'74 Suzuki TS250 Beginner Build

South Seattle, Washington USA

I'm not sure where my build thread belongs, and I'm sure with all the sweet machinery on this site, my little single pistoned 2 stroker wont take interest to everyone here... but if you're new, or interested in a new build. Keep reading. I've owned a home now for two years. WHen I first moved in we built a nice 18 foot bench, about 3 feet deep, with lots of storage. The garage wasnt complete and you know how it is when you move into a home, its always something for that first year. I finally added 2 shelves along the side of the garage, and kept buying/adding/inheriting tools and parts here and there. I added 6 bay lights up above so that when I'm working I'm not in the darkness, and I'm finally somewhat set.

I'd gotten the 2 stroke bug a few years ago, my first purchase was a Suzuki GT250. It ended up being quite a pain in the rear for its injection/carb work which I sourced out to a local roadracer who used to work at Suzuki, back in the 60's and 70's. Needless to say, thanks to Tim O, It runs like a dream now. But I built that/purchased that with the help of a friend, and then gave it to my dad. Next up... I was looking for a Yamaha RD to chop up. And I'm sure this has happened to one of you guys... I found an RD, the first day it popped up on CL. Went to go see it, and my jaw hit the floor. A 76 RD400, red, garaged its whole life. Not a speck of paint chipped, not a drop of rust. Simply shiny. So i purchased that, replaced the top end, and it runs great, but now I have a 2 stroke that I didnt really get to "chop up" or learn on. And one is in dad's garage.

Now we're onto the story of the TS250. Around the time I'd purchased the RD400, a buddy of mine was moving, and called to ask "hey do you want a couple of projects bikes"... immediately I thought, "no i dont want your junk, I have enough junk!" I politely declined and he said, "ah ok, well i need to basically give them away, if you know someone that wants both, titled, for $150 bucks, let me know". Hmm... hard to turn that down. So now my backyard looks like white trash, as it had a 76 Suzuki SP370 dualsport, and a 74 TS250 2 stroke, in the backyard. I sold the SP370 which was 100% clapped out, for $200 bucks. So this TS250 is my "hey heres 50 dollars, take this bike" So I cant even claim it as my free motorcycle. I was paid to take it So as the RD400 sits in the corner of the garage, and all the crap is off the floor I'm finally able to tear into my freebie. I've got it listed in the "tracker" section because I really dont know what to call it. Its going to have a cafe style look I'd assume, but I'm going to put regular superbike/dirtbike style bars on it.


It started off hideous!

This all happened about a year ago. Since then the bike has been neglected, 1 bike sold, this TS250 was rattlecanned over the original orange/white color by the PO and its a nasty purple color now. It sat in the rain and snow for over 1 year. I finally gathered a little bit of garage space, and now its time to begin. I should forewarn EVERYONE... I'm doing this project alone, and I'm hardly a qualified mechanic. I live, eat and breathe motorcycles, so its only natural i need to work on one myself. At this point I've always had a helper, and I can do basic motorcycle things, but I've never torn a motor down or a motorcycle down. This is the first.

3/18/2012 - Day 1.


Before. Photo 1.



Before. Photo 2.


Before. Photo 3.



Photo 4. After taking off the seat, fenders, mudflap, tank, and exhaust, I pushed the kickstarter over and the bike has good compression and the piston rings/skirt look to be very clean. We'll see...



Photo 5. Sat in the rain/snow outside (slightly covered by house) and the tank is this clean? Really?



Photo 6. I used everything I could to try and get the the slide out of the carb. The cap on the top was caked on. I sat it upside down and used some liquid wrench. Let it sit on there for about ten minutes seeping through the threads. Then i slightly tapped the top of the carb with a rubber mallet all the way around it, and after 1 hard grip, it finally broke loose. The carb had some moisture inside, no actual rust, just nasty residue and slight varnishing. The carb bowl looked like toilet water out of the movie, Fight Club. Not inviting!




Photo 8. End of Day 1.

Day 2 - Just 1.5hrs to put in after work last night.

Removed the oil injection system/resevoir, the nasty caked on, bracket being held in with 5 bolts... really? We needed 5 bolts to hold this on?



Next item being held on both sides was the chain guard. Removed that, removed the mud flap, and removed the passenger pegs.

After that heres how she looked. Not much different. I'm a bit reluctant to remove the wiring... it looks like a damn rats nest and i have no idea what seems to go to what. This could be bad. Anyone know what the little unit being held onto the top of the rear half of the frame? Is that a CDI of sorts?




Afterward, chain was removed. I seemed to learn another tip here. If the chain is nasty... clean it, let the crap and junk fall onto the floor, then when its somewhat clean, put it in your solvent to soak. No good in putting it in solvent when the bottom of your container is immediately covered in dirt.

Day 3 - 3/23/12

I've seemingly told the whole world, so may as well spread the message here. Had a nice swollen foot that looked like it belonged to a sumo wrestler... So i've been dealing with that. All the while when swelling goes down and I've lowered the foot, I went out to the garage on friday and spent about 3 hours on the gas tank.


Where I started. Looks like the bike was white from the factory, someone painted it orange... and now its purple... Then again maybe the white was primer and the orange was the factory color?



There was enough Purple and orange paint on this bike to probably paint an entire set of race plastics. I was using 100 grit and it was loading up in about 30 seconds of use. I'm talking I used two packages of sand paper on this tank and its not even down to bare metal in all places yet.

If you've never painted before, its a good idea to clean the tank as well as you can. remove the cap and the petcock, wipe it down with denatured alcohol, you dont want to push any dirt/grime/oil down into the metal. Paint is very picky even after the primer is down. My father and I painted a 1969 Chevelle, to a nice Porsche red back in 2005. After many many coats, and lots of learning, I'll be able to hopefully turn out a decent job. Biggest difference here is I'm using a much cheaper HVLP gun than pops used.




Two packets of paper later on my little 4" DeWalt orbital sander, and I've got most of the "taking it down" done. There are areas that are actually dented and when Im done, i'll rough those up with 80 or 100 grit before filling them.




Here's the tank another hour later. I'm gonna start bondo soon, perhaps tonight.



I'm probably going to fill in/paint over where the suzuki emblems are... I lost out on a GT250 that was for sale in Seattle for only 300 dollars. A completely running bike... sheesh. Sold in the first day. Still looking for a new front end/fenders etc.

Outstanding! In my most humble of opinions, 2 strokes are way cool! I grew up on 2 strokes in the 60's and never lost my love for them. They are very fast, very reliable, easy peasy to work on, and make very cool cafe racers or stock restos. I would love to get my hands on another RD or Suzi Titan or X6 Hustler (my most favorite of 2 stroke streeters). Will love to see the results on your current project. Good luck!!

Glad to see another TS around here! I'm envious of your tank, mine wasn't nearly that nice.

My first full-size motorcycle was a TS250. A '71 IIRC. That was when they still had chrome fenders.

Thanks guys, glad theres a little interest here!

Heres the GT250 for dad, after it had a battery hooked up for the first time.

http://youtu.be/zAO4FpXkxIE

Day 4 - I know I'm no where near ready to paint... but I cant be on my feet long to service the bike. So I decided to work on bodywork. I know from working on a muscle car we restored years ago that when you're working with bondo, the less you put on, the less work you have working it smooth. I also know I'm likely going to need to bondo the covers because of shrinking, more than 1 time. 2 if I'm lucky. Because of the fact that the bottom rear (the area that most likely wont show much because it will be up near the seat, was pretty beat up, i laid on the bondo pretty thick and i'll just sand it down.




Since I'm lowering the front of the bike, I need to get rid of the suzuki emblems on the side of the tank. If I didnt, the emblems would be angled down and would look goofy. Besides the fact that I like the clean, no emblem, look.




When working with bondo you need an area that not only is flat and clean, but that can be re-used more than 1 time. Using old tricks we used an old privacy sign, and I'd had one in my yard that broke, so lucky me, it serves once again as an other purpose other than "beware of dog" sign.

Work area




Does anyone know what this cover is called? I just now realized for some reason, someone cut a hole in this. :/ Left side.




After work today I headed to Wesco Autobody and was able to pick up all my paint supplies. I was having a hard time picking between 2 colors. One was a "house" PPG color, and the other was from the brand "house of kolor" (HOK). Well here was the deciding factor. 1 quart of PPG was $40. One PINT (half the amount of a quart for those of you who hate math)... one pint of HOK is $120. So to shoot a tank and two fenders, I'd be looking at $120 on the low side, and if i really mess this up and end up shooting more than a few coats, it would reach $240 dollars.

Instead I went with a color from the PPG lineup that was used on 2012 Infiniti cars, and it was very very similar. I was able to get a whole quart of paint (overkill but thats ok), a quart of clear, a container of reducer, a container of catalyst, and two extra packs of quality 3M sand paper for $120. Not bad eh?


This dark olive metallic color has fine metallic gold flake in it, which is why I chose this one for the project.

When you use HoK paints, you must also use their primer and clear coat or risk disaster from incompatible paints, so $120 is NOT the end of it.

AlphaDogChoppers said:

When you use HoK paints, you must also use their primer and clear coat or risk disaster from incompatible paints, so $120 is NOT the end of it.

Click to expand...

I did not know that Alpha, glad I didnt go that route buddy!

It's actually true with most paints. Mixing different brands/types of paints in a paint job is very risky.

How much primer will I need if I'm shooting say... 3 coats for 2 fenders and a tank?

Hard to say, but a quart should do it.

Wet sand with 220 after the first coat of primer, and you will see all the surface flaws you missed. Wet sand with 320 or 400 after the second coat of primer.

You don't necessarily need 3 coats of primer. The purpose of the primer is, in part, to fill and level imperfections. It is the foundation of your paint job. You will see minor imperfections after a coat of primer that you didn't see before. Wet sanding levels the paint, then you do another coat, wet sand again. You keep doing that until the surface is flawless.

By "first coat" I am actually talking what is more like 2 coats, but my mind sees it as "first application." You go over all your pieces with a light coat, just barely enough to cover, then double back with a little wetter coat. Those 2 coats are what I call, "first coat." <G>

Proper gun technique is everything. Most beginners tend to swing the gun in an arc. The gun is closer in the middle of the arc, and further away and at an angle at the ends of the arc. BAD technique. You do not swing the gun on your elbow. Instead, you move your whole arm, keeping the gun a consistent distance from the surface AND perpendicular to the surface. Otherwise, it is too wet in the middle of the arc, and too dry and orangepeely at the ends of the arc. With a curved surface like a tank, the gun should be moved in more of a reverse arc, following the contours of the surface being painted.

Watch this video, and explore some of the other videos that you might find.

It ain't rocket science, but good technique takes a bit of practice and makes all the difference. Consider your primer coats as "practice."

Sounds to me like a quart will be a lot of paint... but, I'm definitely going to use more than I would for the basecoat.

Thanks ADC

Been getting a little bit more work done now that I can put full weight on my left foot. I've been slowly applying thin skimcoat layers on the tank and its really coming along. The pictures were deceiving as to how bad the tank really was. I bet there were over 20 dents or imperfections.

Putting some go MOAR faster parts on the bike. TM250 head.




Underneath




And this Whisperin' Smith exhaust seems to be the only aftermarket exhaust out there. most of them are over in the UK. I found this one in South Carolina.

There have been many afternoons spent on the tank. It was essentially 1 large dent. Many many tiny dents all over the place. Its STILL not ready for paint. So for some inspiration and a change of pace, its back to the bike frame/motor. Last nights mission was to pull the first wiring harness I'd ever done and to pull a motor for the first time.

Wire "nest"





Taking off both sets of wires, we're left with a frame.






Next I scrubbed about a pound of oily cakey dirt, off the bottom of the engine. I should have taken a photo of the pile. it was that "entertaining." Next drained the oil and after that was completed, it was time to take off the motor mounts.







Bike is on a rolling chassy now! I've never done this before, so last night was quite a treat. Had some fun for sure.




After the motor was up on the bench i realized I never made a makeshift engine box. So i cut up some 2x4's and made a 9"x11" box to keep the engine steady.


Had a buddy snap a photo of dirty me and the engine out on the bench.






As you may have seen in the previous photo... I picked up a running Suzuki TS90 for super cheap. A local guy in Tacoma Washington should be on that show American Pickers. This guy had over 100 bikes from 1970-1990. They are all in non running "sitting int he rain, or near the rain outside covered... type condition. Either way, i picked this one up. for cheap.





I made a video after some premix was added.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Q3T7ovpS0


My nerdy and kinda cute girlfriend, said she wanted to ride the new clapped out bike. (even though it doesnt have a chain or right sprocket up front.






End of the night wouldnt be complete if I didnt start the bike in the garage at 9pm and piss off the neighbors right? Ahhh bleu smoke....







Tonight I'll start on the front swap. I'm going to first swap out the two front wheels. See if its a direct swap and to see what a 1.5" drop looks like (21" front to a 18" front). Stay tuned.

You gotta love Blue Smoke!

I love those TS90's. They love to wheelie.

Is anyone even reading this? Or am i typing this up for nothing??

AlphaDogChoppers said:

I love those TS90's. They love to wheelie.

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She runs pretty good!