Well, Get this.. I got my bike from a guy that let it hang out in his garage and collect oxidation and mold, get knocked over, beat up.. etc... so i took the whole thing apart! Painted it, put a tank pad on it. Cleaned the chain and lubed it, new spark plugs, put led lights on it, new handle grips, changed the mud out with oil, took apart the turnsignal and light controls and sprayed them with w/d 40.. and the worst part.. had to beat the clutch lever bolt out with a hammer.. it was all stuck in there.. so i ordered a new one of those since this one is no good anymore

 

i took it out for the first ride off the year and bought some main jets...

 

]Gave her a bath and took some pics.



here is how I did my seat latch if anyone wants to see it.

 

Nice! Those seat bolts are a pain to get out with the single piece race tail, haven't ever crossed my mind to make latches in there but now I probly have to...

 

I love how easy it is to pop the seat on and off in a matter of seconds. I'm going to fabricate some kind of tray to put under the seat for some storage. If you use a door hinge pin it is the right diameter to fit in the threaded portion of the frame where the seat bolts attach and not damage the threads and fit good and snug.

 

Gave it a big kiss this morning,,...

 

Meant to go for a ride with my friend tomorrow but that got canceled for various excuses from both sides so I decided it would be a good time to throw some fast polish onto the bike. Took a good look at the paint job to see some spray-on shine won`t cut it by a long shot, so I went to do a little shopping:



The rag in the middle is real chamois leather, cost like a ****, but when I washed the bike and started drying it I quickly understood why, and now curse myself of buying all those cheapo fake rags before.

A few pics of the condition of the paintwork before I washed it.









23 years of bugs, abuse and neglect has truly left it`s marks onto the paint, specially the tank. The markings in the tail are most probably from my shoes/pants rubbing onto it while jumping on and off.

The bike now sits on stands in the garage, thoroughly washed and wiped dry with the chamois, I`ll post some after-pics when I`m done with the process of first clay-bar:ing (never done that before), clay waxing and lastly putting a layer of Autoglym Super Resin Polish onto it.

 

Mattson, I'm definitely anxious to see the comparison.

 

It is significant I can tell you that. The bike`s been clayed, rinsed, dried and waxed with the Autoglym ATM, I`m gonna let it dry till tomorrow before throwing on the final coat of gloss wax. The clay removed quite a lot of road tar and all those stubborn bug remnants from the front that no washing liquid has been able to. I noticed that when I dried the bike after rinsing the claying lubricant out the rag squeaked, it didn`t to it when I dried it after washing.
Pics coming in approx 24h, we`re expecting guests any minute now.

 

Hurt my back so bad I can`t even stand straight so crouching in the garage (or riding for that matter) is off limits for at least a week... The bike is still missing the final gloss wax coat but IMO isn`t looking too bad even without.



Seems like there is some crud in the paintwork even after a thorough wash.



Rattle can paint on the bottom of the right lower... looks like it`s sprayed on without any prep work...



















Colors got much more vivid and richer, if you compare these to the before pics they look grey!

In case someone is wondering about the firewood, my neighbor leveled a rotten cherry tree and we salvaged all the good bits to be peeled, dried and sliced for smoking.