diggerdanh
Been Around the Block
I figured it was about time to post my thread here to share and track my progress. I picked up my first bike (new rider too) a little over a year ago in May of 2011. It looked like this when I unloaded it and rolled it into my garage. My wife was less than pleased at the "hunk of shit" in her garage.
The pictures make it look better than it was. It was really, really grimy, lots of corrosion on chrome and aluminum. I don't think anything was shiny. It was missing a lot of pieces here and there (side covers, cam cap covers, missing a lot of cotter pits, brake and clutch lever were broken, speedo cable was broken, dry rotted tires, old tired battery, etc). But it ran, only had a little over 14,000 miles on it, and it had good bones, no major rust - just the normal rusty bolts here and there - and hardly any spots of rust on the frame. Some PO had shot a coat of flat black on the tank but didn't take the time to do much sanding of their poor bondo work.
From what I could tell from the title history and the seller, it had been sitting for a while but then I was the third owner in less than a year. The 2 owners before me fixed a little here and there but they left me a lot to still do.
Over the first two months since I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, fixed broken parts, replaced the missing ones, replaced the fork seals and dust caps, added gaitors, performed regular maintenance and cleaned up the appearance a little with smaller turn signals, replaced the rear bumper and fit a rear cowl from a 78 kz400 in its place, drilled the front rotor, sanded, painted, polished, etc. It was a trial by fire in motorcycle maintenance and repair. A lot of stuff was missing: the caps over the valve adjusters, the side covers, one passenger peg. A lot of stuff was busted: broken speedo cables, both brake and clutch lever were broken, the threads on the front axle were stripped - the castle nut was just kind of hanging there, horn didn't work, turn signals didn't work, forks leaked, needed new grips, needed new tires and tubes, the stock mufflers had baffles drilled out and it was running really rich and wouldn't rev past about 3000 RPM.
Here are a few pics of how it looked as of July of 2011 after a few months of cleaning, repair, and getting everything sorted. It cleaned up really well. Under all that grease, grime, dirt and rust was a good looking bike. It really was in good shape for the most part, just looked like it had been neglected for quite a while.
At this point the only real customizations I had done so far were the paint, rear fender removal, use of the 78 rear cowl, rear tail light, turn signals all the way around, aftermarket headlight ears to lower the headlight, and lowered the gauges. I wrapped the seat with a piece a leather from a coat I picked up at Goodwill (for $7 !!). Some former PO had trimmed up the foam a bit and I cleaned up the mess a bit, but it still looked a little lumpy and I planned to take it apart and trim up the foam a bit again eventually. I had also just put on the new tires this weekend (Shinko 712s, 100/90-18 up front and 110/90-18 rear) and I had a new set of mufflers on the way: a set of 23" megaphones (EMGO probably, an Ebay score).
By October I had the new mufflers, superbike bars and new grips installed. I finally got the carb issues sorted too - it was missing the rubber plugs on the pilot tubes. I replaced the coil and added new plug wires and boots, and I did the coil-power mod as well as replaced the old fuse box with a new ATC-style box and fuses. I sanded (steel wooled mostly) the black paint off the headers and they weren't in bad shape - chrome wasn't beautiful but it had more of a polished stainless look.
I had not ridden it by this point yet other than up and down the driveway a few times because I was to take my basic MC safety course starts a week after these pics. Luckily we had a warm fall and I was able to get a couple short rides in October and November.
That pretty much takes me through the end of 2011. I'll follow up with another post or two to bring things up to date.


The pictures make it look better than it was. It was really, really grimy, lots of corrosion on chrome and aluminum. I don't think anything was shiny. It was missing a lot of pieces here and there (side covers, cam cap covers, missing a lot of cotter pits, brake and clutch lever were broken, speedo cable was broken, dry rotted tires, old tired battery, etc). But it ran, only had a little over 14,000 miles on it, and it had good bones, no major rust - just the normal rusty bolts here and there - and hardly any spots of rust on the frame. Some PO had shot a coat of flat black on the tank but didn't take the time to do much sanding of their poor bondo work.
From what I could tell from the title history and the seller, it had been sitting for a while but then I was the third owner in less than a year. The 2 owners before me fixed a little here and there but they left me a lot to still do.
Over the first two months since I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, fixed broken parts, replaced the missing ones, replaced the fork seals and dust caps, added gaitors, performed regular maintenance and cleaned up the appearance a little with smaller turn signals, replaced the rear bumper and fit a rear cowl from a 78 kz400 in its place, drilled the front rotor, sanded, painted, polished, etc. It was a trial by fire in motorcycle maintenance and repair. A lot of stuff was missing: the caps over the valve adjusters, the side covers, one passenger peg. A lot of stuff was busted: broken speedo cables, both brake and clutch lever were broken, the threads on the front axle were stripped - the castle nut was just kind of hanging there, horn didn't work, turn signals didn't work, forks leaked, needed new grips, needed new tires and tubes, the stock mufflers had baffles drilled out and it was running really rich and wouldn't rev past about 3000 RPM.
Here are a few pics of how it looked as of July of 2011 after a few months of cleaning, repair, and getting everything sorted. It cleaned up really well. Under all that grease, grime, dirt and rust was a good looking bike. It really was in good shape for the most part, just looked like it had been neglected for quite a while.






At this point the only real customizations I had done so far were the paint, rear fender removal, use of the 78 rear cowl, rear tail light, turn signals all the way around, aftermarket headlight ears to lower the headlight, and lowered the gauges. I wrapped the seat with a piece a leather from a coat I picked up at Goodwill (for $7 !!). Some former PO had trimmed up the foam a bit and I cleaned up the mess a bit, but it still looked a little lumpy and I planned to take it apart and trim up the foam a bit again eventually. I had also just put on the new tires this weekend (Shinko 712s, 100/90-18 up front and 110/90-18 rear) and I had a new set of mufflers on the way: a set of 23" megaphones (EMGO probably, an Ebay score).
By October I had the new mufflers, superbike bars and new grips installed. I finally got the carb issues sorted too - it was missing the rubber plugs on the pilot tubes. I replaced the coil and added new plug wires and boots, and I did the coil-power mod as well as replaced the old fuse box with a new ATC-style box and fuses. I sanded (steel wooled mostly) the black paint off the headers and they weren't in bad shape - chrome wasn't beautiful but it had more of a polished stainless look.
I had not ridden it by this point yet other than up and down the driveway a few times because I was to take my basic MC safety course starts a week after these pics. Luckily we had a warm fall and I was able to get a couple short rides in October and November.




That pretty much takes me through the end of 2011. I'll follow up with another post or two to bring things up to date.