Professional restoration cost and classic forum

[Duke Caboom]

Hi, I've got a 70s XT500 that I'm thinking of having cosmetically restored. It will need painting and tidying up, probably re wiring. I realise there is an element of string length here but any rough ideas or experience, would help with the thought process.
Also, anyone know of an active classic / restoration forum? All the ones I've looked at seen to be very quiet.
Thanks

[podman]

Sounds daft but a lot of it will depend where you are in the country...Its cheaper to have work done in the North of the Country than the South ...thou chrome work & wheel buildings costs no matter where you are.

When I bought my LC back in 2012 I had a company restore it to my brief , I really wasn't confident doing almost anything on the bike but over the years ive got more confident and realised there was much I could and can do myself.

If you can strip the bike down you will save a good chunk of money on labour and farm out painting / plating etc etc as you wish.

Joining an owners or club such as the VJMC will save you a tidy sum on parts over a restoration...The VJMC also has a recommended list of suppliers/ services that are tried and tested, there must be a XT forum on FB that can assist on the specifics of your bike, lots of owners clubs (such as the LC club) have parts manufactured like wiring looms .

Do like the XTs, any pics?

[bimsb6]

There is an xt forum on facebook as I’m on it , we have a ‘79 500 in the garage . There are some u.k based specialists for parts .

[Duke Caboom]

Thanks. Some good tips. I could strip and reassemble myself so that's a good idea. I'll look on VJM and I'll have another look on Facebook. The one I originally found seemed to be US / Candian biased.

[Rubin215]

The cheapest way to restore a bike is to buy one that an enthusiast has already restored; they will have taken the hit for buying obscure parts, paying exorbitant prices for specialists etc.
You see classics coming up all the time that were 'only restored a couple of years ago, new project forces sale.'


Next cheapest is to do as much of the stripdown and work yourself and only pay for what you can't do; join a marque-specific forum for advice.

Most expensive is to give the whole vehicle to an expert, preferably one who already has a tv series, and tell him to do whatever he likes...

[Duke Caboom]

Rubin215 said:

The cheapest way to restore a bike is to buy one that an enthusiast has already restored; they will have taken the hit for buying obscure parts, paying exorbitant prices for specialists etc.
You see classics coming up all the time that were 'only restored a couple of years ago, new project forces sale.'


Next cheapest is to do as much of the stripdown and work yourself and only pay for what you can't do; join a marque-specific forum for advice.

Most expensive is to give the whole vehicle to an expert, preferably one who already has a tv series, and tell him to do whatever he likes...

Well, this would be my feeling from old cars, which I am familiar with. However, with my bike it doesn't seem to work like that. Obviously I can only really see asking prices and all bikes are in different levels of condition and so on but:

Unrestored xt500 "projects" seem to be £2k ore more and excellent restored ones £8k or more. So unless it cost £6k to restore it should be worth doing, financially. I think. Bikes are small and simple, and mechanically it was good when I parked it, so its difficult, for me, to see it costing £6k to restore - especially if I did dismantling and reassembly. Of course I could be very wrong!

The truth is I don't use it. I kept it because I wanted to restore it one day, but I won't realistically have time to do that for at least 15 years. I wasn't too bothered when I thought it was worth £800 as I couldn't really do much with £800. However, if I had £4k I could buy something I would use more.

[zzrman]

Duke Caboom said:

Thanks. Some good tips. I could strip and reassemble myself so that's a good idea. I'll look on VJM and I'll have another look on Facebook. The one I originally found seemed to be US / Candian biased.

My only recommendation would be that as you (1) disassemble the bike you take a gazillion photos from gazillion angles at every conceivable stage and (2) bag and label all the bits as you take them off.

I bought a BMW R90S a few years back and, despite taking what seemed at the time to be more than enough photos, and having bagged and labelled plenty of bits, when I came to put it back together - after I'd had the frame re-powdercoated and all the chrome bits redone - I was left with a decent number of parts which I couldn't fathom out how to put them back together. In the end I got the Dutch chap who had repainted all the painted bits to put it back together for me. Lesson learnt.

[Krikkit]

zzrman said:

My only recommendation would be that as you (1) disassemble the bike you take a gazillion photos from gazillion angles at every conceivable stage and (2) bag and label all the bits as you take them off.

I bought a BMW R90S a few years back and, despite taking what seemed at the time to be more than enough photos, and having bagged and labelled plenty of bits, when I came to put it back together - after I'd had the frame re-powdercoated and all the chrome bits redone - I was left with a decent number of parts which I couldn't fathom out how to put them back together. In the end I got the Dutch chap who had repainted all the painted bits to put it back together for me. Lesson learnt.

Yep if you haven't got a parts diagram for every little bit, make one as you go

[stu67]

Krikkit said:

Yep if you haven't got a parts diagram for every little bit, make one as you go

Yes whenever I've done a bike the old exploded parts diagram / old micro-fiche etc are invaluable. As others have said some items like chroming / any plating are terribly expensive now to have done to a good standard. To be honest a Jap bike is probably 20%-30% more expensive to restore than a fairly standard Brit bike because of spares availability.

[bimsb6]

Duke Caboom said:

Thanks. Some good tips. I could strip and reassemble myself so that's a good idea. I'll look on VJM and I'll have another look on Facebook. The one I originally found seemed to be US / Candian biased.

They are u.s biased but there are plenty of uk based members and u.s parts are cheaper than here its just the postage thats an issue but for rare parts expensive is better than unavailable