I used the OEM rear shock absorbers and springs from the 1U6 doner bike as the ones I had were Hagon. They were rusty as hell but serviceable so the first thing was to dismantle them. One of the tools I don’t have and didn’t buy is a spring compressor.
So I used a home made option. First you need to make sure the shocks are adjusted to the lower position.
It was much easier dismantling them this way than when it came to assembling them again. It would have been much easier with a second person to help… or if I had bought the tool. In my defense I did try to find one and even on the internet all the links I followed showed out of stock.
Once apart they needed cleaning up. These shocks cannot be dismantled further so had they been seized, no damping or signs of the seal leaking, the complete unit would need replacing. The springs were added to the box for bead blasting and powder coating.
There was (is) some rust on the chrome piston rods but not in the area of travel. I removed what I could and treated it with rust convertor. The chrome collars were added to the box for rechroming, something I wasn’t set up to do.
The rest I did by hand, wire brush, wet and dry, or with a grinder using a nylon 240 grit disc. This included the warning stickers which I could replace later with replica ones. I spray painted a primer coat and black gloss on the main body. The plastic sheaf was cleaned using a plastic color restorer, the same I used on all other black plastic parts.
