here i go again.. project: 'too late to go back now'

[miked]

Dunno why i would mask off parts i don't see. Not like paint over-spray is going to cause an internal failure. Its not like i plastered paint in areas i wasn't planning to see... I separated the coils of the tensioner spring with a razor since it got a little gummed up but other then that its all functional and sealed properly.. No point in being tedious about painting like this.

because leaving paint in the threads and bolt holes causes both paint and dirt debris to be in/on the threads when you go to tighten up, affects torque effectiveness and hogs the bolt holes out. The tensioner is understandable, but it only takes a few minutes to attend to the final details of putting tape over studs and dummy bolts in holes to protect the threads. Else you are left using a die to clean the studs off and chasing the threads to clean the holes out. The pre-paint prep actually saves you time during assy. Not doing this is kinda sloppy. My .02

ETA: the motor and polishing look nice

 

[08rangerdan]

because leaving paint in the threads and bolt holes causes both paint and dirt debris to be in/on the threads when you go to tighten up, affects torque effectiveness and hogs the bolt holes out. The tensioner is understandable, but it only takes a few minutes to attend to the final details of putting tape over studs and dummy bolts in holes to protect the threads. Else you are left using a die to clean the studs off and chasing the threads to clean the holes out. The pre-paint prep actually saves you time during assy. Not doing this is kinda sloppy. My .02

ETA: the motor and polishing look nice

I havent wasted much of any time with gummed up threads because of my painting.. Ive done a bit of this work and i pick my battles accordingly.. If there were obvious protruding studs or problematic areas they would have been masked off. The point is that everything is sealed at the point of painting. I do alot more machinery painting in my field of work. Im probably a little quick with the prep work.. But good luck trying to spot any flaws when its done lol..

On another note, i was stuck in the booth all morning today doing a job and decided to do a side job getting the high build applied. After this sits and sinks ill do final sanding and apply my colour and clear

 

[08rangerdan]

Pods arrived today. I was not impressed of the price of these, but figured k&n would be my best bet against some less expensive options.. And being such a critical component i might as well go with a good brand. Damn things got caught up in customs and ended up costing me more money..sure do look good though..

 

[Guest]

Man the motor looks good.
Seriously you will not enjoy getting it dirty.

Great build, enjoyed the thread.

 

[08rangerdan]

Received some 'Innteck' bushings today for my forks.. Outer teflons were proper fit and went in without hassle but my outers were 1mm too large in all diameters.. A bit of a set back on the forks.. Ill see if i can get the proper ones or ill just go with suzuki parts.

Finally got all the electrical gremlins out of the bike. First i had a very hot ignition circuit which cleared up now. I then had a problem with the flasher.. Which i just replaced. I then had a small piece of solder on the starter switch board causing the kill/start switch to be useless. Now all of a sudden my kickstand switch is functioning like it should be.

The best part is seeing all the proper lights working once again! Finally seeing some light into the final stages of this build.

 

[HaggisHombre]

Looking very nice, and what a shine you got on the forks. Are you using a polishing wheel?

 

[08rangerdan]

Mostly hand polished. 800 grit to 1000 grit then dome mothers. Was acceptable but i decided to get the wheel out and use a medium to lightly work out the last of the blemishes then again with the mothers to remove any haze

 

[08rangerdan]

I finally got my forks complete. I decided to go with a seller on ebay who 'specializes' in fork bushings.. Needless to say he did nothing special.. Most of his ad titles didnt match his descriptions. Then simply confronting him about the issues was apparently my problem that i didnt understand the nonsense he was attempting to list. When the title clearly says '37mm bushing' i dont expect it to be a 38mm instead.. I ordered the closest. Relevant products he offered but for no precise reason he kept defending his 38mm bushing being true 37mm... Even though the description stated otherwise..so i ordered them. To my surprise they came to me at exactly 38mm....! Several emails to this loser and after several half assed replies (that hardly related to my problem!?) lead to some heated phone calls about the issue and his incompetence. He finally caved in and started to listen to me then realized something was finally wrong and overnighted me what i expected to be the correct fit bushing we discussed.. That i thought he measured. BUT HE SENT THE SAME UNITS!!!! I just about flipped. I decided to trim the extra material and make these fit. was actually quite easy to do. Ill be following up with this idiot tomorrow. But warning to all! Dont deal with 'rod_mate' on ebay. He deals for innteck bushings but is incapable of basic inventory, product identification, and customer service... Not to mention his incapability to measure anything first or do anything hes asked

I went with 20wt fork oil for these

Rear end is polished and about to go on the trailing arm

 

[08rangerdan]

Fork brace showed its dirty face. Quite an ugly way of presentation imo.. Came in some kind of spotty and blotchy black oxide that was far from appealing. Might need to paint this. Looks to be all cast construction.. Not the best fit part i expected.

 

[08rangerdan]

Headlight mounts finally showed up. Got the wiring stuffed back into the head and mounted up the new signals and bar controls for good.

 

[Good Times]

It looks great. I like going through your post remembering the same stages of the rebuild with my bike. Thanks for sharing the pictures and the story.

 

[08rangerdan]

As of today.. Trying to decide what im doing with the wheels. Either coat them or polish..? Brake piston and seal kits are in the mail and should be here next week

 

[08rangerdan]

Just a couple little updates

Calipers are all rebuilt and installed. I got some grips and a set of mirrors. Also fitted something different for foot pegs to replace the ugly lugs that were there before. Im just finalizing some last options for the wheels before i follow through with those. Then i should be able to get some rubber on it.. Exhaust is also on my mind now.

 

[steve murdoch]

What are the new footpegs from?
I like the look.
also...name and pic of your dog.

 

[08rangerdan]

In pretty sure the pegs are just some generic units for the newer sports bikes. Im sure these were for a gsxr.

I call the picture with my dog. 'man cave' orr 'one mad wife' lol.. i always preferred to have a nice chrome motorized centerpiece over a bundle of decorative twigs in a vase any day. My significant other could dissagree.

 

[08rangerdan]

After a long search for an affordable no labour method to bring new life to the wheels.. I come back with nothing. My initial plans were powder coat, but several factors including cost were stopping me to go that route. My next professional method would have been to peen blast the finish to a nice satin aluminum finish in a natural state of the metal. I was really set on this method and i was looking all over for the right price. But over $130 for both wheels was still beyond my budget for this part of the project. So being high ended everywhere i decided to try another method to remove the faded finish and stains in the original finishes. I used various strengths of degreasers and several non abrasive types of scotchbrite. Maybe this will look all right?. Once i get rubber on it ill keep it all wet looking with some tire and trim shine to keep the black nice and black in the sun. Then i might polish some of the visible aluminum.. But i likely wont bother since its not overly visable.

I got the bike on its centerstand.. First time its been there in some months!

I dont have a very good picture of the wheel before but you can kind of see what i was working with here

And then

After i played around with some 400 then 800 grit paper to remove some pitting.

 

[08rangerdan]

Rear tire i just mounted to be balanced and installed on the bike

 

[08rangerdan]

Got some sidestand action tonight! Wheels are done and brakes are bled. Next to do is a rear tag mount, tail light and blinker configuration

 

[GSXR7ED]

Lookin' good!

Can't wait till I get to my wheels...and get em' pretty like your's.


Ed

 

[08rangerdan]

I dont really know where im headed with this but im going to try some effort in making something work with the remains of an exhaust i currently have. I picked up some dei wrap for the heads tonight.. We will see how this evolves.. Ive got to modify this header for clearances around the rear brake then i may cleanly re route its output more rearward.. Possibly enough to get an actual muffler on it... Time will tell.