1972 Honda
SL70 K0 #1
VIN#
SL70-1077986
Summer
Yellow
This is the bike that started the old bike
collection craze. I got my original drivers license at 14
years of age on a Red 1971 Honda SL70. You will find a
picture of that bike with me on it in the Old Bike Pictures
section. I bought this bike without really caring if it was
all original or not and just wanted to re-live the memories
and have a bike to run around on. The bike had been taken
apart at some point and the frame was repainted, but in a
dark grey color. The fenders were painted silver and the
engine cases were done with black krinkle spray paint. The
gas tank and side covers were in nice shape and I would
later discover that the tank was an almost new tank found on
a Honda dealer's shelf.
Initially, I just redid the engine covers and
fenders and played around with it a bit. The bike runs
really well, but it just took its’ place in the living
room. After a bit, I changed the color to the Aquarius
blue because I had purchased another SL70 with red body work
that was really nice. The bike remained this way until
March 2004 when I took it down to the frame and restored it
properly. I discovered a lot about SL70’s with this bike
and realized over time that almost all bolts etc were not
original ones. The restoration included sanding and
painting the frame and refurbishing the engine cases. I had
to find a chain guard as well as a rear brake return spring
that was missing. I put a Summer
Yellow body kit on it as I had robbed the Aquarius Blue kit
for another bike.
I think the pictures tell the story on this
one as it turned out really nice. The pictures on the
following pages tell the story of the restoration.
This was a pretty nice bike to begin with, so it didn't
require an engine rebuild and I already had a painted kit
available. Take a look at the clock in the pictures as
I took lots of shots to see the progress. Believe it
or not, it only took a bit over 14 hours of labor to
disassemble, sand, repaint, replace and reassemble the bike.
Click on the image
to enlarge picture
Marblesmotors ©2004
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