My 1980 Suzuki GS1000G

[Guest]

Well I guess it's time to start this thread because I'm finally getting started with the whole project. I'm hoping to get it done in a few months but we'll see.

So I'm working in my driveway as usual, a car stops and a fella comes towards me (not unusual, working on these old bikes in the driveway gets lots of people coming by) and he starts to say I've got one of those in my garage, "want it?" a couple of days later there she sits.

The fancy air pressure 'thingy' and the Yamaha headlight and turn signals have gotta go

A couple of months later I pulled a few things off her.

and then finally today I rip into her.

 

[Guest]

It always amazes me how little you can pull a motorcycle down to

And here's everything in the shed for the night. Everything sure fits in there a lot easier now.

So that's all the easy stuff done. Now for the hard part, but it sure feels good to get this restoration going. I've got a full box of parts from Boulevard Suzuki and a virtually new set of Samsonite bags and rack so she should be ship shape by the time I'm done...I hope.

 

[salty_monk]

Congrats. The 1000G makes a great tourer. Very comfortable, more so than the 78 for me...

 

[tkent02]

Nice score, must be a Karma thing.

I am always amazed at how much space a bike takes up once it's separated into a million parts on shelves and in boxes.

 

[7981GS]

While you have it apart, do you happen to have some 1074 pistons and a 1074 cylinder laying around? :-k
77 more cc's won't hurt a thing!


Daniel

 

[Guest]

Congrats. The 1000G makes a great tourer. Very comfortable, more so than the 78 for me...

My thoughts exactly Dan. My 79 850G was fantastic, you could ride that bike all day and just keep going. With the larger bike and hard bags I'm hoping this ones going be a touring bike to last for years.

 

[rustybronco]

I was waiting for this project! sure looks like it's going to be a bit of fun involved. enjoy it.

 

[chuck hahn]

You said he asked if you wanted it...what did you pay???

 

[GateKeeper]

I bet he gave it to him for nothing.....

 

[Guest]

Dang, when you get after it, you really get after it!

Let's see you put that bad boy back together in a day hehe!

 

[Guest]

The snow came the other day so I figure what better to do....

Just wanted to clean all the grease and grime off to have this done....

Fresh Cadmium platting. There's nothing more exciting than this. I had this done on my 78 1000 last winter and still looks like new. Well worth the $150. Happy with the price, it was a very large ice cream bucket of 'stuff'. It actually turns out I didn't need to clean anything but it gave me a chance to try boiling with lemon juice. I threw in the Pine Sol as well because I was also boiling some carbs but I don't think I'll do that again. The potent Pine Sol smell came into the house and I paid too much of a price:-\\\ Stripping the valves off the head today/tomorrow and going to soda blast it all. Have new valve seals to put in then I'm going to measure the piston rings to see if I need new ones. I'm really pondering if I should just spend the $120 for new rings or not. Guess I'll find out. The pistons and sleeves look like new though, not what I was expecting. Slowly getting there.

 

[Guest]

A bit more done thanks to the motivation of "850 Combat" as this arrived in the mail today.

Off with the old.

Not exactly sure what the removable square is but my first thought is that it's a simple way to strengthen the foam in your seat without having to re foam the entire thing.

The pans in fairly good shape, shouldn't take much at all to get it looking like new. Not sure what is the best filler, if any, on the metal to smooth things out.

All in all I'm pretty happy with what I found. Just wish the weather would warm up a bit to do some painting, 5 celcius (40 F).

 

[Cyclepath834]

Nice project. How do you post all the large pics? Im still new to the bulletin board thing....

 

[7981GS]

azr, for the pan, I would just take a wire wheel to it, prime it with red oxide primer and paint.

Going to be watching this build and wishing you clear sailing towards its completion.
BYW, 1000G's are sweet!

Daniel

 

[GateKeeper]

Nice project. How do you post all the large pics? Im still new to the bulletin board thing....

how to post pictures

follow this link

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/how_to_post_pictures.pdf

.

 

[Guest]

azr, for the pan, I would just take a wire wheel to it, prime it with red oxide primer and paint.

Going to be watching this build and wishing you clear sailing towards its completion.
BYW, 1000G's are sweet!

Daniel

Thanks for the tip Daniel, that looks like just the stuff. The stock edging is still intact so I'll just warm it up and glue it back on. Never put a seat cover on but can't be too hard. Looks like the one thing to remember is keep the cover warm and don't use glue.

 

[rustybronco]

The pans in fairly good shape, shouldn't take much at all to get it looking like new. Not sure what is the best filler, if any, on the metal to smooth things out.

I wouldn't worry to much about filler, primer will take care of most of the pitting on the bottom side of the seat. the top side (foam side) wont matter if it's a bit pitted as you will be gluing the foam over the pitting. what I would suggest is you sand (media) blast it to remove all the rust.

 

[Guest]

Well I'm slowly making progress. The seats all done with the exception of grommets for the seat bar which I'll have to try and find somewhere because I'm too cheap to pay the $20 (and I don't think they are worth that much). The top end has been soda blasted, honed and had the valves cleaned up.

This was my first time for doing honing (did it with an old school bike mechanic from Britain, cool guy). Did the valve lapping on my own, was pretty easy.

My last big batch of parts from Boulevard showed up so I can start putting the pistons and head back together.

I'll read around here for tips on re-installment but if anyone has any feel free to throw them in. I put new base and head gaskets in my old 79 850 but have never done rings or valve seals. I'll get a hand with the pistons going back in, I did it on my own last time and it would have been a lot easier with an extra pair of hands to hold the rings (I don't have a ring compressor). And I solved the issue of faded RPM gauge, bought a better one from the salvage yard. It was a lot of work to open up both clusters and put it back together, I wouldn't want to do that very often, but it's nice to know it can be done.

I've got the POR-15 chassis black to paint the frame and all the tid bits with. Really looking forward to seeing the results from that if the weather ever warms up around here to let me get it done. The o-rings are on their way from Mr. Barr so I can do that and the cam tensioner, guess I've got a few things to do while it's still cold out.

 

[jhillier449]

Great job.:clap:

I'm going to do the motor when it gets a bit warmer on my 1000G, can you post pics of the gasket placements with all the bits when you put it back together?

I'd like to see where all the o rings and washers etc. go on the bottom of the jugs and on the cylinder head.

cheers

John

 

[Guest]

Will do, though it's pretty self explanatory when you get down to it.