mark.drechsler

Deconstruction

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In my last post I came to the sobering realisation that to get to the mystery blockage I would need to strip down the entire engine. This wasn’t the absolute first time I had done this. I remember the last time, it was 1990, I was eighteen, the vehicle was a Datsun 180B, and I … Read more

Let’s do this thing! (Or not)

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With the fairings ready to be sent off for painting once the Airtech upper fairing arrived, the spare motor ready to swap in and the shed cleared of crap, it was time to start the real work – removing the motor. Reading the Haynes manual made it sound pretty easy – fairings off, airbox off, … Read more

Eureka! A panelbeater cometh!

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In an earlier post I had mentioned the challenges of finding someone to do the paint on Project FZR, particularly given the banged-up nature of some of the fairings, in particular the top fairing. My earlier chats with repair places hadn’t filled me with confidence, and I had put the whole idea on pause to … Read more

Putting lipstick on a pig

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Ok, so I’d worked out that an engine swap was needed, and that a full respray was also on the cards even if I had no idea who would do it, and a bunch of other stuff that really was needed as well, so there only seemed like one logical plan of action – buy … Read more

Using Agile tools to eat the elephant

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It was during this period of just scooting around on the FZR that I realised that I needed to do a couple of things differently. First up, I needed to accept that this restoration project was rapidly turning into a ‘down the rabbit hole’ experience, as I’d heard can happen with restoration projects. A flow-on … Read more