[John Prophet]

I will post a paper on 11/10/2010 showing bike in its current state.

What it looks like when I left the shop tonight....

Let the build begin...

 

[John Prophet]

my camera kinda sucks but thats as clear as I can get it.

 

[John Prophet]

I did do some work, just forgot the camera
I spent half an hour again cleaning up the the rear rim
Spent some more time getting the carbs off, which were clean inside
I also worked on getting the gas tank wet sanded down to 2K

 

[John Prophet]

I did work!
However after thinking about the build for awhile, I have decided NOT to tear the bike down, and powder coat the swinger, frame and forks. I opted not to do this for one its a headache, and its a headache I only want to do once. We dont have the powder coater set up at the shop yet, infact its yet to be ordered. And I simply dont want to do a rush job with expensive candy copper powder, when Im just begining. That is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.

I did just opt to paint it all black, as its easily blasted off NEXT WINTER in prep for powdercoating then. So for the time being, I painted it while still assembled.

The rear rims lips are FINALLY clean enough for me to be happy with them. Now I just have to yank the rear, and repaint the centers. And while its out change the rear pads, then bleed the rear brake. Then for the front, with the rotors in place I can barely get my hands in there to even attempt to polish, so that will wait untill I pull the front rim off to get new rubber, and new pads. It will also get the center painted too.

The graphics still arent done yet, and Im not anticipating them even being done. The guy who runs the shop is a friend of the family, and he got locked out of his primary employer. I am fine with straight black paint this season however.

Ive got the canister preppd for the chop, new baffling, and the blackout paint too. I just neglected to get pics of it.

Then if all goes as planned next week I will be starting in on my custom fiberglass bellypan, and bikini screen. I do think I am going to pull the headlights out an inch or too, primarily so I can rake my screen back a few degrees. Im also going to replace the bars, and stay with clip ons. Buying a dirty bar, risers, extened throttle, brake and clutchlines is simply out of my budget.

I will also be getting a start on the wiring pretty soon. I realy want this thing basicly ready to go for the first 50 degree day....

PICS!!!!
:shocker:

:shocker: Discuss away!

 

[John Prophet]

Been busy this week getting christmas sorted.
Now I havent bought ANY parts, havent spent a penny on my bike.
But I did manage to do some work, SOME work...


You see, my Muzzy canister looked like I was trying to over compensate for a lack of penile length. And to be brutally honest, Im quite happy with both the size, and shape of my pecker. My wife seems to be thuroughly pleased by both its performance, and longevity. However, that canister... made me feel like a dude with a 3" cock, and a huge Hummer H2.

So I went to drastic measures, and preformed some over-compensation removal.
Lopped 6" off the fucker.
The canister that is,
I would never do ANYTHING to harm my pecker, EVER.

6" shorter, used JB weld to fill in some of the gashes, and scratches. Then hit it with the same high heat paint I used on the frame. I also had to fill in the original rivet holes, since they were FAR from round. I wont drill the same holes, I can simply rotate the inlet cap a bit and hit virgin aluminum.
And I probably should have waited to paint it, but oh well I will figure something out for drilling the inlet cap holes.
Im debating on whether or not to use screws, or some rivets to get it put back together, and thats going to wait until I can find me some cheap packing. Fucking Muzzy wants 35.00 for the repack kit!
I am going to order a new Muzzy tag for it, since the original was bent and twisted, dented scratched and scarred. I tried to save it, but I simply was unable to resurect it in any form of beautty.

And while Im doing a fraction of the work most of you are doing I am pleased with the outcome of chopping the canister.

 

[John Prophet]

Well I'm about as far as I can get until I source some dirt cheap packing.
BTW will household fiberglass insulation work ?
I went the rivet route after finding a hand riveter at ace hardware for a whomping 12 bucks, spent another 3 bucks for some aluminum rivets. All went well during the drilling, until it came time for riveting the inlet cap. First rivet popped and the tip of the riveter scratched the shit outta the can. I ended up having the wife hold the can while I slowly popped the rivets. Rivets are tight as fuk, and now the wife is claiming she done work to my bike, so guys and gals is holding a pipe for riveting realy considered doin work???
Fighter on,:knucks:

 

[John Prophet]

I test fitted my shortened can tonight, after painting the mid pipe. Went ahead and touched up a few ucky parts on the frame, looks powder coated, unfortunatly I know it simply won't last as long, works for now however. Yanked the bars and upper triple off also, anyone now if the bars are solid?? Doesn't loof or feel hollow, and if there solid I should be able to heat em and bend em back pretty easily. So far its pretty easy going, thank the gods!

And I cheaped out on the wiring, just found a spot to route the harness inside the frame and out the round hole on the left side.

Sorry for the lack of light, my phone doesn't have a flash I can get better ones if needed. On the flip side this freakin thing is BLACK, and it jus so happened that the song old black betty started playing while I was applying more solid black paint too.

Left the shop tonight with the upper in my hands, no clip ons or bars, and my headlights and guages removed, going to work out a better headlight mount,

Fighter on!

 

[John Prophet]

Ok first off,
My apologies for the double posts, I was making those posts from my phone which like to well, double post things.

Went down to the shop today with my son, had to grab a couple things and I went ahead and snapped a pic of the fugly paint on my tank.

I want to know what this shit is called, and what is causing it???
I called about getting a few quotes from the professional painter in my area, and its uhm...out of the equation financially. So I know Im going to have to strip it down, so would a chemical strip work better, or should I go nuts sanding it down?

 

[John Prophet]

OOOPS

Forgot to add,
That tank protector on there I REAAAALLLLY like, and my wife went nuts when she seen I paid like 18 bucks for in her words a "sticker" So If I peel this thing off can I use some spray on adhesive to re-attach it?

 

[John Prophet]

Special thanks to Rat fighter for contributing some muffler packing!
Hopefully I can get the packing in in the next day or too, were suppossed to be getting nailed big a good snow storm so we'll see.

 

[John Prophet]

Got the muffler packed, going to pop the rivets either tonight or tomarrow.
Word of the wise to anyone packing a muffler....wear some gloves like latex dr.'s gloves!

I think I may have figured out my bar situation, by simply flipping my clip ons to the oposite side UNDER the top tripple (the way it suppossed to be) it puts the bars at a LOT more comfortable angle. In fact after I mocked it up I had to toss the gas tank and my seat on it to see how it felt. And in all honesty it felt perfect, so Im heading out to my other cousins shop to utilize a torch, a bench vise, and a long steel pipe to straighten out my bars a bit pretty soon. Also going to clean up the clip ons themselves, lots of mold lines and general uglyness there too.

Heres some pics, notice how the black just absorbs the light...

 

[John Prophet]

Well went to my other cousins shop tonight, and had a little play time with a propane torch and a bench vise.
Yep bent my bars back to straight, well a LOT straighter than what they were. Also trimmed off the mounting tabs on the clip ons, and the key loop for the ignition switch, and smoothed it all out.

I didnt take pictures before I started straightening them, but the procedure I used was placing the bar in the vise and then heating the entire bar with the torch, then slowly turn the vise tighter, heat more and tighten more, again and again until you couldnt see between the bar and the teeth of the vise. Worked pretty damned good! Before I started the bends were so bad they wouldnt roll across the floor, now however they do and there is still a BIT of a bend but its nothing major compared to how they were originaly.

Looking at this pic you can clearly see how bent the bars were, bear in mind I had reveresed the bar itself the bent portion at the end is normally right outside the clip on.

And in this picture (best I could do) you can see how much straighter it is. I say sucsess!!!!!!

.

Here we see the upper tripple clamp, I smoothed out the mold lines, and cut the iginition loop off as well. I am still working on filling in the underside friday when I can get more jb weld. And again Im smoothing it on the underside for the possible dirt bar conversion next winter (still in the air on that one) and you can slightly see the underside so I want it smooth.

.

I will also be doing the same thing to the lower triple, smoothing it out, prepping it for a couple dozen coats of high heat enamel I just havent managed to get the forks off the bike yet due to time and general lazyness.

 

[John Prophet]

Well I did a little more work

By little I mean, I re worked the top tripple with some JB weld untill I was happy with it, basically filled 2 gouges up top, and used it to smooth out where the key loop originally was. Then hit it with a bit of self etching primer, and then some rustolem high lustere gloss black uerethane. What is on it now, is 3 solid coats of black, and 2 clear Im thinking a bit of wet sanding in a day or 2 and one more coat of clear.

For my bars and clip ons, I know a SMALL part of my bars peek through between the grips and the controls and the clips so I gave them 2 solid coats of the black, and 2 coats of the clear.
And what you can see of the gas tank, currently awating a bit of filler putty, a short time sanding and a pinch more primer before paint.

And finaly my belly pan, well I had originally intended on making this myself but I cant seem to find another side covered that is banged up and the thought of making such a big peice with fiberglass right now is a bit daunting. So I found cheap belly pans. Im stuck as to which one, mostly an astetical issue as if it needs widened I will cut one in half and fiberglass in a bit of an extension, same with the length if it needs to be longer than so be it.
But heres the models Im eyeballing ATM,
First up
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DR487-KAWASAKI-ZXR-1100-1200-bellypan-belly-pan-NEW-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3ef52734a6QQitemZ270400959654QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
then this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DR408-BELLY-PAN-ZR7-ZR-7-ZR7S-ZR-7-S-KAWASAKI-BELLYPAN-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem41551e936eQQitemZ280600941422QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

so which ones do ya guys like and why?

 

[John Prophet]

:shocker:
I done a bit more work, figured I would do alot more than what I got done tonight, but I had some issues with getting my front end straightened out.
You see I had originally raised the forks in the triples and mounted the clips and bars ontop of the top triple, I did it to compensate for the bars that were bent in like 8 differnt directions. However it fucked up the smooth stable handling of the bike and made it realy twitchy. So when I figured out how to just flip the clips and straighten out the bars I returned the front height to stock. Basicly it involved simply moving the forks down the triples, but it wasnt easy with just me, and no ratchet straps.
Well let me first start by admitting my derp de der move, I put my clips on (minus bars) and then slide and bolts my top triple on. I say derp de der, because it was a retard move to NOT put my bars in the clips FIRST. Basicly the bars will not slide into the clips as the bars are dished a bit to fit around the forks. So I had to unbolt the upper, and slide it back off once again.
So half hour later I had my clips on the forks, and the bars in the clips and the upper tripple mounted back to stock height. However the lower had to be raised back up, I ended up using a 8 foot section of 2x4 wedged between the front tire and the lower triple to relive the sag from the bike, then using a rubber mallet wrapped in towels I smacked the top tripple and the forks back down to where they needed to be and quickly tightened the lower clamps.
Big pain in the ass, would have been easier with my ratchet straps, or a 2nd person but oh well not a HUGE deal just made me feel kinda tardish. But I got it, feels great on my wrists and lower back with the bars like this now.

Now Im NOT done with the front, I still need to get the wheel off to clean up and touch up my front rotors and smooth the lower clamp, mount a front fender, and replace pads, oh also need to paint the forks too. But since Im down to the last 2 weeks or so before I need to move the bike anyways, so I need to have the bike moveable.

Things are coming along bit by bit...VERY BIT BY BIT
Ive also decided I need to paint the side covers on the motor also, figured black but not yet.
I know I will need to change the oil, and its a decent time to pull the side covers is when the bike is drained of oil. But do I need new gaskets there or not?

Anyways heres some naughty eye candy of the 2 wheeled variety.

 

[John Prophet]

Oh yea, Im also going to cover the airbox in heat reflecting tape.
Figure its cheap and easy to get the airbox temps a slight bit cooler so it cant realy hurt anything.
And I got a couple ideas on the ram air, but now I need to focus on miving the bike and less on DW to it. Once its moved I plan on hacking up some cereal boxes and grabbing some duct tape and mocking up an idea or two.

 

[John Prophet]

Shopping has begun, got hose covers tonight along with some loctite, and an oil filter...

 

[John Prophet]

Guess what I did today...

Dusted the tank with a can of Orange mist metalic duplicolor rattlecan.
Followed it up 15 min. later with a slightly thicker dusting.
And 15 min later with a thin dusting once more.

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In a couple hours im going to hit some of the high wear areas with a decent coat on there own, things like the frontal edge of the tank, gas cap area, knee pockets and the back edge of the tank. I will also lay a decent coat down on all the folds and dips in the tank so I wont sand through.

Whatcha guys think!?

 

[John Prophet]

Belly pan is in, looks great Will look even better with the orange mist metalic paint, think I need a black skully decal on each side too though...

 

[John Prophet]

Some of the other parts that have came in.

I do have my resevoir bottle that needs lines put in it, and got my spiked bar ends.
Think Im pretty much good to go at this point.

No idea on my graphics and Im abour ready to say fuck it and just clearcote everything.

 

[John Prophet]

New levers and spiked bar ends

Check

Re-assembling bike

Check

Belly pan is here at home betting finished up, bikini screen WILL be made.
Tail is ready for base coat of the orange metallic mist, tank is awaiting graphics, gunna email the people tonight.
If I cant get them done by the end of the week, fuck it.

Special thanks to Robsroadeater for the handlebar bolt thingy.