Story of a preservative restoration

Here yu can follow the report of a restoration project starteing from the choice and purchase of the bike. The bike is Chesterfield Replica 1994. The pictures of the advertisment that you can see here below showa a bike that seems complete of all the details and in not bad conditions.

Second step was to visit the seller to check in detail the bike and these was the most important things noticed:

motorcycle NEVER restored and without anything to make it more attractive (it was still dusty when it was viewed and there were all the original clamps of the wiring)
the component shows them as "honest" and "healthy" reflecting how the previous owners take care of it and the compliance of the mileage (e.g.: the shock absorber with surface treatments still intact)
the engine runs clean, keeps the idle speed and has a good responde to the throttle (without know the mileage and age of the oils the engine was stopped shortly and heard only at low rpm, but the big problems are generally clear also in this way)
a lot of screws have no sign of tools due to dismantling so this is a guarantee of originality and that have not been made bad works (e.g.: the nut of the shock absorber in the photo on the left and the screw of the coil blue in the image below right)

Yes, this bike have to be purchased! At home the first thing to do immediatly to understand if it was really a good bike is disassemble the fairing. No bad surprise, All positive and better than expected! Exhaust, crancase and the other parts are in exceptional conditions!!! The only flaw is represented by some sign of corrosion of some part under the battery due to a silly mistake during maintenance operation done prevoiously: it was found the red cap of the vent of the battery which had not been taken away! Never mind, a special product to stop and convert the rust on the iron can be used or disassembling of the part and its powder coating can be done again. Focusing strongly the preservation and the desire to ride in short time the bike the bike drove to the first solution. Below the gallery shows the bike just purchased with a few notes.

The bike is disassembled as little as possible because the focus on a strong conservation. However a lot of checks and some work are necessary as:

carburetor overhauled and all replaceable parts are changed with new parts
windshield yellowed replaced with one that already has the adhesive and completely repolished
fork overhauled by a professional (dimensional checks, oil, bushings and )
brake system checked and revised by specialist (dimensional checks, new oil, bushings and seals)
internal cleaning of the air box and filter substitution because it was too dry and close to crumble
final transmission substitution

During the meticulous cleaning, you find that under the dirt, grease and dust are hidden pieces in exceptional conditions! At the end three works are still pending: the instruments (faded), oxidized frame and silencer, body with some scratch in the lower side and adhesives (faded). The engine, tested on the road once changed all liquids, shows that he isin perfect conditions: the piston was almost new when the bike was "set aside".

After a bit of study of the solutions and tests finally the frame, the swingarm and the aluminum parts of the silencer are polished and shining exaclty as brend new! Heavy work and critical, to be carried out with proper materials. Do it only by hand without drill will never give the same result. Unfortunately the adesives still remain faded,

Finally the last step: the original body is removed and preserved as "original document" of the history of the bike. It is substituted with parts of a bike from Switzerland that has a different shape of the left side because a different exhaust. Repainting, new stickers strictly original to keep the fluo colours and a patient and long positioning, especially for the strips of the tank are necessary. The stickers "RS" are not applied even if originally present, as well as warnings on the tank and the fairing because the personal tastes.

Having a spare tachometer and a thermometer of the bike from Switzerland a recovery is a good idea to set aside the two original instruments partially faded.

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