MY 1975 ST70

LITCH · 2011-10-04T17:17:15+01:00

Having failed to take any photos of the bike when I bought it a few years ago I have been prompted to take some prior to the rebuild taking place so here it is! I bought it as a taxed / MOT'd runaround and initially it looked very good & original but the more I got into it the more I realised it needed a lot of work doing so I started to strip it down, did a bit of work on it but then lost interest. I first thought that all that was needed was some new tyres, brakes, chain & sprockets, service etc so I got to work doing these but when I cleaned out the oil-filter I discovered a lot of swarf and on splitting the crank-case discovered lots of debris (mainly from the camchain & tensioner assembly) so a full engine rebuild was undertaken. With that done I then put some oil in the engine, wrapped it up and put it away at the back of a cupboard in the garage while I started to dismantle the bike but it was at this stage I discovered the damage to the frame and I lost all interest so it has sat in the garage ever since. This week I have almost completed the strip down and with some help of photos from Tufty & Waynus will rebuild the steering-lock bracket on the headstock plus weld the frame where it has cracked at the forward engine mounting hole. When that is done I will send the bare frame, forks, swinging-arm etc off to be stripped & painted in candy red. Luckily it was 99.5% complete when I bought it and was missing just the battery-box (battery was lodged in a plastic tray) but I managed to track down a NOS one in America so nothing is actually missing, it also had a brand-new (genuine) exhaust & guard so they were treated with oil and are nicely preserved in the garage (I see they have gone up in price recently). At the time I purchased a large stock of new items from David Silver & CMSNL and these have been stored in my study ever since, I am currently putting together a list of other parts that are required and now it is in pieces I can see what can be reused and what needs to be bought new. I will have some items re-chromed / painted but others I have just bought new as that way I am not paying for refurbishment and know I will recover some money on selling the old parts. The one thing that I am now disapointed about is that I didn't take the time to refurbish the engine cases when it was apart. At the time I thought it was just going to be a quick overhaul and then I would put it back on the road and use it so I did all the mechanicals but wasn't too worried about the exterior finish of the engine however now I am rebuilding the whole bike I feel the look of the engine will let it down. What I intend to do to overcome this is put the engine into the newly painted frame, run it for a little while to make sure all is well and then I will remove the engine, strip it right down again and deal with the cosmetic side of things. Luckily these engines come apart very quickly and knowing the engine is mechanically good will encourage me to make a nice job of the exterior.

Started by LITCH · 13 replies · 8341 views

wisericStandard MemberPosts: 61
Joined: Aug 2011

Re: MY 1975 ST70Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:28 pm

I had my frame repaired and other bits painted by Roadrash and I would put the finish as acceptable. I think I paid £325 but that did include pulling out a few dings and blasting all the bits. The only real problem is the time taken. If he says 4 weeks, times that by at least 2.5 as he gets so busy and everything falls behind. If you like you can PM me to arrange a look at the finish of my paintwork - recon that would be the best way to make up your mind. If you want a quick job our local bodyshop will do an excellent job in a very short time but again the price will be a little higher. I guess it depends how deep your pockets are. If you want concours i think I would send it to Dream Machine.
If you need stuff blasting I can recommend Kustomcoating in Berkhamstead, they blasted my Yamaha RD350lc exhausts for a tenner each while I waited.
Have you found a local place to get all your nuts and bolts plated?

Last edited by wiseric on Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

LITCHStandard MemberPosts: 200
Joined: Mar 2009

Re: MY 1975 ST70Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:40 pm

"I would put the finish as acceptable"

That's an interesting comment, from that I take it you mean very good but better would be perfect?
I am not too worried about it being concours which is why the powder coating route has not been completely discounted yet but I want it to be as good as can be achieved without spending silly money (the £1K quote is just too much in my opinion, regardless of the finish).
I am just up the road so might well take you up on your kind offer of a look at it, wait for the weather to cheer up first though!

wisericStandard MemberPosts: 61
Joined: Aug 2011

Re: MY 1975 ST70Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:12 pm

Yer, it's not a bad job but he has done stuff on my other bikes better. But for the price I think it is reasonble.

24hourtatterStandard MemberPosts: 2
Joined: Jan 2013

Re: MY 1975 ST70Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:51 pm

Hi there you bike looks good i think you are on a winner if you could see the state of mine, i was woundering if you could tell me about my frame number. first of all its not on the head stock but its on the left side of the main frame next to the large bolt that holds the swinging arm on. the numbers all look in line and they do look original as do the numbers on the engine as there is a line all around the numbers un marked no signs of rubbing.
thanks Sam

PS new to this forum and new to monkey bikes

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