Hi all, purchased this bike last week and the plan is to put the 749 back on the road after 4 years layup. Plan is a 4 stage plan, 1, back end inc convert to mono. 2, Engine, Full service / check. inc paint on engine as its sooo bad, very furry... Thinking Simoniz at the moment. 3 front end. 4 Plastics and paint. Week 1 in, and the project is under way... Rear mono plastics arrived from Germany, Pin/ grommet arrived from Ducati. Subframe work started. Need to make bracket for grommet test fitting. Also did a bit of exhaust cleaning..
So ended up removing the top rails and add bracing between the rails so I could get the correct gap between the exhaust heat shield and fairing. will add bungs to the frame rails.
ok cheers thanks - its a china made item shipped from a retailer based in germany? hows teh quality? i have a couple of race fairings for my 749 track bike and the chinese one has a seat cowl like yours but the quality is naff compared to the german one which is much better but without seat cowl
Its better than I expected tbh, it does need work and there is molding marks that will need to be sorted before paint but over all very workable for the money. The molded captive for the pin is brass.
Had a go at DIY Nickel plating for some of the rusty bits. Also raided the local nut and bolt shop for shed loads of stainless bolts.
Spent the last few weeks looking at the failed paint. Mainly the engine and headlight bracket. Went with Halfords Engine paint Aluminum for the crank cases ( plenty of masking and used a airbrush !) and also did the engine cases as well but they looked a bit to Silver for me so... Matched the clutch cover ( metal part) colour at the local paint factors and decided to paint the engine cases with this colour (matte) then... Spent 4 hours stripping the headlight bracket. Feel sure if I had some old Nitromors paint stripper it would only have taken an hour.
Waiting for parts this week so turned my attention to the bodywork. It had fallen over on a pebble drive resulting in a cracked nose fairing and damage to the left side. Plastic welded the fairing, Alloy welded the fairing / indicator bracket. fixed the indicator and air deflector Also chain and sprockets arrived today Afam / DID ( I know the chain is 2 links shorter than it should be, just testing...)
Worked on the front end over the last few weeks. Forks were removed, headset bearing serviced, Forks stripped and new seals and oil. Fork tubes have seen better days so for the time being they were given a coat of aluminum paint to smarten them up until I source some tubes. Brakes were cleaned, serviced and new pads installed then bleed. discs cleaned with 320 and Scottish pad. came out nice.
A couple of steps backwards. I wasn't over happy with the finish on the nose fairing, so it had to be redone. Much better this time... Then when playing with the suspension I noticed I only had 7 clicks of rebound damping on the front forks so after a bit of research they had to come off and redone. this time with the rebound correctly adjusted before rebuilding them. New fuel filter has been installed. £24 for a plastic filter is a rip off.... Then take a look at the slow starting. I know Ducati's start slow but mine seemed a bit too slow. (Only had Jap bikes before) I figured whilst looking I would upgrade the starter cable's and add the extra earth. Also it had a funny earth strap thing going on on the battery neg side so needed to investigate what was going on there. Looks like at some point the old neg terminal had given up the will to live. So off the battery box and when checking the main neg lead was indeed spliced. the group of neg wires on one terminal and the main neg lead on another then linked to the earth strap lead to the battery. 6 inch too long. When I got it apart I could just pull the terminal of the neg cable !!! New cables are now installed. Will have to wait until tomorrow so see what it starts like as too late tonight. Have to say fitting the battery box afterwards was fun !!!! not sure I am looking forwards to having to do that again. I feel sure they could have come up with something better than this. Clearly I am not the first to be in there as no cable ties to be seen anywhere.
Replace the clutch plates and performed the quiet clutch mod. It's now mutch better... followed with a clutch fluid replacement. Continued the clean and detail New fairing fastners this week ( black zinc quick release for the top ones) and oil and filter change. I have bought a front brake hose clip of the forks as mine doesn't have one. Dont see one in the WM but I had used a zip tie as thought it needed support. anyone got a pic of it fitted?
So the final push is done. Oil and filter changed. Belts checked ( they are just 2 years old and only done a small number of miles, due to the bike being off the road) so will change them in the summer. They are like new and you can still see some of the red writing on them. New tyres fitted. New rubber fairing dampers and oil rad dampers fitted along with front brake grommit and new fuel pump relay. Old one in tool kit just incase. New one encased in a finger of a latex glove. Replated small parts, ( side stand and foot peg springs and pins, brake and clutch lever pins etc) Replaced the front wheel bearings as well. I knocked the old ones out to check them but might as well put new ones back as only £16. Just a case of waiting for the weather now and get her MOT'd then enjoy.
