Willow...An Evolution

I apologize for my absence lately. Been a bit side tracked. As some of you know I picked up a 77 GL 1000 full dressed wing ($600) that needed a little love. Real decent shape but the PO's longest trip since 2005 had been 15 miles each way. She had a few running issues and he didnt trust to take the old gal any further. Anyhow, my plan was to ride her to deals gap but only had 4 days to get her ready. I had her running fairly well but still needed to change the timing belts and replace a rotted front tire. Rode the bike to Pittsburgh and Beatnic gave me a brand new tire (even installed it for me). Together we worked on the two bikes and got them ready for the trip to deals. Ended up doing an all nighter with Beatnic, Jim (Achelmy upholstery), and Doug's friend Alex. 1500 miles later I'm back home dazed, LOL. While at Deals did some tag team carb work. Huge thank you to CC Rider, Beatnic, kanticoy, and cyclefreak. Was a fantastic time!


I appreciate all the homage fellas. Coming back and reading all the post has help motivate me back to being responsible, haha. Anyhow, my current goal is to have her running by Pittsburgh Mods/rockers next week.
So I've been back hard at it and making some real progress. The tank has two coats of tank liner and hopefully will be ready for paint at the first of next week. Built new clutch, throttle and brake cables. The wiring is getting all solder and heat shrink connections. So wiring is about half done and should be complete by the end of the day or maybe tomorrow. Lots of little stuff going on but probably not picture worthy (gotta save something for the reveal, haha). I wanted so bad to do electronic ignition but due to lack of funds it aint gonna happen. I do have someone lined up to do hand pins and lettering though. He is the one that inspired me to take up photography over 30 years ago. Awesome re-connection about a year ago when I was out recruiting for someone to join our Arts Council board.

Anyhow, its ever so close now and I cant thank you all enough for taking this ride with me. Thank you for your patience, love and support. Stay tuned...
 
Right on Troy, can't wait to see her complete. Get Willow done then you can get the big girl ready for the long haul trips!

Cheers,

Maritime
 
congrads on the wing man! did not know you scooped one up! let me know if you need parts ihave a ton of crapy laying around in boxes from the GL1100 builds i did last year
 
Maritime said:
Right on Troy, can't wait to see her complete. Get Willow done then you can get the big girl ready for the long haul trips!

Cheers,

Maritime
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Yeah. she was a little distraction for awhile. Ole girl is not running that great and its bugging me. Had a slight miss about 1/8 throttle but ran fantastic at all other ranges. 3 plugs looked perfect fourth one with carbon deposits. Figured it was secondary jet on that one carb. Jet was clogged but now she runs like it has a massive air leak. Nothing is showing but I'm yet to open her up. As bad is I want to make it right there just isn't time right now. I hope I dont have to wait till winter but that may be the case.


JRK5892 said:
congrads on the wing man! did not know you scooped one up! let me know if you need parts ihave a ton of crapy laying around in boxes from the GL1100 builds i did last year
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Thanks Joe I may take you up on the offer. I love having the bags and fairing so she is staying that way. I did remove the rear trunk and Jim made me a quick seat (at 6am after wrenching all night) for the Deals gap trip . The king/queen was massive and very uncomfortable.



Well I do have a good bit of progress to report. I locked myself in the garage the past couple days and the wiring is pretty much complete. Two nights wrenching till 3am (Plus...honey do list fix at 3am because you forgot to get it done sucks. Yeah I was changing the toilet wax ring at 3am lol.) and Im beat.
Anyhow, just need to pick up a couple nuts for the terminals on the points. The wire for them is already done just gotta connect it to the points. All the wiring turned out extremly clean. All electros tuck nicely in a 3"x4" x 1.5" box. The condensers were a bit of an issue. I wanted to mount them as close to the coils as I could. I wanted to hide them but unfortunatly there really is no place so they are exposed. I have the option of mounting them on the front tank mount or hang them off the coil holders and run a ground. Not sure on that yet and probably wont decide until I toss the tank on to see how they look. Other than that all thats left is to bond the tank and prep it and headlight bucket for paint. Then finish the fuel lines. Figure I've gotta save something for the reveal so ll I'm going to post from here on out is going to be some teaser shots...

Since I'm only using one fuel shut-off valve I disassembled the extra one I have and drilled and tapped the shut off lever for a brake linkage nut
DSC_0366.jpg



Used 24g copper wire throughout to keep everything tidy. Other than a couple spots all the wiring is inside the frame.
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Switch on the electros box
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On the home stretch...should have a finished bike very soon.
 
...so ll I'm going to post from here on out is going to be some teaser shots...
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You sir, are an evil man. The detail on this thing is going to be extreme, so I'll still be getting my money's worth at least.
 
JustinLonghorn said:
I am salivating for the reveal, sir.
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Soon brother very soon. I promise ;D ;D

CrescentSon said:
You sir, are an evil man. The detail on this thing is going to be extreme, so I'll still be getting my money's worth at least.
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Hahaha. yeah I figure I can't show everything. Hope after the little build up there's not too much disappointment, lol. ;D ;D
 
pics don't do this bike justice. it really needs to be seen in person to appreciate the craftsmanship.
 
beatnic said:
pics don't do this bike justice. it really needs to be seen in person to appreciate the craftsmanship.
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Doug You have no idea what those words mean to me. Thank you!
 
Swagger said:
I believe the correct descriptive will be "Panty Dropper"......
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HAHAHAHA


i haven't been on in a little while, it's nice to come back and one of the first posts i read is this :D good to see not much has changed
 
Hahaha, Swagger I'm afraid Willow's rider will always kill the mood. How do you say past my prime?haha.
Go! it is awesome to see you out and about. I can't wait to see you (and everyone else) again at Barbers. The thought keeps me going.

Good to be back at it ProSimex. Things are crazy right now but its so close I cant stand it.

Well guys and dolls and anyone else still following along....Tank is under primer. Jim and I have spent two hard days bustin this thing out. Yesterday morning we bonded it together using a product called G Flex. Last night I met him at his shop at 9pm and we got it ready to lay down two layers of 3/4" fiberglass "tape" around the seam. That was G flexed as well. The tank sides had a slight concave to allow for this step. Today we spent a great deal of time sanding and prepping the sides. One trick Jim taught me about shaping is to leave a very slight radius instead of 100% flat. He said it will catch the light and make it look more alive (I love how he thinks ;D ). The radius cannot be seen by eye. In-fact I thought I'd sanded it out a couple times but he just chuckled and grabbed a little straight edge and showed me the radius. I think there might have been 1/32" under each side. Believe me it was almost impossible to see by eye but he said it was worth the effort and it would help give the tank some luster. anyhow, after about 7 hours of this kind of work she was ready. So, like I said she is under primer and I plan to lay down the first coat of paint tonight. The headlight bucket is primed and ready for paint as well. Next step for the two is a couple layers of primer sealer then paint.
Second color will go on tomorrow night then if all goes well Larry is going to letter and pin stripe her maybe Wednesday.
I still need to set the points but other than that everything else is done.
I did kick her over tonight but only got fire from the right side. I'm hoping a static time will fix that. Not had time to check anything else though but I do have an extra coil from an old chevy luv laying around if needed (man I love $13 coils ;D ). Well, back to the garage...Wish me luck
 
Good luck! I officially hate points, but I did get mine all adjusted right on the wing, it took forever with all the little issues. Hope it goes smoother for you. Can't wait to see her all finished!
 
Ive heard people tell me to replace my shitty bike coils with any old car coils and condensers. Bigger spark and no wearing out. Cheaper then hell too!



But we need some damn PICS!
 
I am currently on vacation and I still take the time to look at your thread, sir. I need an update in pictures.
 
Maritime said:
Good luck! I officially hate points, but I did get mine all adjusted right on the wing, it took forever with all the little issues. Hope it goes smoother for you. Can't wait to see her all finished!
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Glad your got her set Maritime. I really need to do the same with mine. The split timing 'trick' makes so much and glad someone figured it all out. something for winter I guess.

ProSimex said:
Ive heard people tell me to replace my shitty bike coils with any old car coils and condensers. Bigger spark and no wearing out. Cheaper then hell too!



But we need some damn PICS!
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Sort of but not quite that easy. The primary and secondary windings need to fall within the needs of these ol girls. There are some inconsistencies with the blue Vw coils due to them being made in different countries. I've been told the German ones are the only ones worth anything. Also an epoxy coil supposedly handles heat and vibration better than the chevy luv coils I'm currently using. Mine also has to be mounted only vertically were as the Epoxy coils can be mounted in any position.



Anyhow fellas, ask and you shall receive...
I'm still laying down the cream but this should give some kind of idea:

(the bucket is almost ready for green. Just gotta sure some more)
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The tank needed some sanding after the primer sand coat so it didn't get any color until now. Going on pretty smooth. Edit: the sides are the only thing getting the cream. The top and bottom will be done in green
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