81 GS550T in Co Sprgs

[Flyboy]

Now that is looking nice Scott, good job.:clap:
You have a very understanding better half, I see the pics all taken inside the homestead.
The only time I can use the oven to cure paint or the shower a as a spray booth is when I send the girlfriend to visit her mother on the otherside of the country.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Ha Ha. No, I just put the parts inside. I am not allowed to use the oven so any painting I do isn't baked on and is done outside in one of my sheds now that I cleaned it up again. I did the polishing downstairs inside but only when noone is home and I still have to clean up. All other maintenance is done outside on the back patio.

But she has been very understanding so I do have to applaud her for that.

 

[SVSooke]

Any sheds have power Scott? I use this for smaller parts baking

Saves fuming up the house.An idea that azr's wife came up with.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Yea I had thought of that too just hadn't had the spare cash to pick one up. But I still have the calipers and stator cover to repaint so maybe I can look again.

 

[SVSooke]

Picked this up at our clean up days.Azr picked one up in something similar.Scan free ads,don't need $ to get one.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Although I am waiting for payday to put the tires back on the wheels (Friday), buy the emulators from Salty_Monk (Friday), and receive a new airbox I bought on Ebay last night, I still found some time this evening to do a little more work.

One of my plans was to repaint my exhaust pipes due to battery acid on the left pipe from the PO. Based on the reading, my first job is to scratch up the pipes enough that the paint will stick to the chrome without too much hassle. So I started off with pipes like this:

After taking the pipes apart and running outside with the wire cup on my grinder and drill (cup on grinder fell apart after a bit), I managed to get most of the acid etching off and some of the rust. Then I ran some 120 grit paper over most everything I could.

So my pipes are starting to look like this:

I'm only showing the left side of the pipes as it shows the best part - the acid markings are gone

I also think I found my rattle problem that I would always hear coming from the pipe area - it seems the brackets holding the heat shield on the left pipe are busted. I tried to even remove the screws so I could remove the shield and work underneath and nothing budged. I'll have to throw some lubricant in there.

I'm thinking I'll run the wire wheel on the center pipes again tomorrow (ran out of daylight today), continue scratching everything with the 120 and then move to 300 grit, and then apply the VHT exhaust paint (1200 degrees) on Thursday, Thanksgiving, as we're supposed to have temps in the low 60s.

 

[7981GS]

What color and what type of paint are you going to try?

Daniel

 

[Flyboy]

Hey Scott, you coming along there, I know what a PIA it can be trying to sand in all those little nooks and corners, looks like you doing a good job.
Yeah, what colour are you going with for the exhaust, we want to know.
I bet you can't wait till riday to pick up all your bits, I know only too well about the looooong stretch between paydays.
Keep up the good work, I am enjoyng it.

 

[cowboyup3371]

It's the VHT Black Header Paint and I was wrong, it goes up to 2000 degrees


I forgot to add earlier tonight that my physical therapist said next Monday is my last appointment :dancing:. It seems that my range of motion is finally back and as long as I keep playing with the rubber band and even start to get back into the gym than I can start riding both my horse and the bike. He did caution me though to listen to the ribs/muscles in case I overdo it.

 

[cowboyup3371]

I hate mother nature

I hate mother nature

After a few days of nice weather, mother nature decided to come with a vengeance last night giving us winds gusting over 55mph. I was able to get some things done the last couple of days and even had the opportunity to paint on Thursday as temps were in the low 60s. So, this much got done:

Headers:

Pipes after wirebrushing as much surface rust as I could:

And Apex Sports mounted my tires for me. I took the old sprocket I bought earlier this year off since I didn't align the wheels correctly and chewed up half of the insides. But I was able to polish the hub real nice so I'm happy with the way these turned out. It also took me a bit to put the hub back into the wheel using the NOS cushions from Blowerbike but I managed to beat it into place with my rubber mallet (wrapped each cushion around the hub and then beat the whole thing down).

But like I said, Mother Nature came with a vengeance. I can't see what winds topped out at last night but I know I couldn't sleep because they were that loud and forceful. They came from the north so I was more worried about my daughter's basketball hoop I'd anchored to our back yard tree. The basketball hoop is still in good condition but although my bike sat North to South on my Patio it didn't survive so well:

The winds are still too strong (25 gusting to 40 or so Weather.com says) to pick it up right now so I'm not sure what damage I'll be facing. I'll probably just leave it like that for today and pick it up tomorrow as the weather is supposed to improve.

Too bad I'm still a few months out money wise to either build or buy me a new shed to work on the bike.

 

[7981GS]

That really blows! (No pun intended)
To have your bike carefully suspended on stands and a jack and then blow over and cause
GOD knows what kind of damage not to mention the PITA to get it back to where it was before the wind damaged it.
I hope that the oil was at least drained out of it.
Do not try to wrestle it back up with your recovering broken ribs without plenty of help!

Daniel

 

[cowboyup3371]

Thanks Daniel. Yea, I drained the oil out a month ago, removed the tank and seat, and had the stator cover off to repaint it (did on Thursday). I'll see if I can lift it as the docs are happy with my progress. But yea, I'll make sure to call my uncle or have Helena help me.

 

[Flyboy]

AAARRRRRHHHH, NO, jeez Scott that is so terrible, I honestly hope the damage is minimal, with all the major parts off, you might get away with a broken lever, mirror or indicator or so, maybe not even. ray:
Damn, Scott, you sure have had a really rough ride this year.

The wheels look great though, very nice work.

 

[Guest]

Scott that sucks! That's such bad luck, sorry to see it lying on its side there...

From where I sit I see no damage in that pic but that's not looking at the impact side... hopefully as Stan said there's little or none and she'll be right as rain once you get her right side up.

Is there a way you can suspend her from four points in future so you don't have to rely on the trolley jack? I noticed having the weight of just the front on my trolley jack causes it to slowly sag... that could just be my jack though as it's old and tired and probably needs some more fluid...

I really like the wheel though, it's looking real good

 

[cowboyup3371]

Thanks for the suggestion but sadly, the deck isn't strong enough to support it. I'm going to figure out a way to adjust the budget so I can start building my shed.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion but sadly, the deck isn't strong enough to support it. I'm going to figure out a way to adjust the budget so I can start building my shed.

Bugger, that's a bummer.

If you can get your shed done that will be the best solution for sure.

Can you maybe put some sort of chocks under the trolley jack wheels so it's not just the weight of the bike holding it in place? Some bricks or largish rocks would help I think... all depends just how strong those winds are!

 

[cowboyup3371]

The bike was sitting on its center stand and a bottle jack supporting a block of wood under the oil pan with the trolley jack underneath just sitting there (no support). Winds last night were gusting between 50 and 60mph easy so I'm thinking the wind got up underneath the rear end, picked it up, and turned it sideways.

 

[Guest]

The bike was sitting on its center stand and a bottle jack supporting a block of wood under the oil pan with the trolley jack underneath just sitting there (no support). Winds last night were gusting between 50 and 60mph easy so I'm thinking the wind got up underneath the rear end, picked it up, and turned it sideways.

Bugger... maybe you can use all those for support again but this time tie it from four points just to stop it from rotating? Not sure what tie off points you'd have available but at least the deck wouldn't have to support the weight of the bike that way.

Just thinkin' anyway...

 

[cowboyup3371]

I picked the bike up just a few minutes ago (winds finally died down a bit) and looks to be minimal damage. From what I can tell, the headlight bracket is possibly bent but won't know til the forks go back on and the turn signal was turned. However, I'm afraid the handlebars might be bent as something just doesn't look right.

And I put four car jack stands under the bike (two up front, two under swingarm) for support. I probably should have done it the first time and will be glad when I have a garage or shed for the bike.

 

[Flyboy]

Hey Scott, you do realise that when the shed goes up, then there is no stopping, this GS thing is going to take on a life of its own, before you know it there will be an S an E a G and who knows what else being brought back to life in there.