Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket - Coated in pure sexyness!

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

It was disconnected while I was welding, but just sitting in the holder [had to unhook everything to move all the electrical components out of the way] but I definitely appreciate the tip!, I didnt actually know that could cause issues, I'm trying my best not to destroy anything, at least that I didnt intend on. lol

On another note, a friend gave me a box of batteries they use on all their stunt bikes last night, I think 3 out of the 4 looks to be good, he said they were just 12v batteries for his company's alarm backups, specs read 7.5ah/20hrs and are about 6x4x3 at a guestimate, I dont know much about them other then theyre sealed and he's had one on his bike for about 4 years now. Thumbs up for freebies!!

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

Well today I spent some time getting my seat started, naturally the last of my sheet metal I had was about an inch to narrow in the middle : so I used some fiberglass I had hanging around and the last of the atrocity that is 3M brand resin.

I actually do a lot of fiberglass work, but have never shaped anything with foam first, and looking up different seats in the beginning I saw the DCC video of the floral foam gimmick and naturally I wanted to try it, and it seems to work pretty great so far.

I put down 4 layers of masking tape first, then 2 layers of aluminum foil with some spray adhesive, it helps release easier then sticking directly to tape.

The man sized roll of masking tape, really saves time!

I ended up doing 3 layers of the woven matte, I just had a small package from something I thought it would be rigid enough, but just wasnt period, so I added 3 additional layers of heavy chopped matte on top and was happy with the rigidity.

Trimmed it down, I still need to clean up the edges a bit and make them as perfectly straight as I can once I have some daylight again.

I'm very happy with the profile so far, I think it blends well, and with a decent form fitting pad will look great, I am going to take a little more down in the center so the pad wont be to high and hide the hump transition. Going to be a VERY tight fit though hiding a battery, fuse box, starter relay and the ignition module under there fingers crossed it all fits ;D

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

So it's been a little while since the last update, I had a bit of a hold up with the seat, I originally shaped my seat with the floral foam, and the process worked fine but I miscalculated a bit and the rear hump wasnt large enough to accommodate the battery and starter relay and leave me with enough room for my flushed tail light.

Anyway, here is what I ended up doing, I had to scrap the first mold, and I found a piece of steel large enough to replace the fiberglass pan, and mount everything to, including some simple mounting brackets for the seat, I went ahead and used some 2 part urethane expanding foam on the 2nd go around instead of the floral foam, it's what is typically used in boat hauls to keep them from sinking, very rigid closed cell foam, easy to shape and sand down, and shapes great with electric/air sanders.

After I welded in the steel sheet to mount everything to, I covered everything tightly with foil and aluminum tape at the seams, and the foam mix was poured on evenly, about 12 ounces, spread into 3 4oz mixes was plenty.

The nice thing about the foam is either polyester or urethane resins arent corrosive to it, so you can apply directly to it when making molds if you needed strength with less material.

Unfortunally.. my shell warped a little and left me with a little gap at the rear and wasnt flush with the frame, so I had to make a few adjustments, I ended up mounting the seat down, taking a cotton T-shirt and just gluing it down at the rear and soaking resin to let it harden with the same contour, letting me add fiberglass from the inside to keep the sanding down to a minimum.

I used a strap to keep tension on the fiberglass to correct the warped section, I cut slits so it would release the pressure and harden correctly.

Once that was all situated I could finally begin all the dreadful sanding I hate so much. I'm too much of a perfectionist and cant let the smallest detail go, so I reluctantly spend forever on it.

It's a little hard to capture in a picture, but I penciled on some lines to show the shape of the rear hump, I wanted to mimic the tanks flat and also curvy lines, instead of just a plain rounded hump, the time spent making them as symetrical as possible was well worth it in my opinion ;D

I also picked up some supplies today to start my flush "ghostlight" rear brake light, I picked up some clear casting resin, an acrylic light diffuser for ceiling lights, some thin acrylic, and have a pile of leds to test with here at home, I still need to pickup some breadbord, a few voltage regulators and other components, I'm planning on using between 20-50 high intensity red and yellow superflux leds [depending on the size it ends up being], arranged to work as a running/brake/turn light, all unseen while not illuminated. Something very similar to the link here, only the end result will have a thinned layer of paint over the light to make it invisible while off.

http://www.motortopia.com/worldofrods/tech/keep-it-smooth-installing-flush-mount-led-taillights-in-your-rod-1888/comment-page-1/

You can also see I've cleaned up the bike a little, cut off most of the unused mounting tabs, removed the battery box, mounted the rear brake reservoir.

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

Update day!

Since my Vortex clipons are backorderd for several months pending an unsure ship date, I went ahead and ordered the closest thing I could find to them, which I found on ebay for about half the price from "Rusty Riders LLC" store.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360454678504?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619

I specifically wanted a 2 piece clipon, and I personally think they have a good resemblance to the Vortex ones. I also ordered 4 pod filters, a Dynojet stage 3 kit and an RFID reader with 2 keyfobs to convert my bike to keyless "swipe of a hand" ignition.

This was pretty tedious without a diagram for anything, but with some time and patience I managed to wire everything up and tests 100% so far, It took a series of 8 relays working together [4 relays with 2 diodes to create a pulse latching output, 1 relay to reverse the negative switching to positive switching, and the remaining 3 relays to complete my starter circuit, bikes 3 main fused connections, and to give power to what used to be the key cylinder wiring.

So the sequence goes like this.

Switch starter kill to the on position
Pass RFID fob over the sensor
Relays engage allowing the bike to start
Crank.
The latching relays will reset to normally open once switched to the off position.

Running out of room here!

I'm going to have to either mount the RFID module under the seat, or cut and weld in a roughly 4x1" space for it to rest in, as its about a half inch to tall to mount under the seat, and I need to stay as dry as possible.

Until the module arrives [mid next week] that's all I can do so far, but once it gets here I only need to connect the 3 wires and I'm good to go.

The next step in the works, and the constant rain isnt helping what so ever is the flushed tail light, after looking at the few I've seen for sale and very expensive at that, I figured I could make it practically identical to the retail ones, this is what I've gathered.

A light panel diffuser used in just about every commercial ceiling light from Home Depot.

I picked up a box of jumbo popsicle sticks from wal mart to make a jig to trim around, I glued 3 or 4 together and sanded against a piece of 100 grit on the ground to make all the edges even with each other.

I still dont have a great method for keeping the jig in place, so I just slowly trimmed little by little and used about 8 small clamps around the edges and kept moving them to cut about an inch at a time.

Used the smallest router bit in my trim router to cut the shape.

The material is fairly flexible, but will crack if bent to far, would probably work better on a flat surface and make it easier to attach the rear diffuser as well.

I drilled out some holes to secure the bolts in place and filled over with epoxy putty, it bends very easily with a heatgun and will melt if you dont pay attention to it closely.

The plan is to secure the front diffuser as flush as possible with the seat, leaving just enough to be sanded even, held in place with tape from the front and pour in enough clear casting resin to fill the backside to fill the 1/4" or so gap between the 2 diffuser pieces, this should help it structurally as well as stop unwanted vibrations that might cause cracking.

Once hardened, remove the tape and sand off any excess resin and I'll hopefully be left with just a small enough ridge to put down some filler to fill in around the light as close as possible, sand it smooth, tape up the light, paint like normal, remove the tape and lay a thinned layer of paint down over the whole panel keeping the light unseen while not illuminated

..if that makes sense..

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

That's a really cool idea for using those lighting panels for the taillight, nice one! Good idea for using the popsicle sticks for the template too. Really ingenious.

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 cafe build - Grid Rocket

Despite todays rather gloomy turn of events, I did find an uplifting package in the mail today, which I was very surprised to see here so early, my clip-ons I ordered only 2 days ago from ebay! Which look close enough to the Vortex ones in my opinion that I'm happily going to stick with.

It started pouring down rain almost instantly after I cut down the headlight bracket for now to fit these under the tripple, the brake fluid reservoir has got to go.. its massive and just doesnt fit period So does the headlight brackets that slide over the fork tubes. I'm looking into replacing the controls with something like a GSXR , I really like the adjustable levers they have I just have to source a used set on the cheap or something similar with a matching cable clutch to make it as easy of a swap over as I can.

I did manage to at least fit the clip-ons and controls to get a good feel, some tweaking will need to be done, id like the bars to come inward more but my controls will hit the tank, so tank indentions or slimmer controls are going to be needed, anyway here's where I got to before the storm came in.

Also ordered some LED's to build the electronic part of my tail light, I decided to do fewer LEDS with higher intensity I ordered 20 of both red and yellow 5mm superflux leds, rated at 5500mcd, with a 120 degree viewing angle, I'll probably be able to squeeze about 25-30 of them in there, and should be quite noticeable, I have plenty of resistors but still need to get 2 adjustable voltage regulators, and a few more relays to allow me to have a run/brake/turn light.

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

I'm not sure how to embed the video thing to photobucket, but here's the direct link.

http://tiny.cc/gpzRFID


Package arrived a day early, was incredibly stoked, thankfully it hasnt rained today and I managed to at least make the connections and test it out, so far it seems to work like a champ! The only thing I noticed was when power is cut to the module, it doesnt want to reset the latching relays, so I will have to swipe the fob over the reader to turn it on/off in place of the key, not a big deal and once I put a headlight in it will serve as an obvious reminder to turn it off.

Also, lets all ignore the fact that I did say "waven". Thanks. 8)

 

[biker_reject]

Re: Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

Your tank looks like my DOHC cb750! Hey, I thought you were going to modernize the suspension? Did you scrap that idea? Because, I wondered why you did all that work on the calipers. Anyway, I dig the GpZ's. I actually swapped in a '85 GpZ front end onto my '78 KZ400, so I guess I modernized my bike, eh?

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

I havent abandoned the idea of a front end swap, I just sadly cant afford to go ape nuts picking up beloved spare parts at the moment lol I did take a few rouch measurements though, and have my buddies at their bike shop keeping an eye out for possible matches. So for the time being, I'm just trying to get the bare essentials ready to join some old friends and family for a bike night in my home town in a few weeks.

The calipers however, did need a rebuild either way, the seals were rough all around and there was a ton of debris and moisture inside everything, the paint scheme I had just didnt thrill me with the tones of blue offered in that caliper paint, so they and the majority of everything else will be powder coated black at a later time, I didnt realize how quickly all the "little" things add up haha, I do want to get some steel braided brake lines all around, as well as a better looking and smaller master cylinder, and as minimal controls as possible, Id like to scrap the idea of any controls up front honestly, but I just cant bring myself to do all the work on this tail light and not showcase the turn signal aspect.

If you, or anyone else for that matter has any input on a front end that might work well for this bike, please do share, my main concern is the stem diameter and compatibility in that area, Ive never done a swap before and I'm by no means a professional.

 

[biker_reject]

Re: Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

There is a cross referenced list on the site, but in cases of odd bikes like my XV750, stems are swapped in by pressing them out and exchanging them. Then, in cases of bearings, upgrade to tapered bearings from AllBalls Racing. With that method, you could graft any front end you wish on your frame. Since I don't have a shop press (yet), I just took it to a machine shop. I was charged $50. Money well spent, I say.

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

I like the sound of 50$! I'll have to do some digging around and see, do you know if there's any issues with newer bikes being made out of mostly aluminum? Also, I would like to keep these mag wheels, as much as I like the newer sport bike wheels, I've taken a strong liking to the stock ones. Do you think it would be possible to use them on a newer front end?

 

[biker_reject]

Re: Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

They normally charge $60/hr. but the stem swap took less than an hour to do. I like these guys, still expensive, but they appear to be honest. They describe themselves as a "jobs shop" and will take on anything. Very professional group of guys. Anyway, I had the machinist turn down the stock KZ axle to fit the GpZ forks as the KZ stocker was a larger diameter than the GpZ's. With my R1 fork swap, it was a matter of sleeving the R1 wheel bearing to fit my XJ wheel adapter (rear wheel to front conversion).

 

[Narb1989]

Re: Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

Havent visited this thread in a while. See you've been making some progress. Nice tail light idea! Do you have a link to those clip ons? I've been thinkin about getting some for my gpz750 for some time now.

 

[Dale]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

Nice work so far! Done a couple of GPZ550's myself! Engineered to last a lifetime!
Those frames are tricky to get a good shape out of them, but your bike is looking nice and balanced.

 

[sheatona]

Re: Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket [Vid of RFID ignition conversion]

Been quite a while since I've updated my thread here, I've been swamped in all directions with all sorts of paying projects, keyword paying! So, my gpz has gotten put on the back burner for a bit, but I did however want to at least update what's been going on since my last post.

I did manage to find a nice looking headlight out at the local bike salvage yard, got my clip ons adjusted for the time being until I can afford a new master cylinder that isnt so big, unfortunately.. upon loading my bike up to bring to my new workspace, one of my straps gave out and my bike fell almost perfectly, tank first right one to the edge of my pickup bed, leaving a crease about a foot long down the tank.... down the side I already fixed up, naturally.

Here's some shots of the light, clip ons and such, I think i'm going to go HID instead of the LED headlight, for cost reasons mostly.

You can see that crease pretty well in the side of the tank, that whole week was just a week from hell.

I did get my pod filters, and Dynojet stage 3 kit in finally, which was supposed to be a pretty straight forward job of, removing the old, installing the new.... well.... 2 of the carbs went without a hiccup, the other 2 one of the screws that holds the needle in place, was stuck so bad it was breaking the brass trying to turn it, the other was already chewed up from a previous owner so.. I let them soak in lubricant overnight to no luck, i attempted to drill out and use an extractor on one and it just wasnt happening, I managed to get the better one out with an easy out today.

So, I now have 1 slide that needs to be replaced, I figure "no biggie" I'll just call kawi and get a replacement, turns out a new slide, without needle or hardware, strictly the slide and diaphragm is about 200$!!! Thankfully, I managed to find a set of 4 needle screws, and a new-used slide for about 30$ shipped, so im waiting on those to get here sometime next week.

Stock needles vs dynojet needles.

I believe the stock jets were 112.5 and were replaced with a 110 main, I think, if not its pretty close to that lol

It's kind of hard to tell, but here's that dreaded screw.

and im sorry, no matter how fancy it may be, this just doesnt look like 200$ part to me.

I put in an order for some new tires finally, I decided to go with the stock sizes of 100/90/19 up front and 120/90/18 in the rear, I chose the Pirelli sport demon biased tires for the all around performance with decent milage at a reasonable price, I also ordered a set of new Progressive fork springs to stiffen up my front end so it doesnt feel so much like a waterbed anymore.


That's really the summary of my current progress, however I think some of you will appreciate the reasons behind the hold up, since I've helped out when needed at my buddies bike shop, and me still being unemployed, he offered to add a 3rd unit for me to run, we will primarily be doing powdercoating, painting, media blasting, and auto and marine audio/video/security and basic vinyl graphics.

Check out the shop progress!

I brought some of my "talents of my youth" back and attempted to put them to work to dress up the blank walls ;]

We got out oven welded and for the most part assembled, it's roughly 4x4x6

We have a good sized powder and paint room to hang parts and spray in a clean atmosphere with filtered fans.

I found this waiting for me this morning, which I was pretty excited about!

and an oldie, but a goodie, either 80 or 100 gallon with an absolutely ungodly CFM rate, this was used to run a 6 man body shop i was told, was my buddies boss's.

Basically the only thing left is to get everything wired up like the oven elements and compressor, and get ourselves a big wash tank and we'll be in business!

My birthday's coming up in November, so my goal is December 1st to get my bike ready to hit the road, I refuse to pay 80 some off bucks to ride it for a few months just to have to pay again, so I should have good amount of time to make some magic happen!

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket - Slangin that powder.

Slowed down a bit for a while, monies been tight, works been hard to come by but I've made a few updates and design changes along the way [for the better], I found my power loss problem which turned out to be a bad ring in cylinder 1, on top of a now cross threaded #2 plug :-\.

Anyway, I patched up the ding in my tank from the fall in my pickup bed, I ended up pulling the top end from the base up to replace all the gaskets and go through everything more in depth, I checked my valve clearances and got everything within spec, I still need to pull my valves I figure I might as well replace the springs while I'm in there and check everything out since I'm powder coating all the engine parts anyway. I really dont want to dont want to have to dig in there again lol.

I pulled my wheel and steering bearings to replace them all when I can afford to drop the dough, everything was pretty rough anyway. Melted my starter relay from excessive starting during a new years day ride so that needs to be replaced now.

I got my new progressive fork springs in and replaced the seals, not totally happy with the squish just yet, so I'll have to play with them a bit more to stiffen it up a little more to my liking, they have to get pulled apart again anyway to coat.

I'm on the lookout for a matching adjustable set of clutch lever and brake master cylinder that looks good and isnt to hard on the wallet, the master I was given leaks, but once I manage that I have some braided brake lines I fully intend to buy in black or blue.

Lets see, aside from that I've just cleaned up the wiring harness and frame, gotten rid of most unused tabs and mounting brackets, over the next few days I plan to weld up a rear mounting tab for the tank thats hidden under the seat and get my frame 100% ready to powder, make a few changes to the seat and extended it so its formed into the tank.

HOWEVER! I have many parts sand blasted and ready for powder, a solid plan and some good ideas I cant wait to try ;D I do have a few pics of the progress, its finally taking shape and starting to become a reality, which makes me feel all warm and tingly inside, kind of like that first cut into a fresh piece of construction paper.. mmm.. you all know what I'm talkin about! haha

By the way, LOVE these Pirelli Sport Demons.

Still want and plan to get a new rear shock, looking at options as I'd like to get a stiffer ride.

Okay, now... try to follow me here, I'm thinking of going with this symbol on my tank sides, it's the japanese symbol for "light" and, what I intend to do is, paint the tank black, cut this design out of electroluminescent sheeting, apply it to the tank, spray a super thinned coat of paint over it, and clear coat...many many times. In theory, the design wont be seen when off but at night, when turned on will glow through the paint in a nice cool blue to go with the Tron theme of the bike.

Possibly also a double "glowing" stripes as well down the top of the tank, if it works out. This stuff isnt cheap so, some testing needs to be done first.

This kind of helped, but after I found the compression loss, I may not need any exhaust reduction, all I did was weld the stock reducer at the end of the pipe and slip the "can" on over top of it, it changed the sound to a more bubbly dirt bike sound that I dont care for, if the new piston rings fix the issue and this isnt needed, I'm ditching it entirely, I love the incredible growl this thing billows out the open pipes.

This is how the motor sits currently, no, thats not a new starter I just lightly hit it with the sand blaster to make it look new and me feel better lol

After a lot of disassembly and media blasting parts.

I actually started on my rims today, I figure get them out of the way while I'm already working on customers parts, at least they can serve as demo pieces until I get a rolling chassis.

The powder coat I'm using for those who are interested, is "Blue Starlight" a metallic transparent, and "Super Durable Wet Black" Which is the highest gloss level black, like a mirror I could find, all from "powder by the pound"

I'm doing a 2 tone scheme on my wheels, blue lips and the center outer facing blades of the spokes, and black on the rest, but I'm also doing a clearcoat for mar protection, and the last coat of clear I'm going to mix in a powder "glow additive" and do only the lip of the rim to hopefully get the signature tron look on the wheels, my plan is - if it works out - to mount some hidden 5mm UV leds facing directly at them so the glow stuff would always be fully charged while rolling, it's clear when off so it shouldnt change the appearance during the day time.

Anyway, I only managed to get the blue coat on my wheels today and mask them for the black coat, I'll be spraying black first thing in the morning and cant wait to see the result.

I did a small scale test and did a coat on my upper tripple, let me just say... this stuff is ridiculous in the sunlight!!!

That's all for now. More to come soon. 8)

 

[MaxBell]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket - Slangin that powder.

Duuude! This looks great! I've got a GPZ550 that I'm slowing fooling around with in between my car builds. They're pretty fun to mod and work on. Keep it up, I'm interested to see what you do with this thing.

 

[c4f3 r4c3r]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket - Slangin that powder.

Hey, you probably already know about this since you have been checking out electroluminescent products, but just in case I just saw something that might be of interest to you. There is a company called Darkside Scientific that makes an electroluminescent paint: http://www.lumilor.com/. I have no idea what it costs, just thought I'd drop a link.

Todd

 

[sheatona]

Re: 1982 Gpz550 - Grid Rocket - Slangin that powder.

Hey, you probably already know about this since you have been checking out electroluminescent products, but just in case I just saw something that might be of interest to you. There is a company called Darkside Scientific that makes an electroluminescent paint: http://www.lumilor.com/. I have no idea what it costs, just thought I'd drop a link.

Man, that is EXACTLY what I have been looking for! You may have very well single handedly made my vision a reality! 100 GOLD STARS FOR YOU!!!!

Todd

Duuude! This looks great! I've got a GPZ550 that I'm slowing fooling around with in between my car builds. They're pretty fun to mod and work on. Keep it up, I'm interested to see what you do with this thing.

Thanks man! This is my first older bike and I fell in love with it instantly, I even bought a Ducati as a turn key commuter bike not long ago and I still could talk your ear off about how awesome my 30 year old Kawi is lol


Anyways, I havent had a lot of time lately to work on my own stuff, but I have managed to make a little progress, money is pretty tight and we're hopefully moving soon for a new job "fingers crossed", so most of the little pieces and odds and ends have already been packed up but here's a preview of what I finished in the last few weeks!

I'm already super excited and this put me back in good spirits despite all the bad luck lately, I can finally see it comming together! Let me know what you think so far!







I wish you all could SEE just how deep and shimmery this blue is outside! 110% happy with my color choices. My goal is to at least get a rolling frame with all attached parts coated before moving, I tell my wife it's better that way for safer transportation, but I really just want to display it in our new living room hahahaha

 

[The Rev]

how is the bike coming? I am interested in how the bike turned out. Thanks