79 GL1000 Project "NudieWing"- Going back to the shop for gasket work

Maritime

Over 10,000 Posts
Ok, since my father in law is using my 450 to learn to ride, I have His GL1000 to ride until he is comfortable enough to swap back. The budget for this build is 0 or less. I got it home last year and immediately took the vetter off. He liked it but it was loose and after inspection needed glass work so had to come off. I hope it never goes back on.

The good:

It runs pretty good
I like the colour
Has loads of power.
Has new tires


The bad:
King and queen seat doesn;t work for my height it was designed for someone about 5' 2"
Back rack has to go
Front brakes drag
Rear shocks are mushy
bars are too bloody high

So with pretty much 0 $$$ I am going to do what I can.

I got lower bars for 27.00
I got some leather for 30.00
15 dollars for thread and the proper needles.
father in law bought some shocks from a neighbor who had a wing and never got around to putting them on.

Pics of what it looked liked first day home, then what it looks like as of now.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

OK so the plan tomorrow is to ditch the rack and bag brackets off the back end, mount the new shocks and if it is warm enough give the brakes a service. Then swap out the bars for the lower ones. Then I am going to work on the seat cover. I tore the old seat apart, well it was falling apart anyway, it has a fiberglass pan, weighs next to nothing, that was a nice surprise ;D I shaved the seat down and have 3 pieces of black horse hide I got from the tandy store. I have re finished many pieces of furniture so I hope to do a nice job on the leather for the seat. I need to find a pop rivet gun to borrow. I can't spend anymore money on this from today on, until my wife finds a job. She was nice enough to let me get the leather and the sewing stuff. She thinks if i do a good job her dad will pay me for the materials.

Pics to follow once I get the work done tomorrow. If I can get the shed open. It has been frozen in 3' of snow but it was 5 above today and supposed to be the same tomorrow. I should be able to get the ice moved.

Fucking winter better end soon! This is also the bike I will likely ride to Troy's in July so I better do a good job. If the budget allows I am planing on a major weight reduction on this thing. The fenders and other parts are solid steel and heavy as shit. I want to replace them with smaller fiberglass pieces. Also would like to upgrade to electronic ignition.

Cheers,
 

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Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

off to a good start...

ive been having wet dreams of owning a gl1000 or gl1100 for the past month or so. i want to have the ultimately powerful cafe...

a gl1100 with dual turbos would be ultimately sick. could always supercharge, but i want the satisfaction of hearing two turbos spool up at 4000 rpm to redline =D
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Nekid 'Wings RULE!
I'm in the middle of an '81 1100 build myself. If you got an electric carving knife, the kind you use on a turkey or ham, they do an awesome job on seat foam, and yes lots of weight savings potential by stripping off the extra iron. ;D
Lurk around or join us at www.ngwclub.com for other ideas, their "ShopTalk" and forums sections are a wealth of knowledge!
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Rocan said:
off to a good start...

ive been having wet dreams of owning a gl1000 or gl1100 for the past month or so. i want to have the ultimately powerful cafe...

a gl1100 with dual turbos would be ultimately sick. could always supercharge, but i want the satisfaction of hearing two turbos spool up at 4000 rpm to redline =D
And than go BOOM! :D
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Thanks guys, just made the wife B-fast in bed and I am heading out to the shed. Hoosier, saw your build it looks sick. I may end up inheriting this bike and if i do it will get a treatment very similar to yours. Frame up re-do into Cafe. been lurking for a while on the naked wing site ;D Just never had anything to post there yet. I have used the carving knife trick and it does a beautiful job on foam, just wrecked my last one on a sofa re-do and never got another, so I had t use a bread knife to do this one. I have polyester to smooth it out before the leather. Hey Von, if you look into these motors you'll see they run at about 50% potential, the first generation are tuned so mild that twin turbos is not that radical. the blocks could easily take it. That would be crazy. Liquid cooled, twin turbo, I don;t think I could ride it though. I would end up wrapped around a tree.

Cheers,

Maritime
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Maritime Biker said:
Thanks guys, just made the wife B-fast in bed and I am heading out to the shed. Hoosier, saw your build it looks sick. I may end up inheriting this bike and if i do it will get a treatment very similar to yours. Frame up re-do into Cafe. been lurking for a while on the naked wing site ;D Just never had anything to post there yet. I have used the carving knife trick and it does a beautiful job on foam, just wrecked my last one on a sofa re-do and never got another, so I had t use a bread knife to do this one. I have polyester to smooth it out before the leather. Hey Von, if you look into these motors you'll see they run at about 50% potential, the first generation are tuned so mild that twin turbos is not that radical. the blocks could easily take it. That would be crazy. Liquid cooled, twin turbo, I don;t think I could ride it though. I would end up wrapped around a tree.

Cheers,

Maritime
Take a look at the Naked Goldwings Forum. Lots of good ideas and info. AGB-1
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

VonYinzer said:
And than go BOOM! :D

as maritime said... the gl1100 is one hell of a strong motor. a supercharged motor was already built.


i know i could turbo it... plus a turbo on each side would look sick. all i need is a bike and the time.


my favorite thing about these gls though has to be the cam belt. especially when the cover for them is taken off. god that looks sexy. reminds me of vintage f1 motors.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Supercharging and turbocharghing have very different effects... Not saying its not possible, just tricky...
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Well, my plans got a little sidetracked. I posted my last post, then my wife finished breakfast and said "Where are you going?" I said out to the shed, She said you have to build the shelf in the basement first....... So I did the honey do list... then got out the seat pan and sewing machine, Sewed a cover, had to go to the grocery store, ended up right beside Canadian tire, had 20 left form groceries just enough for a riveter. Anyway seat is much sleeker now, I think it looks good for a first attempt and tight budget. 50.00 total if you include the riveter. but i get to keep that for other projects. The pics on the bike are right after a coat of mink oil was rubbed on the leather. So it looks wet. Guy at the leather store told me to put a couple coats of it to protect it.

Would have liked to get the shocks and bars done but I still can't ride for at least 2 weeks so I hope to get done in the next couple days.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Nice job on that seat considering it started like as a sofa!
and I don't count tools in the cost of a bike build exactly for the reason you commented on, I can use them on other projects, even honey-do lists.

Take a look at the Naked Goldwings Forum. Lots of good ideas and info. AGB-1
Thats the place I suggested, www.nakedgoldwings.com lost their rights to that addy, it is now www.ngwclub.com, same place, same info.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

thanks Hoosier. I wish I could have had some more polyester bat to smooth under the leather just a bit more and my thread kept breaking on the thicker spots so some of my seams aren't perfect but much improved over the giant ass cup seat it was.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

VonYinzer said:
Supercharging and turbocharghing have very different effects... Not saying its not possible, just tricky...

wouldnt be fun if it wasnt tricky ;)

seeing as how its not a high rpm motor, smaller turbos would need to be used. you could probably run close to 15psi though... long as the compression is low enough on the pistons. would loose some bottom end, but what you gain would make up for it ;D


seat looks great by the way! tools dont count in my book... seeing as how youll have them for a long enough time that theyll get used more then once, they are a necessity ;)
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Hear you on the tools, part of the reason I bought a Dremel 400 series full kit to use on my shitty little Kawasaki 100 - I know it'll be of use for other things.

[rant]

Anywho, good to see a few Goldwing builds around, but God knows why you'd want to turbocharge an engine with these sort of characteristics. A supercharger would be much more practical and suit the low-down torque characteristics of these engines. People moan on about parasitic drag and whatnot, but one thing I hate is turbo lag and the complicated exhausts. Plus, turbos destroy the natural scavenging the exhaust provides and buggers economy. A well set up supercharger should improve economy, provided you keep your right hand in line.

[/rant]

Cheers - boingk
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Hey Boingk, I know what you mean. These things don't get the best fuel economy to begin with. I have a huge problem using my right hand a lot and get the shittiest mileage ;D But I have a huge grin factor. It would be cool to cafe completely one of these and remove as much weight as possible, then crank up the performance wether it was turbos/suopercharger etc. But as one fo the guys said on the NGWCLUB. " why do tjhese bikes use fuel like it's free after 75MPH?" and they do. But for me this bike is going to be a little more sporty but still a long distance 2-up bike.

Cheers,

Maritime
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

Heh, heh... supercharged GoldWings are COOL!!... yea, yea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pf7DL18RxA
 
Re: 79 GL1000 - Lifes more fun naked

boingk said:
Hear you on the tools, part of the reason I bought a Dremel 400 series full kit to use on my shitty little Kawasaki 100 - I know it'll be of use for other things.

[rant]

Anywho, good to see a few Goldwing builds around, but God knows why you'd want to turbocharge an engine with these sort of characteristics. A supercharger would be much more practical and suit the low-down torque characteristics of these engines. People moan on about parasitic drag and whatnot, but one thing I hate is turbo lag and the complicated exhausts. Plus, turbos destroy the natural scavenging the exhaust provides and buggers economy. A well set up supercharger should improve economy, provided you keep your right hand in line.

[/rant]

Cheers - boingk

dont get me wrong... this motor prefers supercharging over turbos any day... only point for the turbos would be to have something totally crazy looking and original.


how about a dual charge? :D :D
 
Re: 79 GL1000 Project "NudieWing"- Lifes more fun naked

First - that video is sick.

Now on to the update. Well I got about 3 hours of quality time with the wing. Then had to drive to the In-laws to help my wife's aunt and uncle renovate a 150 year old farm house. they bought a farm and house and started renovating it and I am a handyman by second job so we tore into the first of many rooms to re-do. Anyway, I got to ride the 450 so it wasn;t all work ;D As I was telling Bruce what i had been up to on his bike I mentioned how huge the tailight looked and that the rear blinkers were welded to the rack i removed so he told me to get a new light and blinkers and he would cover the cost... On to ebay and new stuff is on the way. Totally stole Hoosiers Cats eye idea, his looks so good I had to get one too.


TL057_1_MAIN.jpg


image003.jpg


Got the new bars on, much better riding position. I hate cruiser bars so much. They just are no good for anything but slow, shitty driving. Yes I like to put along sometimes, but sometimes I just want to drive to the limit, these new bars should do both well ;D


kijijistuff093.jpg


Also got the big rack off and the new shocks on. Hope they ride as nice as they look, I have since the picture pulled the rear fender and man it weighs a metric tonne, i might just have to talk Bruce into letting me make a fiberglass copy to replace it. Or at least let me chop it.
kijijistuff092.jpg


kijijistuff091.jpg


Started looking into the front brakes. Pulled one caliper and the brake shoes spread easy, so I think it is the front axle is not put on with the right tolerance and tightened in the proper sequence. I found out the the NGWclub site that the brakes drag bad on these if you don't follow the manual when you tighten up the front end. Working in the 10x12 shed full of stuff I can't really get at the front brakes so i hope to get the bike out to the driveway, if I can get it through the 3' of snow in the back yard.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 Project "NudieWing"- Lifes more fun naked

Totally stole Hoosiers Cats eye idea, his looks so good I had to get one too.
MWUUU HA HA HAAAA!

Keep up the good work man, she's gonna be sweet!

Now that you've been to NGWClub.com, the standard introduction is "Have you done the Belts?" These are interferance engines and will not take kindly to a broken timing belt. Read up on it in the "How To Section" there. I got mine from NAPA, also can give you a Gates and Goodyear #'s less than half the price than from Mother Honda, and they haven't been sitting on a parts shelf for 20+ years.
 
Re: 79 GL1000 Project "NudieWing"- Lifes more fun naked

Hey Hoosier, Been driving hondas since I learned 20 something years ago and the belt covers are coming off for a looky loo probably today, I know the previous owner and he had them done the year before I bought it, so I know they should be good. That being said, I don't mess with timing belts on Hondas, they get changed early and often to prevent issues. I would appriciate the part #'s, it would save me searching the web. I am pretty sure the 1000 and 1100 are the same. If they look good I will run them this season and change them next as that would be 3 years and I read somewhere it is good to change them every 2-3 with lots of use. And probably more often with less. Thanks for the heads up on the belts, there is a lot of people who don;t know what happens if they fail. About the only way to really destroy one of these motors is to neglect the belts.

Do you know if anybody makes a replacement rear fender in glass? I can make one with a mold fron the factory but if I could buy a nice looking one I might consider. That rear fender is heavy. I think I might talk Bruce (Father in law) into buying a Roccity front fender to lighten up the front end.

Can't wait to get the lights in so i can get this thing back on the road again.

I was riding my 450 and it was a hoot, so different from the big girl. But I love the torque of the H4..... I will hate to give her back if Bruce gets his license, but then I will just have to find another to build, when $$ allow.


Cheers,
 
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