FJ1346 from ashes to... Well, we'll see...

[Mark Olson]

you are making me start to twitch, I just can't bring my self to stop riding long enough to do a complete teardown and restoration.  ahhh someday.

[skymasteres]

you are making me start to twitch, I just can't bring my self to stop riding long enough to do a complete teardown and restoration.  ahhh someday.

It's definitely easier to do this if it's not your only bike. My big thing is, I have so many projects that I have half finished, I need to finish this and get on with the rest. I'm tired of having half fixed bikes and having stuff on the verge of breaking down....

So anyway, got the frame powder coated and decided to replace the steering head bearings. Figured with the age of the bike I'm going to be doing a lot of that.
Here's the frame back all nice and purdy... 



The upper bearing race came out fairly easily, but the lower one was a real bugger. I didn't have the tool and was too cheap to spend $30 on something I was only going to use once. Then it dawned on me. Use my welder to lay a bead on the inside of the bearing race that I could tap on from the top. Well this worked out better than I expected. The bead worked to give me something to tap against, but the heat from the welding also shank the race just enough to let it come right out.



And with the bearing out.



Now it was a matter of flipping it around to use to drive the new bearing race in.



Here's the lower triple waiting for new bearings.



Bearing is on. 



This picture made be chuckle because of that "There's always time for lubricant!" joke from a movie I saw recently.



Good old Mobil 1 synthetic grease.

[skymasteres]

So the engine is taking most of the spotlight, but there is other stuff going on in the living room...

Here is the wheel off of a FZ1000. (Also visible here is the extra material I had a buddy at the local cycle shop weld onto the swingarm to fill in the grove that the chain made in it..)


I guess there is some explaining in order. I had a real windfall in acquiring several parts from an individual that started a project but found himself in a position unable to finish it. In a sense a lot of the go fast goodies originated with him that and some of the suspension goodies as well.  (Thanks John) Of the items I purchased from him, one of them was a set of freshly rebuilt forks off a 90FJ with racetec cartridge valve emulators in them. Now I know everyone is going Ga Ga over Randy's parts, as well they should, but I got these forks ready to go for a lot less than the cost of Randy's new valves. (Just the valves) And besides, I need to get used to this thing and ride it so that when I do upgrade to the better valves I can appreciate what it is that I'm getting.
As you can see I was so excited about getting the new wheel that I got the tire put on it and attached to the forks... before I put the forks in the triple. D'oh! Time to take it back apart and get the forks put in right.  Here you can actually see the powder coating job I did on the upper triple clamp. (I like the way it came out)



And of course with the wheel on.

[1tinindian]

This is a work of art, and I enjoy following along with you.
But DAMN, does it ever put notions in my head as to what I'd like to do to mine.
Keep the ball rolling on this one, you have alot of peoples interest and we want to see the finished product!

Leon

[Pat Conlon]

+1 I want to see what your carb solution will be.....

[skymasteres]

This is a work of art, and I enjoy following along with you.
But DAMN, does it ever put notions in my head as to what I'd like to do to mine.
Keep the ball rolling on this one, you have alot of peoples interest and we want to see the finished product!

Leon

Thanks, it's certainly dominated enough og my free time for the last six months. I figure if I can return some of what I've gotten from this board it's a start. And you know a picture says a thousand words so...
If anyone has anything they want a better look at I'll do my best to ablidge.

[skymasteres]

+1 I want to see what your carb solution will be.....

Well I haven't really done anything with the carbs yet. I mean, I haven't yet started the reassembly of the engine so they're just sitting in a box on the shelf. What I can tell you is, they are  one of the "goodies" I got from John. (36mm ball bearing flat slides)

[Pat Conlon]

yummy

[skymasteres]

Okay, gear change again. I'd been working on all of the hard parts. I.e. the frame and the engine, and I'd neglected to fix some of the soft parts. (The fairing.)
One thing I noticed when I was stripping the frame down and prepping it for powder coating was that there were a couple tweaked brackets on the left side from where the bike fell over. (I didn't do it, but with that many miles on the clock the bike had to have been dropped a few times) This damage appeared to have been caused by a sub 5mph drop. Just fast enough to scrape the faring, and break the belly pan, but not enough to drag the exhaust.

So without a due, my jaunt into the world of plastic welding...
One of the things that always makes me shake my head is that I use more of what I learned getting my engineering degree for my personal projects than I do for my real job.  Plastic welding is a lot like welding any other metal. You use heat to create fusion between two pieces and add filler where needed. In a sense it's a lot like tig welding. 
The belly pan was cracked on the right side leaving the mounting ear snapped off.

Here's the crack



Trying to figure out how to go about welding this thing.  Ended up using a razor blade to strip back the insulation of the pan to I could get a clean shot at the cracks.



Here is the weld on the broken ear. I made the decision to just attack it from the back because when done right these welds penetrate 90% of the way through.



Here you can see that I've gone after another crack as well. (There were some cracks that you couldn't even see though the paint on the front. But this way I won't have any surprises later. (That and the thing shouldn't "explode" into pieces if I hit a hard bump.



Here is the finished product.

[skymasteres]

Another thing that I find impressive is just how sturdy these things are. Not just the frame and the overall attention to detail in the design, but the way for the most part that things that need to be strong and rigid are, and things that need to flex or give a little do.  It's also amazing how much damage can be hidden under a pristine exterior. The upper fairing assembly was damaged in a tip over with cracks and little chunks missing all over. Basically it was an exercise of taking scrap pieces of ABS from a donor fairing and welding them in to replace the missing pieces.  Well that and putting a bead on all of the cracks and generally making it a monolithic structure again....   On to the pictures. (Like Wolf's let's go to the video tape, but with a lot fewer syllables..)








I know, the pictures are framed really tighly. I was juggling getting the detail of the repair with allowing for spacial awareness....

[FJmonkey]

allowing for spacial awareness....

I know all about spacial awareness... That's why I need to wear a helmet all the time.... 

[skymasteres]

I know all about spacial awareness... That's why I need to wear a helmet all the time....  

Indeed, I myself am on my third helmet right now.  


Moving on. Here is yet another shining example of me not being able to leave well enough alone.  I decided that there was an awful lot of overhang on the canopy, aft of the metal supports and it just didn't feel like it was stiff enough to withstand the buffeting it would encounter at this bike's projected top speed.

So, I wanted to reinforce the rails supporting the canopy without affecting the appearance of the bike. I mulled over several options to include welding the little black supports together, using some metal underneath the black support bits, or just welding in some I-beams...
Seeing as I already had the plastic welder warmed up and was getting pretty good with it I opted to go full steam ahead on some serious plastic welding.
Here is the unmolested canopy support.



The First strip welded into place. Basically I was taking a scrap piece of ABS and trimming it to fit. Then welding it into position and lining things up for the next piece.



Here is the semi-final product that has a few strips put in and filled in between with ABS welding rod.



And the finished product after a lot of time was spent with a dremel making everything fit. (I actually burned out that poor dremel)



The end result is the two fairing supports are much more rigid. I don't think I have compromised the bike's ability to take an impact by flexing and I think that there should be less shudder on the wind screen as well. (Of course the crazy part is, this is a solution to an imagined problem. I'll see how it works out)

[Mark Olson]

the work looks great , it will be a work of art when you are done. keep the pictures coming it helps with my therapy.

[Pat Conlon]

The arms on the fairing stay (where the mirrors bolt to) supports the windscreen arms but heck, it can't hurt.
Keep up the good work me laddie! 

[FJmonkey]

I need to learn how to plastic weld like that..... I feel inspired... Thanks.