Been busy over the past few months restoring my 04 749, it's a poverty spec bip owned from new and only done 5k miles, has a full termi system and a mono seat conversion (genuine parts). It's been a little bit neglected since before covid and following divorce lived in a mates garage for a few years as I had nowhere else keep her. Since getting the bike back I decided she's a keeper and deserved some TLC, originally I planned to strip everything including the engine, repaint etc but when it came to doing the do I decided that my tiny garage was not adequate to embark such a task so it was a strip down to engine and frame job instead. The fork outer tubes and rear shock were riddled with corrosion and the engine paint was doing the standard flakey thing. Same with the radiators! So found new replacement suspension from Italy costing less than a strip and rebuild of the existing items and minus the corrosion! Stripped and repainted the radiators and lavished the cooling system with a set of samco's. Lots of corroded and rusted nuts and bolts (par for the course), a few snapped off just for good measure including a cylinder head bolt, these were either cleaned or replaced. Full service was also much needed including belts, all fluids and filters (dp air filters, fuel filter) and new tires. Also replaced the usual headlight and ignition relays and dealt with some broken wiring for the coil... and with a significant amount of research found the correct pins for the connector as I was not buying a new coil unless absolutely necessary! Found some really colour accurate metallic silver paint from RS Paints for the headlight bracket and wheels to touch up but I think over winter these will get a full respray along with a few other jobs I'd like to do including new brake seals and lines and proper tune and valve clearances. Anyway just wanted to share, it's been a great experience, enjoyed the process massively and I've learned a lot. I'm pretty proud of the condition I've got the bike back too, was a shit tonne of cleaning but looks almost as good as new, can't believe she'll be 21 years old next month! Ducati Manchester were awesome too, sorted me with a few parts and top advice as well as fixing the electrical short on the ECU that decided to make itself known on the way to the MOT (which I would have never have found on my own). Back on the road now and almost ready to get back on track too!
Lovely bike. How did you address the flaking engine paint? I miss my 999 a LOT. Great sounding bike that was. Way better than the current V4 I am currently using.
In all honesty I was back and forth in my head about dropping the engine and respraying it with as close a match as I could. In the end (and with summer calling) I decide to remove as much of the flakey bits as possible and leave the bare aluminium as is. I'm glad I did because I feel I'm being faithful to bike and when fully dressed you can't see much of it anyway. When winter comes around I might very well strip and repaint the engine but for now I'm content.
The shock is brand new , NOS sourced from Italy for a shade over £200 plus import duty. Instead of rebuilding the very corroded original for a greater cost it made perfect sense replace. For the headlight surround it was a simple touch up job on the few small areas where the paint had flaked off. There are areas where you can see the paint is starting to bubble up so I think it will get to the point where I will media blast and repaint.
Excellent job, looks beautiful. Are you able to advise on the paint code that RS did for you, for the headlight assy? Mines also flaking a little, my winter projectette may be to strip it and repaint. I presume that later “.2” 999 models used the same colour silver?
I can definitely advise… from memory it was “silver grey metallic” but don’t remember a paint code. When I’m back in Blighty early next week I’ll check the spray can and bottle for a code and send a pic of touch up against the original. It’s a very very close match. I’m pretty sure I’ll be stripping and repainting the headlight assembly this winter also.
Have you considered colour matched in a rattle can? My local guy matches anything, takes 15 mins and its £17 a time.
Great work & it looks fantastic, well worth all the effort , we reinstated my 748 also after 14 years
If you want the paint to last on the engine definately full strip to the cases and cerakote...you get the added lad logic ability to refresh the engine, get crank balanced etc etc...
