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1978 GS550 Project

E

ensure

Forum Mentor
I made utterances in my recent GSX1150 Rebuilds that I would post something about my GS550 that I restored in 2019-2019 so here we are.
I bought it for about $450 and spent a similar amount getting it transported the 500km from where I bought it to home.
These are the previous owners pictures of the bike lounging around in a paddock.
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I have had to upload these whereas previously I just inserted link to photo sharing site. And there is a limit of 1 attachment per post.

Anyway as you can see it is a bit tired looking. It is missing side covers and chainguard but otherwise everything is there


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I had been looking for 1 of these bikes to restore because it was the first Road Bike i owned back in 1981.

Here is the original bought new from Wellington Motorcycle centre in May 1980 ($2400 if I recall correctly)
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On scratching off the paintwork on the tank I found that my bike was originally Blue so that pleased me.
 
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Using Imgbb:
If you want your pics to show up in the forum and post multiple images, on the IBB page, you have to go to the Embed codes (bottom Left) and copy the BBCode-full image, and paste it into your post. It doesn’t fill up the forum because the images are still hosted off-site. Doing it this way makes them show up nice and big and viewers don’t have to click on a link or thumbnail to see the full image.

limit for this used to be 10 images per post. Not sure what it is now with the updated bulletin board. 11 of your images below. 12 if you count the thumbnail of the sprocket that now I can’t seem to edit out




















 
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Thanks Rich82GS750TZ

Copying in the BBCode for full image the text just disappears and there is no picture (until much later)


And if I copy it in to the photo attachment box it just tells me its not a valid image file.
 
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Now that I seem to have grasped the procedure I shall get on with the project story

So having got the tank stripped back to bare metal I could see there were a few dents that a PO had filled in. The main task was to ensure I got all the rust removed from around these fills.



I even toyed with the idea of going bare metal but decided against it as the tank wasn't quite up to standard



Next job was to clean the carbs. This bike came with VM carbs & a kickstarter whereas my original bike had CV carbs and No kickstarter. I only know this from studying my original photo. At the time I couldnt tell the difference between a CV carb and a spark plug. I just put petrol in it and it went. The innocence (& naievity) of youth

3 of the carbs were in reasonable condition and just needed a thorough cleaning



The 4th was a different storey and was severely corroded inside on the stem that the main jet goes into. I know this is an awful photo but gives some idea of the situation



Once I cleaned all the crud off I could still insert the main jet but there was a gap where the o-ring should seal against the body.
What to do? I tried ordering some second hand carbs (Nos 2 & 3) from the UK but came up against Export restrictions so I bade my time checking the local TradeMe listings. Eventually something came up but I had to buy a whole engine to get the carbs. Oh well, spare parts that I dont know I need yet.
 
Next job was getting the seat recovered. The seat on the bike was in ordinary condition once you looked past the torn cover



The usual rust base









I am quite good at fixing seat bases now so after de-rusting it was out with the fibreglass and resin






Then a bit of rubber strip around the edges



and a spray of black paint



and a cover it was good as new

 
Except I didnt like it. So it was out with the spare seat. It had a bit more substance to it. There was a tiny tear in the cover so I ordered a new one from UK and waited.



The seatbase in this one was the usual standard but easily repairable



The new cover turned up eventually and it was the classic look that i wanted



Once I get the strap across the middle to pull it tight it will be just right
 
I found another seller on TradeMe who was fairly local advertising spare parts for a GS550 so I went to have a look. I was after a Grab Rail for the seat and he had some parts that I already had but I could see his were in better condition so I bought the lot to save a bit of effort sanding / polishing my pieces.
Just as I was leaving he says Oh I've got an old exhaust too . Do you want it ? He will throw it in for the price we had agreed. Sure I thought. So he dragged it out of the corner of the barn. It was pretty rust / dirty but I was sure I could do something with it

Once I got it home and gave it a clean I could see it had some promise. A fair bit of surface rust on the chrome but no holes




 
I had been doing the easy chores as the bike was still outside and so I could not start the dismantling process until this point. I was just taking off the easy bits.



The frame was a nice shade of rusty brown



A bit of sanding and rust treatment + a coat of undercoat got it to this stage



I did an alternate colour so that when I paint the top coat in 2K gloss black I can see if I have missed anywhere

The engine came up quite well with a good clean and polish. The only real issue I came across was the Return spring on the kickstarter was not hooked around the correct spot adjacent to the clutch



The next pieces to get some loving were the rear shocks. Here is a before / after shot to show the difference. I used a dishwah type scrubbing pad and then some metal polish

 
The tank got a nice white undercoat and then some matching blue. I took the tank to my local automotive paint store and they matched it.



Then a couple of coats of blue



and on with the decals. I do all my best work at the dining table



and the side panels



and the rear tail light surround

 
I eventually got the carbs back together with my replacement carb in there. I even got them to a reasonable consistency across the 4



This is the kickstart spring that I had issues getting inserted correctly. I could get in in and it would work 5 or 6 times and then come unclipped again. In the end I settled on using the Electric start.



So then it became a matter of assembling it again. I think I have all the pieces



Grease up the Bearings and new oil / seals in the forks





 
The spare engine came in handy for swapping a few Shims and fastening bolts



Getting there





I got it together with the original 4n1 exhaust so I could get it on the road



First ride it was running really well around town but once I got out on motorway it was flat out at 100km/h so I upped the Main jet size from 80 to 95 (in 3 goes) It now goes uphill at 110km/h and faster on the flat and still runs well at lower speeds.

It sat around for a few weeks and the fuel tap developed a slow leak through the o-ring so the paint started to peel off underside of the tank. It also dripped off onto the front edge of the LH side cover so that smeared up a little as well.
The side cover issue became non-existent when I was riding the bike over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and when I was right at the top in the lane next to railing the side cover fell off and bounced off the road into the harbour. I have quite a record of losing side covers.
So I bought another side cover, got another set of decals and started again which touching up the tank as well, and replacing the fuel tap o-ring so it didnt happen again.

I had also finished with the 4n2 exhaust by this stage so I painted over the damaged chrome with a Cast Iron colour.
 
And this is how it ended up. It took me about 11 months to get here.







New chrome Headlight Ring



New Chain Guard







 
Always a good feeling when a project all comes together especially as nice as it came out. Must've taken awhile to set up all the parts on the sidewalk..lol
 
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