Just getting around to cleaning up the old Toad. I bought it as a roller some time ago and it’s been gathering dust in the garage since. Last winter a raccoon was in the rafters right above it and I don’t know what happened but somehow it exploded and nasty green stuff was all over the bike. The best way to describe the green stuff is it looked like battery corrosion. I know it was from the raccoon because I found him/her dead not far from the bike along with more of the green stuff. I’m not going for a full blown restoration as I feel it would be better to just give it what I call a rustoraton (scrub clean and keep the patina). I will be taking the whole bike down, engine and all and scrubbing all the gunk off every part, nut and bolt without getting things too shiny. So far I have cleaned the frame, forks, throttle, brake lever, sprocket, wheels and all the nuts and bolts that hold it all together. I’ll probably have at least twice the time in building it as everything has to come off get cleaned and put back together rather than just pull and replace. As for the power plant, I’ll be using one of the 3 engines I got for an extra $200 when I bought the orange Toad a little over 2 years ago. It’s a 1971 Tecumseh H30 from a mini bike at least, not some side popper edger motor. I have the carb and muffler for it but I left it at the other house. I’ll be using a corner fill tank that I’ve already cleaned up. I’m not sure if the H30 on a Toad is supposed to get the center fill tank or the corner fill as I’ve seen them one way in the brochures and the other on original survivors. I don’t really care about total originality but I want to get it close to being correct, anyhow, here’s my progress thus far.
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