1982 GS300 Project - Where do I start

[hjacobmiller]

Let's see if I can express how I much I like this idea:

:clap::lol:

Awesome!!!! IT IS AMAZING THANK YOU TIMTOM!!!!

With the black seat!!! It is so awesome!

Thank you so much!

 

[Guest]

I believe we may have a happy camper on our hands

And apologies for messing with your good work Tim, but this is what I was thinking along the lines of for a border with the white seat... I think it would work ok...

 

[Tim Tom]

Let's see if I can express how I much I like this idea: :clap::lol:
Awesome!!!! IT IS AMAZING THANK YOU TIM TOM!!!!
With the black seat!!! It is so awesome!
Thank you so much!

Glad you like it! The black seat looks better to me too, not to mention much easier to keep clean

You should be able to re-use the stock pan and re-shape the foam to how you want it to look. This way you don't have to worry about trying to make a seat that is not designed for your bike to fit and attach. Simply use the trumpy seat as a template / guide line.

Excited to see how this one turns out, it has the potential to be a really cool bike!

 

[hjacobmiller]

Again, just plain awesome!

More good news today - went to look at a place to live and it has a shed! No power, but a shed where I can wrench to my hearts content!

*POTENTIAL* is an excellent way to put what this bike has hahaha!

So, now how to get it up here is my next dilemma....

Don't move in til the first, but I'm definitely stoked I have a little shed.

 

[hjacobmiller]

I believe we may have a happy camper on our hands

And apologies for messing with your good work Tim, but this is what I was thinking along the lines of for a border with the white seat... I think it would work ok...

I think the only way to have that line go up on the frame like that is if I still glass some of the seat pan and then paint over it obviously.Although if I do that I won't have to worry about bringing those side panels up further like Tim was talking about.

I'll have to take a look and see what I can do with that old pan.

ARG! I hate having to actually work now! And it only gets busier from here on out!

 

[Guest]

Glad you got a shed Jake! You just need to get some battery powered fluros in there and you'll be laughin'! Winter could be interesting with no heat but you could always stick a pot belly stove in the corner or something...

Personally I think the black seat's better and will certainly make life a lot easier.

With the white seat and green trim you'd definitely be doing some fibreglass trim for it...

 

[hjacobmiller]

I've been a little incognito lately - working like crazy. 70+ hours a week/ 7 days a week. Gives me a chance to save up some $ for the bike though

My bike sits a couple hundred miles away in a garage...but I am going to get her in like two weeks!

In the mean time I've been doing a little browsing & brainstorming.

I really like the idea of a flyscreen painted to match. I know I have to be careful to not lose the 50s theme, but I think that if I did it right and possibly put a headlight visor on it it might work. Some thing like this:

http://www.flyncycle.com/universal_motorcycle_fly_windscreen_p/scru001.htm

Combined with this:
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.co...eadlight-Spotlight-Visor.aspx?WT.ac=SLIsearch

I'll need to measure the headlight and see what diameter it is...

I need to get the handle bar controls straightened out because it is just too bunched up and they are at extreme angles and just not great. Looking around but open to any suggestions.

As far as tail lights, I've browsed a bit too:

http://www.jpcycles.com/product/3400145
http://www.jpcycles.com/product/340-201

Still haven't come up with any thing I like more than TimTom's suggestion.

Also making a list of purchases (brakes, tires, cables). I think I want to have new headers made eventually and throw on some slip on mufflers. I am just still not happy with how the pipes I have on there are mounted. I feel like there is a leak and I just am too much of a newb to know how to find it and fix it. Maybe if I just cut the OEM one's off and had a chance to mount the OEM headers without all the weight of the mufflers on there I would be more comfortable with it....

I'm brainstorming about electronic/battery location, etc & I'm still debating about pods. It just cleans up so nice but it takes soo much work.

OK enough of me rambling... I'll throw up some pics of gettin her loaded up and into her new home in a couple of weeks!

Until then if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to help me day dream! Need something to keep me going through all this work!

 

[Guest]

Hmmm... yes to the headlight visor, no to that shape screen... that really won't work I don't think although I could be wrong.

I think you're better off with something more traditionally shaped like this:

http://shop.nationalcycle.com/perl/..._id=qhqeDVRr&mv_arg=N2543&search_model=tr-013

As for the tail light and indicators, you want something from a Bonneville:

 

[hjacobmiller]

Been a long time!

Been a long time!

Hi All who may still be subscribed.

Been a while since I've updated my progress. Started my new job, been studying for the CPA exams, moving, etc. What a mess!

Well, I'll give a few updates on whats been happening with my project over the last couple of months.

Moved from my place and loaded the ol' girl up. The bike too :lol:

Got it up to my new place and rode it around a couple times, but decided that the traffic in Washington DC is a little bit too hectic for the brakes and tires I had, so I decided I should probably look into to getting those fixed. Well, being the festering sort of person I am, I decided to just get the whole rebuild process under way because I'm not going to get much better weather to work outside in my new shed than what is going now and I'd rather give up three weeks of riding this year and have the whole summer next year!

So I decided I'm just going to start at the front and work my way back, slowly derusting, cleaning, painting, rebuilding, etc.

I've been doing a lot of window shopping for where I want to go with it, as some of the original parts are just WAY too rusted, pitted, or otherwise damaged to be reused. I found the exact car that I am using for inspiration on a walk around the neighborhood. What a beaut!

Some more pics will follow later tonight and I hope to be on here more!

 

[Guest]

Good stuff Jake, glad to see you're progressing again!

Love that car too!

 

[hjacobmiller]

Good stuff Jake, glad to see you're progressing again!

Love that car too!

Cheers Pete!

So, I invested in a bench grinder and spent the day doin' a bit o' polishing, shining up and getting ready for paint.

Before:

During:

After:

Does anyone have any input about doing the progressive suspension upgrade? Is it worth it?

 

[Tim Tom]

Hey Jake,

Good to see this build is progressing again! I wish I had a shed...
Fantastic luck that your inspiration lives just around the corner with that old Chevy.

I like the idea of the headlight visor. It fits well with your theme. Also I think that second tail light you put up is pretty cool. This one would look pretty good I think. Certainly much better than the boxy Suzuki unit.

http://www.jpcycles.com/product/340-201

You mentioned the progressive suspension. I did the fork springs on my bike before last season. It wasn't hard to do, and the springs were pretty cheap. The bike certainly rides better now too. I ran a season with the upgraded forks and the old stockers on the back, lets just say the new rears made a huge difference.

Glad to see you back at the bike!

 

[hjacobmiller]

Cheers Tim Tom!

No working on the bike today, but looking up part numbers to see what I can use on mine. Need the SS bolts for the cases, as I realized I am missing one bolt of my clutch cover Must not have tightened one down when I did the chain! Bugger, oh well I wanted the SS upgrade any ways.

What a pain!

I think tomorrow night I'm going to keep tearing down a bit more. Its sort of nerve wracking because it means I'll have to clean, polish and paint and then put back together!

Until later.....

 

[hjacobmiller]

Tada....

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...-retro-chrome-hot-rod-taillight-62-21660.html

Now if only I could figure out how to mount it with these some how...

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...d-aluminum-blinkers-turn-signals-25-8321.html

 

[Guest]

Mate that should be dirt simple to make a bracket to hold those onto your rear guard... they would definitely look the part!

 

[hjacobmiller]

Mate that should be dirt simple to make a bracket to hold those onto your rear guard... they would definitely look the part!

You think? I'm nervous as I've never really made anything out of metal before and I don't want the bracket to look like crud and have flashy lights.

Just worked a little before it got dark. Gonna nuke some food, take some pics and I'll post in a few hours again.

 

[hjacobmiller]

Moving right along..

Moving right along..

So, got a little bit of work done this week, although I wish I had gotten a little bit more done. That durned "job" thing just gets in the way...

Just a little update on my workspace. This is obviously not my shed, but I have cornered out a little space in my basement studio for working on the smaller things, and reassembling to a point once things are clean. Its not the best, but its certainly not the worst either. Lights, heat, and beer in the fridge upstairs makes it manageable.

I was able to get most of the rear accessories (seat, light, bumper,etc.) taken off, disassembled and labeled today. My goal is to have to bare frame by Saturday night so I can strip paint and wire wheel on Sunday. Called a guy about having some powder coating done, not a terrible price for the frame and swingarm ($250 to blast and coat) and he's willing to work out a deal for extra parts.

Here's some of the things I've taken off and cleaned up a bit:

Probably will strip the controls completely and wire brush them. Think it will look pretty slick...

Need some advice on what to do with the underside of my fenders. The top chrome is in good shape, but the underside looks like garbage. I know no one can see it, but this much rust needs to be taken care of:

My filing system for the inventory of parts I am accumulating:

I'd been nursing a crack on my side cover tab with gorilla glue since I bought the bike, but tonight it finally gave in and I'm stuck with a lovely hole in one of my covers. This may not be a problem if I switch to pods and just do some metal covers on the side, so now it sits.

Finally, I took a couple of hours this week to finish cleaning up that old seat pan I bought a couple months ago. Looks like it will be super easy to work with, as tin snips and a rat-tail file are all I need to shave it down.

Well that is all for now. I may take some time this weekend to drop a boat load of photos on finishing up the tear down. I'll probably have a ton of questions about the next steps as well, including tires, opinions on colors (see my paint thread) and general newb restore/rebuild issues.

Side note - anyone heard from Razor recently?

 

[Tim Tom]

That is a great looking workspace! Trust me. I do my work in a cold, damp, dimly lit parking garage basement with NO power, NO heat, not even a workbench !

Your basement looks like a cozy place to build a motorcycle to me.

About that broken side cover, it can be repaired. There are a few methods, all covered in large somewhere on here. One of them involves making an ABS plastic slurry to 'glue' them back, another way is to use a soldering iron or similar to 'weld' the plastic together. Plenty of ways to fix them, especially since you will need to bondo over the part to smooth it out before painting anyways.

No reason to make a metal panel there, it would ruin the look your going for, you need to continue your two tone paint scheme along the sides of the bike.

As far as the inside of the fenders, you could strip them out with a wire wheel to eliminate the rust and coat the inners with a truck bed liner or POR15. This will give them a durable black finish, perfect for deflecting small road debris. Of course be very careful not to damage or paint the shiny side while your doing this!

You look to be enjoying the dis assembly, label everything, and take lots of pictures so you know where everything goes

 

[Guest]

Good stuff Jake, wish I had a basement to work in!

Our two car garage is where I work with a space of probably 6 square metres which includes the work benches.

+1 on the POR15 under the guards, and you can brush it on too as it's self leveling.

 

[hjacobmiller]

Well, got some work done today! Completely down to frame! Had a buddy from work come over to help me get the engine out. Stripped some paint off some parts too.

What I started with this morning:

About an hour in:

Another hour:

And finally as she sits now:

http://s1256.photobucket.com/albums...ar%20Down/?action=view&current=0929121633.jpg

Is it ok for the engine to sit like this? Not resting on any fins on the oil pan, and the wood is pretty soft so I'm not worried about the pan crushing. Should this be ok for the time being until I get an engine stand?

Some of the parts sitting while the paint stripper soaked in: