A Toyota and a Honda...
Discussion
Ok so this is my first post on here after years and years of lurking in the shadows, so I thought I'd start with my first "Proper" car, which I bought a couple of weeks ago.
It's my third car since passing my test 5 years ago at the age of 17; First was a 1988 Peugeot 205 Junior (1.1!) and my second was a long term-er 1999 Volvo V40 (1.6!!)
So here is "Sylvester" the 1999 Toyota MR2
Apart from my Laminex-ing It's a completely standard REV5 UK 2.0L run out model.
It's not fast by PH standards and obviously it's no Turbo, but it feels like a rocket engined Go-kart compared to the old Lolvo!
Needs a few little bits doing (A good clean/detail for one!) but for the money I paid for it I'm chuffed to bits, No real rust to be seen and feels tight as a drum.
Now long before the MR2, Whilst in ownership of my Volvo I got a little bored lets say, and having never sat on a motorcycle in my life, during late summer of 2012 I bought this, completely unseen on Ebay for more money than I'm prepared to admit... (I'd just messily split up with my partner of 8 years and so probably wan't thinking too straight - Thank f
k for that!)
Which over the space of a year (And with a budget of literally nothing) Me and my mate turned it into this...
Then into this
And finally into this!
It's a 1972 Honda CB350F (Four cylinder!) Imported from Minnesota. The first few pictures really flatter it, it was a mess!
During the build I passed my test, got it MOT'd and Registered and had about 1 1/2 months of Summer 2013 left before I had to tuck it back in for the winter! (Come to think of it, maybe that's why I bought the MR2...)
Thanks for reading if you made it this far
I'll now try my hardest to actually contribute to the forums rather than just using them as an excuse to not work!
It's my third car since passing my test 5 years ago at the age of 17; First was a 1988 Peugeot 205 Junior (1.1!) and my second was a long term-er 1999 Volvo V40 (1.6!!)
So here is "Sylvester" the 1999 Toyota MR2
Apart from my Laminex-ing It's a completely standard REV5 UK 2.0L run out model.
It's not fast by PH standards and obviously it's no Turbo, but it feels like a rocket engined Go-kart compared to the old Lolvo!
Needs a few little bits doing (A good clean/detail for one!) but for the money I paid for it I'm chuffed to bits, No real rust to be seen and feels tight as a drum.
Now long before the MR2, Whilst in ownership of my Volvo I got a little bored lets say, and having never sat on a motorcycle in my life, during late summer of 2012 I bought this, completely unseen on Ebay for more money than I'm prepared to admit... (I'd just messily split up with my partner of 8 years and so probably wan't thinking too straight - Thank f
k for that!)
Which over the space of a year (And with a budget of literally nothing) Me and my mate turned it into this...
Then into this
And finally into this!
It's a 1972 Honda CB350F (Four cylinder!) Imported from Minnesota. The first few pictures really flatter it, it was a mess!
During the build I passed my test, got it MOT'd and Registered and had about 1 1/2 months of Summer 2013 left before I had to tuck it back in for the winter! (Come to think of it, maybe that's why I bought the MR2...)
Thanks for reading if you made it this far
I'll now try my hardest to actually contribute to the forums rather than just using them as an excuse to not work!Edited by Amebix on Monday 3rd February 11:08
MotorsportTom said:
Bloody hell that bike is lovely!
Such a turnaround from what it was, hat well and truly doffed.
Any more info/pics on the bike. How was was it register/insure?
Oh and the MR2 isn't so bad either
Thanks mate!Such a turnaround from what it was, hat well and truly doffed.
Any more info/pics on the bike. How was was it register/insure?
Oh and the MR2 isn't so bad either
I Didn't really do a build thread as such (Because if I'm honest I didn't fully know what i was doing!
) I've got more pictures of the bike here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.48726942... (Sorry if i'm not supposed to post Facebook links!) But it's far from a complete set...Basically It was imported in July 2012 from the USA and that's literally all I know about it - I'm not from a mechanical/engineering background whatsoever, although my good friend who owns that Buell XB in the Facebook photos is an old hand at Shed Builds
It was to be my first bike so I wanted something cheap, underpowered and easy to make into a little project with an abundance of spares, a simple motor etc, I thought maybe an Enfield 350, MZ ETZ or a Superdream maybe but I really hankered after something a bit older and a bit more "Special".
I then went on Youtube (Foolish move
) and found a video of one of these with open pipes being ragged up the street in California somewhere - I never even knew they existed and had to have one simply for the noise!I took a massive chance buying it, but after we got it back to the garage, clean out the filthy carbs, changed the oil and slapped a new battery on it, it coughed into life on all 4 cylinders!
Then we started the strip down - everything apart from the red bits I brushed/dremel'd/cleaned/sanded/painted myself. (Might not sound like much, but I work in a Library, not a garage
)Carbs Re-jetted, Overhauled camchain, New Clutch, Straight through exhausts (Homebrew), Overhauled brakes, new plugs/points some Refurbished Coils, Cheap Clip ons, Avon Road Rider Tires, Master Cylinder from a Black Bird and some sintered pads, cheap fiberglass seat (To be replaced) new fork oil, new rear shocks, some new wheel bearings and that's about it really (And plenty of elbow grease!)
I've been madly lucky with it - No smoke, no rattles no nothing. It's a beautifully smooth engine (Even if it is obscenely loud!) Handles reasonabley and it's not exactly fast - just full of character (And not bad for a first scoot!)
Like I said it was all done on a shoestring so apart from the tires and the painted tank/panels etc it's only really cost me a few tins of Hammerite, a Haynes manual and of course the registration, I'm sure a few of you will cringe at the 'DIYness' of it all but it's been massive fun and stopped me going mad
Registering it was the hardest part of all! DVLA had me from pillar to post for nearly 2 months because the paperwork I had for it was from the "Old system" and of course they said they needed to inspect it what with it being tax exempt. I waited for 3 weeks for them to arrange a date for inspection and I got a V5 through the post! Only Managed a couple of rides about the High Peak before winter set in!
Insured as a vintage bike through Equity Red Star, Very very reasonable given my less than clean license...
Here she is down at Matlock Bath in some good company
Ta!
Edited by Amebix on Monday 3rd February 19:45
Cheers for the warm response guys!
And yeah lets face it, in terms of bikes, if I wanted to actually go fast, I could've spent my money far better - But I'm a sucker for things with "Charm" and history, or technological anomolies such as this little 350 (Which was out-performed at the time in pretty much every measurable respect, even by Honda's own 350 twin, but remained Mr Soichiro himself's favourite Motorcycle...)
1000rpm per 10mph in 5th means that motorway cruising isn't really in it's nature (Plus i'd quite like to have my ears for a little bit longer at least )
And of course with all of these sorts of builds, it isn't finished - That seat NEEDS to go and be replaced with something proper, of course i'll update this when I do.
Mid-life crisis complete! (At the age of 22 no less!
)
And yeah lets face it, in terms of bikes, if I wanted to actually go fast, I could've spent my money far better - But I'm a sucker for things with "Charm" and history, or technological anomolies such as this little 350 (Which was out-performed at the time in pretty much every measurable respect, even by Honda's own 350 twin, but remained Mr Soichiro himself's favourite Motorcycle...)
1000rpm per 10mph in 5th means that motorway cruising isn't really in it's nature (Plus i'd quite like to have my ears for a little bit longer at least
) And of course with all of these sorts of builds, it isn't finished - That seat NEEDS to go and be replaced with something proper, of course i'll update this when I do.
Mid-life crisis complete! (At the age of 22 no less!
)deltashad said:
Two great machines. The MR2 looks very tidy indeed, but the Honda... really is something else. The cafe-racer look really suits the bike. It's stunning, and what you said... just full of character what it's all about
Wow, looking through your vehicle history Deltashed, that's bloody high praise indeed, thanks! - Your latest Delta Is sublime! getawayturtle said:
Toyota is looking good, but that Honda is really something else. Very impressive, and I'm not even a bike person!
Me neither, but I've found myself contemplating yet another garage project in the form of an old bike.Really nice project, this is the sort of thing that makes PH worth coming back to - not the big money showroom cars, but the little projects because I like it and I wanted to do it.
Mark Benson said:
Me neither, but I've found myself contemplating yet another garage project in the form of an old bike.
Really nice project, this is the sort of thing that makes PH worth coming back to - not the big money showroom cars, but the little projects because I like it and I wanted to do it.
Cheers dude,Really nice project, this is the sort of thing that makes PH worth coming back to - not the big money showroom cars, but the little projects because I like it and I wanted to do it.
It's amazing what you can get for your money if you're not too snobby about Japanese Marques, and the cafe racer "scene" is booming at the minute, although you will note I haven't used that phrase during my write up as I got a lot of flack from the old guard for describing it so, what with it not being a leaky agricultural 50's British relic... (Which I love too don't get me wrong!)
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