Honda Bros rebuild
Here are some photos of our Wemoto staff Bros rebuild story
We at Wemoto are lovers of the Honda Bros - who remembers them? Bet you have a soft spot in your heart for the Bros if you ever owned one.
Well two members of our staff here at Wemoto are in the process of rebuilding one which they bought two months ago from a friend at work - how much of a friend he will be by the end of the project remains to be seen. The particular Bros in question is a 1988 model which had been living outside under a tarp for a year so it wasn't really too clever when they first got it - flat battery, lots of rust, cracked seat cover, bird's nest - you know the kind of thing. However they knew the potential of the Bros with its good strong engine, so they got to work in the evenings after work and at the weekends and have already put in two months of hard labour.
They have been taking photos of the rebuild as they went along and
In the early photos it looks like a crazy oily dented three D jigsaw but you can see how much work they have done and how it is starting to emerge, from their pictures.
In no time they will have a nice immaculate little Bros to play with!
Here it is as it first arrived - doesn't look too bad - from a distance and in the sunshine!
The tank was dented so they realised that it would need to be totally stripped down and have the dent knocked out. Because of the angle of the dent it was really hard to get anything which would go into the tank through the petrol hole at the top, and then be able to poke the dent back out. In the end Romain (who is also a bicycle afficionado) spotted a racing bike on the garage wall with curly handlebars - perfect they were exactly the right angle to fit through the hole and line up with the dent - soon the dent was no more.
The tank was then sanded down and bodywork filler applied where it was needed to get a good smooth finish.
When it was smooth and as perfect as four-five hours work could get it, they sprayed it with undercoat and after that it was looking good.
Then they turned their attention to the frame - it was pretty badly rusted up from its long sojourn in the garden, so they decided to strip it down to see just how bad it really was - unfortunately the more they stripped off, the more they found that they needed to do. In fact there was so much rust that they needed to remove the subframe. This had the happy side effect of making access to everything much easier though. They cleaned and de-rusted everything they could and painted the rear shock.
As you can see from his face the strain is beginning to get to Carlos - he's going a bit crazy! All those long hours on the Wemoto phones then slaving over a rusty Bros long into the night! But it will all be worth it when he is speeding about on their immaculate Bros - wind in his crash helmet, flies in his teeth, you can picture the scene!
Don't worry we will have one of Romain looking just as crazy in the next instalment!
Quite a daunting cleaning job
The rocker valve cover was very corroded so it got a nice respray till it looked like a crazy yodelling Cyberman face from Doctor Who
They used carbon fibre vinyl cut to shape, to fit the top yoke on the handlebars and are planning to do the same for the chain guard and sprocket cover.
They removed the carbs and re-adjusted the valve clearance.
They painted the exhaust side engine cover, as repolishing it by hand would have been too much of a major task.
They got a new seat cover as the old one was beyond hope.
They had to get new front and back brake caliper pistons and seals, as they were completely seized up. It was expensive and a bit of a struggle for their budget but they decided it was worth it. And one more problem, which could potentially have been a disaster - the bleed nipple snapped but they used a
banjo bolt from Wemoto to do the job instead which saved the day. It's handy working at
Wemoto as they have access to all the parts they need for the job.
Banjo bolt proudly in place
So far so good - they decided to see if it worked at the weekend and, after two months of hard graft, it started - brilliant! So watch this space for the next thrilling instalment and more photos as they finish it off....
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