Yamaha FJ1200 1993 ABS PROJECT RUSTY HELGA!

[Pat Conlon]

Well...I gave it my best shot..

Mike, along with the frame and wheels, are going with the KTM orange on the side plates?

[1tinindian]

So you are going with HD colors? Black and orange?
That bike will blend right in with the others at bike night.

Pat you tried buddy, but bling just must not appeal to some.
(Makes us just that more unique)!

Leon

[RichBaker]

Bling is way too much time working on the bike.... I prefer to ride. 

[Pat Conlon]

I initially thought so, but that turned out not to be true. I keep my bike in the garage and I live in the dry desert and I don't ride that much in the rain.

A quick wipe down with Simichrome and all is well. It is really no big deal, really.

However,  If I lived at the coast, I would think twice with the raw aluminum and the salt air.

[MLdesigns]

Leon
Yes it will be similar colours to a HD but it will be faster, cooler and much more reliable. Plus the blaxk isnt plan black it pearl. It will stand out because its going to be running straight through pipes from collector backwards. I think I may need to rejet it.

Pat the frame will be black buddy but galavnised first. The orange will be more for accent than out right flash. The other reason no shine is because I live in the uk and will be riding this in every weather we hav has anyone on here ran straight throughs or cherry bombs?   ill get some more progress done towards end of the month until then ive got a vfr 400 streetfighter im building for a mate.


As allways warm regards and respect

                                                  Mike and Helga

[fj11.5]

Sounds like your making the fj your own mate ,, should look great when your done


Cheers
Rod

[MLdesigns]

Cheers Rod.

Yeah should be a bit easyier to spot amoungst other fjs and ull hear me coming haha

[MLdesigns]

Ok so firtsly sorry for the delay in any updates.

progress has been very slow mainly due to tight fund and other projects on the go but i have a tiny bit of progress for you all

first things first ive worked out that i can fit both screens and the monitors for my camera setup inside the clock surround JUST! so i made a car mockup to check....

i wanted to get my seat recovered in my own design. after waiting a long time for a friends brother who is a custom seat guy to get in touch i was talking to my mother about the bike and asked her if she could do it and she told me not a problem........(my mums was a seamstress for years and a dab hand at fabric work. so free seat recovering and shes going to do it for my xmas pressie so custom seat for free.

also decided ill make my own exhaust just couldnt find one on the shelf that i wanted or could afford so heres some pics of that in progress and a small video clip......










and a video for you all.....



also started toying with my own version of the fj logo. not the one ill be using i think it looks to warner brothers but its an idea at least
[URL=http://s1123.photobucket.com/user/Mike_Lara/media/DSC_0055_zps50d5bdb2.jpg.html]

and last but not least i pulled the tank to inspect the condition under there and its not good...





progress will start to speed up soon as in the last 3 weeks ive spent £150 British rebuilding the engine on my ns 125 cafe i built so i can put it up for sale to pay for my full test..

i hope all is well in the land of fj goodness

until next update keep riding and enjoying these amazing machines

            warm regards     Mike and Rusty helga

[rktmanfj]

and last but not least i pulled the tank to inspect the condition under there and its not good...

I'll bet Randy can clean those right up...                   

[movenon]

Holy shit... Was the fisherman pissed when he drug that thing up in is net  
George

[MLdesigns]

i bet randy could clean them up a treat but i live in the uk and luckily i have a guy who's going to soda blast and ultra sonic clean them for free..
he's also going to soda blast the engine for me which is costing me 80 pounds once iv'e got the cash and the engine out ill be getting that sort

George i think it was more likely  the po thought it would be a good idea to ride it through a salt mine every day for a year . so much corrosion there....

the good thing is that it runs like a dream although my new pipes will need baffling because of back pressure and noise.

until next post

                                  warm regards Mike and Helga

[X-Ray]

Any updates on this project Mike?

[MLdesigns]

Yes mate ive been a bit lazy with the posting ill do an update tonight. With pics. Not massive progress but slowley gaining momentum

[X-Ray]

Any progress will be good to see, will give me the incentive to get going on my project, 

[MLdesigns]

ok so ive not posted for a little while because ive had a lot going on with work, home and other projects plus the project was in limbo for a while because it was that bad i considered keeping it for parts........ Months passed i did my bike test and i needed a ride....

for the grand sum of £460 42,000 miles on the clock and still had original paint im a very happy bunny all it needed was a carb rebuild and it needs the valve shims doing.
it now needs a rear tyre but im getting a new set of boots and set of red wheels with new bearings for £100 after crimbo. the luggage came from Helga as now i had a touring machine i could set about making the 91 into more of a solo weapon. so with that out the way the update BEGINS!

So first of all now i had the 3cv as a daily rider for me and my wife it meant that Helga really didnt need to be twin seat anymore. but i wanted it to look fj still with the kookaloo hump.
my proposed shortening:


not exact at this point because i needed the tank on to work out my seat space. so i raised the rake up to set the angles i want:

i will actually be plated in to extend the mounts. so then i set the length with the tank on:

the pic isnt exactly spot on because ive already chopped the rails at this point but didnt take a picture before hand
this is how much i removed from the tail:

As you can see i chopped a fair chunk out of the subframe.
to re attach the rear section of the frame i used some thick wall tube and shaved the diameter down slightly. i drilled a hole in each peice of subframe for a plug weld and then hammered the tube inside the subframe rails to re attach leaving a gap for a seam weld. this way the stress is spread instead of just being on a but welded joint. then i hamerred the end section onto the tubes this allowed me to square it all up before welding then when i do the plug welds the heat from the seam weld wont move anything about. You can see the joint in the picture below:

i still need to make the lower bars up yet and until i can borrow my mates mig welder it wont have any lower rails, mainly so i have access to weld the upper tube fully.

OTHER THINGS IV'E BEEN WORKING ON:
So i want to run the exhaust under the seat but that makes the stock tailight an issue so i decided to make my own.
The brake light:

so i masked out the end of the tail found my center and made evenly spaced lines. theres actually a moulding mark on the inside to use a reference for the center.

then i drilled some holes and using chrome bezel led holders that a mate on the uk fj facebook page sent me. the leds in them where rubbish but i had some 50,000 mcd units:



there not wired up yet just twisted together for testing and they will need resistors because they are so bright u cant look at them head on. although a trail of crashed cars in my wake would have advantages .
then it was time for my running light:
i had already bought a billet alu led strip to use as the brake light but it wasnt bright enough so i saved it to use as the running light:

I wanted it to follow the curves of the tail but it was flat so i risked it and tried to bend it  by hand, to my suprise i could. I tested it and it still worked but i didnt want to just stick it on like an after thought so i frenched it in:

its not perfect yet but its on and it works well:

the picture makes it look brighter than it is but its bright enough.

THE SIDE PANELS:
Ok so i had to shorten the side panels by a fair bit to fit and they dont look spot on but i have a cunning plan:



im going to make a fiberglass mould from them and then im going to remake them in orange carbon kevlar and make them bolt on with dzeus fixings.
iv'e also shortened the seat pan and  i have new foam ready to go once the pan is solid enough.

other jobs ive started include i decided to mod the tank for bigger capacity and im running the fairing infill hot air ducts through the tank so the hot air comes out near the rider:





thats a work in progress.

ive also worked out how to get a single sided arm that bolts straight in ........................... BUILD ONE im going to use the front section from an fj arm and the rear section for a vfr 800 hub make a jig and then join the dots with alu tubing that the firm across from my work will tig weld for me:



the other reason ive been off task is because ive been building this for my mate:


so there you have it the update so far. im looking at fireblade forks and wheel etc upfront i dont know if thats been done or not but i should be able to get the whole lot from a mate for a good price. any questions or abuse feel free im thick skinned

oh i forgot to mention its having a one off dash and its getting a turbo along with lots of engine love.