"blueing" my nuts

No its not that cold at the moment, I'm talking a cheap way of protecting my steel nuts and bolts as well as refurbing the rusty ones.

I've been doing this method since I learned it at school when we had decent workshop facillities like furnaces, and metal work rooms. I made a bottle opener and heated it to just under cherry then dipped it in old engine oil. the finish was superb and was a nice satin black.

well I tried it on the engine bolts and they came up a treat. I stuck them in a drill and used wet and dry to get most of the rust off then used wire wool to get a good finish. Got my butane torch and heated till I got bored (I think the steel is pretty hard being engine bolts) and quenched it in some old engine oil.

I think it came out pretty good and its tough too!

caliper mount mock up

Managed to get a 9mm conti board mock up made today. It lets me see what offset I need to do when i get my alloy and how it will look.

I got it made and when the wheel spins the disk has a slight high spot on the edge which is touching the caliper. I also noticed the pads are not quite far out enough and it presses on the inside disk area so another 2mm should clear that.

I will probably leave the fork holes alone till the rest of the mount is in place!

the pegs are there to ensure clearance and keeps the caliper in place

front lamps part 2

In previous blog, got some headlamp ears which i will turn inwards to mount the projector lamps. took a few pictures yesterday so I thought I'd show you what it looks like. I think I will need to bend the alloy mount to level off but I'll wait till the engine is in to see the level.

Disk spacer arrived

got my disk spacer today and it fits like a glove.

To recap; I got an XJR1300 right hand blue spot caliper, and FZR125R front disk, Wire wheels off an xs250 with standard rim and 3:50 tyre.

the disk buttons just clear the lower fork leg (I can't get a 1mm washer in there) with the following specs

Just need to measure for the bracket, it look slike I need a 65mm x 180mm x 12.9mm plate. It will also need milling 2.9mm near the caliper to bring it 2.9mm off the level from the fork lowers, that way I'll have clearance from the spokes and its central enough in the disk.

here's more pictures of the installation;

A hole in one

Managed to get a suitable sized hole cutter for my clutch window (92mm) so I got straight in there and gave it some revs on the hand drill.

Perfect, the hole is centered and the porthole sits really well over it. I have bought stainless M4 x 20mm socket cap screws with flanged nuts and a tube of heat and oil resistant RTV off ebay.

here is the clutch cover holed.

now i'm going to paint the cover in the charcoal metallic grey, so using grey RTV.

will post up the final version when its complete.

Some commentators likened the window akin to a washing machine. They also wanted a video, here it is in action.

headlamp mount

being let down again on the headlamp/number board brackets, so I've gone and bought some small alloy headlamp ears. I think I will mount them facing towards the middle and hang an L bracket off them to fit the projector lamps.

Ignition switch mounted

Managed to get another blank cylinder turned as the other one, along with the cover, has gone on vacation and don't know when it will be back!

I used my pillar drill with a 38mm hole saw and cut a recess down to meet all the sides of the cover. Then I cut another 25mm hole within that so the ignition switch can feed into the starter chamber.

Its a real tight fit (good!) so I think I'll just silicone it in place. I have noticed that if the switch needs repairing/replacing, I would have to break it to get it out!Silicone sealant will yeild eventually.

here's a pikkie with it on the engine;

that is a marine switch so should be weather proof.

As you may notice I took off the head and barrel so I can clean them and paint the head that graphite metallic grey!. Not sure whether to paint the barrel in black or leave natural.....