KTM 450RR Dakar bike Restoration - need some help here please

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BlueBull2007

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Well its not an old bike, but she sure has been through the wars. This one completed the 2012 Dakar, that's 9,500km of racing.

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It belonged to Erik Korfman from Holland, who is a big boy and hard as they come. He finished the Dakar in the malle moto category - in other words he had no support and maintained his bike every day, himself. Not ideal from a buyers perspective but then again there aren't too many of these babies out there for sale.

So we shipped it to Peru in July last year. Then we had problems with importing it. See his ownership papers were in his toolbox which took on a lot of water in a river crossing. I believe this, because the tools in that tool box were rusted to bits. The chain breaker was completely useless for example. Taking delivery at last

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Anyway I eventually got it released from customs in March this year, but was unable to walk so it has only been now that I have really had the chance to get into this bike. I have been savoring the moment and so far its been awesome.

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Taking off the tanks is very easy and opens the whole bike up for easy access. The offending toolbox can been seen at the bottom mounted in the bash plate. The emergency water tank can just bee seen to the left of the tool box (behind the fuel hose connector hanging down) Sorry about the quality of pics.

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Challenge No. 1 - Air box and filter off - but one of the lugs (bottom left) which is essentially a rubber lug with a bolt connection to the frame has torn off from some kind of impact, or maybe having been over tightened. I don't want to get a new air box, so can anyone help me with how to repair this? I have though of just using a rubber glue but that wont last at all.

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The carbon fibre bash plate was surprisingly heavy, until I realized the 3L water tank attached to it was still full!

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Looks like it took a helluva ding. Any ideas to patch that up? I'm thinking a little epoxy resin/liquid metal will do the trick.
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Here is the water tank after I cleaned it up:
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I guess the sea air got to the bike while it was on the water and in port for so long, most of the little bolts are rusted
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You can see many of them suffer from this
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The question I have is how does one get this rust off? I have worked hard on a couple with a rough sponge and some elbow grease and it helps a bit but
does not remove all the rust. Any ideas? Maybe soak them in Brasso?

I have a similar problem with one or two rub points on the frame itself. My guess here is brasso would do nothing here, but I would like to seal off the rust before it spreads over a larger area. Again I'm pretty clueless.
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Now for the tappet (?) cover - what a disaster.
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How to fix this? :scratch:

Under the seat, there are two rubbers wich press against the rear sub frame/tank. They've worn through the paint and into the subframe. I figure a bit of epoxy in there will do the trick..
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Ultimately I will be giving this bike a complete paint make over like my Springbokkie (well that's the plan anyway).

So I was looking over the bike and I spotted this rubber band attached to the exhaust line.
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What the heck is that for? I cannot for the life of me work out where the other end is supposed to go. There is no hole or slot I can see on the sub frame.


These are my challenges for now, she started okay but I need to go through the carb and see what size jets are in there because she dies quickly with the choke off. I'll be posting more on this bike as I go through the engine etc as well.

Thanks guys

Neil :paw:
 
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