Hello and welcome,
This project has been a long time coming, To start things off the bike was owned by a family member then one day when my brother was at their place he saw the bike in the garage so he asked if he could buy it and the owner said yes so he got it for $500 then he brought it home and was gonna fix it up but life took him a different way. So the bike ended up sitting in the basement for about 3 years that's when i came in and began the journey of fixing what needed to be fixed. The more time i spent fixing the bike the more it grew on me and i started to change thing based on what i like and i couldn't be happier with the progress I've made on the bike and most of all thankful for this forum as it has taught me a lot of things i didn't know about the bike. I will hopefully get the bike out on the road this year but we shall see, thanks for taking the time to read and enjoy the pictures.
So the bike started out with a purple tank and no side covers along with a leaky head gasket
so my first task was to solo lift the engine out of the frame and on to a work space.
Next i began by removing the rocker cover and camshaft while holding the cam chain with a small tow strap one
of those tips from this forum that i would of never thought of.
Next was i had to figure out how to remove the head and not let the cam chain fall so i used a coat hanger to help
since i was doing this all solo i would recommend having another set of hands but not impossible. I would say it
had a pretty bad leak and i could only think all that dirt and grim saved the engine from dumping all its oil everywhere.
Next was time to look at the piston and rings and they really didn't look too bad but i ended up just replacing the
rings anyway tho the bike only had 26k miles on it. The next few pics are just cleaning of the piston tops and ring gaps.
Now time to remove the old gasket material this has to be the longest part since those had to be the original one's
so i had to use a few razor blades and final clean up was a flat surface and using the weight of the head on fine sandpaper.
Next is the same process but different part i ended up using some WD-40 and rag's to try to clean up the intake and exhaust surface's.
Next removing the jug o-rings since everything rubber was hard as a rock lol and for some reason i didn't take a
final pic of the clean up of the bottom of the head but but was treated up some sandpaper as well.
Next was new rocker cover and putting base gasket and piston rings in and starting the rebuilding as you can see the
surface is much cleaner then it was before not perfect but i did what i could with what i had.
Now was the time to put the head gasket in, head on, torque it down and let it sit for 24 hour and re-torque
camshaft on making sure the cam was clocked right and piston's also in the right position as well then loosen
the rocker adjustment bolts and bolt rocker cover along with the breather cover.
Next was to setup timing and then move on to the handle bars. The owner before my brother dropped the bike so the
old handle bars where no good to me so i went ahead and got superbike bars i figured i'd take the time to drill holes in
the bottom of the bar's to fit the wire's for that clean oem look.
Now that's better time to move on to painting the engine i didn't use primer on the engine as i didn't think it could take
the heat the engine put's out and the black paint is rated for 500 degree's so i hope it will be ok but if not ill pull the engine
again and paint with exhaust paint you live and learn.
Next i removed the breather cover to give it a coat of black and the tappet covers as well to match with the engine.
Next was letting the paint dry up a bit and when i removed the engine i figured out if i remove the breather cover
it's easier to get the engine in and out of the frame so i removed the freshly painted breather cover and put the
engine in the frame with the helping hand of a floor jack so i could get the bolts in the frame.
Next was getting that 4 into 1 exhaust in with new copper crush washers since again those were old also i removed
sprocket cover to give it some black paint.
Next was the fork's which had a ton of rust build up on them and leaky fork seals to pulled the both apart cleaned
and replaced the fork seals and new fluid.
Next was removing the clutch cover giving it some black paint as well then moved on to the gas tank to remove
the old paint and prime for paint.
Next i figured that i would sand the alternator cover with 1500 grit sandpaper and give it a shine tho i dont have the
cover that goes on it i think it turned out nice anyway.
Next was getting the primered tank on the bike and looking at for a bit then deciding that rear brake needed some
paint so i did and i love it.
Next i ordered some new side covers from fb-stuff.com since everyone seemed to think their cracked of faded paint
was worth a ton of money and yes to some people it is but i not one of them. I also ordered front and rear sprockets and chain
OEM spec.
Next was ordering some fork gaitors held on with hose clamps for the moment, then the task of taking apart the carbs.
After taking the carbs part pulled the t-connectors out and inspected the rubber o-rings and replaced all of them
then put carbs back together tighten everything down filled tire's with air filled tank with gas took her down the road
for the first time only to find out i got more work to do.
Pulled the carbs back apart and found the emulsion tubes were clogged like no other and all four looked about the same
so i cleaned them up and put the carbs back together.
Next was old man winter came in faster and ran out of time to test ride the bike again so start the next best thing
get her ready for winter storage by building some stands to get the tires off the ground and cover up, sleep tight...
And this bring us to the most recent work getting the final color of paint on the tank and side covers along with fork ears and chain guard
also i didn't take a picture of them but new ngk spark plug boots to make the bike look that much closer to finished. Some last details the paint i used was
dupli-color Burnt Orange #318-BSP211
Some outside shot's
