Looking fresh

The Honda Express re-build continues...... Iv just completed spray painting the bike . I decided to change the color to angel blue as I thinks it looks best in this color, while still keeping it in one of its original shades .  Im going to be assembling the bike slowly as time permits and more parts arrive .

Shining !!!

Here the parts that I asked to be zinc plated which they ended up chroming.

Ok so the first batch of parts that I sent to the chromers is complete, minus the flywheel cover which they claimed to have lost , but that's another story on its own. Im very happy with how the fork tubes came out , they really did a great job of restoring them . They also chromed parts that I specifically asked to have zinc plated . I wont be making use of their services in the future.

UPDATE !!!!!!

Iv stripped the rims , surprisingly none of the spoke nipples were seized on . I'm still undecided whether to zinc plate or chrome the spokes .  Iv heard that there is a possibility they may go brittle (due to hydrogen embrittlement ) if the platers don't chrome them correctly. 

Got my hand on some more nice new shiny parts . The tank is a reconditioned unit thats in excellent condition . Also pictured here is a NOS Front Fender which are very rare to find these days.  

The carb seems to have had a yellow zinc plating on it when it was new. Im going to take it to the electroplaters and see what they can do with it.

More small items ready to be re-plated. The cylinder head has a hard black coating of oily dirt baked onto it, so im also going to ask the electroplaters if they could do something to improve its appearance.

Ready and waiting to be sent off to the powdercoaters 

Stripped

All the bits in a box

Ok so i spent the morning stripping the bike . Everything is off minus one footrest, on which the bolt needs to be cut off, and the fork . There is a special nut on the headset which requires a c-spanner to loosen it correctly, this is why the forks are still attached onto the frame. Ill need to get one tomorrow.

Yet another shipment of parts.....

Just collected another batch of parts from the post office. Lots of  NOS items off ebay and cmsnl.com ( the 2 best places to look for original parts, in my opinion ). Also got a carb cover from www.marine75.com ( very good service ). Other than that iv done nothing to the bike itself  ,ill probably start stripping it down in preparation for painting during the week .

More parts have arrived !!! Got a piston kit and gasket set along with a new headlamp, oil cap and ignition switch. Installed the piston on Monday night and got the bike started !!! YAY .

Thats rust not dirt 

Ok so now that i know it runs iv started stripping off all the chromed parts to send in to get re-plated . Also going in but not pictured are the indicator housings and the flywheel cover.  

Decals

Does anyone know who or where i could get these decals from . Specifically the main one on the frame and seatpost .Ebay has the later model decals only and the other 2 websites iv found dont have them either . I might have to get them made up locally but ill avoid that route if possible.

Parts !!!!

Ok so the first of the spare parts has arrived , all the way from Australia . I managed to get my hands on a Original Honda NOS Exhaust Muffler . Mind you this isnt actually the correct muffler for this particular model bike but I bought it anyway just to use until i find the correct NOS muffler. There plenty more parts coming my way soon , ill update with more info as soon as they arrive ! ( For those who dont know what NOS means , it stands for New Old Stock )

 The real deal !!! Super RARE

Still looking damn good for something thats been sitting 

on a shelf for the last 30 years. 

I also removed the tank from the bike last weekend to try remove some of the rust out of the tank . Basically just washed it out with water until it ran clear and then i threw some cap screws ( because i had no nuts lying around at the time ) and shook them around in the tank for about 10 minutes and that seemed to do a decent enough job of removing the heavy stuff. I'm going to eventually treat the inside with some kind of epoxy coating but only once its been painted .

Email Updates

Attention all visitors : Dont forget to enter in your email address at the top of the page to keep updated with the progress of this rebuild.

Just bought a Honda Express

Hi all , iv recently acquired a  Honda NC50 which i plan on restoring to " showroom " condition. The bike only has 1844 Km on the clock so the internals will most likely still be in good shape. Its missing the piston , speedometer cable ,exhaust and ignition switch, among'st other things, so those are the parts that i shall order first. In the mean time iv taken down the sizes of all the fasteners so on Monday ill purchase them. Once i get the bike running ill start stripping off the chromed parts and send them in to get re-plated . Once that's all done the bike will be stripped down completely and sent off to the spray painters for a fresh coat of paint. Stay tuned for more updates and don't forget to enter your email address in at the top of the page to keep up with the latest happenings.