GS-550L to GS-674 Frankenbike project

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But the site is a great wealth of knowledge. Just have to avoid to avoid full disclosure of your bike plans depending on who your talking to. LOL

Gary
 
lol that's true, they'll probably give you a hard time if you're turning a super clean stock bike into a bobber ;)


Last night I did a quick sanding to knock off the old clearcoat. I would have used a paint stripper but I didn't have any on hand.

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After a light buffing with the wire wheel. I like the sort of machined look, it was hard to get it somewhat even on the wide surfaces though.

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I can't finish putting the top end together until I get the heads machined, do I was poking around looking for other stuff to do.


The Mac crane rear sets finally got modified to fit the R6 master. The holes were pretty close but needed reaming. I need to find better hardware for bolting it on though.
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The hacksaw saw some action today, goodbye bent frame ends. Good thing L's don't feel pain ;)
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When I got the spokes I just kinda threw them on there, but the rim was sitting off center in the swingarm. Apparently the sprocket hub is longer for spoked rims.

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The L hub I put had on there on the left, the 78 550E hub on the right.


Cleaned up.
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Wire wheel and some sanding.
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Looks clean against the black.
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Before I called it a night, I sprayed some paint on the bare metal on the frame to keep it from rusting.


Edit: For some reason when I tighten the axel nut down it sticks out about 1/8th of an inch too far... I think I'm either missing a washer somewhere or one of my L spacers isn't long enough.
 
Oh, and that ebay link I posted with the fairing that was for sale... I threw out an offer to the guy... and he took it :eek: . I wasn't really expecting him to take it but hey, it cost less then the price of a Gustaffson windscreen (plus I was failing hard at making my own). The quality looks nice, and it comes complete.


I'll post my own pics when I get it.
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It looks a lot like an old Churchgate or Read-Titan (the top half of the full fairing), except without the bubble over the headlight. It looks kind of like a Rickman too, they both have the wheel cutout on the bottom of the fairing. The front is more bullet shaped then both of them though (and has that line as well from the windscreen). The side profile is a little different as well, more Ducati 900ss'like, but sharp at the ends.
 
I got my other fairing in yesterday, it's nice! Very sturdy, has a little dashboard and a solid windscreen.

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After doing a little research, I found it's a Pacifico Pathfinder from the 70's. There's a few pics on the web on other bikes.

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He later turned it into a full fairing.

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It's a little guppy-like, but I like it.
 
It's certainly got an interesting shape. Glad you got a lower windscreen like in the first two pics- that last one doesn't look right.
 
Haha I know it doesn't look as good as the Ducati one, but having one that's all complete is really nice. I'm keeping the 900SS one too though so I can swap between the two (once I have a decent windscreen for it)



It looks pretty good on there
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I wasn't sure about it when you posted it up on the other bikes. Looked super front heavy on the others. With the larger hump on the interceptor it flows well on yours. I can dig it. Looks good.

Gary
 
My original plan for this weekend was to just sand down the rough parts of the paint and do a rattle can job to make it look more presentable. My friend came over to help out, we got paint and he let me ride his GSXR750 (damn modern bikes are QUICK). We got back to the house and stripped the bike down to the frame, it only took a few minutes to get the forks and swingarm off.


Dirty and ready for prep
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Cleaning off the thick layers of grime
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So we started sanding and he mentioned that since it's already down the frame, we might as well do some extra and de-tab it. I thought about it for a minute and said "Screw it, why not?".


Bike in the trunk, heading to where the beer is at :D
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Better
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The Dremel worked well but it takes a while
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Ran out of beer, but had backup.
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MMmmmm
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Getting there. Btw, the Suzuki workers were not messing around when they welded on these tabs... These things could be load bearing :eek: , heavy gauge steel and 100% penetration on stuff like the side cover mounts.
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Me doing some cutting
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The aftermath, we killed a handle and a ton of old mounts.
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Here she is now, ready for filing and finishing. I kept a few things on there, the mounts for the airbox, some electrical, inner fender and helmet mount (I like it).
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You did all that with a dremel :eek: ?
Go to HF and grab a 9.99 angle grinder ;D

looks good
 
Haha yea :-[ , I should have just gotten a cheap angle grinder but thats all we had on hand at the moment.
 
Yeah dude. I tried using a dremel to detab my bike, and I ran to get an angle grinder after the first one... You got patience, man.
 
That's true, but thankfully the booze helped pass the time ;). I would definitely recommend using the right tool though...


Btw I got on that great deal on new wires from Mark13018, so I'm going to do a total rewire. I also ended up buying the components needed on eBay to add in a keyless ignition system (that I saw posted here as well by Dryden).



Going off of his lead and what he posted I started trying to wrap my head around how he set it up. It took some research but I ended up with this basic diagram.

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I changed a few things and then made a computer mock up of the possible undertail layout.

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I don't have the parts yet but going off the manuals online that's what I've figured out so far. And it's amazing how cheap technology is... The RFID part with the key fobs cost less then $10.
 
I got a few things in the mail today :D

Wires
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RFID and relay
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I pulled out all the boxes of parts I pulled off the bike when I was stripping it down and tried organizing a bit. There really wasn't much that was going back on the bike..

It was getting late too so I did a few small things while I was at it.


Adding new tank mounts, I chopped off the L mounts a while ago and used some all thead to make new ones.

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Some washers and nuts, and some E mounts good as new.
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A little electrical tape to hold the pucks on better. I would have used heat shrink tubing if I could find it...
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My solo seat always seemed a bit long, and since I cut off the battery tray brackets I'm forced to relocate it... With the seat long there was no way to fit it under there, but if I took 4" off...

It took a while to get up the courage to Dremel it
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Curved some to fit the tank
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Not bad... It needs some sanding and smoothing but it fits well. And the tank/seat combo is solid as a rock.
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I swapped to my extra 650 tank btw, the red one is straight and I don't want to risk banging it up if I don't have to.
 
I've done this so many times, it only took me about 30 mins to mock the bike up. Hopefully my new fuse panel will get here from Eastern Beaver this week so I can get started on the wiring.

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I figured now is a good time to start replacing the valve stem seals so I made up a tool from pvc (from Bikecliffs site).

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It was a little too long so I cut some off, but the window wasnt large enough.
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Better
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These probably don't need to be replaced but I might as well. I need to get lapping compound sometime this week to clean up the seats some.
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All the valves are in good shape, no pitting or burns.
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All springs are within spec too.
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I couldn't sleep last night so I installed my LED tail light.

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As she sits now
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I wanted to test out the remote flashes I got for Christmas :D
 
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