A few pieces of good progress to report today: First, the frame, front forks, and other metal body parts are now offsite at a powdercoating facility getting sandblasted and then resurfaced. They should return shiny and like-new in a few weeks.

While the carburetor parts soaked today, I ran up to my Dad's metal fabrication and machining shop to work with him and a buddy on a plan for the wheels and main engine components. After really examining the wheel rims, we decided that there was enough rust that the process of stripping them would render them structurally unstable. Since i want this bike to be rideable after this project, I bit the bullet and decided to toss both the original and second set of eBay wheels and buy a new set. They rim and spoke sets come out of Thailand, and I'll order them shortly.

Since the cylinder head needs to be stripped, we went ahead and pulled the whole thing off. I brought the motor's lower unit and valve stems home. The lower is in great shape and doesn't need a complete tear-down, so I'll just store it until the head is resurfaced and then do an exterior cleaning after I put the head back on. This will keep foreign stuff out of the lower unit. We got some photos of the broken down motor, including the teeny tiny little piston.