81 GS550T in Co Sprgs

[Flyboy]

HUH??? Snow, this time of the year? I guess you live up at altitude, like me, so you guys are the last to thaw out, strange how that works, you would think you would be the first, being closer to the sun and all.
I am still busy with the soul destroying job of stripping the frame down with the wire wheel on the drill, it is going slowwwwwwww.
Right now it feels like your grandchildren will be on here reading about my progress.

[tkent02]

HUH??? Snow, this time of the year? I guess you live up at altitude, like me, so you guys are the last to thaw out, strange how that works, you would think you would be the first, being closer to the sun and all.
(

No we get a lot of 60F and even 70F sunny riding weather all winter, and sometimes it snows in June. It's a high elevation thing, the weather here just does whatever it does. Honey Badger weather.

[chandler]

HUH??? Snow, this time of the year? I guess you live up at altitude, like me, so you guys are the last to thaw out, strange how that works, you would think you would be the first, being closer to the sun and all.
I am still busy with the soul destroying job of stripping the frame down with the wire wheel on the drill, it is going slowwwwwwww.
Right now it feels like your grandchildren will be on here reading about my progress.

hang in there flyboy once you get on a roll it goes by really quick that is the same thing i did with mine then followed up with a good orbital sander that has got to be the suckiest part of a rebuild

[Flyboy]

Agreed, I know it is the suckiest part of the job and the fun stuff will follow, but I am determined to do a proper, stunner rebuild and not a half azz job, so I guess it has to be done, the results will be well worthit though............................................ .................................................. ........................ or so I keep telling myself.

[cowboyup3371]

Bumping this up as I'll be adding more info on in the next couple of months.

[Guest]

Bumping this up as I'll be adding more info on in the next couple of months.

Nice Scott, will be looking forward to it

[cowboyup3371]

Well, since my riding time is done for awhile I figured I'd go ahead and get started on fixing more things on the bike. Everything was stuff I'd already planned to do in August but ran out of time with my jeep breaking down before leaving for Ohio. Then, I had planned to rush everything the weekend I got back so I could get the bike running before leaving for Seattle but the accident killed those plans.

But, this was one of the last few good weekends with temps above 60 degrees we're going to have for awhile so figured we'd take the wheels off so I can get the old tires taken off and start cleaning them up with the hope of painting them tomorrow.

I am doing small stuff like lining up the jack or removing cotter pins but the heavy stuff is being done by the kids. Last night, Cheyenne and Charmayne removed my exhaust pipes while Justin and Cheyenne did today's work (Char is finishing about a week's worth of missing assignments in the next three days for her 7th grade math and science classes).

So here we go:





Cheyenne and Justin loosening bolts to remove the rotors. I did knock the rotors off but am feeling it now. Even with the hammer and breaker bar it took a bit to get them around the hub.





I have the bottle jack out of my truck under the front of the engine as well as a jackstand up under the forks for now. My plan is to remove the forks probably this evening or tomorrow so I can start working on them.

I will probably also have to find a way to hook up a cargo strap to the deck so I can support the bike if we start getting good winds but I hope to have at least the back wheel on by next weekend.

And for those who complain about not having a garage to work in, here's mine...works well until we get our 30 - 60mph winds/gusts.



But, time to get lunch and get down to the motorcycle shop so they can remove tires for me.

[cowboyup3371]

So after two hours, the shop called to say my tires were off so here's what the rear and front wheels as well as the rear rotor looks like. I'm planning on cleaning up the current chrome areas and just repainting the black although I might see what other ideas will look like.

[Flyboy]

Hey Scott, good to see your thread back up here on the first page again, and work going on, on the bike.
I see you have commandeered the services of the whole clan of aprentices, hahahaha, good on you.
looking at those wheels gives me flash backs to when I did mine.......UUUUUURRRGGGGG, but hey, the result was worth it in the end, although I could still quite successfully persue a life of crime, as I still don't have any finger prints, from all the sanding.
Nothing like nice shiny wheels to set the bike off, it's going to look top class.
Love the homestead mate, oh how I miss wide open spaces, you lucky bugger.
What is in the out buildings, maybe commandeer one for a garage, or get some nice thick plastic drop sheets and hang them from the balcony on two sides at the corner there as tempory walls, will keep out most of the dust and wind.
Keep the updates coming, and don't go and strain yourself and bugger up your healing process now.

[cowboyup3371]

Thank you, I appreciate it. The sheds have tack and hay in one while the other has my workbench and some of my woodworking stuff. I do use it for small stuff but it couldn't handle the entire bike in it.

I'll have to go back and re-read your thread then about the wheels. Thanks for the info.

[Guest]

Definitely good to see stuff happening Scott! And having those little helpers must make things much easier

I've found my cats to be absolutely useless as helpers though...

That front wheel doesn't look too bad but the rear needs something.

I'm not sure if what I did with mine will suit your style or not, but I did gloss black on everything except the lip of the rim which I will eventually polish up...

[Flyboy]

I did gloss black on everything except the lip of the rim which I will eventually polish up...

You supposed to polish first, then paint, eish. There's no teaching you Auzzies anything

[Guest]

You supposed to polish first, then paint, eish. There's no teaching you Auzzies anything

Don't forget we're upside down Stan!

[cowboyup3371]

Although I said I wanted to take advantage of the good weather to paint today, it didn't happen. Instead, I decided to remove other parts that needed painting as well as cleaning up. Plus, weather.com says we should have 70s next weekend again so I'll spend the week cleaning and try to paint next weekend IF it holds true.

So, drained the oil, removed the stator cover and carbs, and got the forks out. Charmayne had her first oil bath today when some dripped on her from the oil pan; still not hearing the end of that one. Carbs needed to come off anyway because I'm rebuilding my cam chain tensioner and replacing intake boots so figured i'd get that much done. Then, we wrapped the bike up tight for now in case what weather we get is nasty.

Here are all the pics I have from today; the fun part will be cleaning off the old base sticker from the left fork.





The tarp is held on by bailing twine and down by some rocks

.

Will start cleaning tomorrow.

[7981GS]

the fun part will be cleaning off the old base sticker from the left fork.

I just did that a few days ago on the fork for the Cooley project.
After getting some tiny bits off with a single edge razor blade...
Brake cleaner and a fine steel wool pad did the trick.

Daniel