Robgvx 1976 Dax

Here is my Dax which I restored a couple of years ago.

I bought this in the mid 1980s. It was a barn find which had been originally bought by a wealthy gent for his sons to ride round fields. It had been parked for many years. I restored it roughly back when I first got it and used it as pit transport. Then it sat unused in my garage for 20-odd years. Eventually I thought that it would deserve a proper rebuild so stripped it down, had it professionally painted, fitted many new parts and re-chromed/nickelled many of the parts myself.

It's now pristine and my wife and I use it to go to the local pub where it gets more admiring glances and comments than any other car or bike that shows up.

Part of the family. Never will be sold at any price.

Some more:

That looks absolutely superb and congratulations on a brilliant restoration. It might be helpful for some of us enthusiastic restorers to know what make/type of paint or whatever was used to get the silver finishes on things like mudguard stays etc.,
Excellent and very desirable!
Brian

Realy good looking.....

That's one of the best restorations I've seen, very inspirational.

Wow............ A truly beautiful looking bike

Pity about the rear shocks as these are not standard, but all in all, a very desireable looking bike

All the best Si

Great Job ! The pictures speak for themselves, probably looks better than when Mr Honda sent it out of the factory.
I must also say how similar the previous lives of these little bikes seem to be......my '73 one is remarkably similar to yours,
I bought it from a farm auction 20+ years ago, quickly sorted and used regularly for a couple of years, then laid up.
Then a complete nut & bolt restoration, replacing only the bare minimum of parts, fresh candy ruby red paint, all bright work polished and re-plated with rep. chrome (at home) etc. etc.
I agree also with the interest and reaction of people to these great little machines, big grins and smiles all round.
Whilst not wishing to hijack your post I'll just post a couple of pics. to illustrate. ( I'll concede to 2nd place on the photography stakes)

Minters And i like to see them used, not ornaments. When i brought mine i was told the chap who i got it from had brought it from the original owner. My chap was going to use it for monkey in the boot your car cab service. He underestimated he said how heavy an st is.
It was all bollox of course, when i got the v5 it had 7 owners before me ! The bodges and rattle can repaint always did make me think it wasnt cherished by the original owner, makes more sense that the other 7 dudes each added thier own style of bodging


Mines candy ruby red, but you seem to see so many different coloured bikes, bit of a lottery i guess dependant on paint make and painter

Candy ruby red.
Well if your talking real 'candy paint', (not just a particular shade of red)then being quite translucent, the finished shade depends on the number of coats applied, (it gets deeper and darker the more coats).The base coat also has a significant effect, but this should always be coarse silver in this case.
I agree totally about bikes being used and not just 'museum pieces'.
Since mine being finished and T.&T. in early May its done a 15 mile daily commute every weekday it hasn't rained, plus some weekend riding, which amounts to approaching 1000 miles. No breakdowns to speak of, just one serious misfire but managed to limp to my destination, a hot day when freshly' running in' ,turned out to be the H.T.coil suffering 'heat-soak from the engine, fixed it's self after it cooled in an hour or two !
Cheers

Thanks for the kind words folks.

I can assure you that it does get used, but admittedly only for fun trips down to the local pub a mile from our house, and just on nice sunny evenings. With two of us on the bike it does rather look like the scene from 'Dumb & Dumber'.

My wife thinks it's 'too fast', by the way. (35 tops, downhill with the two of us aboard!)

Next week, when I have a little more time I'll post up some details of the restoration and what I did, changed etc.

Regards

Rob