Regardless of how good the engine ran when it arrived, every engine gets torn down to the bare cases and built up to brand-new factory Honda specs.īefore you can powdercoat the bare aluminum parts, holes need to be plugged and mating surfaces hand-taped. Mike claims the engine is where his restorations stand out from others. Brake fluid is so damaging to paint that powder coating is the only way to go for refinishing these parts. All of these components need to be stripped down to bare aluminum shells. Brake master cylinders and calipers are where things get expensive and time-consuming. The same black is used for the handlebar and clutch perch. Steering races are pressed out, and new races and bearings are installed, while the triple clamps are stripped and refinished in the correct satin black. For this build, he found NOS (new old stock) fork boots and clamps in the Netherlands. The lowers get refinished, and the fork is assembled with new seals and oil. Next, the fork is disassembled and the lowers get blasted, and the years of nicks and dings get blended to perfection on a lathe. Then the frame is refinished in the correct Honda red.” Mike does all paint and powder coating in-house so he can ensure it’s correct. Bent brackets, damaged steering stops, and frame tubes that have dings or dents get repaired. It is sandblasted down to bare steel, and the welds are inspected for damage. Then I like to start restoring individual parts in the order I would need them during reassembly.” All outside engine hardware is replaced with brand-new Honda case screws, and the clutch release lever was zinc-plated. He tells us, “This is the point a list can be made of parts needed to move forward.
#1982 honda atc 250r full
The cylinder was bored 0.020 inches oversized, and fitted with a new piston, rings, wrist pin, bearing and clips.Īll of Mike’s restorations start with a full teardown to the bare frame, where every single piece and component is torn down to individual parts. It’s amazing how nice metal parts can survive with no rust in those conditions.
West Coast, desert-lived machines from a super-dry, hot climate are best. Mike Palmgren, the builder of this 1982 250R, says “I don’t like seeing machines with heavy rust on the frame and steel components. Broken plastic is common on a 30-year-old machine, but keep in mind that finding good-condition OEM plastic or near-perfect plastic is becoming nearly impossible or very expensive. For example, stay away from frames with cracks or repairs made to them. It’s a good, complete, all-original bike, start looking at things that are beyond repairable. Internally, this engine was in really good shape, but common wearable parts were replaced, such as all the seals, gaskets and bearings. Little pieces and parts that go missing over the years can cost you months of hunting for a replacement, and that is a big deal when it’s holding up the restoration. An amateur cosmetic restoration to make a machine look good to flip or resell may be harder to work with than something unrestored. Its condition is not as important as originality, but you are better off paying more for a bike that literally has never had a wrench on it. Every mark or nick gets worked smooth to complete a perfect restoration. If the donor vehicle is found intact, all the bolts, brackets, rear axle, axle hubs, seat-mount clamps, triple tree hardware and engine bolts get stripped to bare metal.
What many people call a restoration is actually a rebuild, or perhaps what hot-rod guys call a “resto-mod”-an older machine that has significant modern performance upgrades whether you can see them or not. When we say “restoration,” we are talking about returning a machine to how it was on the showroom floor. There are a few things to look at when picking a starting point, or a “donor bike” as they are called in the restoration world. The restoration started off just like 99 percent of them do-with a donor that has lived a hard life and was ready for a revival. You can see the others at For this article, the Vintage Motorsports Honda ATC 250R was paired up with a 1982 Toyota pickup, which had been restored by Greg’s Restorations. It’s that good, and this 1982 Honda 250R is his latest acquisition. Our most recent visit, however, ended abruptly when he shut the doors and started wiping our drool off his floor. This collector opened his doors for a few hours, so we got to take a look at his prized possessions. Over the last few years we have highlighted a number of his projects after discovering one of his biggest customers is in Los Angeles near our offices.
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