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This web page is dedicated to my Seca Turbo and has a lot of information
regarding the complete restoration I have done. I offer some
mechanical/electrical service solutions but some of my links offer more of those -
however, my tips are growing. Feel free to ask if you don't see anything. Please
see my links page for some other links for mechanical tips. Click here to a link to
my article from Cycle Canada from February 2008. Compliments of Cycle Canada.
Putting it into a single page format is compliments of Gina.
Am I completely done? With the current restoration, yes. But like I mentioned,
there are still a few things I would like to do - as listed below.
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Tear apart, re-chrome and rebuild spare set of rear shocks. One shock is
fully apart and am coming up with a modification to make the seal
replaceable. - Started
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Tear apart and re-build spare set of carbs (float needles and seats, all o-rings) - 80% Done
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Being a perfectionist and wanting to get the job done can sometimes consume
you and you can lose focus on the more important things in life. Not that I am in
that state. I just know my limitations - this is just a warning for "like"
personalities. For those of you who are like this, don't let your passion for this sort
of thing distract you from your other passions in life. Life is about balance.
If you are interested, click here to open a document showing all the parts I have
restored to date and what has been done to them. It might give you some ideas
or raise some questions that you can ask me about.
I will update this website from time to time, but there probably won't be much to
add. However, if you want to contact me with any questions, please feel free to do
so. I will answer any e-mail questions you may have.
Please visit my business site - BDESIGNS - for the following services and products;
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Seca Turbo decals
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Vintage motorcycle decals
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Custom Decals
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Restoration Services
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Plastic Component repairing
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Rubber component reproductions
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Windshield Reproductions
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Sandblasting services
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Artistic vehicle renderings
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Please see below for my "journey", in chronological order.
Done! (June 2007)
And so it comes to an end. The restoration is finally over. I met my goal of having this bike
done and being back on the road before I was 50 which is this year (ouch). It's hard to believe
that this bike is 25 years old, and exactly 25 years ago, I owned this very same model of bike.
I remember when I first started out four years ago, thinking “Yeah, about 300 hours and a year
and a half should do it.” Two years later and 450 hours I started thinking, “Yeah, about 550
to
600 hundred hours and three years should do it.” Well, I have personally spent a total of 841
hours over almost 4 years on this project. Kind of staggering when you think about it.
Would I ever undertake a project like this again? Probably not. I don't think I would live long
enough to be able to do that. Would I ever do another bike? Perhaps a small project. But for
now, I want to concentrate on building up my business of restoration services.
This restoration has been both very rewarding and very challenging at the same time. There
were times I became so frustrated that I had to walk away from it, sometimes for months at a
time. And there many times that I couldn't stop doing it, I had to keep going. Sometimes
things went very smoothly and went as planned. Sometimes they didn't. Sometimes I kept
screwing things up by my own doing, and had to re-do things over and over. Sometimes
suppliers screwed things up on me over and over again and I wound up having to do it
myself. I
challenged myself and even some of my suppliers to do things I/they've never done before.
I don't know what possessed me (actually, I do, but I'm not telling) to buy this bike and start
this project. But this came at a time in my life that I needed a distraction. Things happen for a
reason. Things seemed to fall in place. Even starting up my business, was one of the positive
things that came out of this. At times, this was even therapeutic.
I recently had to have my motorcycle appraised for insurance purposes. In talking to the
gentleman who did the appraisal, I found out that he not only belonged to the same vintage
motorcycle group that I did, he was also a Concours Judge. He was really impressed with the
job that I did. He said that this was the best Asian motorcycle restorations he had ever seen.
What impressed him even further, was the fact that I was an amateur, this wasn't my line of
work. He made a comment that this bike must have some sort of sentimental value for me. I
never really thought about that until someone else recently had mentioned the same thing, so
I guess that's what part of this was all about. When I had my first turbo, it was during the early
80s and this was one of the best times I had in my single life. Notice I mentioned "single".
This
bike was a real head turner and "chick magnet" back then. It still is a head turner, but not
much of a chick magnet anymore - but I think that has something to do with the "old guy" on
the bike.
I am pleased with how it turned out. The only thing that really stands improving upon, are the
header pipes. I had them ceramic coated from a company called Fireball Performance
Coatings. It took him almost a year of constant screw ups to finish these pipes, and at the end
it still wasn't the greatest job. It was just okay. I still had to do additional work on the exhaust
and waste gate pipes to make them look decent. I would not recommend this company to
anyone, however, maybe I'm just one of those customers that things never turned out with. I
have since found a local company who does porcelain enamel coating. It is supposed to be
able to take the temperatures and keep the gloss even better than ceramic coating. I have a
spare set of header pipes and probably will work on that over the winter of 2008.
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