So, STILL working on this here. Long hiatus as my mechanic's son has serious medical problems; couldn't work for a month or three and I really didn't want to kick him while he was down by taking away work. Almost took the bike back just to give the engine rebuild a shot on my own, but now things are moving and hope to be ridable near the end of the month.
The paint situation has been a big disappointment, but it is what it is. I was going to do some hand touching-up where necessary and leave the bike as-is as possible. But it was stored chained up outside the shop without wheels, with other stuff stacked near it, and it's taken a pretty bad beating and scratching on a number of parts. Mad at the mechanic about that, but with the medical situation, I am trying to keep things in perspective.
And when I took it down to the frame, the condition on the tubes wasn't good. So I opted for the total re-spray of all parts, especially since it'd look worse to my eye as a patchwork of new and old. Since I just want a ridable bike, and I'm not committed to preservation of the bike for its own sake, I have accepted that I'll have to get the bike a second distinguished history in my hands. Given my usual penchant for abuse, shouldn't take long.
The military repaints these things all the time themselves anyhow...the paint that' s on there actually isn't all that old, and in a way, I actually don't see how neglecting annual maintenance would honor its past. Last thing I need is the ghost of an angry motorpool master sergeant haunting me.
And once it's re-sprayed, I'm going to go to the hand-painters who decorate the local lorries and get a special design hand-done on the tank. Should still be pretty rad, and I won't have to deal with harassment from authorities over using a real unit's insignia.
Enough about paint, though. Bike's going to have pretty much stock engine bits; will upgrade for performance as practical in the future. Couldn't find an alloy 350 barrel locally but am still hunting this week before we close the engine back up. Free-flow exhaust and K&N pod filter for now. External spin-on oil filter. Airbox of some sort in the future. Maybe an electronic ignition.
Stock shocks front and rear, but will install the YSS cartridge emulators in the fork myself once I get the bike running. Rears are the modern gas-charged units. May upgrade them in the future to Hagon or Ikon or something.
Upgraded the wheels to full-width drums, 7" dual front and a 6" QD rear. Not as stylish as the single-sided drums, but I want the best performance. Might try mailing a set of shoes to the US be re-lined by Vintage Brake. Running K70s on both ends.
Stripping her down for weight and aesthetics as much as possible, as discussed earlier, but for now, will keep the toolboxes. Need them for practical purposes, although I like the profile of the bike without them.
Anyhow, not much new to show, but progress is definitely being made now. Hope to have some pics next week or so.
Edit: Oh, yeah, have a set of Tarozzi universal rearsets which I will be running in a mid-set position. Wanted something further back than the chair-like stock riding position, but still want to be able to post up on the pegs for crossing obstacles and keep my body relatively upright for the 360-degree awareness required in Indian traffic. Getting mounts and linkages fabricated has been one of the bigger deals in the bike's genesis, since this is definitely not common to do on these bikes!