Rockin the 80's - First time Cafe Build

SloKrt

Been Around the Block
well, i started my build a little over a week ago, and thus a build thread. but originally was leaning more towards tracker with cafe elements. Now that i have started to work on the bike (and stare at it thinking of ideas) it seems that I am leaning much more toward the Cafe'. So im starting my thread here.

here is a link to my original thread in the tracker section (can a mod move that theread to the begining of this one????) any way, check it out.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=37236.0
 
Re: Rockin the 80 - First time Cafe Build

Now that that is out of the way... i have been slowly working on getting the harness sorted and put back together, ill have to figure out my battery box and where/how ill mount the electrical stuff.

I have had time to pick up some parts. i picked up a 6LED tail light that kind of matches the shape ill be molding my fiberglass tail section. should be here in about 2 weeks.
LEDtaillight.jpg


and these LED lights for my rear turn signals they are just over 1" and bright as hell! should work....
100_2028.jpg


and finally, some stuff to shape my rear out of (also picked up some foam and a camping mat to make the seat pad)
100_2029.jpg


Ill be sketching out the rear view shape then transfering it to the foam and start shaping. Im thinking ill try to post a step by step on the fiberglass tail since im sure im not the only one who cant afford one off the shelf, and wants to make the tail unique to their bike.
 
Re: Rockin the 80 - First time Cafe Build

Progress Update!

I spent a bit of time this afternoon cutting off the rest of the brackets from my rear hoop. had a couple cuts that went a little deeper than intended, but welded up the grooves and all is good.

Here is the result of my labors! rear section is welded back on!
TAILWELDED.jpg
 
Got the tank stripped tonight. I used aircraft stripper, then went over it with a wire wheel to clean it up and get the remaining residue off. the tank is in pretty good shape, only one dent in the front that someone filled with BONDO.... they also filled the spots that the decals used to go. Ill have to get the rest of that off and do it with some evercoat. then prime and prep for paint.

Strippedtank.jpg


Im prety sure i have the paint scheme figured out... Colors have been chosen, and I have decided on a two tone, kinda leaning toward a racing stripe, what do you guys think??
 
kopcicle said:
I recognize the chassis and rear caliper . It's a 2F0 Yam X650 .

~kop

you sir are correct. Its a 1980 Yam XS650.

Im hoping ill get some time on monday to do some more work, but with the holiday activities we will see how it goes.
 
oh yeah, I ordered some stuff from mikes too.

Frok seals, dust caps so i can re-build the forks.

Since im doing the wiring, and want to get the guages in working order again, I also ordered the speedo and tach cable. (the PO cut the ones on the bike when he removed them :eek:)

gotta figure out where all the electrical components will go and the tail section though.
 
Well, since I had to travel for work and dint get home till mid day saturday only to get on the road for the holiday weekend, I didnt make alot of progress this weekend.... still waiting for some parts too, so I wont be able to move forward too fast till they arive.

But I did manage to spend the afternoon in the garage and created more work space!

I built this 8' work bench with some extra lumber I had been planning to re-purpouse into a work bench anyway. I am in the process or re-building all my work benches as a side project (as if i didnt already have enough of them). Ill be building another 8'er to the right of this on into the corner, then turn the corner with another 8'. you can never have too much work space, right?

100_2064.jpg


The chaepo tool box on the bench is a recent addition, they were on sale at the hardware store for $25... I wont be using it for tools though, I decided it would work great as a job box. Ill be using it for all the small parts and pieces from each part of the project so i dont loose any hard to find pieces (then they wont have to be left spread out on my work bench either...).

while building the workbench I sprayed up a test pannel of the colors I think Im going to be using. Not sure if ill do a racing stripe of some sort, or just a two tone... opinions? I like how the colors go toghether though.

100_2066.jpg


As always, thoughts and opinions are welcome.

Thanks,
AD
 
alec.korver said:
You can never go wrong with some good ole fashioned stripes.

Thats kind of what im thinking. Im leaning toward an offset tripple stripe. I guess ill decide when i start painting and masking it up.

Current plan is to paint on Fathersday (i get a whole day in the garage! ;D)
 
Well, unfortunately I was not able to do much work on my build this weekend due to being out of town.

I did however receive some parts on firday right before I left. My speedo, tach cables arrived. as did my fork seals and dust caps.

I still need to order or make some lowerng spacers for the foks and buy fork oil, then i can tear the front end down and start that re-build.

like I said, im trying to get her road ready by the 1st of july. As you may have seen in one of my pics my truck needs some paint work done as well. So, this month ill have to split time between the two projects :p as i have the same goal to complete the paint work on my truck (only made sense since i am using some of the paint from the truck project to paint the bike as well).

Plans for this week:

1. Finish stripping the tank
2. fill the dent and decal locations with evercoat fiber fill
3. prep tank for paint (sprya primer and sand).
4. spray tank with red for striping
5. get back to working on the wiring project
a. make electronics tray for under the seat
b. determine how to mount the stock battery (until funds are avail for a small sealed bat)
c. begin battery mount and tray

Im sure this list may change depending on progress and time available but my work schedule looks to be opening up a bit this week so im going to take advantage of it.

Next weekend. ill start on body work on the truck and get that ready for paint too.


Ill post progress pics as I go.
 
heres what i was able to get done today...

I got the guages mounted back on the bike in their new lower mounting position.
100_2068.jpg


Adjusted the clubmans a little bit an really like the new position.

I laid out one of the ideas I had for the stripe to see if i like it or not.... not sure about it yet. you can kind of see it in the pic posted above.

I also losened the tripple and slid the forks up 1.25" to lower the front a tad which really evened the bike out.... now it doesnt look like the front is up in the air even with the minimal change... oh what a difference an inch can make. Ill still probably lower it another 1.5 with spacers when i do the forks.

thats all for now.

hopefully I can make some good progress this week!
 
hey guys,
Ive got a question that hopefully someone can help me with. I am going to start rebuilding my forks once i can get this figured out. First let me say that I have never re-built forks so this may be a stupid question. when I take off the rubber top caps off of my forks, there is a aluminum cap about 1/2" down. my problem is i cant see how it comes out. the top of the tubes doesnt appear to be threaded and there is no point to get ahold of the cap....

does anyone know what this is or how to get it out? I dont see it in the diagram in my manual, unless im missing something...

heres a crappy cell phone pic. (sorry dont have my camera in the garage right now)

SiouxFalls-20120604-00047.jpg


HELP PLEASE!
 
From what I remember there is a circular clip that holds the everything in place.
After you remove the rubber cap, you need to do is push down on that metal cap. THen you can use a flat head screw driver to pry out the circular retaining ring. The ring is split and you can see the split at about 10oclock in your photo. This retaining clip may be stiff or rusted in place so you may want to spray with WD40.
 
Did you get your tail light yet? I am considering the same one. Look forward to seeing how the paint turns out.
 
johnu said:
Did you get your tail light yet? I am considering the same one. Look forward to seeing how the paint turns out.

No, the damn thing wont be here for another week or two. If you do order one, dont get it from the guy in california (probably most of them on there) it is coming from china so has to take a slow boat. My best guess is that it is somewhere in the middle of the atlantic right now.

once it arrives, ill report on quality and if i would recomend it. I took a $20 gamble because i liked the shape.

As for the fork dilema, problem solved. the cap pushes down and is held in by a "C" clip. time to get to the paint prep work, then the forks.
 
Look what showed up in the mail today!

I ordered one but got two??? I guess i have the second one incase the first one doesnt work.

SiouxFalls-20120606-00050.jpg
 
PROGRESS!!! ;D

between last night and tonight i finished with cleaning up the tank. I used a dremmel around the filler neck to get all the paint that the stripper didnt take off cleaned up. Then went over the whole tank with some 220 sand paper to smooth out the grooves that the wire wheel left (small but shouldnt show up after the primer and filler shrink). Then with the whole tank in bare metal. I sprayed some etch primer on it. also finished gettng the crappy "bondo" out of the dent and decal indentations.

then it was time to get that nasty dent/s smoothed out properly. I first applied some Evercoat short strand filler to take care of getting the shape back and the majority of the fill. once that was sanded down, went over with Evercoat Glaze to fill pin holes and smooth things out. Smooth as a babies BUTT! all sanding done and ready for primer (hopefully tomorrow). and of course, here are some pics!

Evercoatshortstrandfiller.jpg


Right side -
righttankside.jpg


Left side -
leftsidetank.jpg
 
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