82 GS1100G "patina mod"

[miked]

We have resto mod, pro street - I'm going with patina mod. No painting, limited polishing, rust removal, a lot of WD-40 t to lift the crud, and cleaning as much of the deep crud off the bike as I can so that it wears a clean patina shine. Let it show it's age

So far - forks rebuilt, dead R/R that was cut out of the harness removed from under the battery tray, the R/R sitting on the back fender behind the battery wired in with wire nuts was soldered in with heat shrink and installed under the battery tray. New Shinkos front and rear. New throttle cable. New battery. New petcock. Replaced intake O-rings. Prob more that I can't think of. Lots of rags sacrificed cleaning the thing and much more to go. Big box of weather pack connectors arriving soon to change out all the 43 year old connectors, and do a bunch of relay mods with new sheathing and heat shrink tape as I go thru the harness.

Reassembled the battery/fuse box/starter relay today. Saw spark in all 4 holes. Compression tester was ancient, hose cracked and leaking, so it got tossed and a new one arrives soon, but all holes were moving the dial.

Tank is off, and I threw some gas down the carb feed fuel hose from a bottle to fill the float bowls and tried to get it to fire. It barked once but wouldn't go.

Tore the carbs off and disassembled them.

I've never ever seen anything like this. Wet bowls were full of gas jelly, dry bowls full of jelly powder

Was able to get them stripped and 1 and 2 are in the solvent soak overnight. 3 still has a stuck pilot that is soaking in PB. 4 has so much crap in the pilot tube that the loose jet won't come out. Pilots and nozzles were gummed up, barely see day light thru 2 of the 4 mains. Honestly, it was pretty impressive level of mayhem. Photos to follow

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[Nessism]

Those carbs are rough! Water got in there. Gas leaves varnish, which is relatively easy to clean, unlike what you have there.

Do you have a pressure washer? If so, maybe blast some of that crud loose.

[Burque73]

Ewww, patina jelly.

[Rob S.]

That's some impressive interior carb patina!

[miked]

that's the kind of patina that we don't like!

can't believe that I forgot almost 6 hours of work - someone in the bikes past life had filled both tires with fix-a-flat and then just left it all in there. What-a-mess. Big puddle of green goo rolling around in the back tire when I pulled it from the rim. Both beads were full of crusty green goop and black tire rubber, and the center was 1/2" deep (not kidding/exaggerating) with fix-a-flat jelly that needed to be scooped out - more jelly! Took the red scotchbrite pad to the bead and got it pretty well cleaned up, but the shop vac seemed constantly in use to get all the mess that was falling off the tire. Should have gotten a pic but...

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new.jpg From the CL for sale ad

[lizzywhite45]

That’s some gnarly carb gunk, jelly and powder is next level. Sounds like water sat in there forever. You’re on the right track though, soaking and cleaning slow.

Love the patina mod approach. Clean it up, don’t cover it up. Once the carbs and wiring are done, I bet she’ll come to life. Can’t wait to see pics!

[Burque73]

That pic must have been taken looooong before it sat and decomposed inside. Looks really nice. I wouldn't have guessed all that crud was hiding in the carbs or tires.

[scratch]

I can smell the varnish from here

[miked]

bike looked "period correct" when I saw it with 2 flats. But once those covers, the seat, and the tank came off I got the bad news. Nah, I shouldn't say that, it's just *so* dirty and oily. But it's also 42 years old and has a questionable past. Spotted a couple of things on the cam end caps and some wiring splices that lead me to believe that the motor has been out and worked on. Has 36k on the clock

The carbs are a hot mess. O-rings and tiny washers missing on 2 of the idle screws, the air/fuel screw covers had already been taken off, so someone has been thru these carbs before. And I've got the jelly dust everywhere.... Non Mikuni 114 main jets (that at least are all the same size), hogged out frozen screws on top of the #2 cap so it's never been cleaned, just jetted. Got those hogged out screws off with vice grips. One of the needles poking out of the bellows has a washer epoxied to the bottom (#4??) that I've never seen before. I had to destroy the #20 float seats to get them out of all the carbs. Wrong fuel hose size used - had a shutoff valve installed right off the petcock and in between where one side was 5/16, then the output was 3/8, then the 3/8 had another stretch of 5/16 stuffed into the 3/8 clear hose held together with a clamp. The vacuum port on #2 carb completely open, no hose to the tank or blockoff cover.

But I should be able to overcome all of this.

Think I'm going to get a 6x6 alum baking pan with tall sides and fill it with gas, and go at the carbs with a couple of new toothbrushes and scrub them all up to get them clean. Then blow them out with the compressor. Couple of clogged pilot jets that should blow out. The small holes on the sides of pilots and the nozzles are clear, just clogged pilots. I'm surprised that it barked once when I tried to start it tbh given the mayhem I'm seeing.

Ordered a brush kit to get into the tight spots, that arrives on Monday. Have an o-ring kit from Nessism inbound "soon"

truthfully, I'm kinda having fun with it, I like a good challenge and this is certainly one. Very optimistic.

[Burque73]

.............................
truthfully, I'm kinda having fun with it, I like a good challenge and this is certainly one. Very optimistic.

Super!!

(And a few more characters )