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While I was busy working on stripping my fork down for the project CBR400RR NC29 I of course need to order parts and so during that downtime I was busy working on the clocks, lights and front fairing stay mounts and brackets for the bike. The brackets were in an abysmal state as you can see here:




The front of the clocks look bad enough but the backs a total mess.



And here is another picture as I am beginning to dismantle them.



Even the light mounts and stays are totally rusted and corroded badly.



i am not overly happy with the light chrome surrounds and will look at what can be done there. It might be that I replace the headlights with more modern led versions of the same size. Ideally it would be good to have more light anyway but I will see what I think as I get the front reassembled.



with the mounting brackets and stay I decided to see if i could find a new one but the only place I could find one was in China. I have imported stays before for more modern project bikes with a lot of success so i thought I would give one a go for the old girl. I wanted for the part and it arrived with my new fairing kit along with some other goodies that i will show you all a little later as we get to them.

Here are the stays and bracket side by side for comparison.







There are a few differences as can be seen such as the aftermarket light mounting bracket being very simple and lacking folded edges, but the main issue was not that at all, but instead it was the fact that it was missing the ball ends for the headlights so headlight adjustment would have been missing from the action.

There are holes drilled for the ball joints where they should be but they are not an easy item to find or replace. I did find come online but could not be totally sure of the fit to the lights.

The number one issue for me though was not the ball joints it was that when i did a test fit of everything the clock mounts wielded on slightly crooked as it the bloke welding it had been on the bottle over lunch before wielding it onto the mounting bracket. It just bugged me so much and was driving me mad. I added spacers and got it closer to being straight but in the end I just decided it would be simpler and faster to restore the old bracket and so that's what I did.

This is my first test assembly.



and again from the front



I didn't take pics of the work involved to clean the parts but it was considerable and consumed lots of hours. I also didn't have a decent undercoat just a rest stopper and since doing this job I have acquired some decent zinc based primer that I am now using that is way better for painting over. I am going to strip the mounts back once more and do a better job of the finishing and also will be replacing all the rusted springs and bolts and screws.