Dismantling The Speedo, Removing The Glass To Restore The Dial Face

Dismantling The Speedo, Removing The Glass To Restore The Dial Face

Although the speedo is in good working order I have decided that as part of the cosmetic restoration of the dials I will have to refresh the faded dial face.

To do this I need to remove the glass and the problem with that is that they were never meant to be removed. 

The speedo and tacho were meant to be sealed for life and basically tamper proof so you have to be creative as there is obviously no official procedure for doing this.

If you check out my video you will see it is fairly simple to do this and any one should be able to give this a go.

Restoring Faded And Scratched Black Plastic Motorcycle And Car Trim

Restoring Faded And Scratched Black Plastic Motorcycle And Car Trim

The next job to tackle in the 750 was the black plastic surround on the instrument cluster.

Now I don't know the history on this bike so I have no idea how the plastics ended up in such a state.

They were faded with light grey patches which is to be expected due to the age and obvious general neglect of the bike but the thing I cannot work out is the scratches to the plastic on the instrument cluster.

They had deep scratches and scuffing all the way around, and this is what I cant understand, even on the back which is pretty much completely hidden when on the bike yet more prominent parts attached to them were unmarked.

It looks as if they had been removed at some point and kicked around the car park for a while and then put back on!

Anyway this video shows how I tackled the job of repairing as much of the damage as I could and generally making them look a bit better than they did.

As you can see it turned out OK in the end and although not perfect the damage is barely noticeable apart from the slight change in texture where I sanded the cuts and scratches out and the fading has pretty much completely disappeared.

So watch the video and make your own mind up

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

Trying To Clean And Polish The Chromed Plastic Trim.

The speedo and tacho covers on the 750 are in a terrible state. They do work but cosmetically they are completely oxidized and rusted to the point of being un salvageable.

Really I should buy some replacements but I wanted to see if it was possible to save them.

This video shows my attempts to clean and polish the chromed plastic parts and I think the results were surprisingly good considering the condition they were in to start with.

Not a bad result

How To Polish Chrome Plastic, Polish Chrome Plated Plastic Trim

Restoring The Instrument Cluster, Speedometer and Tachometer #1

Restoring the instruments Part 1

The instrument cluster on the Zephyr are in a very poor state.

They do work but cosmetically they are pretty ugly with rust on the chromed metal parts and pitting on the chromed plastic covers. The dials themselves although unmarked are faded and need refreshing.

The easiest option would be to replace them as they are not particularly expensive and used ones are freely available but that is not the point of this rebuild.

So the challenges are

1. Rust on the chromed metal parts
2. Pitting of the chromed plastic parts
3. Fading of the dial faces
4. Fading of the plastic warning light cluster

And I am sure there will be some more things to tackle as I get deeper into the job and I want to try and do all this without spending any money but still get an acceptable result.

Here is a quick video of me dismantling the instrument cluster ready to begin the restoration.

As you can see that to be able to do something with these without spending any money on expensive specialist products is going to be quite a challenge and I am going to have to go back to some of the unusual products and techniques that I have not used in many many years.

.

Car Crash Damage To Mazda 6 - I Dont Think I Will Be Repairing That

My Plans To Restore My Mazda 6 To Something Like New Condition Have Had A Bit Of A Setback Today!

A bit of a dent

You may have seen in my previous posts how I had decided to do some work on my wife's Mazda 6 hatchback.

The idea was to spend a little time but not much money on generally servicing and cleaning it up so it was looked more appealing and by fixing a few minor faults it would last another few years without her complaining that she needed a new car.

Well as you can see in the picture it has had a bit of a bump. Somebody ran into the back of it when we were waiting to turn right at a junction, A crash has happened at least once a week in the same spot for years ( not to me ) so I don't know what it is about that junction but this type of accident is very common there so there must be a reason although the road surface is not the best so that could be a factor.

Anyway the nice lady at the insurance company says im sure it can be fixed, you would be surprised what the body shop can do. I'm sure that anything can be fixed if you throw enough money at it but with my semi expert eye the damage to the back panel, hatch back, both rear wings and boot floor I would guess the damage to cost twice what the car is worth so we will see what happens.

2013 Korean F1 GP - Dont tell me the result I haven't watched it yet

How hard can it be to NOT HEAR THE RESULT of an F1 race?

I missed the race live this morning and am just sitting down to watch the replay at 1pm UK time.

Now obviously I dont want to know the result but as always happens with any sport when you want to find out the result you ask around and no one knows, you watch the news and the only result not shown is the one you want to know, you cant find out however hard you try.

But try and avoid finding out, its nearly impossible, The result is EVERYWHERE. Its the headline on every news program, Your neighbors have the TV on so loud you can hear it, Your friends tell you, Random people in the shop start talking about it.

So today I have stayed indoors and not turned the TV on until the program started so up till now I have managed to avoid hearing the result so maybe this will be a first, we will see!

Review Of My 2005 Mazda 6 2.0L TS2

A review of my Mazda 6 2.0L TS2.

File pictures

I was talking to a friend about his Audi that has got major engine problems again and how he has spent quite a lot of money on the car over the 70,000 miles he has had it.

This got me thinking about my Mazda 6 and how I had not really thought about its reliability over the years.

I then realized why I had not thought about the reliability of my Mazda, its because it has been totally reliable and has only ever let me down once and that was just a weak battery that just needed replacing.

So I just thought I would give you a brief story of my Mazda ownership and what I thought of the car and the problems I have had.

• The Car is a Mazda 6 TS2 with the 2000cc petrol engine.
• Owned since new in 2005
• Has now done 125,000 miles, mostly start stop town driving with occasional long trips.

Now I will list the problems I have had in that time

1. New battery at 50,000 miles - the only time it hasn't started first time
2. New front discs needed at 75,000 miles
3. New clutch needed at approximately 85,000 miles
4. Throttle body and MAF sensor cleaned due to rough idle

Now looking at that list I would consider that to be totally acceptable reliability and you could even consider those items on the list as consumable service items that have a certain service life anyway.

So If you take into account my experience of Mazda ownership then I would rate it as incredibly reliable and have been very pleased with the reliability so far.

Now it is not perfect so to balance this frankly excellent reliability I will briefly list what I consider to be some of the good and bad points of this particular model.

GOOD POINTS

• Reliability
• Looks good
• Sporty handling
• Fantastic Bose sound system
• Comfortable
• No rust

BAD POINTS

• Fuel consumption not the best, 30 mpg in my case
• Uses a lot of oil even when new, they all do that evidently!
• Ride a little firm
• Not the most powerful engine in its class
• Paint finish slightly "orange peel" from new but it is durable, no rust

So That is briefly my review of my Mazda and from the lists above I think I would be able to recommend it to anyone as a good reliable and stylish family car.

I would be interested to know if my experience is typical of Mazda ownership or have I just been lucky ?

Moto GP Motorcycle Qualifying 28 August 2013 On Sky TV From The Aragon Circuit Near Alcaniz In Spain

 Moto GP Qualifying On SKY TV

What a fantastic performance by Bradley Smith to qualify in 8th place on the grid.

Just watched the Moto GP qualifying at the Aragon circuit near Alcaniz in Spain.
Predictably for a circuit located between Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza in northern Spain the weather was hot and sunny with increasing cloud as the day wore on.

The dry weather has made the qualifying fairly predictable in that the top 6 are pretty much as you would expect but I must admit I thought Rossi would struggle to get in the top 6.

But the outstanding performance for me was Bradley Smith in 8th place on the grid. The weather was good and no one appeared to have any problems with the bike or tires so that 8th is a genuine qualifying place and a fantastic effort.

So with the weather set to be similar tomorrow my opinion is that there will be few surprises and the race finish positions will be very similar to the qualifying results with people only swapping one or two places up or down from the qualifying.

Then again someone could always crash out and cause mayhem so as usual with Moto GP and motorcycle racing in general anything could happen and that is what makes it so exciting.

But keep an eye on Smith and hopefully he will keep that 8th place or maybe even improve !

2013 Arogon Moto GP Qualifying Results

1. Marques     1:47.804
2. Lorenzo
3. Pedrosa
4. Rossi
5. Bradle
6. Bautista
7. Crutchlow
8. Smith
9. Dovizioso
10. Espargaro

Cant wait til the race tomorrow and my top ten forecast is

1. Marques
2. Pedrosa
3. Lorenzo
4. Bradle
5. Rossi
6. Bautista
7. Smith
8. Dovizioso
9. Crutchlow
10. Hayden

We will see how close my prodiction was after tomorrows race !

Fixing Car Problems, Cleaning The Throttle Body And MAF Sensor On My Mazda 6 2.0L To Stop Surging, Stalling And Excessive Fuel Consumption

17 MPG from a 2 litre Mazda 6 saloon is not normal !

We have had the Mazda 6 5 door from new and it is now 8 years old and has done over 120,000 miles.

It has been very reliable and apart from normal service items it had needed a new clutch and new front discs at about 75,000 miles and that has been it.

I would highly recommend one to anyone as a sporty comfortable and for me very reliable car.

Now about a month ago my wife who normally drives the car said it had recently stalled a couple of times and was also using a lot of fuel.

It was about due for a service so I changed the oil and oil filter and also the spark plugs and air filter hoping this would sort the problems but it made no difference it still stalled occasional and was still only doing about 17 MPG.

So my next steps were

• Check for air leaks in the induction side of the engine
• Clean the throttle body
• Clean the MAF sensor

I hope this will sort the problem without spending any money on what is now quite an old car!

To see how I did it and find out if it worked check out my video below

Another appliance fire video ( not mine ) on Youtube

Found this one on Youtube

Watch it here  -  http://youtu.be/VyaPuPsge74

Could have been worse but see the comments from the video owner about the response from the manufacturer

The manufacturers indifference and denial of the problem is why I am so determined to let as many people know about this problem.

Exposing A Conspiracy By Major Companies. Added a video to youtube about the dangers of appliance fires in the home

I still believe this is a conspiracy of silence by major companies that should not be allowed to continue so Just a link to my video about the hidden danger in your home, please watch and share with as many people as you can,

IT COULD SAVE A LIFE !

Watch it here  -  http://youtu.be/nF9L7Mh52F4

Or Here

Please watch and share

My Fridge Freezer Caught Fire !! Why I Am Pissed Off With Beko, Is It A Conspiracy Of Silence By Big Companys

Expose the conspiracy of silence perpetuated by appliance manufacturers by letting me know if this has happened to you.

Sorry about this post as it is nothing to do with my bike and you may think I am just having a rant and things cannot be perfectly reliable forever but I could have died and that makes me angry.

Not only could I have died but more importantly my family including my young grandchildren could have died and that makes me absolutely furious, Not only that but YOU AND ANYONE WHO HAS A FRIDGE IN THERE HOME COULD DIE TONIGHT.

What makes me more angry than anything else is the reaction of the manufacturer Beko, My requests for an explanation as to why my fridge caught fire has been met by complete silence, nothing, all I get when calling is an offer to send an engineer to repair it at my own cost, which I do not want, and if I email them with a complaint all I get is an automated reply saying they have received my email and that is it - THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE !

THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE AND THEY ARE JUST IGNORING IT. If you search for fridge fire or appliance fire on Google you will find thousands of people that have had the same problem and many, many people have died in fires proved to be started by a faulty appliance.

Now you would think that if someone reported a deadly problem with something that is in virtually every home in the world the manufacturers would immediately investigate and modify the faulty part TO SAVE PEOPLES LIVES.

But no they choose to just ignore the problem knowing that we do not have a voice and if anyone does complain then who will ever know so they just carry on selling dangerous appliances that kill people and no one is ever the wiser.

So my appliance was manufactured by Beko so all others are safe right, WRONG!
For a start Beko is part of a huge group of appliance brands called ARCELIC whose brand names include:-

• ARCELIC
• BEKO
• GRUNDIG
• DEFY
• ALTUS
• BLOOMBERG
• ARTIC
• ELEKTRA BERGENZ
• LEISURE
• FLAVEL
• ARSTIL

Nearly every brand you can think of has problems, just search for your appliance and ad catches fire to the name and you will see what I mean.

Anyway I just think everyone should know about this so share this post with as many people as you can, comment and add your own experience or just tell your friends and family about this, YOU JUST MIGHT SAVE THEIR LIFE

Compare Pole Position Times Between MotoGP Moto2 and Moto3 in 2013

I just thought it would be interesting to see the difference in pole position times between the three different classes of MotoGP bikes in 2013

MotoGP  Pole Time  =  1:32.915

Moto2     Pole Time  =  1:37.666         4.751 seconds longer than MotoGP

Moto3     Pole Time  =  1:42.707         9.792 seconds longer than MotGP


Interestingly the top Moto2 time of 1:37.666 would have qualified in 23rd place in the MotoGP race.
This made me wonder if the rules for each class make for a consistent overlap in speed so the fastest time in one class is equal to the slowest times in the next class up?
I wonder if anyone has any comments or research into this. as I would like to know whether this timing is by accident or design.

2013 Moto2 Qualifying Results From The Misano Curcuit San Marino Italy

Results for the Moto2 Qualifying at the Misano circuit San Marino Italy

1. Pol Espargaro      Time   1:37.666
2. Esteve Rabat
3. Takaaki Nakagami
4. Thomas Luthi
5. Scott Redding
6. Xavier Simeon
7. Johann Zarco
8. Julian Simon
9. Marcel Schrotter
10. Dominique Aegerter
11. Mattia Pasini
12. Nicolas Terol
13. Danny Kent
14. Jordi Torres
15. Simone Corsi
16. Mika Kallio
17. Alex Marinelarena
18. Sandro Cortese
19. Randy Krummenacher
20. Anthony West
21. Gino Rea
22. Alex De Angelis
23. Louis Rossi
24. Axel Pons
25. Franco Morbidelli
26. Jason O'Halloran
27. Ricard Cardus
28. Alberto Moncayo
29. Thitipong Warokorn
30. Steven Odendaal
31. Ezequiel Iturroz
32. Azlan Shah
33. Rafid Topan Sucipto
34. 
    

Really looking forward to the race tomorrow could be anyone's race with such a strong field.

2013 MotoGP Qualifying Results From The Misano Circuit, San Marino, Italy

This is the result of the 2013 MotoGP Qualifying at the Misano Circuit San Marino

1. Marc Marques        Pole time 1:32.915
2. Jorge Lorenzo
3. Valentino Rossi
4. Dani Pedrosa
5. Cal Crutchlow
6. Alex Espargaro
7. Stefan Bradl
8. Alvaro Bautista
9. Andrea Dovizioso
10. Nicky Hayden
11. Michele Pirro
12. Andrea Iannone
13. Bradly Smith
14. Colin Edwards
15. Hiroshi Aoyama
16. Randy De Puniet
17. Hector Barbera
18. Claudio Corti
19. Dannilo Petruccci
20. Micheal Laverty
21. Yonny Hernandez
22. Karl Abraham
23. Bryan Staring
24. Lukas Pesek         1:37.886

Looks like its going to be an interesting race tomorrow.

I think Marques will win it but keep an eye out for Cal Crutchlow, Could be a top 3 finish for him and Bradly Smith could be a top ten finish for him.

2013 Moto3 Qualifying Results From The Misano Circuit San Marino Italy

Just watched the qualifying for the Moto3 race tomorrow and just thaught I would post the results

1. Jonas Folger               Pole time   1:42.707
2. Alex Rins
3. Maverick Vinales
4. Zulfahmi Khairuddin
5. Niccolo Antonelli
6. Miguel Olevera
7. Eric Granado
8. Isaac Vinales
9. Alex Marques
10. Luis Salom
11. Jack Miller
12. Alexis Masbou
13. Philipp Oettl
14. Efren Vasquez
15. Romano Fenati
16. Jakub Kornfeil
17. John McPhee
18. Arthur Sissis
19. Alan Techer
20. Alessandro Tonucci
21. Niklas Ajo
22. Toni Finsterbusch
23. Livio Loi
24. Brad Binder
25. Matteo Ferrari
26. Andrea Locatelli
27. Lorenzo Baldassarri
28. Ana Carrasco
29. Luca Marini
30. Juanfran Guevara
31. Francesco Bagnaia
32. Hyuga Watanabe
33. Jasper Iwema
34. Florian Alt
35. Luca Amato               Time  1:46.031

Difference in lap time from pole to last on the grid is 3.324 seconds so quite a spread of times and back markers could come into play during the race.

So 35 runners including in 28th position Ana Carrasco who is as far as I know the only female rider currently racing in top flight international motorcycle racing.

I know that MotoGP is the top flight race and the one everyone wants to watch but if you want to see some fantastic racing make sure you watch the Moto2 and Moto3 races aswell.

I will post the qualifying positions ror MotoGP and Moto2 as they happen

2013 San Marino Moto GP This Weekend What Chanel Will You Watch It On ?

MotoGP, The BBC and SKY TV

I am looking forward to watching the Moto GP this weekend

I don't know about you but I watch all the Moto GP races on Sky TV. In the UK we have two choices if you want to watch a Moto GP race, The BBC or Sky TV.

Now I know some people will disagree with me but I much prefer the commentary by Toby Moody and Julian Ryder on SKY TV to that of Steve Parrish, Charlie Cox and Suzi Perry ( although she is better to look at than any of the others !)

SKY TVs commentary just seems to be natural and unforced and full of information and honest emotion and they tend to just say it like it is, there does not seem to be any hype involved just two very knowledgeable guys chatting about the race. They seem genuinely excited and interested in what they are doing and would do it unpaid if they had to just because MotoGP is what they are into.

The BBCs coverage although very good technically is spoiled for me by the commentators trying to force the excitement on you and it always seems a bit false, like they are doing a job and it could be any sport they were asked to comment on and they would still have to try and sound interested and excited as that is their job.

Anyone agree with me or not ?. Who do you watch

Removing Rust And Corrosion From Your Motorcycle The Easy Way Using Vinegar

Removing rust and corrosion from your motorcycle the easy way using vinegar, Does it work ?

I said in an earlier Post that I had heard of an way way of removing rust and other corrosion from motorcycle parts using vinegar.

I am always looking to try anything that makes life easier and saves me money and many people have said this does work and so I decided to try it myself.

I decided to keep it simple so I decided to test this on the gas cap from the fuel tank of the Kawasaki Zephyr ZR750 as it is composed of several different metals all heavily corroded but was small enough to test easily.

The test was very simple

1. Put the gas cap in a foil tray
2. Cover it in distilled vinegar
3. Wait 24 hours

That was it, To see the results of the test check out the video below, You may be surprised !

YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT MY OTHER VIDEOS ABOUT MOTORCYCLE RESTORATION 

ON YOUTUBE

www.youtube.com

JUST PUT OLD750 IN THE SEARCH BOX AND MY CHANEL IS THE FIRST RESULT

A new experiment - Removing Rust And Oxidization Using Vinegar - Does It Work

After the seemingly successful experiment using brake fluid to restore old hard rubber parts on the old Kawasaki I am really getting into this experimenting thing.

I have seen another seemingly strange restoration technique on the web and that is using plain household vinegar to remove rust and corrosion from metal surfaces.

Supposedly this removes rust from steel parts as well as oxidization from aluminium and other alloys.

I have decided to test this on my corroded fuel filler cap as this has several different metals such as steel, aluminium, brass, and what looks like a type of zinc alloy as well, it also has a painted surface for extra interest.

So for my very technical and scientific test I am simply going to drop it whole into some vinegar and see what happens so check back in the next few days to see the results.

Make sure you click follow on my blog or subscribe to my youtube channel so you dont miss any of my posts or videos.

You could also share my blog and youtube channel with your friends.

Restoring rubber with brake fluid - Link to videos

Just thought I would post my youtube videos of my experiment with brake fluid and rubber

I originally posted on my blog on 10 August 2013 how I did this but these are the videos I have posted on youtube since then.

Part one shows how I set up the test

And part two shows the results

Hope you find this test useful and don't forget to subscribe to my blog and Youtube chanel as I will be posting lots more tests and how to videos soon