Oh Jeez...now I need some tools

After getting the Starfire home and into the shed it was noticed that I'd need a few things in order to do the work on it, namely Whitworth sockets and spanners as well as workshop and parts manuals.

So a look on eBay was in order and said items purchased. In the meantie I got the loan of some tools from Frank Ceeko who is a car nut and likes bikes as well.

But before ANY type of work could be done at all, a good going over and making a list of things that were visually wrong, parts missing and things that looked like they needed correcting was in order.

Surprisingly, only the chainguard was missing that I could see, but a few things did need replacing such as the muffler/silencer, all the rubber parts and it need a good cleaning up.

Now I know that some people like to have their bikes with a patina on them as it gives them "character" , and as I do sort of agree in principle, I also feel that it does need to be clean looking.

Plus, as this wee Starfire had caked on oil and grease all over, I felt that a good clean up was a good idea in order to check for leaks, cracks and any other problems that may be hidden.

It took a while, a few weeks of cleaning really, but I got it cleaned up and it turned out to be in really good shape for a bike that had been sitting for a good twenty years from the looks of it.

A start on checking thing out began in earnest.

Over the span of the next few months or so, I had replaced both sets of wheel bearings, looked at the brake shoes, eliminated most of the surface rust, got the tickler on the carb and the petcocks working again, repainted a few things, replaced the fork gaiteers and improvised a fork puller tool.

Bear in mind that as I'm not a mechanic or all that handy, some of this work took place at a snails pace to get to this point in time. I also had to go to my actual job as well.

But the work did continue and the wee bike was looking better as time went on.