im sure blast off would do a great job with this. quick turn around and then you have a great starting point.
While I completely agree, I may hoop the tail down the road and go with a true cafe tail. I’m not trying to take shortcuts here, but at the same time cost is key for now. If I can get away with doing it myself, I will.
How much would it be for a frame blasting, you think?
I think when I asked it was $100 or something
IF you do get the motor blasted…do NOT use sand.
Soda blasting or nothing.
Also, yes just mix the three together. I went from dirty engine to clean engine in less than 2 days. The fins fucking suck to clean but it was worth it.
Also, for paint…buy some VHT Caliper paint. All the guys on TheGSResources swear by it. It’s rated to 900* and once heat cured is chemical and abrasive resistant.
I painted all the parts on my motor the silver and it’s a close match to factory. They make black, silver, and clear.
Screw it, i’ll put in the elbow grease and do it myself. The frame is not terrible.
---------- Post added at 01:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------
Thanks for the info on cleaning the engine. Big help. To be clear, I am degreasing and cleaning the engine the best I can, but I will NOT be painting it. The only things I am painting for now will be the frame with engine enamel, the engine mounts in gold engine enamel, the seat pan in whatever black is left in my garage, and some misc bits here and there as I see fit.
why not just hoop the frame now. If you wait til I get my bending dies I’ll do it for ya for free.
I guess i’ve got the time and money to do it now, and have it done correctly right off the bat. I could pick up a prefabbed cafe tail or have focusinprogress mold one (if he wants to.) This just opens up a whole new can of worms for me though, lol. You figure at least another 100 for the tail section, then since the frame is correct another 100 to blast, and another chunk of change to PC it, because if the frames perfect… why not PC, lol.
ETA to having the dies? I don’t know the OD of the frame tubing off the top of my head so i’d have to figure that out and source a foot or so.
I never really stated the goal for this little adult Leggo project of mine; but it is to clean up this old beauty, and get it running tip top. I am not in it to make a show bike, or to spend ridiculous amounts of money… but to just make it cleanER, safer, and reliable. After this recent purchase I am into the bike for a total of $1500 excluding the pending cost of new tires from Lee at Empire, so figure 1750-1800. If I get into hooping the tail and a cafe seat, i’ll be easily over 2k before any PC work. I can see myself opening up a can of worms if I don’t just cap myself somewhere on this thing… but at the same time why go half assed, if I will just be taking it apart again? decisions.
The dies are supposed to ship this week. I have 1" and 1.125" tubing
I’ll measure the OD on the tail section of the frame and look into a prefabbed tail this week.
Def. spot prime the bare steel with etching primer.
before you purchase a prefab tail…get at me when you find one you like, I’ll let you know if I can make it cheaper.
I’ve ordered a bunch of parts from these guys, as they always hook me up on price and they seem to make it as close to one stop shopping as possible. I know I have some ‘loyalty points’ saved up, so this will probably be much less that 79.00. (just the molded part, no pan)
I like this style too, as I can mount the battery under the rear hump in the tail.
That’s identical to the one that GV1390 purchased for his xs650. ask him what he thought of it once it was in his hands lol.
With that said, I could probably either make it hinge/lock like the stock seat by building a frame to hang the hinges and latch on, or trim the stock pan for this to bolt on to. Or I could make the same thing using the stock pan and a fiberglass “hump” mounted to that…
Pretty flimsy, eh? lol
This is exactly what I was thinking of doing. Mount it to exsiting metal from my stock pan so I can use the stock hardware and hinges to have it fold up and lock down.
Nah it just fit like crap at the front. I think it was wider than the tank. Lol… it might be a good starting point to start modding from…
I’ll do some measuring on mine but I feel that no matter what I do, anything is going to fit like crap at the front of the tank unless you do some custom molding up there. That side of the tank always seems to look like crap from where it is mounted, and the stock seat padding rubbing against it for the past 39 years.
Thats like the one thing I love about the stock seat pan, it looks so nice up against the tank.
I feel like if you’re going to buy an $80 part to cut up and mod, you might as well start from scratch and save a few bucks making EXACTLY what you want. I’d start with the stock pan and go from there… If you want, I can come over maybe MLK day and throw some ideas around with ya… I’ll bring that pedal we spoke about
Dude please don’t buy it. That seat can suck my ass and lick my taint, never again. I rather have aids then to do all that over again.
lol, besides the fitment on your yami, what else made aids better?
I’ll be in VT MLK weekend, Old Forge the following, and somewhere else in the ADKS the weekend after that. lol, maybe feb.
remember how sweet the “bolt-on mount kit” was from MikesXS? lol…was supposed to be a complete “bolt-on” part off the shelf, no modifcation “required”. HAHA. I ended up bending some flat stock up to make elevated mounts over the top frame tubes and welding them onto the frame, then trimming the front of the seat to fit over/around the rear mount for the gas tank. Mounding uphostery to it was a real treat too.