Project Konica Minolta MC22 - not so glacial project

Don't think I will bother. The coolant system only holds a little over one litre and it is never cold here.

 

Spent the day working on the coolant system and painting some bits and pieces. The wheels had some areas with no paint on them that need to be addressed. My painting instructions got lost in translation, and to be fair, they did offer to do them again but it is not worth the hassle. One of my front wheel bearing housings is too loose so I am waiting for some Loctite to arrive which I hope will solve the problem. I also had my wheel spacers anodized black to go with the colour scheme.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but it is too loose to do that successfully.

 

Loctite 660, I haven't used it before but see how it goes.
http://na.henkel-adhesives.com/product-search-1554.htm?nodeid=8797714251777

 

The last time I had some zinc plating done it was rubbish so I needed an alternative to deal with all the chrome vomit that some airhead thought went well with all the butchery committed on the poor little Honda. So I sent them off and had them electroless nickel plated, and damn they turned out really good. See the M6 disc bolts in my pics. Finish looks like stainless. I definitely recommend this process if you are doing a restoration. Happy camper.

 

Back to the wheel again. I made my spacers with an OD of 27.95 based on my best guess from the 'chromed' original parts. When I tried to fit them the drag was horrendous, so I bought some seals with a 29mm ID. Easier than making new spacers because sourcing 7075 is expensive for me.
On this topic you may have seen YouTube videos of people spinning their wheels with ceramic bearings. A load of nonsense really, as most of the friction comes from the seals not the balls, so if you are a racer then throw the seals away or mod your spacers and use unsealed bearings.

 

Picked up a pair of Nissin calipers from an MC18. 110 AUD including shipping from Greece. Of course they will need to be refurbed but for that price good enough for me. Just have to design some brackets for them and I can turf the scooter brakes.

 

Good Riddance Scooter Brakes:
My calipers arrived and I pulled one apart to work on the bracket design. Nice piece of kit these are. Teflon coating on the jointing surfaces, piston bores, and even the bolt face and shank. I have ordered a seal kit, paint and some EBC organic pads.

 

Got the pads, paint, seal kit, Ti bolts and Venhill stainless lines are on the way. Gives me something to do.

 

The gold was horrible, like baby poo. So black it is.

Few more bits and the brakes will be all done.

 

Calipers assembled

 

Master Cylinder:
The standard master cylinder has a 1/2" bore which is too small. Got a 14mm Chinese one from eBay. If it is too dodgy I will try fitting OEM seal kit.

and my seat pad arrived so I can make some progress on getting that done now.

 

This is what the silicone hose kit looks like fitted. My engine is quite filthy but it cleans up okay with elbow grease. You can see where I cleaned a bit of the cylinder head with a scotchbrite. I am going to drop it out and have the frame powder coated the same texture black as the R4. I think it goes better with the planned paintwork than the natural finish.

 

Seat is now 3" narrower and next I have merge the front section to the old Honda bits and shorten the back by about 4", which will be a bit more difficult.