77 Suzuki GS750 Build

[Greenmachine]

Anybody know any decent chrome plating shops in the st Louis area? Looking for a place that will do my rockers, exhaust, and some misc stuff.

[tgc]

your not that far from browns plating. I here they are the shit and in south west Kentucky

http://brownsplating.com/index.php

[Greenmachine]

Not a whole lot to post for pics. Finished up some odds and ends, got the exhaust completed, kickstand on, etc. broke the bike down for paint prep last weekend. Only pic I have is of the tank in the process of getting mud.



My machinist was worried that boring out the cylinders to fit the wiseco 844 kit wouldn't leave me with enough cylinder wall. I did some research and found out that GS850 cylinders will bolt right up and are the same bore stock as what's required for the wiseco kit. I ordered a set off of eBay so hopefully when they get here tomorrow I can take some measurements and everything will work with minor boring or just a hone job. Really hoping the bores are in good shape and aren't too large.

Will post more pics this weekend when I start painting and hopefully putting the top end back together.

[Greenmachine]

My machine shop finished up with the cylinders today. They are bored and honed out to wiseco spec .002" clearance but there was still some pitting in the top of one of the sleeves. Its really light and doesnt catch my fingernail or anything. Here is a pic, the light makes the pic look a little worse than it does in person.


What should I do? Take a chance on running them as is or should I try and take a chance on another set ofGS 850 cylinders off of eBay?

Anybody ever run a set of cylinders with a small amount of pitting like this? I'm sure there are bikes running around with cylinders in worse shape than this but I'm not sure what to do here.

[rayfin]

Thats clear at the top and I doubt it would be a problem.

[tgc]

can your machine shop sleeve it for you? if not and you only have a couple hundred bucks into it I think i would scrap it and find another.

[Greenmachine]

Thanks for the suggestions on the cylinders. I found a set of 1mm over GS 850 pistons on eBay that are on the way so hopefully boring for them will clear up the pitting issues.

Made some progress on the frame last weekend prepping for paint. Smoothed out the neck area the best I could with a flap wheel without taking out much weld. Filled in areas as needed with the welder and this is how it turned out.


Filled in the rest with bondo and smoothed out with sandpaper using sockets and random stuff around the garage as sanding blocks. Think it turned out pretty good.


I smoothed out other welds with a flap wheel, a bit more work and should be painting frame this weekend. I have to wait for the pistons and machining to put the top end back on the motor so I will probably start painting the tank this weekend as well. Pics of paint to follow. Looking to do a silver flake base with smoke graphics and then candy orange over the top similar to the paint on my BSA. Here's the BSA tank (no flake on this one though)

[aftermath]

No progress on the bike but I decided to build a frame jig instead of half assing it this time around.

Picked up some 3x2 and 2x2 tube from the local metal supply place and bought a pre made kit from chopsource.com which included cones, neck fixture, axle plate fixture, and some pre cut clamps for the uprights. I settled on this kit because it is a bolt together setup which will allow me to break down the jig when I'm not using it.



Drilled some holes through the 2x2 bases and welded on some nuts to give me leveling capability since my garage floor is not exactly level. Went to weld and found out im out of gas so I had to switch to flux core wire no laughing at my awesome flux welds



Bolted everything together. Have to give kudos to Travis at chop source kit came with all hardware, looks great and is very solid. I was kind of worried with a bolt up kit about the potential of fit up issues but everything fit and seems to hold great.





Have to wait until next week to get the tube since the supplier did not have 1-1/4" .120 wall Dom in stock and I had to special order it. The stock GS frame tubes are an odd size between 1-1/8 and 1-1/4 and have a thin wall. I am going to have a guy from work with a lathe turn down some slugs to fit the ID of the stock frame and transition to the ID of the 1-1/4 tube that I am going to get so I can slug the bottom rail and the backbone transitions and rosette weld them together.

Scored an old drag specialties king and queen seat o. EBay yesterday so I hope to get it next week. Going to narrow down my old mustang tank tomorrow will post pics of the project. Also going to level out and square up the new jig and set the axle plates in place so I can get some measurements for tube to prep for bending next week when it gets here.

that is one fucking sweet setup you got there.

[Greenmachine]

that is one fucking sweet setup you got there.

Thanks I like it a lot makes framework a ton easier.

[Greenmachine]

Got the bodywork on the frame done tonight and put some paint down. I think it came out pretty good. I used rustoleum appliance epoxy for now so I will see how it holds up over the riding season and post back. Wanted to powder coat it but ran out of funds.

First thoughts on it are that it goes on thick and doesn't run like typical rattle bomb that I'm used to using. I like it so far for frame work. Will see how it holds up in comparison to my BSA which is done in duplicolor engine enamel. Heres a pic of it.



The motor saga continues. Got the pistons i ordered off of ebay and they are GS 1000 pistons with a 18mm wristpin vs the gs750 pistons with a 16mm wristpin. Not GS 850 pistons. Not sure what to do now.

[Greenmachine]

Got the motor rebuilt with wiseco 844 kit. Had to use a set of GS850 cylinders I picked up off of eBay hut it's done. Had a buddy come over today and help me put the motor in the frame.



Going to paint the tank and fender tomorrow... Pics to follow

[Greenmachine]

Made some progress on the fender today. Used duplicolor high build primer, duplicolor aluminum base coat, krylon glitter blast, and a duplicolor clear so far. Going to mask off tomorrow and apply some graphics with my airbrush then I have some duplicolor orange metalcast candy. Once the tank is done with the same process I will use spraymax 2k clear.

Primer


Duplicolor Aluminum Engine Enamel and Krylon Glitter Blast buried in Duplicolor Clear




Pics of graphics and candy to follow tomorrow hopefully.

[Coxbow]

looking forward to see the paint !

[Greenmachine]

Got the tank painted with the krylon and cleared last night. Going to mask off and airbrush this afternoon. Pic of tank in "flake"

[Greenmachine]

Made some progres this afternoon got everything taped off and airbrushed.





Sprayed duplicolor metalcast orange over the top





Have a bit of air brushing to do tomorrow to break up the stripes and then I will coat it in spraymax 2k... Should turn out pretty good.

[Blackcat]

Sweet paint work!

[Coxbow]

I see you've got some orange peel effect on the edge of were your masking tape was, what are you going to do about it ?
Spray tons of clear over it or try to sand it ?

[motorlou]

I see you've got some orange peel effect on the edge of were your masking tape was, what are you going to do about it ?
Spray tons of clear over it or try to sand it ?

i recently did my first flake paint like that and it had the orange peel in it too! i said to myself "it'll be buried in the clear".....................nope! as soon as i started wet sanding, silver speckles started popping up through the candy coat. you have to sand the flake layer smooth as butter before shooting the candies. lesson learned

[Greenmachine]

You all were correct the spray max didn't quite bury the flake on top of the tank so I ordered another can. I will recoat it tomorrow to completely bury the flake and then wets and to remove the orange peel as required.

I did get the springer stem slugged, the springer painted, and the springer and wheels installed as of last night. Pretty happy with the look of the assembled bike.



Trying to decide on my handlebar setup tonight and start fabrication tomorrow. I'm thinking a set of simple t bars with the ends turned down might look nice. Any suggestions or pics of bar setups would be appreciated.

[spidr]

Very nice.