Honda305.com Forum

If the wiring is similar to the 305, a shorted rectifier sends unfused battery current straight to ground, causing barbequed wiring with dramatic smoke effects!

A $3.85 Radio Shack Rectifier can be used to replace the old one.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/50v ... -rectifier

A few small items brightened up, quite corroded to start with so still a bit pitted but acceptable.

Brewsky,
Quite right, the rectifier was short circuit. I have a spare from my 305 but will use a modern unit. I can’t get too uptight about originality.

Nice work Geoff, good to see people working on projects.

Brewsky made me chuckle, excellent description of what will happen.

Al.

A couple more steps forward, a bit more chroming and the seat recovered. The seat base was the usual rusty mess with a tear and some of the foam missing. I glued some foam salvaged from an old MX seat to the original foam and reprofiled it using an angle grinder and a sanding disc. I cleaned off the loose rust and treated the remainder with some rust remover before applying a few coats of paint. The recover was then a simple job of stretching it over the foam and base, luckily the spikes that retain the cover were mostly still useable.

A little more progress, this time on the tank. The inside was remarkably rust free, I assume because the last time it was on the road was 1978 so pre ethanol and its related corrosion, even the tap was clean and not corroded. The headlamp surround unfortunately is quite heavily pitted so no amount of sanding will make that look right. I’ve removed all the loose rust and paint and treated the metal to remove any rust sitting in the cavities. I’ll need to skim it with filler before flatting it and applying the primer.

Ok, last post for a while as the triumph parts have turned up so I’ll concentrate on getting that finished before I return to the little Honda.
Here’s the headlamp surround that was heavily corroded, once I’d ground off the surface rust I treated the pitted areas with some rust remover and then gave it a light skim of filler to level up the deep pitting. Some more work flatting that then a light coat of primer. Once the primer had hardened I again flatted to fill in any pin holes before a couple more coats of primer. I did at one stage consider trying to find a replacement but there’s no rush so I just plodded on.
I’ve now done all the peripheral odds and sods so once I am able, I will strip the wheels to clean up the hubs and send the frame off for blasting.