That baby is sweet, I love those christmas specials! Remember in the "50 Nuts" video... some dude was goofing on one of those...

 

I picked up another Honda 50 last weekend. This one is an '86 Honda Z50RD "Christmas Special". These were made for one year only, and my understanding is that larger Honda dealerships received just one or two bikes each.

The bike is very complete and currently has a stock style non-Honda 50cc motor in it, but that won't be in there for long

I'm in the process of detailing everything, planning/performing modifications (stock sucks!), and prepping for a debut at a future Elvi ride. Here are a few photos which show how it looked when I picked it up - apologies for the cell phone picture quality. More to come as the project progresses...

Hey nice ride there, sort of reminds me of the one I left with minibike George to fix. Hey! wait a minute! My bike!!!!!

 

Nah - couldn't be this one, Dave. It's too new for your tastes...

Good score 57 hotrodvw.....How much did you get it for if you don't mind me asking.One of my favourite Z's.
tmas

Thanks tmas. I'd rather keep the details to myself, but I think that I got a really good deal, especially given prices that I've seen for bikes that are nowhere near as nice as mine.

@_@ That chrome is stunning! Nice find.

Other than some light rust on the wheels, the chrome is very nice all around. The tank has some dings in it, and I've heard that the aftermarket chrome Z50 tanks are not nearly as nice as the Honda ones.

I've spotted a couple of NOS Z50RD tanks, but their price is way up there (2.5 to 3 times dealer price when they were available), so I may have a local paintless dent repair shop have a look at my tank. I've seen them work their magic on my truck and was amazed.

--Eric

 

Good score 57 hotrodvw.....How much did you get it for if you don't mind me asking.One of my favourite Z's.
tmas

 

@_@ That chrome is stunning! Nice find.

 

Super jealous! Very cool ride... now I need to find an aftermarket alloy frame and a chrome tank and start building! LOL
Imagine the impression we could leave if we all had chrome bikes!

I'll see if I can get those heat shields off tonight, and you can have mine. do you have a plating company you use all ready?

 

Thanks, Chris!

Chrome is sooo gaudy - I think you'd be better off building a lean, mean "murdered out" (all black) Z50...

DaveMo gave me the skinny on a chrome place in Gainsville, but I'll have to make the journey up north to get a quote - no ballpark prices quoted over the phone.

 

Thats my favorate Z of all time. Its worth more stock but Id be modding it. Nice score!

 

No worries then, as I plan to modify it it "make it my own", but won't be doing anything that can't easily be undone.

 

Here are a few more pre-cleanup pics, out in the sunlight, and of much better quality:

 

I know a guy that knows a guy... Let me get with my buddy tomorrow.

 

Cool - thanks!

 

I had one years ago, then my parents sold it to a friend of ours (who still has it) I guess its the one mistake i will say my parents have made!

 

Alrighty - how about some more photos?

This set shows the results of a little cleanup work and mounting of new tires.

King Tire KT903's for the win!

Before:

After a bunch of time, sweat, and elbow grease:

 

That's looking real nice. Can't believe the difference with the wheel!

 

That's looking real nice. Can't believe the difference with the wheel!

The wheels don't look quite as good in person, due to some of the pitting in the metal which remained after rust removal in some spots, but it'll work for now.

The OEM chrome wheels are no longer available through Honda, but I've been thinking about eventually buying a new set of the similar, painted models, stripping them, and having them chromed.

Great job on the clean up. Looks awesome....Let us know how you make out with the small dent gas tank repair. The only thing I see missing other than the air filter is the chrome chain guard. Do you have it?
tmas

Thanks! There's still a lot more detailing to be done, but with time, I think much of the bike will clean up very nicely.

I'll definitely let everyone know what comes out of looking into/having paintless dent repair done on the tank. I had the pleasure of watching a guy work a very large dent out of the rear quarter panel of my truck. I talked to a number of good body shops first, and all said that there was no way to fix without body work. After ~1.5 hours and $125, you'd never know the dent was there, and I'm super particular.

I don't have the chrome chain guard (also no longer available through Honda), but did get a non-chrome version of the same guard with the bike. I'm looking for the correct OEM part, and will see how that search goes in comparison with the cost of getting the black one chromed.

I also need the chrome inner and outer lower heat shields for the exhaust. Same story as with the chain guard, but I'm not yet sure if chrome shields for another Honda 50 model are the same as the Z50RD, and whether or not they're still available.

There's one for sale for $700 on the local CL. Doesn't look nearly as good as yours. I think the price is too high.

This one? It does look pretty beat...
1986 Honda Z50 Christmas Special (Chrome)

 

Great job on the clean up. Looks awesome....Let us know how you make out with the small dent gas tank repair. The only thing I see missing other than the air filter is the chrome chain guard. Do you have it?
tmas

 

There's one for sale for $700 on the local CL. Doesn't look nearly as good as yours. I think the price is too high.

 

my buddy from the hot rod shop said the place all of the hot rodders use is at 175 and 20, but he couldn't remember the name of it off the top of his head. I have another buddy in the aircraft machine business, and he has cad plate guys and hard chrome guys, but everything has to be shipped off for hard chrome (and it's ssssspensive). He's going to talk to his buddy with the motorcycle shop (he's friends with the owner of 2 wheel world) to see who those guys use.

And I can get those shields to you when you're ready.

 

If I'm over that way this weekend I'll find it... I think I know who he's talking about, they do a lot of bumper work and stuff for semi trucks.

 

In Gainsville... just passed Enhanced coating and plating... which I'm guessing is the company Dave knows. Their man building is HUGE. Too close to OK. LOL

 

In Gainsville... just passed Enhanced coating and plating... which I'm guessing is the company Dave knows...

That wasn't the one, but I checked w/them today, and they don't do chrome plating.

The place that Dave mentioned is North Texas Quality Chrome -- http://northtexasqualitychrome.com

 

Awesome cleaning/polishing job. I have a hard time with sitting still that long, simply dont have that kinda patience in me. Keep the sick pics comin!

 

I spent some time with the buffing wheel and compound tonight, to put some bling back into the factory rear wheel, hub, and sprocket.

It took me a little while, but I'm fairly happy with the results. You can see some pitting left over from rust removal, but these will do for now, especially given a ballpark quote of $175 per wheel for getting these or new OEM wheels chromed

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

They may not look as good in person, as you show in the pictures, however the improvement is very dramatic. AWESOME job. Makes me want to take mine apart and see what I can do on my own table and hand held wire brush systems......

 

That thing is cleaning up nice. That wheel with the tire and dice looks brand new. Once you get it mounted back on the bike, you probably won't be able to see any of the pitting. Keep the pictures coming.

 

take it to the pickle!!

 

I worked on a new triple clamp from Fast50s yesterday (thanks, Jon!). Out of the package, the top plate has a brushed finish, while the clamp portions have a finer, machined finish.

Since I wanted the triple clamp to match the chrome finish on the rest of the bike, I decided to try my hand at aluminum polishing.

To do this, I used multiple grits of wet/dry sandpaper (240, 400, 600, and 1000), a bench grinder, two six inch buffing wheels (#40 Spiral Sewn Buff and #36 Cushion Sewn Buffs) and two grits of polishing compound (CR1 chrome rouge and JR1 jewelers rouge). The polishing compound and buffing wheels were Dico brand (http://www.dicoproducts.com), purchased from my local Ace hardware store.

It was pretty easy to put a mirror finish on the bar clamps, using the two buffing wheels and compounds:

Because the brushed finish on the top plate was fairly heavy, I hand sanded it using the wet/dry sandpaper, with plenty of water and working my way through each of the successively finer grits, until I had a consistently smooth (but not yet polished) finish:

Next, I went over the whole top plate using the coarser CR1 compound and #40 wheel. After that started to look good, I switched to the jewelers rouge and the finer #36 buffing wheel.

The entire process took me ~3 hours. It would have taken less time if I had not polished the bottom of the plate (done for practice/experimentation), and if I was not so particular, but I'm very happy with the finished product.

Whatdya' think??

 

Very nice!!! Where did you get the 1 stickers for e number plates?

 

The polishing looks great. We did a bunch of polishing on my bike including the brand new flywheel and clutch covers that had the painted finish on them. That was pretty unnerving until I saw what the finished look was going to be. Oh, and I'm glad you provided the link explaining exactly what "Take it to the Pickle" meant. I wasn't sure if I should even ask.

 

Thanks, Dan-o! I've got a set of early flywheel and clutch covers, which I plan strip the paint off and give them a semi-polished/brushed finsh that I hope will look similar to the original Z50RD covers (but with more power underneath -- arrrgh, arrrgh, arrrhhh)

The Elvi have been having quite a bit of fun with plays on words related to the Pickle Parade - especially after coming off the Mardi Gras parade that we rode in a few weeks ago...

 

Continued the cleanup, detailing, and installation of a few new parts yesterday...

Rear wheel assembly back on the bike:

TB Parts 280mm shocks (thanks, Mike!)

Front end disassembled and awaiting new +1 chromoly fork legs, HD springs, Delrin bushings, longer cables, and triple clamp:

Front end back together and new Honda front fender installed (Look Ma, no handlebars! ):