XS650 Cafe makeover...mock up pics!!

Well I started tearing down my 77 XS650 the other day. She's completely dismantled now and the frame was cleaned and primed last night. As far as plans go for it, I want somewhat of a Brat style mixed with a straight up cafe style. i got a custom peanut tank (literally the size of a peanut hehe), Plan on making a cafe seat/cowl something slim and sleek (lower speed bump in the back) out of fiberglass. I got clubman bars turned upside down, a mini chrome speedo from direct XS (the canadian mikesXS), fork gators, possibly a white wall on the rear, Ive got a chrome handle bar clamp with Yamaha etched on it, Aftermarket pipes that are loud as hell! from directXS. Plan on wrapping the head pipes in beige wrap as they r a bit tarnished. Bead blasted most of the aluminum stuff on the bike and gonna leave it with that look (except for the engine side covers). I like the look of having a bicycle pedal for the kick start so thats in the works. Many many more tiny details that i will post along the way...this is mostly to help keep myself organized as well, sorry for the ramblin! As far as color scheme goes I'll get the tank and cowl painted gloss black with two cream racing stripes down the middle (one fatter stripe centered and then a smaller stripe off-centered to the right. Along with this I'll have bare aluminum, polished aluminum, low gloss black and gold accents.

The top end is in the process of being rebuilt as we speak - New cam chain, rings and gaskets. along with all the carbon blasted off the pistons and valves and whatnot...lap the valves etc. I spent about 5 hours straight cleaning all the old shite off the engine...used Simple Green Heavy Duty, worked great along with some wire brushed and tiny screw drivers. Polished up the engine side covers and painted the head n jugs low gloss black and bead blasted the main valve cover and leaving it bare.

anyways enough ramblin for now...I'll get some more pics and whatnot soon and try and keep it updated for yous all to see...and will most likely be asking for advice along the way!

I love the look of this bike and am using it for a bit of inspiration...

By xs650burnout at 2009-12-23

This is what my bike looked like when I bought it:

By xs650burnout at 2009-12-16

This is what I had done to my bike over this summer and was currently riding it:

By xs650burnout, shot with FinePix S1000fd at 2009-12-16

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Some pics of the tear down and some of the engine so far:

By xs650burnout, shot with FinePix S1000fd at 2009-12-16

parts from the XS lyin next to my KZ440 bobber project hehe:

By xs650burnout, shot with FinePix S1000fd at 2009-12-16

dismantled engine after first coat of paint and cleaning/polishing:

By xs650burnout, shot with FinePix S1000fd at 2009-12-16

bead blasted bits:

By xs650burnout, shot with FinePix S1000fd at 2009-12-16

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

I really like the bike you used for inspiration. Looking forward to seeing more pics of this build!

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

thanks miob...gonna try and get the frame painted sometime next week. then I can start puttin shit back together. Just waitin for a bit of cash right now before I can get my piston rings to put my engine back together

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

I like what you're doing to your XS. I have an 81 that I caffenated and looking to update mine. Are you interested in selling the tank and front fender? Email me at cycleryder02@aol.com if you decide to sell. Keep the pics coming....

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

cretin75xs said:

I like what you're doing to your XS. I have an 81 that I caffenated and looking to update mine. Are you interested in selling the tank and front fender? Email me at cycleryder02@aol.com if you decide to sell. Keep the pics coming....

Click to expand...

Hey, I'm actually not really interested in selling anything right now...I have a couple other XS's in parts that I would like to eventually rebuild, gonna need as many pieces of the puzzle that I can find! I've been thinkin of maybe tryin to find a honda dream tank to throw on there though, think that would look cool. Or maybe a cb200 tank that we have at work...looks a lil more cafe then the peanut tank I was using. Do u ever check out kijiji.com? I find tons of xs parts on there...fenders, tanks and whatnot.

I really need to get back in a do some work on my bike, its been a couple weeks now. Frame is all primed and ready to be painted, just gotta get the ambition to do it haha - will take some pics next time I'm there for sure!

peace

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

as some of you may know, My wifes camera was stolen out of our car the otehr day, so I cant take any pics of the process right now...really sux!

BUT I have made a bit of progress. Started stripping the old hand brush black paint of my aluminum rims that a previous owner had slopped on them. I didnt even realize they were aluminum til i looked at a couple other 77 XS's.

Got a couple layers of GM dark brown paint on the frame (looks more like rootbeer/rust color with flecks) Shaved off the rear foot peg mounts and the tank mounts. Also cut up some aluminum to put on as panels in a few spots of the frame that looks kinda plain.

I helped a buddy put in some steering head bearings in his XS heritage special the other night and in return he gave me a MikesXS billet aluminum oil filter conversion kits! Score! He's more into stock/factory restorations on his bike and only used it for a couple hundred kms. Its the one that uses small honda paper filters instead of the XS filters.

picked up some sheet metal and one of those thick kneeling pads from Princess Auto to start my seat. Fist I was gonna try and make a fiberglass seat and cowl, but decided to take a different route. Have plans on using copper or brass for the actual cowl part of the seat....now only if I can find a piece of brass that big and in sheet form haha...maybe an old fireplace wood bundle holder thingy

I have pretty well completely re-wires all the connections and plugs on my harness as they were old and in a mess...lots of wire ends just twisted together in a big lump and electrical taped.

Picked up a new cam chain and am waiting on new piston rings...tried direct XS but they only had one set for one piston - booooo
Cleaned the shit out of my engine and gave the head and barrels some new low gloss black paint. Also picked up an aluminum polishing kit and started bringing some of the old gleam back to the side covers.

Other plans include bigger front sprocket so the highway might be a lil more approachable. new chain O-Ring chain, old one was cheap and worn out.

need to find a better headlight, the ones I have all have small dents and whatnot which dont allow the ring to fit on right.

Still up in the air with the tank...what direction to go...I was really thinkin of bare metal tank, but we'll see how it looks and if I can manage to make it work right so that It wont be too much maintenance...another though was (I know some of you may cringe) but, maybe trying out some of that hammered metal paint...it looks kinda cool if it was used properly. Maybe go with the brown or metal color.

anyways, just wanted to give an update...hopefully have pics soon, when we get a new camera.

P.S. - if u see someone with my camera knock em out for me would ya!

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Tunz said:

P.S. - if u see someone with my camera knock em out for me would ya!

Click to expand...

I saw some tourists today and I'm pretty sure 1 of them had your camera so I gave him the finger for ya!

That shit sucks, makes you kinda lose faith in mankind. I'm having a hard time picturing the brown frame with black motor and polished aluminum sides. But if you wanna try the bare metal tank, rock it man! If you do lay down some rattle can on it be sure to use the absolute BEST clear you can get. Gasoline will tear up paint pretty damn quick.

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

I think I'm gonn pick up some of that max 2 part clear for the tank when its done...still up in the air what to do with the tank yet....I'll figure somethin out.

Got some work done on the XS today though. Stripped the crappy black paint off the rear rim, startin to get a bit of a shine from the aluminum again...feels good! Hopefully get in to the shop tomorrow and get the front rim done...takes quite a while. Thinkin I will paint the spokes and possibly the inner part of the rim black, leaving the outer edge and hub aluminum. Got part of the seat pan cut out today as well.

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

That sucks about your camera. I think that idea for the wheels sounds cool. hopefully you'll be able to get a camera post some pics when you get them done.Keep it up.

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Well...if you find my threads on this build boring I dont blame...it does suck without pics...man i need a camera! Damn u criminals!! :'(

But on the other hand, for those of you who are actually interested, I got some more stuff done last night. Got my front wheel stripped. Just gotta give em both a bit more polishing and a good cleaning then I can tape em off and paint em. I picked up some of that appliance epoxy...heard lots of good things about it!

AND THEN...I started to build my seat/cowl. What a go ahead!! It took lots of bending metal on my knee and lots of hammering on an auto body dowel, but I got somethin half decent. My tail piece is pure copper, real low profile...when i was first done I felt like a complete failure. But when my wife woke up today she saw it and said it was awesome...now she obviously has a bias opinion on the matter, but then again she doesnt really know much about cowls....so that could be a good thing or a bad thing haha. I got all the foam cut out and everything, just need to cut up my upholstery and get to stitchin. All I have for foam so far is a kneeling pad from princess auto, it seams like it would be pretty comfortable, but not sure for how long of a ride it would work for. Anyone use one of those for a seat pad? I want a low profile sear area as well, since the cowl is so low, so I dont wanna put a whole lot more cushion on there, maybe a thin layer of actual seat foam??? Anyways, i picked up some brass looking heavy duty snaps to attach the cover to the pan, just need to figure out how I'll attach the seat itself to the frame, got a couple ideas.

Cant wait to get my frame finished, I only have certain times when i can actually lay paint down at the shop, its gotta be when no one is around, so the smell doesnt get to em. maybe tonight or the next night i can get some painting done and the re-assembly can commence!

cheers - thanks for listenin - I'll try hard to get some pics soon!!

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Just watch what temp you spray the epoxy at. Works best when the part and the paint are above 55-60 degrees (I think). What color by the way? Black?

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

yup the wheel spokes and whatnot are gonna be black....had an idea of painting black over my brown frame and lightly sanding it in certain areas that would have normal wear to give it an aged look...not sure if im gonna try it or not yet...

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

OK I really need to get a new camera! I made another seat/cowl yesterday...ditched the first attempt. But I think this one is gonna turn out great! I made the cowl part out of three pieces of sheet metal, tack welded em together so far. Gonna make some nicer beads soon and grind and sand em to make em nice n smooth. Plan on puttin some copper accents on there too. Should be enough room in the cowl for a lil storage as well, put the essential XS tools in there. K, enough talkin...i gotta try and get some pics!

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

I'm trying to picture what you're saying. like most gys, I'm very visual. I need some photos

I'm psyched about your progress. can you borrow someone's camera? This stinks that yer camera go stolen.

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

going for this wheel effect... 8)






these pics are about 4 months old and since then i've dumped another 2500$ or so into the bike... the xs650 is a great platform for a build

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

oh right on! hahah exactly the wheel look I'm goin for. I was gonna go for complete polished look, but I didnt wanna take my rims apart right now, spokes are kinda rough and dont have the money for new ones. I tried polishing in between the spokes for a bit, but that was not up my ally haha. Thanks for the pics man!

I'm thinkin today I might go into the shop and chop up an XS tank. Try and cut some knee dents in to it, by cutting a section out of each side and welding it onto the other side to make the indents. This could be a complete failure, so wish me luck haha! The tank I had one before was more suiting for a chopper/bobber style, cool tank in its rights, but not quite cafe style. K I gotta go to the shop now!!

cheers

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Got all the old shitty paint stripped off the wheels and polished the hubs and rim sides to a nice shiny aluminum!! Got em taped off and ready to paint the spokes and inner rim. I bobbed the frame where it tuns up at the back and welded in a curved piece of tubing to allow the seat to sit nicely. welded a small tab on the piece to mount the rear of the seat. Then i painted the frame gloss black.

started pounding out a copper piece to accent the tail piece of the seat, real vintage looking style. cut out a small copper spade to put on top of the decoration piece to give it a bit of a 2-D look. seat still needs the cosmetic work done like bondo and whatnot to smooth out my tack welds.

we've got some tires for sale at work for $50!! and there is a whitewall or two in there, gonna check today and see if any of em are my size (fingers crossed) Would like at least a whitewall on back for the vintage vibe.

Stripped some paint off the front disc, chain guard and rear brake stabilizer bar. gonna drill some "speed holes" in the guard.

Once i paint my spokes and get the tires I want, i can actually start re-assembling!! man its been a while lookin at a bare frame, be nice to make it look like a bike again!

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

Maaaannnn, get a camera before you get the tires. I'm sure there is somethig out there for $50. I wanna see some pics. ;D

Re: XS650 Cafe makeover

hahah cops showed up at my house tonight for a follow up on my camera actually. no luck finding it, but they got a bit more info from me.

got my front end back on with gator boots and some chrome headlight tabs. Got first coat of paint on wheels. put some relatively new progressive shocks on the back and started to slowly put the wiring harness back on. yeah yeah blah blah blah...no pics...K - next pogey check im findin a cheap camera