Repairing the rusted tank, Day 2

Continued working the tank today, The over night bath did really well on the areas that were submerged, however there is still plenty of rust in the tank.





I had to remove the finger screen from within the tank today as well, there was no getting it out intact, but i found it torn at the top end anyway. It will not be fun trying to find that particular replacement, I see an inline fuel filter in the future for the NS.



The instructions for the POR 15 state that you can coat over treated rust but that just doesn't seem right. I've treated enough corrosion on airplanes over the years to know that if you don't get it all out, it will come back, even under the treated surface. So I believe I got about 80% of the rust out, but I am going to keep going till I believe we are all the way there. Very difficult working in the tank though

Repairing the rusted tank

So I started the rust removal process today. To the right you can see the tools used for the task. I bought some stuff called Evapo-Rust, it's essentially phosphoric acid and came in a 32 ounce bottle. I poured about half of the bottle in the tank with a full 4000 pack of .177 caliber BB's. Then its just a process of shaking and rotating the tank for about an hour. I saw several different homemade setups on the Internet people came up with for agitating their tanks, including one guy who blocked up the drive wheels on his snow blower and then strapped the tank to one of the wheels and just let the snow blower run.

After about an hour of sloshing and shaking I poured out the Evapo-Rust and flushed the tank with high pressure water. It was just shy of mud that came out of the tank at first, I let the water run till it flowed clear. None of the BB's came out, that parts gonna be a chore I'm sure. After pouring out as much water as possible I poured the rest of the Evapo-Rust in the tank and started the process again. I'm going to let the solution sit over night tonight and begin the prep process for using the POR 15 tank repair kit tomorrow.

Ladies and Gentlemen...the star of our show...

So here is our star, my 1987 Honda NS400R. The reason I started this whole blog thing. Yeah I know it doesn't look like much now, but with any luck it will look much like the NS at the top of the page....soon. Time and money will tell. It really is not far off actually, so let's cover what I see as the primary deficiencies.





In the picture to the right you can see that I have already installed the new battery, I felt it was the logical first step; and was a total motorhead moment, the lights came on and the horn honked, we have a pulse.



You may also see this funnel apparatus hanging on the left side; that was my make shift I.V. drip. I knew we had power, we had spark so could we get fire? Yes, though for only a short time, not enough fuel to sustain actually running. Which leads to this weekends project, repairing a rusted fuel tank.

Indy @ Barber!!

So here we are at Barber Motor Speedway for the Inaugural Indy races, watching the Rolex series today, the Indy is tomorrow. Couldn't ask for better weather. I was going to work on the NS today but how can you pass this up?

How will we begin?

I don't want to turn this in to history lesson about the bike, not so much as in actually doing research and writing a history lesson. There is plenty to be found out now on the web, so what i am going to do is steal someone else lesson and post that on here. As much as I love this bike I've never committed any of the stats about it to memory, only some of the unique facts, such as it's Honda designator is actually the NC19, Honda would use these designators for other bikes as well, like the NC21 which is the VFR400R and the NC35 which would be the RVF400RR anyway, let's learn a little bit about the NS400R.

The NS400R was based on the NS500 factory works racers and was one of the largest sized two stroke bikes built by Honda. It was also fitted with the latest technology in it's time. Pictured on the left is the limited edition Rothmans colors model.
The engine was a three cylinder 400cc liquid cooled two stroke that made 59 horsepower at 8,500 RPM for the Japanese market. Some people claim that the export models of the NS400R made about 72 horsepower. Technology was borrowed from the GP machines.


ATAC (Auto-controlled Torque Amplification Chamber) was designed for high end power and a fat torque curve which made the bike much easier to ride in town than previous two stoke motorcycles.
An interesting fact about the meaning of NS in NS400R and perhaps the NSR as well. The Japanese promo brochure on the right claims that the N stands for Nickel and the S stands for Silicon-carbide. These are materials used in the construction of the cylinders. So that is what the NS means.


Specifications for Japanese spec NS400R
Model : NC 19
Engine type : liquid cooled 90 degree V-3 two cycle reed valve
Engine size : 387cc
Bore x stroke : 57.0 x 50.6
Horsepower : 59 ps at 8,500 rpm
Torque : 5.1 kg-m at 8,000 rpm
Carburetor : TA 09

Gear ratio : 1st - 2.500
2nd - 1.714
3rd - 1.333
4th - 1.111
5th - 0.965
6th - 0.866

Ignition : Electronic CDI unit
Length : 2,025 mm
Width : 720 mm
Height : 1,125 mm
Wheelbase : 1,385 mm
Caster : 27. 05 degrees
Trail : 100 mm
Dry weight : 163 kg
Fuel Economy : 29 km per liter at 60 km/h
Tank capacity : 19 liters
Tire size : (F) 100/90 - 16, (R) 110/90 - 17

W W W W & H

The who. Well I guess that would be me. Not knowing much about blogging I don't know if its prudent to use my real name or not, and so I won't, I will however have to use some sort of name so I will choose...Edward.

The what. The 1987 Honda NS400R. My pride and joy, my prize. Bought with the help of my parents in 1992 while I was in the Marine Corps. I bought it from a great guy named Dan, haven't seen or heard from him since then, he left the Corps to become an orthodontist or something like that.

The why. So I've been riding motorbikes of some sort since I was 5 or 6 years old and the NS was my first true street bike. And after I got out of the Corps I was fortunate enough to add several other motorcycles to the stable. Most notably was my dream bike, a 1999 Ducati 748. Oh I loved that bike. Later came the Aprillia RS50, a Kawi 500 and a 2003 Honda CBR600RR. And as all of those bikes had some reason to go on, the NS was never in the running to leave. But...I did neglect it as I spent more time riding the more technologically advanced rides. And so now, it is in a mild state of disrepair and having not seen the road or even really started in more than 14 years, well that's why we are here.

The where. The NS has been titled in 3 different states since arriving from Japan; North Carolina, Texas and Florida. It never got registered or rode for the eight years I was in Georgia and now we are in Alabama and I am determined to have it road worthy before the end of this summer.

The How. Money and elbow grease. It shouldn't take as much money as it will elbow grease and I am looking forward to the restoration. The Internet never existed to the extent it does now and now there are plenty of resources out there available to make the restoration simple and possibly of interest to others. And so I thought i would write about it here.

What the hell do I do now?

So what the hell do I do now? I really am not computer savvy by any means, I am only trying this so that I can share some thoughts and with any luck, photos and maybe videos as I bring my prized possession back to the world of the living. Let's see what happens.