NM came over this afternoon and we dismantled the front end.

Everything came apart OKish and there were only a couple of things that ended up burred due to age and corrosion.

The fork seals were indescribable. Even the circlips were corroded and the fork "oil" was a light grey coloured mud. There was also significantly more than 150mls per fork leg too, more like 400mls per fork leg. The dust seals had turned to concrete as well and looked like someone had tried to butcher them at some point.

The steering head "bearings" - well um what can one say. The lower bearing's case collapsed during removal. The top one still had the factory grease and it had literally turned to rubber.

Off to Scroederco tomorrow to get steering head bearings, and a bottom fork allen bolt (the internal one) that that rounded off during the removal.

Oddly the wheel bearings were good.

Here's some photos of stuff boxed up to go out the door and a bike precariously balanced on a jack and some concrete and wooden blocks.
Managed to get most of the petrol out of the tank and into a container so I can use it again. Drained the carbs too.

I've taken the fairing, tank, and front guard off in preparation for painting. The condition of the plastic and rubbers tends to support the mileage, but it looks like it has been stored near the sea at some point. I'm going to rip the front subframe off tomorrow and send that off for powder coating, as well as the fork brace and the bracket that holds the front centre of the fairing together.

I'll need to do brake lines as the banjos are knackered (the new lines will have stainless ones), and I'll have to dig out the tin snips and fabricate a new battery box.

This is actually fun and it's about time I started doing stuff for myself.