College Build 78 cb550

[StrangeXJ86]

Small Update:

I'm actually starting over on my rear sets. Going to make them out of 1-1/4" almunimum extruded round stock and 3/8" aluminum sheet metal. The steel i started with will rust and wear pretty bad so aluminum will be way better.

My build had to take a small back seat to my other project that needed to get finished. here it is. What do you guys think? Its a pic of his E46 M3 in our driveway.

 

[Korbin091]

Great progress on your bike, but WOW I love the E46, I have one myself and I am an artist at heart. Your Artwork is excellent.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

Great progress on your bike, but WOW I love the E46, I have one myself and I am an artist at heart. Your Artwork is excellent.

thanks on all account! What e46 do you have? THe e46 M3, e39 M5, and 89 e30 are by far my three favorite BMW's.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

Small Update: Pulled the electrical through my handlebars. The rights side was a little tricky but i managed to get it through. The left side was impossible with all of the turn signal wiring, sooooo, I decided against having turn signals.

All the wires were covered with heat shrink tubing.

I also did a little bit more copper plating. It's so much fun! but that hydrochloric acid is pretty intense. You HAVE to wear a mask, gloves, and safety goggles at all times. Super Toxic.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

Updates I forgot to add to this forum. Mainly posting on sohc4


little update: getting some of the wiring done. I really want that triangle section to be as clean as possible so i decided to burry the electrical in the frame. Lot of lengthening and soldering but it was worth it in the end.

Brake Side

Shifter side

one wire got a little tangled but i'll fix that later.

forgot to add the pics of the headlight bucket. fresh flat blck paint on the bucket and carrier's.

and some freshly painted forks that got a complete overhaul. New seals, rubber covers, yada yada yada.

Also installed some new all balls tapered steering bearings. They were a pain in the ass but well worth the time.


little progress today

took apart my carbs again to paint them like the engine. I fully rebuilt them about a month ago but didnt even think about painting them so they got torn down again. Its nice though because I need to set the level of the interior float things.

decided to copper plate the little extremeties like the cable holder, random brackets and springs

cast aluminum carbs and flat black bracket.

Really happy with the final product. Glad I did it.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

complete reassembled carbs. I love 'em. Should have gone to bed 3 hours ago but I couldn't help myself but to stay up and finish them.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

got the carbs mounted today. Finally!

I love the look of the copper against the frame.

 

[SONICJK]

Those carbs look freaking awesome man.
Lets hope you didnt paint any vents closed.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

thanks man!

Hahaha i definitley did not paint any vents! I made sure everything that needed to be protected was protected. All of the weird o-ringed rod holes were plugged with tape and all little holes that connect to the hoses between each carb were protected.

I am really satisfied with the end result. I decided that i'm going to disassemble my rear shocks now and copper plate the coils. Should look pretty sweet.

I'm still having a difficult time trying to decide what color to paint the tank. It's really buggin me. I keep thinking a really dark mahogony brawnish/maroon would look really cool.

Any suggestions?

 

[Das1slickninja]

Great work so far! Love the copper look, and I definitely think a brownish/maroon would be a cool touch - it fits with the copper; giving the bike a twenties-ish vibe, which I for one think is really cool!

Also great taste in bimmers! I'm a bimmer head myself and think the E39 M5 is one of the all time greats!

 

[StrangeXJ86]

thanks! Im definitely leaning towards the dark maroon. Cant decide if i want to make it one solid cover or airbrush it to give it a kind of weathered/leathered look.

and yeah, I'm really trying to give it that old tarnished/weathered kinda feel but refreshing at the same time.

And oh man, the E39 M5 is without a doubt my second favorite bimmer next to the m3.I've always dreamed of having an Avus Blue M5. If you like e30's check out my build. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=192128

Part 2: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=215540

 

[canyoncarver]

Those carbs look awesome....damn.

 

[Tifun]

Wow, those carbs turned out amazing! I may have to consider doing that now haha. How many coats did you do on them?

 

[StrangeXJ86]

Wow, those carbs turned out amazing! I may have to consider doing that now haha. How many coats did you do on them?

thanks! I love having freshly painted parts that give them all a nice uniform look. The carbs have roughly 2 coats of Krylon Zinc rich primer and then about 3-4 coats of Duplicolor cast aluminum engine enamel. The reason i did that many coats was because it was a little difficult to get all of the tight little sections and angles. A big thing that helped was painting the main carb body, float bowls and top cover all together. Better uniformity.

Make sure to cover up all the vents and tube inlets/outles if you're gonna paint yours!

 

[StrangeXJ86]

soo... I was planning on leaving today for a spring break ski trip but my roommate decided the brake pads on his car needed to be replaced first. Long story short, once gouged caliper cylinder, and one stripped bleeder screw, and we're stuck. Tried tapping with a bigger size, yada yada yada no success. Gonna try a different McGuyver style fix tomorrow.

Anyways, the car setback gave me some time to work on the bike. So I shaped the seat hump. I tried copying the lines of the tank.

started fiberglassing yesterday. Here's the first two pictures. I went about this in a little different way. Instead of fiberglassing the seatpan portion and the hump together, I glassed the hump section first to make sure it had the right placement on the hoop. Then I pulled masking tape really tight across the frame from left to right. This gave me a nice flat surface to lay my seat pan section over. So then I positioned the rear hump, fastened it to the frame with tape, and then layed a section of fiberglass down from the tank back to the hump. Oh and I made a little foam section at the base of the tank so the seat pan had a nice transition.

I made a bunch more progress today. Cut the first layer how i wanted the finished size to be, reshaped the transition to the tank, chopped and lowered the channel for the wiring, and layed down two coats of fg on the inside of the hump.

Forgot to snap some pictures though, so I'll post those tomorrow.

 

[StrangeXJ86]

I wanted to follow the lines of the tank as best i could. I thikn it turned out pretty well. Today was a pain. I wish i had a palm sander.

i applied the first layer of bondo and had it extend lower than the actual size of the hump so i could cut it off to give it a nice straight edge. This worked out very well. Took about 2-3 coats of bondo and then two portions of minor touch up.

chopped the channel and reformed the transition to the tank. still have to cut the excess off.

ANd here it is on the bike. Sanding Sanding Sanding!

 

[StrangeXJ86]

Got my rearsets ordered from oldschoolspeed (durgam_k) today. Looking forward to getting them in the mail and mounting them. They're the last part I need for my build to be complete.

I'm on the home stretch! I think I can have her finished by the end of march.

 

[75cb550]

Hey where's the progress? I want to see how you ended up mounting those rear sets, I'm about to do the same.

 

[Bobby Joe]

College Build 78 cb550

No love from the DTT?

first attempt at some electro-plating with copper. License plate holder started out bare stainless steel. Small battery charger, some aligator clips, and hydrochloric acid, and a sheet of pure copper. Here's the result.

I'm pretty happy with it.

I was reading about this idea on SOHC. Can you provide more detail on the chargers amps used and this sheet of copper you used? That looks great and I am wanting to do this on several parts.

And killer shop that you have access to!!