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I've been lurking on here since i picked up my 81 XS400 last spring and i'm almost to the point of putting it back together so i thought i would post some pictures of the build so far.
Here is how it looked when i picked it up.
Spent the summer working out the bugs and changing a few things. I put on clubman bars, IRC tires and after it got caught in the rain while it was hot and the right muffler cracked 3/4 of the way around i put on some crazy loud emgo shorty mufflers. Here it is before i tore it down.
I've been slowly cleaning and sand blasting everything getting it all ready for powder coating. I'm also almost done with my seat made out of sheet metal. Lucky for me one of my dads friends is a amazing fabricator and helped me build the seat. All thats left to do before powder coat is make a battery box under the seat and fabricate some rear turn signal mounts and the frame will be ready to go. As for the seat i just got it back from powder coating. it needs some body filler and paint. I had it powder coated as a good base to protect it from rust. Here are some photos of that process.
The rest of the plans are to get it all back together and running good. The paint plan is gulf racing colors baby blue tank and seat and orange frame, swingarm, tripple trees and fork sliders. I'm hoping to have it all done by may but i've been layed off more then i've been working lately so money is really really tight. Saturday i plan on finishing the frame so i'll post some picks after that let me know what you guys think.
Good to see another xs400, I'm currently in the process on a 1977. I didn't fabricate my own seat though..yours looks great so far.are you painting or polishing the tank.polishing is alot of work but totally worth it.keep us posted.
Thanks for the complements. the tanks getting painted baby blue still trying to decide if i want to do a orange stripe on it to match the rest of the bike. polishing it would look cool but i've always had a thing for gulf racing colors.
I'd do the stripe it will look real good with orange frame and swingarm.have you ran the bike with the smaller battery in the picture,I have to replace the taller one you've got with one similar to the little one. Wondering if there is enough crank power ??
not yet its a 8ah and 110cca and the stock is 12ah and 160cca but when i bought it they tested it and said it had 220cca so as long as its not to cold out i hope it will be fine because i cant fit anything bigger in there its already bigger then i want it to be i'll have to mount it a half inch lower then i was planning on under the cowl.
Got the battery box done today for under the seat. Tomorrow I'm going to modify the inner fender and try and come up with a way to mount the electronic stuff that lived on the old battery box. I also took a few pictures of the engine. I'm almost happy with it since its 10 times cleaner then when i started.
nice box. building mine next week, ordered a sealed battery from jp cycle $104 to mount any way i need. i'm currently polishing the swingarm and cases. keep grinding brother!
Thanks. Good luck with yours. mine went better then i expected it to. I had to mount it a little bit lower then i was planning on. I wanted 2 inches above the frame rails to give room for the rear shocks I'm going to use to bottom out but had to do it about 1.5. i only needed 1.5 but wanted the extra half inch to compensate for the tire getting taller while spinning but i don't plan on jumping it or doing anything crazy so i think I'll be fine. I'm more worried about the back of the seat now. I'll have to mock up the swing arm and rear wheel to see how it looks. Copped the inner fender down to fit. Should work alright it wont protect the battery but all the rest of the stuff that's going to be under the seat pan will be okay. I'm going to run a cable to the battery to hook it up to a maintainer and heat shrink over the terminals. Also got a few more things sandblasted and put the exhaust in the ultrasonic cleaner should be sending that out for jet hot coating soon. If i'm feeling motivated tomorrow I'll go make up the brackets I'm going to need and get all the welding done then the frame will go out for sandblasting since my cabinet is to small.
I wish i could weld that good all the welding was done by my dads friend he also helped me build the seat and battery box. he can make just about anything. He builds a lot of parts for my dad who restores Porsche 356's. By the way i love your bike i think i'm more exited for your bike to be done then mine.
Got some more done today after taking yesterday off. Got all the brackets i'm going to need fabricated and welded on. Then when i got home i went to put the seat on and realized i cant get one of the 2 wing nuts that hold the seat on anymore. I'm going to try and come up with a solution (AKA hammering the bracket in the way over a bit) tomorrow. If not i'll have to cut it out and rebuild/modify so i can get my seat locked down again. Here are a few quick snaps of the brackets i'll post more tomorrow after i get the hardware i need to mount everthing so the brackets will make sense.
Turn signal bracket. I had a spot on the other side i could use so i just replicated it on the other side for the turn signals i got the last week. It needs a little tweaking. It needs to face more back so i'll fix that tomorrow.
Turn signals with the seat on.
Brackets for miscellaneous electric stuff.
Hopefully i'll get more done tomorrow and i'll take some much better pictures.
ha ha ha did not realize i put line! ha ha ha... goooood morning! that is a cool ass light! i love the bezel on it... that will look real good and your right simple to french in!
its perfect but the price is killing me so its way down on the list i need to get things powdered and put back together before going for something like that
Got a little bit done today. mounted all the electronics that i made brackets for to make sure everything fit and was happy. Fixed the new turn signal bracket so its even with the other side. Also cut off the rear foot peg and exhaust mount since i wont be using either and it was a huge ugly thing. I need to finish grinding down the welds where but got a good amount of it done. Sorry for the cell phone pictures but i forgot my camera and didnt bring the frame home with me today like i usually do so i can stare at it all day and come up with ideas (and my girlfriend is getting sick of it being in our apartment). Now for photos.
Got up today feeling motivated. Finished grinding down the welds on the back of the frame and smoothing them out along with a few others where i cut of brackets. Went to my dads friend's shop and fixed the bracket that was blocking the wing nut for the seat. Then i was planing on taking the frame to get sand blasted and my dads friend said it might only take a hour or two so i was going to go back and pick up all my parts for powder coating and pick up the frame and drop it all off to get powder coated. When i got to the sandblaster it was closed. Sucks but hopefully on monday i can get the frame done and everything droped off for powder coating. I'm going to try and go to a swap meet here on sunday and try and find a good headlight or anything else that i might need. Here is a snap of the rear of the frame where i cut off the passenger foot peg mount/exhaust mount.
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