1975 Duster MX

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Havasu Dave

Moderator
#1
#1
SimpleTom found this on Green bay WI CL. f150tilt was kind enough to accept delivery of the bike, do a first rate job of boxing it up and shipping it to me out in AZ.

I opted to get it with the original Tec 4 and let the owner keep the Predator.

As happens when buying from photos, the bike had more issues than I suspected. The handlebars were bent, the rear fender was a pretzel, a foot peg was missing, and the kick stand was very loose. The original engine leaked oil, and had some oddball carb on it.

I put together a carb from several old parts and got the engine running. I'll rebuild it later. I was able to straighten the bars in a vice, fabricated a foot peg, and dollied out the rear fender. I also repaired the weak kickstand. I didn't think to take photos, because I wasn't going to post any of this. It's all basic and well beneath the restoration and fabrication jobs I see here all the time.

These are the Craigslist Photos. From these photos it looks like a candidate for simple refurbishment. :thumbsup:


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H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#2
#2
I apologize for not taking photos earlier. I fabricated the foot peg out of some ¾ molly tubing. I heated and bent it with a BFH, then shaped it with an angle grinder. Fender bender was a light hammer using an anvil as a dolly, and handle bars required several trips to the bench vise until they sat straight. I repaired the stand with some good info I found here on the repair from Markus, iirc.

I traded a guy some ABS plastic I had for a seat bottom cut to fit of 3/8 cabinet quality birch. I’m using the original seat, so I just added the ¼ 20 T bolts and re-reupholstered it with stainless staples.

The paint wasn’t “that bad” so it took me awhile to decide to just restore the whole thing, and not try and call it a survivor. So I sent a box to the chrome in Escondido, CA. I had a long chain guard, so I sent that, handlebars, rear shocks, front shocks and fenders in.

There is a debate on painting versus powder coating. I am a fan of both, but I am retired, living on a fixed income, and have more time than money, as well as a rudimentary knowledge of painting, and a cheap compressor and gun.

This is the second coat of paint stripper applied. I keep thinking how much easier it would be to send it out for sandblasting.

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H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#3
#3
The only saving grace with paint stripping and not sand blasting is that you get to see what was put on the frame during its lifetime. In this case, when HPE Muskin built this bike for JC Penny, they used a very thin light grey primer, followed with a red base coat, followed by a “candy” orange. Back in the day, “Candy” as we know it, didn’t exist, so clear lacquers were used with pigment added. On this bike, the paint was fogged in some areas, and orange peeled everywhere. The overall effect was fine for a mini bike, but never would have stood up to automotive use.

Here is the frame after three coats of stripper, and a total elapsed time of two hours. Once the stripper has worked, I use grade 4 steel wool and dishwashing soap and scrub. I still need to sand down some chain rash, and remove any remaining paint debris.

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H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#6
#6
When matching colors, the spectrometer used in the paint stores is generally not suitable for old paint on old minibikes. I mentioned the base/candy use above, as well as the orange peel. The sweep on the spectrometer is so narrow that it's easy to get a completely wrong shade. So I used the front fork piece beneath the decal as a color guide. I removed the decal and polished the paint with compound to try and get a true match.

There were several matching chips in the book, but most were the higher priced DuPont at $120 per pint. I wanted to stay with urethane over acrylic enamel because I like the coverage and wear better. (OK, it's more forgiving for a novice painter) :thumbsup:

I ended up with LY3M (Volcano Red) which is an Audi color. I really like the way it looks, and it's got a high pearl content. $60 for a pint.

LY3M (1 pint)
430-46 Monastral Gold 44.0
430-23 Perrindo Maroon 62.5
430-22 Perrindo Red 65.5
430-29 Russet Pearl 152.2
430-50 Bronze Pearl 168.9
435-91 Urethane Binder 475.1

It's mixed at an 8:1:2 (Paint, Catalyst, Reducer) and shot at 8-10 PSI with my HVLP gravity gun. It's supposed to be shot over a light color sealer, and I'll use rattle can sealer for it on top of rattle can etching primer.

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H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#11
#11
manchester1 said:
Looking good. Can't wait to see the color:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Me neither! It looks good in the paint can. Lots of pearl. But I'm not about to go out in the garage and start sanding, until she goes and gets me more beer. :hammer:

This frame is the first one I've ever got that requires zero welding. The only bad part is some chain rash.
 
Casey Davis

Casey Davis

New Member
#18
#18
Hey Dave, in the parts diagrams to alot of the CAT and Penney's bikes they list the color name and number/code. It might be a good idea to make a thread on the CAT page showing color matching formulas for each one as people restore. BAB and Mac use to have several pieces of literature showing the names/numbers. They might still have them.
 
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