I’ll try to make a long story short. I have a Super Combat that I restored about 20 years ago. It’s been sitting in my basement game room since that time. I’ve decided to take it down to the bare frame and restore it correctly this time.It was basically the first bike I ever restored, and although it’s nice, I want to make it nicer. I’ve restored quite a few bikes since then, mostly Honda’s, and a couple of Yamaha’s. My restorations are pretty accurate and what I consider to be “high end” restorations. I don’t restomod my bikes, and I don’t modify them much unless it’s to add stainless brake lines or something for safety’s sake. I do occasionally ride my restorations, but I probably won’t ride the Super Combat. I’ve had a couple of back surgeries over the years and my dirt days are pretty much behind me. My Honda’s always use genuine Honda hardware and I put factory type finishes on every part. I don’t polish aluminum to a chrome like shine when it came with a brushed look. I do tend to make my paint jobs a little shinier than the factory did, and I clear over decals. Other than that, I like to be as factory correct as possible.
That brings me to the problem with the Super Combat. When I restored it, I painted the hubs, (Paul told me to) I painted a lot of the hardware silver, and I replaced a bunch of the smaller hardware with hardware store stuff. I truly had no idea what I was doing! I also painted the cylinder and head because someone had bead blasted it and left a rather course finish on it. So… what I need from you Hodaka experts is guidance on what finishes these parts had. I’m planning on redoing the hubs and putting a brushed or slightly polished finish on them. I’m going to take the paint off of the sprocket and do it in a raw steel type of finish. Right off the top of my head, I need to know what kind of finish the foot pegs had, what type of finish did the foot peg brackets have? Did Hodaka use hardware with any kind of markings on them, such as the markings on Honda hardware? How about things such as the brake rod for the rear brakes? Brushed finish? I do have a Caswell zinc coating system, so anything that should be raw zinc can be done that way and not painted silver like I did 20 years ago.
I know there are a couple of the old factory guys on here, and I just think that is SO cool! What a wealth of knowledge you guys have available to you that pretty much no other brand has is a great thing. If ANYBODY has any photos of a new Super Combat that I can get clues off of, that would be fantastic. Or any of the factory guys that remember these things as new that would be willing to help me, I would be forever grateful. I’m sorry that I’m not fixing this thing up to ride like a lot of you have done, but I have other bikes that I ride, and I want this bike to be a museum piece.
Sorry this post is so long winded, but I know you guys are passionate about these bikes and wanted to give you as much detail I could as to where I’m headed with this bike.
Thanks for any help, and I’m sure I’ll have more questions as the process unfolds.
