Crawfish etouffe, red beans and rice, and frozen daiquiris. I got to spend the week in the "BIG EASY" this week. It wasn't vacation it was for work. I was visiting refineries in the New Orleans area. The weather and the food were great but I was feeling a little stir crazy. After work I was having fun checking things out like the national WWII museum and the great seafood restaurants but I was missing working in my shop and on the property. I am finding that I am changing as

I was planning on prepping the frame for the 83 BIG RED restoration today but I didn't. I just could not take it anymore. I looked around my shop and saw clutter all over the place and piles of dirt on the floor. I put everything on hold and started to clean the shop. This happens to me about every three months or so. I stop everything and clean the shop. I can only handle clutter for so long and then it really starts to bother me. Especially when you can't find things and ne

I stepped out of the shop and looked up at the stars this past S aturday night. I could not believe it. Here it was February and I was media blasting a BIG RED frame in my big shop with the 10' X 10' bay door wide open. It was over 50 degrees and it felt great. No torpedo heater and no large amounts of condensation in the compressed air lines. I had to take advantage of this and stayed up late into the night getting further ahead on the restoration of the 83 BIG RED. The mild

I finished the 1982 Honda BIG RED 200E restoration and moved it out of the shop this week. I thought the shop would be a little cleaner but not so. I started the restoration of the 1983 BIG RED and now I have 3 BIG REDS in different points of disassembly. I have been spending most of the week picking parts from all three BIG REDS and assembling them on the one 83 that I will restore. This is kind of a fun. It is like having your own parts shop. In the past I would write a lis

I stepped back from the Handy lift and looked at the finished 1982 Honda 200E Big Red. I am happy. All of the hard work has paid off - it turned out great. It looks and runs the way I planned. There is no substitute in my mind to "doing the work". For me doing is the best experience and it just keeps on building on itself. I have started the restoration on the 1983 Honda Big Red and I am confident that this restoration will be easier and quicker than the 82. I am looking for

I recently been chasing a few BIG REDS for sale on Craigslist and I thought to myself man how things and how I have changed. Things have changed. I remember buying three wheelers in the swap sheet. The swap sheet was a weekly newspaper sold in stores which was just classified ads for items for sale in my area. No pictures and few words. No texting just a phone number. As I look back it was hard and disappointing since you had to trust someone’s description over the phone whic

I was just about to finish up installing the chaincase on the 1982 BIG RED 200E when I noticed that one of the 6mm screws was actually a battery terminal bolt. The one with the hex and the phillips head . I'm a bit of a perfectionist so 2 out of 3 correct is not acceptable. What do do? Simple just walk over to the other 1982 BIG RED sitting in the shop and see if I can find one. I bend down and yep I'm in luck. I did not have this luxury in the past since I did not duplicates

I wiped the last coat of plastic renew on the rear fender and steeped back. They look good I thought to myself. Almost done just need to clearcoat the fenders. I looked at my watch - 9:30PM damn I should be in bed now getting ready for work tomorrow morning. I thought about calling it quits but stopped and thought to myself. If I finish the fenders tonight they will dry overnight and then I can move them and prime the fuel tank, front forks and headlight housing tomorrow nigh

I climbed over the last of the four BIG REDS in the shop. I pulled up on the left rear fender and sighed in disappointment. Not one of these BIG REDS had the chaincase clips and rubber plugs for the access ports in the chaincase. This does not surprise me since in my opinion putting the chaincase on the 1982 and 1983 BIG REDS was a mistake. Why cover a part that needs to be regularly maintained? Honda tried to add access plugs to check the chain tension and lube the chain. Th

I took a sip of the hot coffee and walked into my shop. I turned the stereo on and put some kindling in the wood stove. I stepped back and thought man I wish I could do this every morning. I am on vacation this week for christmas and new years and it has been great. Since there is not enough snow to use the snow machines I am using the time to get caught up on the restoration of the 1982 200E BIG RED. I hardly ever have a week off and I am using it to my advantage. I have alm

The restoration process of these Honda BIG RED 3 wheelers ATC's can be satisfying because you can see the results of your efforts.

Rup rup rup rup. The starter motor on my truck was having a hard time turning over the crankshaft in my truck that spent all night in the driveway soaking up the cold wind. When the ambient temperature gets in the single digits I usually decide to take a night off in the shop. That doesn't mean I stop work it just means I move the work into the kitchen where the wood stove puts out great heat. Yes I can heat the shop but for a weeknight is it worth burning all that fuel for t

What a dumb design. I said this in my head as I squeezed the trigger of the air cutoff tool. zooop zooop. As the metal turned red hot my nostrils were filled with the scent of burning plastic. I gripped the channel locks and pulled the head through the gooey plastic. What I was doing was removing the mudflaps from the rear fenders. I still have not found and easy way of removing these. Like I said this is a poor design. The setup just invites moisture and mud from the tires t

It was about time. I looked at the end of the handlebar at the faded black grips. They were worn so much they were actually smooth. These may have been the original grip the factory put on the 250ES back in 1985. When I was browsing the interwebs I thought as long as I am doing the grips I might as well put some handwarmers on. I found a set on ebay and put them in my cart. I thought for another second as long as I am doing the handwarmers I might as well do a thumbwarmer too

Looking out the single pane windows of the garage doors I could see about six inches of snow on the grey car cover used to protect an old 1986 250ES. I looked back into the shop and saw the bare frame of the 1982 Honda 200E sitting on the lift. All the parts were organized on shelves or on the service cart. Man I'm making some real progress here I thought to myself. With the season changing my shop schedule is changing too. I leave for work and it is dark. I get home from wor

I stared at the carburetor sitting the water through the plastic cover. The green LED display was counting down from 180 and there was a constant buzzing sound. “Is it doing anything yet?” my wife asked. I hope so I paid 80 bucks for this ultrasonic cleaner. I already have a solvent based parts washer but the thought of cleaning parts with just water seemed too good to be true. I did some research and many people have had good results. From Google: Ultrasonic cleaning uses c

Yesterday I walked in to the shop and looked around at the four BIG REDS in the shop. My mind raced as I looked at all the tools spread out on the lift, the rear axle hanging off the service cart, and the 1983 BIG RED sitting low with 2 flat dry rotted tires. Anymore stuff in the way and I wouldn’t be able to walk through it all. I am always thinking 4 steps or more ahead when it comes to my projects. This works well as long as the plan comes together. If you need to squeeze

I was staring at the pipe wrench jaw marks as I threaded the castle nut on to the rusty rear axle of the 1982 BIG RED. I picked up the 3 pound dead blow hammer and exhaled heavily. When you have restored enough of these vehicles you know the results you are about to get will have a lot of weight on your progress. The axle could come out nice and easy or pounding, penetrating oil, and heat are in the future for you. The anticipation before the first few makes me concerned beca

When you are restoring 30 year old BIG REDs nothing is easy. You better plan on spending extra time doing simple tasks that you think are no problem. Just this week I was working on the rear end of a 1982 BIG RED 200E. I took the right rear wheel, wheel hub and brake drum off with no issue. On to the right rear wheel. Just looking at the contorted cotter pin I know I’m going to have problems. First using needle nose pliers I find the cotter pin on the hub castle nut won’t com

I walked out to the shop anticipating success. I have soaked the front brake cable all week in penetrating oil. It was hung from the ceiling so gravity would do its work to the free up the frozen braided wire. I pulled the cable and lever assembly down and pulled the lever in. Nothing. A little more effort. Nothing. Not even a smidge. I exhaled with disappointment. The effort to save the cable was squandered. Now what? I run into this situation at many points during a restora