Little Suzi - 1970 AC50

[Guest]

What can I say, she followed me home and nothing I did could shake her off.
For a little more than beer money, I have proudly become the legal guardian of little Suzi, A Suzuki AC50 maverick, born in 1970.
Short of a head light, front indicators, exhaust, ignition switch, one rear indicator lens and a piston, she is complete and in pretty good condition, with no sign of being abused at any stage.
She is showing just over 10 000km, and everything looks about right for that mileage.

[GS1150Pilot]

That is damned cool. Reminds my of my brother's old Honda 50 Minitrail. Loved that little thing.

[Highway_Glider]

So....


You are nearly....Mostly done with the bigger sister and now you setting your sight on more?

[Flyboy]

Daniel, she will have to wait and do without attention until I am finished with Jennifer, so she lives on the work bench for now.
The plan is to do her up and flip her for a profit..............shhhhh, don't let her hear.

[Flyboy]

Ok, so with Jennifer now doing duty as a daily driver, and a damn good one at that, I now give Suzi my undivided attention, with no work to be done on Jennifer I thought I would savour my new found time over the weekend.................didn't work, by 10am I was suffering withdrawal symptoms, shaking, drooling muttering incoherently, this clearly does not work for me.
By 10:30 I was in the man cave, and work has begun on Suzi in ernest, God I feel sooo much better.

Of course one has to ease ones way into these things, and I have a space problem, having only a single garage that the e30, Jennifer and Suzi all have to live in.
So with that in mind, rather than diving in with a handful of spanners and stripping and parts flying, I spent the day tripping over the polisher.
Today's achievements.

Hooter and mounting hardware was up first.
Before


After






Then it was the turn of the fuel tap.
Internals are in excellent shape, so no more than a matter of strip, clean, fit new O-ring and reassemble.










However, I do believe there is a stand pipe missing, the tap has positions for both ON and RES with two inlet ports from the tank, yet both feed from the same level, I believe the port that feeds the ON position should have a stand pipe wich this tap does not have. Mmmmmmm, will investigate further and fabricate one from some copper tube if need be.

[Flyboy]

Also spruced up the cap for the two stroke oil tank.




Does not seem like a lot but that was four and a half hours of work.

[rustybronco]

Does not seem like a lot but that was four and a half hours of work.

Meticulous restorations always take up an enormous amount of time. Personally I don't see you ever just 'slapping' something together and calling it good enough.

[JamesWhut?]

Those are great little bikes. I had a '71 in blue for a few years.

[tatu]

A good start, likely there is a mesh screen that goes on the reserve orifice to filter the fuel.
Will you try to get the dents out of the tank or fill them?

[Flyboy]

Chris, I have not looked that closely yet, but I should be able to pop them out, there does not seem to be any creasing, so we shall see, probably a mix of both, pop the dents out then a skim of filler to get the panel dead straight.

[tatu]

I was thinking compressed air and play some heat over the dent from a hair dryer...?

[rustybronco]

X-nay on the compressed air idea. More likely than not it will splay the sides of the tank unless the lower flanges are clamped firmly in place.

[tatu]

X-nay on the compressed air idea. More likely than not it will splay the sides of the tank unless the lower flanges are clamped firmly in place.

Of course you're right just an idea, I remember now it takes very little pressure to splay the sides, maybe a ratchet strap?
Years back I let a mate have a go on my newly acquired TS185 and he wheelied it onto the back of a car, the shaking up of the fuel popped the dents out of the tank, bent the forks though.

[GregT]

There's a painless dent removal system I've seen in use which would probably work on that tank. Suction cup on the area affected - and pull...

No headlamp is a bit of a problem. That model uses the "flat" headlight which is a genuine sealed beam. It's rare now worldwide - and unique to that model I believe. My guy here with the flock of A50's hasn't got a spare either. Ebay may bring one up. Good luck.

[Flyboy]

Ok, maybe I expressed it incorrectly, I did not infer blowing the dents out with air, but mechanical removal, piece of 2X4 from inside or so, or suction as Greg suggested.
Yes, I know the headlight will be problematic, but I have seen them on ebay, although a bit pricey.
In fact they were not unique to the AC series, a few of the small Suzuki two strokes carried them, however most had a bucket, the AC did not, only a bracket.
The last ones, '73 - '76 came out with a globe as opposed to the sealed beam, this is actually a '73 not a '70 model, so i will try and get one that takes the globe.
What concerns me more than the headlamp is the exhaust.