another '86 saved from the scrap merchants

Discussion in 'General VFR Discussions' started by Skipper11, Oct 7, 2026 at 8:45 PM.

  1. Skipper11

    Skipper11 New Member

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    This has been a long time coming, but "just about there now". After distractions and health issues, another restoration took over........ you know how it goes.
    The old Lady is finally in her fancy dress in a nice coat of Pearl White, polished rims and a bit of gold paint to go with the gold decals. New discs brake rotors, seat re-covered, a new mirror finish stainless steel sleeve over the mufflers, stainless steel front pipes. The intermediate pipes given a birthday with black High temp ceramic coating, and she is looking like someone cares about her again. :)
    There are still more jobs to do, fit the new chain and sprockets (gold chain naturally) install heat shields inside the lower fairings and under the fuel tank, new fuel lines to be made up, plus endless little jobs before I fire her up. It has been at least 5 years since I last heard that V4 run, and I just hope the reworked mufflers are not too loud as there was a bit of work reconstructing things during that part of the rebuild.
    It will be a different experience to ride a bike with "odd" wheel sizes but that is part of the pedigree so I shall not change it. I tried to stay true to the origins and only made a few minor changes for my personal taste and I am actually looking forward to an instrument panel that I can "read" - the '89 has an abominable dark grey? facia with orange markings which are useless for me - being color "defective". I had to put white dots on the glass where each incremental 20km/h step in speed occurs, so I know what speed I am doing.
    I try to do everything possible myself, including the repairs to the fairings, the spray painting as I believe "if a man built it, I could fix it". (Within thew limitations of mt skill set anyway.) It gives me considerable satisfaction, when the job is done to be able to say, "I did that". It may not be perfect, but she sure looks a lot better than when I brought her home on a trailer!
     

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  2. Captain 80s

    Captain 80s Member

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    Nice. A bit different but still retains the classiness. You should be proud.
     


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  3. Skipper11

    Skipper11 New Member

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    Thanks Guys. I just can't help myself; she was never going to be concours once I rebuilt those damaged mufflers, so why not apply some minor touches to personalize the bike. Those front indicators are standard fitment on the Japanese domestic market bikes. And the wheels - what can I say - bland white looks pretty crap to me? Everything else is just the way it was sold from the factory, though I'm not sure we here in Australia received the Pearl White in '86?
     


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  4. V4 Rosso

    V4 Rosso New Member

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    Looks great, well done! About the facia: why not get some custom gaugefaces. I can' t find it right now but once saw a german webshop that made high quality gaugefaces for the VFR. Surely there is some shop in the US that can do those too.
     


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