The SR500 sidecar build - you can have it any colour you want, as long as it's black (part 3)

At some point down the line, with an old bike with completely shot paint there's always the question: what about the paint. Now there's a lot of things to say about ol' Henry Ford (and not all of them are nice ones), but his colour palette for the Model T - on point. (Little side note here: if you want to burn off stickers, make sure the tank's really well vented. Also, if you don't care about the paint underneath, this is a brilliant technique. Just needs a few touch ups here and there and you end up with a really nice tank afterwards.)

A bare metal would probably look dead nuts cool too, but even with a good 2K-clear I am not sure it would last through a single Winter and Winter-use is where it's going to be at with this bike.

 As I am not a huge fan of watching paint dry and the list was still well long enough with technical bits that needed to be tackled. First on the list was a grease nipple on the swingarm bolt and two outlets as those bolts have the unpleasant habit of seizing in the bushing they ride in.

There was a good (used) chain on the bike, but it turned out to be only moderately more expensive to get a new (super-cheap) chain instead. Unfortunately it was of the rivet-type, but as I do not expect it to last much more than a single Winter anyway...

And then lastly there was the need for a mighty silencer, because a) not pissing off the neighbours too much is cool and b) lots of room is the basis for making good power. (Also I had exactly the same setup on the first SR500 sidecar and it performed VERY well.)

Now, if you want a new ignition lock, you can buy the original replacement part from your Yamaha-dealer for around 80-90 Euros or you get a cheap knock-off copy for an RD350 and then make an adapter plug. (Check the pin-out yourself, but the layout in the picture below works for me.)

A set of new brake shoes for the rear, a bit of lube on the cam and a new cleanup of the rear drum should sort out the brakes on this end just fine.

Aside from the fact that the rear brake lever linking pin got lost - all new and shiny in stainless now and the foot brake lever got another grease nipple, because of it's intended future use.

Fitting the rear spring is the most annoying job on the whole bike and yes, I forgot the stopper/adjuster bolt and yes again, I'll fit one.

I am not running some personal vendetta against vacuum operated petcocks, but I do run a personal vendetta... No seriously, those Guzzi petcocks for 8 Euros are cheaper than the repair kit for a stocker and just plain work. You do need to make an M16x1 to 47mm hole-spacing adapter. Nothing one can't knock up in an hour or so on a lathe and with a pillar drill.

And there she is - looking all sexy in black.

So at this point it was about time to turn my attention to some of the remaining inner values, i.e a few bits on the loom which where exceptionally shoddy and then have a look at the Velorex I bought and find out how good or bad it actually was.