color.
Pair of fork gators, fresh oil and new seals and they perform like new. Luckily there was no rust underneath the chroming at the pieces that slide through the seals. Rechroming takes up to a year in Belgium so that is something to be done later on !
The seat and pan were in pretty poor condition ! The metal seat pan had some rust on it, after sandblasting i repainted the seat pan in black and got a new seat cover off Ebay. Used a fuel line as protection for the seat pan edge not to cut through the seat cover.
I kind of screwed up the chassis from this bike when trying modifying it, so had to buy another frame on Ebay ! Everything went well the 2nd attempt, the extra tubes are meant to make the bike look like the big bikes with a full frame. Still need to weld eveything together.
Received my parcel from RE-MX.COM with all of the major restorations parts needed !
The wheels were in pretty poor condition too. The chroming was just completely shot and the original tires were just rotten away ! Had to cut all the spokes to make the hubs free.
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Fresh glassbead blasted hubs and painted black with new bearings and seals in.
Got new spokes and nippels and the rims were sandblasted to get rid of the rust and chrome, and after that they got a anti rust treatment and powder coated into a gold looking color.
Knowing how the wheels looked before, i'm one happy kid seeing this result !
Started stripping the engine.
The impact screw driver is probably the best 20 bucks ever spent ! Those philips bolts would just stripped out without a impact screw driver.
Everything stripped. The top end of this bike was a complete disaster ! Can you see the spacer someone made between the cylinder and cases, this wasn't a good sign ! The cylinder wall is rusted and bored out to 40.95 which is basically the 4th and last oversize Honda makes pistons for. Some amateur that previously owned this bike had a wrong piston in there and to make it work they screwed up the cylinder ports, put a spacer underneath the cylinder to raise it and they took material away from the cylinder head to make it sit lower on the cylinder and they also screwed the dome of the cylinder head. All off this to make a piston work that is not made for a MR50 !
So i bought a good used standard size (40.0mm) cylinder and cylinder head of Ebay which is going to save this engine and save me headaches..
More is coming up in the next weeks !
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