Why do they call it elbow grease? I’m going to have to google that now before my laptop’s battery dies on me… one minute please. Right, that was less interesting than I expected…
Anyway, I….
Sorry about that, just took a little break to let the scary earthquake pass – sheesh! Not fun.
Back to the point; elbow grease. I’ve been using a lot of it lately. In my previous post I showed off the latest addition to my garage; a mighty 1980 Kawasaki KH 125. I’ve always enjoyed “spannering” in the garage, but this is the first time I’ve bought something specifically as a project. I’ve enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting, and more surprisingly so has my wife! It’s very relaxing coming home after a busy day wrangling databases, and just sitting for a few hours disassembling a carburettor, or polishing a chrome wheel. On a few evenings we put the girls to bed, and my wife then joins me in the garage with a couple coffees, and helps polish, unscrew, clean, etc. We actually get a chance to talk a lot more than we otherwise would sitting in front of the TV.
Here’s some of my wife’s recent handy work:
All very shiny! 🙂 Now that took some serious elbow grease.
I whipped the engine block out a few nights ago as well, so my work bench is getting a little crowded now. One reason I chose this specific bike to restore was that it’s pretty bloody simple, so it only took me half an hour or so to strip, clean and rebuild the carb – which now takes pride of place in one of the many empty coffee cups.
Now that the frame is bare, I can see that it’s thankfully in really good condition. I’ve priced up getting it and the rear swing-arm bead blasted and powder coated, but it’ll cost more than the entire bike cost to begin with, so my wife and I (and probably the kids if I can bribe them) will need to get that elbow grease out again to clean and strip the frame back as much as possible. Once it’s clean, then several coats of some good durable enamel should be plenty good enough for now.
That’s probably enough for now. The next steps are going to be cleaning up the engine block, replacing the spark plug and oil, and then attacking the frame to get it ready for paint. Once the frame and a few other bits are done, then I can start the re-assembly.
I’ll post updates to my progress as I go. If you really couldn’t care less, and just want stuff related to SQL Server, then check out the SQL specific category instead. I’ve created a “Wheels” category to dump this sort of stuff into for those who like getting a little grease under their finger nails. 😉
Cheers,
Dave