1983 Suzuki GS750E Cafe/Brat/Tracker? or whatever

Rather than continue to wonder which tanks might fit this bike I took the tank off of my GS750L to see how close it was. It looks a whole lot better, but there's no way it would work. Tank ears aren't even close to where they would need to be and the front of the tank sits too high, the stock tank is swept back much more to give clearance for the triple which is much lower than the L model. Because the front of the tank can't be pushed up far enough the rear of the tank sticks so far past the rear mounting location that the seat could never work as I've made it. The look is so much better, but there's no way I'd try to get an L tank to fit. Well, I've eliminated one tank as a possibility...

I've been thinking about side cover ideas and instead of starting with a blank foam piece I figured I'd grab the stock cover and start cutting it down to something that might pass for a base that I could glass over to finish it up....I'm not a huge fan. I could glass it so that I would have a finished 90degree rounded over edge on all sides, but I don't like the contour in the center and some of the other lines. It will at least give me a place to start with the foam.

I'll definitely follow the curve of the seat on the top edge, but I'm not sure what to do about the bottom...I don't like the flat there so I'll have to figure something out.

I decided I didn't like the stock side cover at all so it was time to work with the foam...I traced at least a basic shape outside the edge of the stock one I cut up just to have a place to start


I sliced it down the middle so each piece was about an inch thick


With the band saw, electric knife, flap disk, and hand sanding I finally got to this...it's not the most creative but I think it might work well enough


Laid it out on the next piece to get the other side started



A lot of sanding left to do now...


Looks like a twin


I do think I like it...now to glass these

taped up the molds and got the glass cut up...I figure 3 layers is enough for side covers


waxed up the molds well so the glass will come off fairly well and screwed them to something that'll give me some way to lay it up


I had some issues with the resin jelling up way too fast for me to lay it on as thick as I wanted, so I'll have to pick up another quart and give it a good smooth finish coat of resin that I can sand smooth. We'll see how they look tomorrow.

How does masking tape work as far as release goes? Did you use a release wax?

If you can get some fairing filler to add to your mix for the top coat it makes finishing a breeze. Its basically as sandable as bondo but way stronger. Be sure to sand down all the glossy bits for a top coat of epoxy over cured epoxy.

adventurco said:

How does masking tape work as far as release goes? Did you use a release wax?

If you can get some fairing filler to add to your mix for the top coat it makes finishing a breeze. Its basically as sandable as bondo but way stronger. Be sure to sand down all the glossy bits for a top coat of epoxy over cured epoxy.

Click to expand...

The masking tape worked pretty well on my seat pan. I just used turtle wax and a little silicone spray this time.

Thanks for the tip, hopefully these work alright

foam molds came out pretty well...not sure they could be used again though...the "finished" side would need quite a bit of smoothing out


One trimmed down, one to go...fits pretty nicely



Mirrored set... Now I need to figure out if I should use the stock mounting or if I should try to figure something else out. The stock mounting uses something similar to automotive interior body panel clips and are installed from the outside, so these covers would have holes in them with the heads of the clips exposed. I'm not sure I like that idea at all but I'd still like something that doesn't require tools to get the covers off. I may have to create a little cove on the back of these so a clip can slide into place from behind. I've still got quite a bit of sanding to do before I hit it with one more coat of resin to smooth things out.

I had to do quite a bit of body work on the side covers but they're getting pretty close to straight


Then it was on to cutting off and filling the brackets on the tank. I cut them off, ground it down, and sanded the area to be filled with 220 hoping to get good adhesion with the filler. I put it on fairly heavy and then cut it back while still not fully cured with a rasp to at least get it close while still soft



After sanding it down and needed a bit more filler to take care of a few low spots I was able to get some primer on it before blocking it out some more. Looks like I could be getting ready for paint here fairly soon...maybe once this tropical humidity drops off some