Headers are back after being ceramic coated. They look great...I'm glad I didn't cheap out with the rattle can VHT.

The next decision I'm agonizing over is the tail (rear cowl). Here's my quandary...I think the split seat/rear cowl looks better, and I was considering the tail conversion. I went so far as to grab a 2001 sub frame from eBay, but this was after I had the F4 cowl custom painted and bought an integrated turn signal tail light. I'm thinking at this point it's not going to make sense to do the tail conversion, considering the amount of money I've already spent. The repair and custom paint on the fairings exceeded the cost of the bike itself. It's nothing wild, either...basically, Italian Red shot with a pearl topcoat -- to look stock but slightly different.

I've changed my mind too many times in the middle of the build...I have a set of Hong Kong Repsol fairings just sitting in the garage. It's way easier just to buy a new bike... :-)

 

Wow...can't believe that April was the last time I updated the thread. I'm still making progress, albeit slowly...good garage time is hard to come by with all of life's obligations. Since I last updated the thread, I've repacked the Micron muffler with the new carbon sleeve and installed the exhaust, installed new levers, and finally put the rear wheel back on -- complete with new sprockets and chain. I decided to go with the 520 conversion quick acceleration kit after all, so I purchased a speedo healer to compensate for the modified gearing. Since the rear fender was hacked to bits by the PO, I found a NOS unmolested one on eBay that I bought and promptly cut to install a Competition Werkes fender eliminator. The radiator is reinstalled and cooling system refilled after being completely disassembled for flushing/repainting.

It's good to see the swingarm with the rear wheel on it...it's starting to look more like a bike, and less like a project that will never be finished. I WILL finish and be riding this bike before the leaves fall off the trees this year!

 

I think this is a candidate for longest F4 rebuild ever to complete. It's been more than 3 years now since I bought the bike and started the process...I've had two kids, two trucks, and two other motorcycle changes (one bought, one sold) since this began!

Just recently, an HID kit has been installed, and I spent 3 hours last night cutting and soldering wires to do the 2-3 wire conversion for my front flush-mount signals from a helpful guide on this site. Amazingly, they work.

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. On Sunday night, I started the bike for the first time in 3 years, and it runs great. My heart sank at first when it didn't start, until I realized I forgot that the petcock was still turned off from the tank being removed (duh).

Anyway, I'm literally a few plastic cowl/fairing pieces away from getting this thing on the road, and it's hard to believe. While I've enjoyed working on the F4 and the upgrade process, now I'm just ready to be done so that I can ride it.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking at it yet, but tonight I need to figure out how to route/arrange the wiring mess in the front cowl. Anyone have recommendations on the large wiring cluster running on the side of the left air duct? Is that just pointed up towards the bottom of the instrument cluster on your bikes?

 

Turns out the challenge is not routing the wiring, but attaching the upper cowl itself. Specifically, in my case, the bolt holes for the mirrors on the fairing stay are not quite lining up with the holes in the upper cowl -- they're close, but are off by about half the bolt hole on both sides. I can get it a few mm closer by pushing on the front of the cowl, but it's still not falling into place. I'm not crazy about the idea of drilling to widen the holes in the cowl, at least until I understand why. Everything else seems to be lined up...air ducts are inserted properly inside the air duct grilles. I think the fairing stay may need to be "coerced" so that both plastic pins on the headlight housing are through the rubber grommets in the holes on the bottom of the stay. Those of you that have taken off the upper cowl, has it gone back on nicely, or have you needed to really manipulate things to get those mirror holes to line up? Just getting the air ducts lined up is a pain in the neck...I'm not really looking forward to taking it back off and starting again.