For a certain kind of person, there’s a particular joy in bringing a previously abandoned bike back from the dead. That’s exactly what you’ll see in the latest restoration timelapse from RRC Restoration, a YouTube channel that typically does an impeccable job on the projects that it tackles. While this channel tends to favor workshop ASMR rather than extensive use of music beds, there’s also plenty of explanation about what’s going on at the pertinent points in each video.
As you’ve probably already noted from the photo, what we have here is an extremely sad-looking Ducati 748 SPS from the late 1990s. It was apparently left to sit in a barn for some time and was a project bike that someone started but never got around to finishing.
Luckily for RRC Restoration (and us viewers), he rescued it from the barn situation, and has even already found a new owner for it once it’s been fixed up. The catch: The new owner doesn’t want a full restoration, just something mechanically-sound and ride-ready, so they can flog it at the track. No concours-level perfection required; just a sound bit of maintenance and rejuvenation, then.
If you’re familiar with RRC Restoration’s past work, then you know that he tends to take his builds to an impressive level of exactitude. As such, you might be a little disappointed upon hearing that this isn’t going to be a total restoration. Know what, though? Even if he doesn’t take it quite as far as usual, it’s still an impressive thing to watch come together, and to see all the work that goes into getting everything back in good riding order.
From a full fork rebuild, to a full brake caliper rebuild (though he leaves out a little bit, because he’s done videos exclusively dedicated to brake caliper rebuilds in the past that he links instead, if you’re curious), to checking the clutch and changing and tensioning the timing belts, there’s a lot of work that needs doing before this little Duc is ready to sit in a row. The headlights—which won’t be needed on track but are necessary for any road riding purposes—need some serious soap and brush action. It’s kind of amazing what a bit of cleaning can do, though—as you’ll soon see.
Toward the end, there’s a respray/touchup of the body panels, which the previous owner had started to do but neglected halfway through. Since RRC has previously worked on Ducatis in this shade before, he has a paint formula ready to match and blend with that yellow. Sure enough, the finished result looks pretty spectacular. Maybe this bike didn’t need to be showroom-fresh, but it’s still looking awfully good by the time he’s finished with it.
Only one question remains at the end: How long do you have to let foam air filters sit before they start disintegrating when you touch them? That’s the state these ones were in when RRC pulled them out for inspection, but since he’s replaced them with new ones, hopefully the new owner will never have reason to find out for themselves.
