1980 GS1000S Reluctant Rebuild

[Kiwi Canuck]

Here is a fender on eBay. Looks to be the same as the S.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-SUZUKI-...c3e871&vxp=mtr

Thanks Rich, I have one coming from another member, but I purchased this one as well as it was very reasonable.
I will try them both and get the best one painted for this bike.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Front Brake Caliper Overhaul

Front Calipers had seized bleed nipples on both and one stuck piston, I couldn't wait for the penetrating oil to work so I put them in a pot of water and put them on the BBQ side burner and let them boil for 10 mins, hit them with cold water and then the bleed nipples came undone no problems.
I then wrapped the caliper in a big rag and hit it with air gun, one pop and the piston was out, very nice.
Cleaned them up with simple green, washed with hot water, dry with air gun and then blow dryer for a few minutes to make sure all moisture was gone and then painted them with my favourite VHT Satin Black Caliper Paint.
I will cure them in my Electric Smoker, it reaches 300F max so should be good. Not sure if I should use Applewood or Hickory

[Kiwi Canuck]

Air Box Lid

Another piece I am having a hard time dealing with is the air box lid, is completely mashed in, I straighten it the best I could and gave it a good sanding and then painted with Satin Black Paint.
It looks terrible, as all I’ve done is proven that guys that are good at this trade are worth every penny and then some.

Here’s the before picture.



The after Picture, just image the same picture but a bit more shiny.

The air box is still available and it looks like it must include the lid but a bit expensive at $153.00

Any one have a spare lid that's in good shape, OK if it needs paint as I'm OK at painting, just don't have the knack for straightening stuff.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Can you spot the difference

See if you can spot the difference, I received this head gasket from Boulevard about a month ago but never removed them from the package to check it till recently. A bit of a shock to say the least.
The original one is on the bottom, just incase you needed a hint.



They have already shipped me the correct one so thanks to Brent at Boulevard, always had awesome service from them.

[nvr2old]

[QUOTE=Kiwi Canuck;1887796]



Aw, heck..just flip it over onto a smooth, flat, hard surface and take a hammer and a small block of wood and lightly tap the dents back out using the flat surface as a dolly, and then skim coat it with a bit of plastic filler if needed, prime, paint..badda bing, badda boom..

[SVSooke]

Hmmm...........I missed the Suzi with the cam chain on the side like that.If you want to send that cover over I'll straighten it,replace the stripping and repaint if you'd like.Those cover are pretty hard to get.

[Kiwi Canuck]

[QUOTE=nvr2old;1887823]

Aw, heck..just flip it over onto a smooth, flat, hard surface and take a hammer and a small block of wood and lightly tap the dents back out using the flat surface as a dolly, and then skim coat it with a bit of plastic filler if needed, prime, paint..badda bing, badda boom..

Thanks Larry, so the piece of wood is the trick, I may as well have been using a centre punch, that's how it looked when I was done.
Actually I used a small picture framers hammer as it fitted between the groves, and used my vise as the base, I ended up with lots of little bumps, I will try the block of wood method as that makes sense.
Also I suspect I may need to use some filler.
I think my point is well made, you guys who are very good at this think of this as easy.
My challenge is being able to tell when something is prepared well enough and I go ahead and paint the piece only to find it's far from perfect.
It's the thin metal that gives me the most challenges as I seem to do OK with painting heavier pieces, like engine brackets and cailpers etc.

Larry, you mentioned priming before paint, when I touched up my frame I didn't use primer, just sanded the damaged areas back to bare metal with 220, 320 and finished it with 600 grit, and then painted with VHT Roll bar & Chassis Gloss Black.
Will the paint stick OK or should I have used primer?
I am curing it with a blow dryer and on really hot days leaving it out in the sun.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Hmmm...........I missed the Suzi with the cam chain on the side like that.If you want to send that cover over I'll straighten it,replace the stripping and repaint if you'd like.Those cover are pretty hard to get.

Greg, that's a very generous offer, I may take you up on that. I should give it one more go using Larry's advice and see if I can improve on my last effort.

Cheers,

[SVSooke]

Piece of advise,get a proper metal work ball peen hammer.Framing hammers have rounded faces,ball peens are flat.It's really not that bad you should be able to get it good.

[nvr2old]

[QUOTE=Kiwi Canuck;1887934]

Thanks Larry, so the piece of wood is the trick, I may as well have been using a centre punch, that's how it looked when I was done.
Actually I used a small picture framers hammer as it fitted between the groves, and used my vise as the base, I ended up with lots of little bumps, I will try the block of wood method as that makes sense.
Also I suspect I may need to use some filler.
I think my point is well made, you guys who are very good at this think of this as easy.
My challenge is being able to tell when something is prepared well enough and I go ahead and paint the piece only to find it's far from perfect.
It's the thin metal that gives me the most challenges as I seem to do OK with painting heavier pieces, like engine brackets and cailpers etc.

Larry, you mentioned priming before paint, when I touched up my frame I didn't use primer, just sanded the damaged areas back to bare metal with 220, 320 and finished it with 600 grit, and then painted with VHT Roll bar & Chassis Gloss Black.
Will the paint stick OK or should I have used primer?
I am curing it with a blow dryer and on really hot days leaving it out in the sun.

You just need to keep the cover as flat as possible when you tap the dents out. A small hammer head that is able to get in between the recesses would be great. Just hold it securely to the flat surface and tap them out as best you can. Having them a little low would be better then tapping them out too far and creating domes rather then low spots. A small ball peen hammer would work great as mentioned. I suggested the wood as an alternative to having something small enough to get in there with. Primer should be used anytime you get down to bare metal, or especially if you use plastic filler. You just need to be able to fill the sand scratches more then anything, primer does that really well. Sand the primer with some 400, maybe finish it with a bit of 600 and then spray away. It really is pretty easy, and that piece is a good part to practice on.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Picked up replacement crank today

Went to my mail box and picked up the crank and a few other packages.

Charlie, you did an awesome job packaging the crank, very nice job.

I have dropped it off to have it checked out to make sure it's running true after the shipping.

Also picked up the fender Nejeff sent, again nice job packing the part, it's almost too good to paint as the chrome is in excellent condition.

I also received the ebay GS1000G fender and I will probably have that one painted in the Cooley colours.

Lots of work planned for this long Canada Day Weekend.

Larry, I know you posted the colours for the Cooley paint scheme, but I can't find them, can you post them again please.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Painting my Nuts & Bolts

Thought I would give this a go and see how it works out. The first batch worked out OK so I'm going for it and doing a bigger batch this time.
These are the bolts from the upper crank case and 2 of the front caliper bolts.

Here's the before


Here's the after



Then I will cure them at 200F for 1 hour, I set the timer for 3 hrs at 300F to clean the smoker first, then I'll program it for 1hr at 200F.



I had tried using a hair dryer to cure some parts but got them too hot and the paint blistered so I'll stick to the smoker as the temp is very accurate, and it shuts down after the programmed time and holds at 140F until I get to shut it off manually.

Edit, just took them out of the smoker and installed the caliper bolts, absolutely no marring on the bolt head when tightening them down, worked really well.
They look like they have been cadmium plated.

[Kiwi Canuck]

More progress

Got the front calipers rebuilt and back together, just waiting on the Rennsport SS lines which should be here next week.

Also if you look closely you may be able to see one of the caliper bolts is painted with the chrome paint, that was my first couple I tried and it looks pretty good to me and didn't markup very much when I tightened it up.



Also got the front fenders today, one chrome one and one painted one, so I mocked up the painted one and it sits much straighter than the original one.
I dropped off the fender and a few other parts to get painted, I will get the rest of the major parts painted in the winter when the painter is not so busy, he is the same guy that painted BigD 83's GS650 Tank.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=209939

[Kiwi Canuck]

A Little Bit Of Chrome

Thought I would see how the chrome fender looked on the bike, when I was installing it I had a flash back from when I owned a skunk in 78, guess I'd polished that front fender a few times and it took me back in time for a few seconds.

Here how it looks on the Cooley, not sure I could ever get used to it.
It's in pretty good shape and way to good to have it painted.
Not sure what I'll do with it now but maybe I'll keep it as a spare or if anyone needs a nice chrome fender for a GS1000 just let me know.

[nvr2old]

Larry, I know you posted the colours for the Cooley paint scheme, but I can't find them, can you post them again please.[/QUOTE]

The colors I use are both Ford colors. The PPG paint is called "St. Lawrence White" and "Bahama Blue". If the paint store can't reference those, may I suggest having them scan your side cover to give them the formula to match the existing parts.

You're right about the chrome fender, it's too nice to sand blast for paint..do the painted one.. I certainly would hang on to the original, too. It looks to me to be very repairable.