Paint & Wiring & Plating

[markysimon]

Hi,

I am the (rare) owner of an Ascot here in the UK which I am mildly converting owing to my dislike of the original angular headlamp, dashboard and rear lamp assemblies. However so that the bike can be easily returned to original, spec., nothing I'm doing involves cutting or welding and I'm using snap connectors onto the original wiring loom.

Unfortunately the Shop Manual which the vendor supplied with the bike only has monochrome wiring diagrams which are rather hard to follow and so I was delighted to find a thread on this forum with a coloured diagram which will hopefully make life easier  . One question though, my new instruments (see pic encl) do NOT include a temp gauge but I wish to wire in a warning lamp instead: can I connect this to the 'Thermo Switch' on the radiator and if so, which should be the 'live' wire and which to earth?

Also, I ordered paint for the custom made parts from a UK supplier which I was assured was Candy Bourgogne Red, but turns out to be much darker (see other pic, alongside a side panel). The paint supplier's code was/is 9083, although Honda's paint code is, I understand, RC107cu. Can anyone confirm this and/or recommend a supplier of the correct shade?

Finally, can anyone tell me the process used for plating the exhaust system? I want to replace my cracked and rusty muffler heat shield with a used one I've sourced in the UK, but it's quite badly scratched and dull. 

Many thanks – Markysimon

[RobertP]

Hi Marky
I am located in Australia, currently awaiting the arrival of my 83 Ascot from Atlanta Georgia  (should be here in approx. 4 weeks). I am very interested in what you are doing with yours as I will probably follow along very similarly, I have plans for a café/street tracker cross project. The Instrument cluster you have built looks really neat.

As for the connecting a temp warning light to the thermo switch:
If any one is more informed than myself please tell me, BUT, as I see it the thermo switch operates the radiator fan on and off at a temp the engine requires it to be on or off under normal operating conditions. In the industry I used to work in (Industrial Instrumentation, now retired) an alarm warning (commonly regarded as a "High Level Alarm") is to inform you that the machinery has exceeded it's normal operating temp and should be shut down and investigated. This "High Level Alarm" would normally be associated with the red mark at the high end of the temp gauge. Therefore I would advise to leave the thermo switch, to do it's work with the fan, and investigate finding an adjustable temp switch which could be fitted in place of the temp gauge sender and calibrated to a temp corresponding to the red mark on the old temp gauge. Sounds like a bit of work hey.

I am actually looking at getting a hold of an Instrument cluster from a VT250 or VTR250 which is very similar in parameters. They look really nice, are chrome, round, are smaller than the square plastic box and have a temp gauge built in which may connect direct to the temp sensor on the VT500. Only thing is the tacho is operated electrically so the tacho cable will no longer be required.

A question for you: the tacho you installed, is it cable operated OR electrically operated from the coil ?
If electrically, did you remove the old cable and how did you seal the hole remaining in the front cylinder cover ?

I hope this helps, keeps us informed
Cheers Bob

[markysimon]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your feedback and you are of course correct about the purpose of the thermo switch for the cooling fan motor. But I am not disconnecting the fan, merely running a wire in parallel from the switch to a warning light which will then (hopefully!) illuminate when the fan starts working and extinguish when it stops.  I originally hoped to find a simple on/off switch that would fit into the thread for the original gauge driver, but with its tapered thread and crowded location, that proved impossible. 

The VT250 instrument panel is not something I'd considered but it's an interesting choice, although I'd hate to do without a tacho as the Ascot's is driven by a cable – although I suppose one could insert a digital converter into the drive output – as on some aftermarket products. 

Good luck with it anyway and I hope you'll post some photos on here so that we can see what you've done.

[markysimon]

Hi again Bob,

Further to your suggestion about VT250 instruments, I've just done a little online digging and discovered that the VT250 you refer to must be the late '80s 'Spada' version which wasn't imported to the UK and seems to've been an Australia-only model. The ones we had here in the UK had a fairing enclosed instrument panel which wouldn't be much use grafted onto an Ascot! Good luck, though. 

Cheers – Mark

[murdo]

Re the muffler shield; what about just painting it? On my VT250 I did the header pipes with heatproof paint and did the mufflers in two pack gloss. Hasn't burnt off so far.

[markysimon]

Hadn't though of that, but it's an idea. Did you sandblast or otherwise etch the original first?

Cheers – Mark W

[murdo]

Hand sanded with 120 grit, light etch primer, a thin two pack undercoat then two wet coats of gloss.

[markysimon]

Thanks Murdo, but can you tell me which brand of heatproof paint did you use: it obviously needed to be impervious to very high temperatures to remain intact and glossy?! 

Cheers – Mark