Drew's 850 L Restoration

[jsandidge]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm really happy how that 1st fork leg came out. Honestly, it was a ton of work. I originally started with 220 wet/dry sandpaper (what I had on hand), before I told myself that it was taking too long. So, I went to a 100 grit dry paper which worked much more quickly to remove the fine pitting. This still took a couple hours or more. From there, I went through the stages (all wet) from 220-400-600-800-1000-2000. Probably could have skipped a couple of the steps, but they each only took about 20 minutes or so. After that, I used a sisal wheel on my bench grinder with a red tripoli bar. Lastly was a cloth wheel on the bench grinder using a white rouge bar. I started the initial sanding on the 2nd fork last Sunday. I'll finish it Friday since I have the day off.

[Chromedome]

another Wow, when you started I thought you were mistakenly doing "The makeover begins!" on the wrong bike, LoL.
............(Polishing techniques ....... Yes Please)

[mikerophone]

Wow. Yes nice work indeed! I have the exact same bike and will be swapping the motor and harness into my 81 850G, and vice versa, then doing a mild cleanup on the frame, wheels and forks, guess I'd better do the carbs and engine while I'm at it.

Care to share the details on your polishing techniques?

Nice work!!

Nice and shiny! Careful...it can become an obsession. You're catching "the sickness."

[eil]

Wow! I think Mr. Steve has some competition in the shininess department...

[jsandidge]

Gettin some polishing done today. 1 more to go.

Enjoying the project. I did the same to mine not too long ago.

Well, here she is! They really did a nice job. I'll be taking my exhaust to these guys too for their jet hot coating when the time comes.

thats really nice, congrats on such a good finish! When I restored my 850L I painted the frame and I was so so about the finish...it wasn't as glossy as the factory, but yours has that nice gloss look to it!

[jsandidge]

Well, here she is! They really did a nice job. I'll be taking my exhaust to these guys too for their jet hot coating when the time comes.

[jsandidge]

Picked up the frame and swingarm from the powdercoaters today. I'll post pics this weekend. It's what they call mirror black. Looks great, I'm very pleased.

[QUOTE=jsandidge;2142824]Partway done with the frame.

[/QUO

TE]

Wow, awesome work on the frame...I just ordered my 50lb bag of soda ready to blast over the weekend. I hope the results come close to yours!

[jsandidge]

That is the same color scheme that was on my wife's bike when we got it about 10 years ago.

Looks a bit different today, you can click on the link in my sig to see how it looks now.

.

Quite different for sure. Mine will be mildly custom as well. How does that seat feel, and where did you get it?

[Steve]

That is the same color scheme that was on my wife's bike when we got it about 10 years ago.

Looks a bit different today, you can click on the link in my sig to see how it looks now.

.

[jsandidge]

I copied this thread under a new title. It was called "The makeover begins!" I feel that title is no longer appropriate as I've progressed a bit further than simply a beginning. Still a very long way to go though.