D-Mac's rat bike to......cafe bike? Here we go again.

[vwtom]

Great build so far - keep up the good work.

[D-Mac]

Ok folks, the wheels are FINALLY painted!

I used my fume hood in the lab as a paint booth. It worked great and eliminated the fumes.


Front wheel……ready……aim…….


……fire!


Several coats later, here it is! It looks better in person than the pic would suggest (even better without the camera flash too). I’m happy. As it dried it started to look more even as well.

Considering I’m a painting rookie, it went pretty easy. I took my time and there were no runs in the paint. I put on four coats – two light and two medium. If I add clear coat, it’ll be after it dries completely and I have a chance to shine up the aluminum first (it’s pretty dull and still needs a hand polish). Then I’ll replace the wheel bearings, reinstall the rotors/sprocket/etc. and change the tires.

Rear wheel being painted.


Rear wheel is done! It came out better than the front.


I left the inner hub grey because the original paint was in great shape and it’s hidden by the cush drive anyway.


I stored them somewhere nice and safe….under my desk at work.  


Tomorrow I’ll likely paint the rotors and shine up a few other parts. I’m thinking I'll rebuild the forks on Friday.

[Gerry Sweetland]

Those look really nice.  Should go well with your silver/black color scheme
Gerry

[tdeboeser]

subscribed.  

cool rebuild

[Jeff]

Fantastic job.  

[veefer800canuck]

Holy cracking sidewalls Batman.

Good thing those are going in the dumpster.

[D-Mac]

Holy cracking sidewalls Batman.

Good thing those are going in the dumpster.

Oh yeah.   The front is original and the rear is pre-1990.

I'm staring at all the fasteners, spacers, and other wheel-related bits. Damn I have a lot to do......

[Tyrroneous]

Wheels look great.  Just thinking about all the sanding and polishing you did makes my hands hurt.  

[Dan K]

Looks great, nice job.  Looking forward to following the rest of your build.

[ConPilot1]

from what I'm seeing, you could probably restore bikes for a living.

good work man. totally impressed with your resto skillz.  


 

[D-Mac]

Daily update:

I got a few nagging things done today.

First, I put in a big parts order. This included a few brake caliper parts I forgot to order last time, fasteners for the rear brake arm, a bunch of exterior engine fasteners/caps (might as well start getting this stuff now), swingarm bearings/seals etc, steering head bearings and other related things, and sprockets+nuts+washers. Easily my biggest parts order to date. A lot of this won’t get touched until the frame is done, but I don’t want to have to wait weeks to do anything at that point.

This morning I went to the shop where I’m taking motorcycle classes and rebuilt my forks. I used their fork vise and oil leveling contraption to help things along. I replaced the o-rings, washers, seals, dust covers, and snap rings. It didn’t go so well though in that I made pretty much every rookie mistake possible with the first fork (although nothing past the point of no return). Mistakes included: forgetting to put the drain bolt back in before filling the fork (duh!), overfilling a fork badly because the suction on the fork oil leveler syringe was broken (so I thought I hadn’t added enough oil when I had really been adding too much and it just wasn’t sucking any up) and then I accidently pumped the fork, which shot about 100mL of oil all over the place. I almost put the first seal on backwards too. I managed to scuff up a bit of the lower tubes as well. In the end, it got done and nothing leaks.

Finished! (I hope)


Then I picked up a book for the welding course I’m taking starting next week. I had no idea there were so many types of welding! Should be fun and useful. I will need to cut and weld some things on the frame.

Welding textbook. I immediately found myself immersed in the world of stick, MIG, and TIG.


Back at home I masked off the rotors.



Then I went back to my “paint booth” at the office and sprayed on some new black.
I goofed a little on one part (check out the black spoke at 8 o’clock, it ran a bit as I was trying to reach the sides of the rotor spokes).



Rear rotor


I still have to sort out what to do with the chipped paint on the outside rims of the rotors (I'll either sand it off or repaint it once the inner rotor dries).

Also took this part from the rear wheel……..


…..and made it look like this….


COMMENTS NEEDED:

My original plan was to paint the engine with VHT Universal Aluminum (silver color). Now I’m really leaning toward blacking out the engine using VHT Black Oxide, except for new chrome cam covers at the top, OEM (silver/chrome) fasteners, and my bare polished crankcase covers of course. It would look kind of like the engine on this GS.

http://www.thegsresources.com/halloffame/2007/gs_photo_dec_2007.htm

Any thoughts on this idea?

[coho]

COMMENTS NEEDED:

My original plan was to paint the engine with VHT Universal Aluminum (silver color). Now I’m really leaning toward blacking out the engine using VHT Black Oxide, except for new chrome cam covers at the top, OEM (silver/chrome) fasteners, and my bare polished crankcase covers of course. It would look kind of like the engine on this GS.

http://www.thegsresources.com/halloffame/2007/gs_photo_dec_2007.htm

Any thoughts on this idea?

Yes, you should do that, looks slick.  
Very much enjoying the build, keep up the good work.


Also, you might consider some crime before your fingerprints grow back.

[Meemuh]

COMMENTS NEEDED:

My original plan was to paint the engine with VHT Universal Aluminum (silver color). Now I’m really leaning toward blacking out the engine using VHT Black Oxide, except for new chrome cam covers at the top, OEM (silver/chrome) fasteners, and my bare polished crankcase covers of course. It would look kind of like the engine on this GS.

http://www.thegsresources.com/halloffame/2007/gs_photo_dec_2007.htm

Any thoughts on this idea?

Black out with engine w/ chrome & aluminum bits is nice - especially if you are already working the black/silver color scheme.  I really like that look...

[Meemuh]

I thought this was interesting...
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[tdeboeser]

I thought this was interesting...
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very cool  

though, I'd ware a mask I think

[Kilmister]

this is really cool and makes me want to go work on my bike (waiting on parts to arrive) or buy a project bike (can't afford the divorce).  I'm counting on you to let me work on this bike vicariously.  No pressure.  

[D-Mac]

Cool videos! These guys really know their stuff.

I’ve been doing a few little things here and there. Still no sign of the seat I ordered yet. If it doesn’t come soon I might just make my own.

A few days ago I installed the new stator. It was a bit weird because the wires come out of it facing the opposite direction of the old one so I the wires do a 180 turn under the stator. Hmmmm. They don’t seem to stick up but there is very little clearance for the rotor. I’ll probably re-check it before I try and start the engine. It would suck to have the rotor take out the stator wires! After wrestling with the left-side cover I installed it as well as the covers on the right side. All covers got stainless steel fasteners (with anti-seize of course).

Left side newly reassembled. Somehow I managed to scratch the polish job. Oops. Rag must have been dirty. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to paint or polish the sprocket cover.


Right side reassembled. This is before I shined the covers again (looks a lot better now). I should probably have done the clutch springs too. I’ll likely do them and check the plates when I remove the cover again to paint the engine.


Then I decided to tackle the oil filter cover. When removing the filter a while back I noticed that one studs was stripped. I ordered replacement studs, washers, and nuts for it.

Double nut technique for stud removal. Worked like a charm!


New stud installed. I’ll probably replace the other two studs later since they look bad and the threads are pretty horrible them (they hold for now, but replacement is super easy).


Last night and this afternoon I masked off and painted various bits of the calipers. I decided to go with gold (kind of weird – I know). I’m thinking that they will match the trim color of the new shocks (it isn’t perfect, but fairly close) as well as the gold trim on the “DOHC” case logo. I’m also planning some gold trim on the tank/fender. I missed a few spots so I’ll wait a week (as per instructions) and do the touch up before curing them.

Parts ready for paint. I used various lab holders to hold onto them. The threaded holes in the calipers were masked off with disposable ear plugs and rubber stoppers. Works awesome!



Painted bits.



Re-painted this part that attaches to the wheel.


I picked up a little oven on sale for baking small parts to cure the paint. It would be nice to have a larger one for the wheels and engine bits, but it will work for now.

This week I’m planning to press the lower bearing off the steering head. I also need to remove the swingarm bearings at some point and reinstall the wheel bearings. All frame bearings must go since I’m having the frame and swingarm powdercoated.

I’m cross-posting to two forums and only put this info on one. Bottom line: I discovered this week that the swingarm is dented. I’m probably going to use it anyway since it measures straight and it’s box welded behind the dent. Dent is visible here…….

[D-Mac]

I got some good news about the swingarm dent.

A guy with the exact year/model has the same dent on his, so we're thinking it must be intentional.

Suzuki seems to have done this only on this year+model for some weird reason (I can't see why - nothing interferes with it). Maybe they had a bunch of dented swingarms. The '81 550T(X) was a notorious "parts bin" bike so the tube might have been used on something else perhaps.

[D-Mac]

I was pretty busy this week (working on non-bike things), but I did manage to find a few minutes here and there to replace the wheel bearings. The front ones were especially stubborn. I hope I did them right.

Here is the rear sprocket drum back together. Check it out…..

Before: A pile of greasy, gouged, and rusty metal.


After: Much better (I haven’t bent the tabs down yet in case I need to remove the sprocket for some reason before final assembly).


I also finished painting the rotors today. I went ahead and re-masked them so I could paint the edges. Here they are ready for paint.


This weekend I’m going to bake the rotors to cure the paint and re-mount them. Then the wheels will be done other than needing new tires. I will also touch up the calipers and bake them.

I also removed the lower steering head bearing/race from the stem. I had planned on using some special tools at the shop, but nothing fit quite right so I ended up breaking the bearing with a chisel and then using a drift to remove it from the stem. Whew! The lower tree will be re-painted black.

[D-Mac]

Progress!! [in two posts]

First: I replaced the wheel bearings and put the wheels/rotors back on. Here are final pics (yes….I know I haven’t bent the lock tabs down yet in case I have to remove the rotors again for some reason).

Front wheel.




Rear wheel.