This is a tale of resurrection. I’d picked up this Ducati Monster, which I christened Gordon, as a trade buy from Hyside Motorcycles. Although that meant no warranty was implied or given, I did negotiate an MOT, enough petrol to get me home and a nice cuppa into the deal.
He’d sat neglected and unloved in the past. Dented tank, sun-bleached carbon, acid stains (as usual with a Monster), rusty chain, dry as a bone and on the floor. He also had the misfortune to be a ‘Dark’ model with Matt Black paint. But he fired up willingly enough and ran fine, so off we went. We enjoyed a couple of rides last summer, but then he was retired to my kitchen whilst I spent time with my other Ducati, a mint Blood Red 748.
Come Spring 2014, and to help my cash flow the decision is made. It’s time to get Gordon looking good again and sell him on.
The first thing was to decide what carbon could be saved. So I rubbed down and re-lacquered the clutch cover, timing belt covers and petrol tank cap. The other carbon items, flyscreen, front mudguard and wheel guards, along with the tank and side panels, were dispatched to my old mucker Gary Mudd for re-spraying.
At first I wanted it standard Matt Black, but Gary happened to have some spare gloss metallic black paint, which I believe is a BMW car colour with tiny gold and blue flecks. As usual with Gary, it came out really well. Armed with advice from Gary and my other paint guru and good friend Paul ‘Monster’ Cowshell, I tackled the rough parts of the frame and the left-hand-side engine casing. Despite a few mistakes on the way, I eventually got it all done.
Sadly Gary is currently fighting cancer, so if you’re religious please say a prayer for him – and if not, please spare a thought for him and his family.
Back to Gorden Monster and I had a brain wave. Now I had a mean and moody Ducati, why not get the very scratched screen ‘wrapped’ in gloss black? Contacting a local place in South London with a promising website I got a quote of around £35-£40. So Gordon now has a sprayed screen with some more metallic black paint, following lots of rubbing down, 2 coats of primer, 2 of black, 1 of lacquer, and then redoing it all over again after it ran – Bo**ocks!
So Gordon the Ducati Monster is well on the way to being resurrected and getting to know a new owner sometime very soon.
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