My GS teardown and cleaning, some more pics.....

[Road_Clam]

Well, now my GS is stripped to a rolling bare frame (with the engine still installed). I now have a good understanding of what needs to be done as far as minor repairs and generall parts clean up. The body paint is in great shape. (not enough wear to justify a total body repaint). The frame has severall lightly rusted pieces, mainly the rear fender, and T/S brackets. I am fortunate enough to have acess a high tech blast tank. What a perfect job a sandblast does to these rusted brackets. Some primer, and some Krylon semi-gloss black, and they look like brand new. Many bolts are stripped, and badly rusted and will need to be replaced. My shock bodies are rusted pretty bad too. If the shocks are in good machanical condition, I will probably repaint them flat black. The Stator and R/R have been replaced, and hacked with scotch-loc connectors into the main harnass. This is unacceptable, and I plan on butt soldering the connectors the way it should be. My tires are junk, and Have a sweet set of hi-performance Maxxis V rated C6002's. These are little known tires that perform very well and very reasonably priced. I am trying to figure out a way to get some pics posted for you guys and gals. I am looking into a personall website. Stay tuned for more progress. I have a LONG way to go.

 

[robinjo]

Pur your pics on www.imageshack.us or or put them on my site.
Good luck with the project!

 

[Road_Clam]

Pur your pics on www.imageshack.us or or put them on my site.
Good luck with the project!

Thanks dude! What an awesome link. I will get some pics posted ASAP.
Rich

 

[Road_Clam]

OK, I have some pics (sorry for the dark pics, I am no camera genuis). Bike is about 2/3rds finished as far as cleaning and polishing up. What a huge improvement cleaning, and scotch-brite pad buffing aluminum makes! I hope this works:

Here it is the day I took it home. We took this bike in trade, so I scored it for $800:

 

[Road_Clam]

Bumping this topic folks, I got some more pics.
Here is some updated pics of the rear wheel and brakes. I went with polished perimeter, and silver matte in place of all the black. I didn't like it just looking at the wheel, but now that it's on the bike and assembled it actually looks very nice. I am making a lot of effort to get away from all the "Black" on the GS's it's just too much for my liking. Adding the polished/brushed bare metal look really brightens up the bike. I am SOOOOOO glad I didn't buy an '83 GS1100 !!!! BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK........

 

[crag antler]

Bumping this topic folks, I got some more pics.
Here is some updated pics of the rear wheel and brakes. I went with polished perimeter, and silver matte in place of all the black. I didn't like it just looking at the wheel, but now that it's on the bike and assembled it actually looks very nice. I am making a lot of effort to get away from all the "Black" on the GS's it's just too much for my liking. Adding the polished/brushed bare metal look really brightens up the bike. I am SOOOOOO glad I didn't buy an '83 GS1100 !!!! BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK........

8O 8O 8O 8O 8O :wink: :wink:

Oh come on now, don't go attacking the 83's :wink: :wink:
Too each his own. But seriously kick ass job you are doing. Should look really nice for the spring New England GS ride 8) 8) 8)
At least it is a 1100 :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Road_Clam]

Well, i've got the fron end all back together. I ended up going with aluminum matte wheels with polished perimeter. Now that the bike is going back together, I like the aluminum colored wheels. I now even have "cough/Brembo/cough" rotors!! LOL. I also finished the D&D pipe, it fits nice!

 

[outofcontrol]

Wow, that motor looks so good.

You wanna do my bike? I need the motor and frame cleaned up.

Great!! where do I send it?

-Kevin

 

[Road_Clam]

Wow, that motor looks so good.

You wanna do my bike? I need the motor and frame cleaned up.

Great!! where do I send it?

-Kevin

Kevin,
If you can convince my wife to have ANOTHER GS in my basement, I will spiff your ride for NOTHING !!!!!!!

BTW you do have health insurance right?

 

[8trackmind]

Well, i've got the fron end all back together. I ended up going with aluminum matte wheels with polished perimeter. Now that the bike is going back together, I like the aluminum colored wheels. I now even have "cough/Brembo/cough" rotors!! LOL. I also finished the D&D pipe, it fits nice!

I think I'm gonna do my wheels like that after seeing how yours turned out. Very nice indeed!

 

[Jethro]

I am all about the black 83's. After owning an 83, the silver engine and pipes look so dated to me. Plus, the rims on the 83 are way better looking 8)

 

[robinjo]

Well, i've got the fron end all back together. I ended up going with aluminum matte wheels with polished perimeter. Now that the bike is going back together, I like the aluminum colored wheels. I now even have "cough/Brembo/cough" rotors!! LOL. I also finished the D&D pipe, it fits nice!



I think I'm gonna do my wheels like that after seeing how yours turned out. Very nice indeed!

He actually replicated the stock Katana wheel colors! But they look good indeed. :wink:

 

[Hoomgar]

It's lookin really good mate. Keep at it man

 

[crag antler]

I am all about the black 83's. After owning an 83, the silver engine and pipes look so dated to me. Plus, the rims on the 83 are way better looking 8)

I too am a little bias, but Jethro said it all 8) 8) 8) :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Road_Clam]

JEEZUS !!!!! You "Pro-Black" guys are killing me!!! :lol: To each his own, thats the bottom line...


Atually you "BLACK" guys should be patting me on the back, as if you look closely in one of my final pics, there is a few components that were "other than black", that are now black. What are they?

 

[Jethro]

Ah ha! If i'm seeing things right, looks like the carb bodies and the driver footpeg mounts are now the all mighty BLACK!

I actually really like the look of the natural motor witht the black cam end covers.

 

[Hoomgar]

I like the mix man. The contrast looks awesome. Keep going down your own path mate :wink:

 

[Road_Clam]

Ah ha! If i'm seeing things right, looks like the carb bodies and the driver footpeg mounts are now the all mighty BLACK!

I actually really like the look of the natural motor witht the black cam end covers.

Yup! There is still one chrome component on an '82 that I painted black that you missed........

BTW, I didn't paint the carb bodies, those are stock '83 bodies "BLACK/PUKE/BARF" !! I butchered my set of '82 silver ones trying to get the mixture plugs and pilot jets out.

 

[outofcontrol]

You painted the shock bodies.

Clam, I've read about 10 different methods of cleaning an engine, and I don't know what to do. I would love to make my engine look as good as yours, and you did it "in frame" and you claim it was a snap if I remember right. I just can't find the description of how you did it. Did you use 5" 3M wheels on a drill?
I also thought I saw that you taped off the exh and intake ports on the head. Did you paint the engine after you cleaned it? I think you have a cleaner engine to start with, but you seem to have good methods

Sorry if you put this info somewhere else.

Great job by the way, that bike looks killer.

Are you doing to swap out any wheels or suspension?

-K

 

[Road_Clam]

You painted the shock bodies.

Clam, I've read about 10 different methods of cleaning an engine, and I don't know what to do. I would love to make my engine look as good as yours, and you did it "in frame" and you claim it was a snap if I remember right. I just can't find the description of how you did it. Did you use 5" 3M wheels on a drill?
I also thought I saw that you taped off the exh and intake ports on the head. Did you paint the engine after you cleaned it? I think you have a cleaner engine to start with, but you seem to have good methods

Sorry if you put this info somewhere else.

Great job by the way, that bike looks killer.

Are you doing to swap out any wheels or suspension?

-K

Kevin,
I used gray medium 3M scotchbrite pads, and a special concentrated cleaner called "Zep Formula 50". The F50 stuff is the SHIZZ for removing grime, problem is it will slightly eat into the paint. After all the scrubbing all's I did thereafter is strip all the side covers, tape up the frame real good, and paint the engine with NAPA ceramic high heat silver. My bike was definately stored in a garage, as it was fairly clean and corrosion free to begin with. If you want I can send you some of the Zep F50 (I get it from my work, we buy it by the 55 gal barrel). It a concentrate, so you would have to mix it at 50:1 (50 parts water/ 1 part F50)
Rich