And the next contender is...............another Katana

Been a hell of a week, stupidly busy, but have managed at last to get the cases painted. Yay, it's moving on a bit.
Just need to laquer them.



One little drawback, when i ordered the new piston, instead of one for an air cooled engine, they sent the liquid cooled one. It's only about 10mm too long for the job, but never mind i'll keep it in stock anyway, they are always useful.
On the plus side, they are sending me a Meteor Piston kit, £30's worth of piston, for the normal price I pay for piston kits. Bonus

 

So i just got stuck in the garage having laquered the engine cases, when the kid and his dad appear, who's having this scooter. Go through everything i've done so far with them, and all this kid can say is "will it wheelie" "will it wheelie" "will it be faster than my mates speedfight"
He's gonna rag it to death before running it in properly.
Seriously thinking about telling him he cant have it.

 

Just show him the other ped with a look of let this be a fucking lesson to you lmao

 

Thats an idea, like it

 

Thays all he can say the hard work u are putting in to it what. Did his dad say

 

I got the feeling his dad is very much the same, although he did say to him you gotta run it in.
But he also asked when they first came round if i could turn the mileage back on the clocks, cos thats what he does on cars. Obviously i said no.

 

Really that's not on don't he no that u can in shit lol

 

Frankly I would have refused to sell it to them long before this point, and waited until it was finished to find a buyer

 

Update
Have painted the engine casings, but don't like them; haven't come out as well as they should have so they will get done again.
Also managed to start rubbing down the panels, but guess what i found...........Halfrauds bloody laquer!!!!!!
That stuff never goes hard properly, consequently it's a friggin pain to do. Just balls upon the paper. Took me 2 hours just to do the front headlight surround.
Had a phone call from PJ Motorcycles, he says the crankshaft is not worth doing and he can't find a replacement; strange one that, I found a replacement within 10 minutes. Guess he just doesn't want to do it. I know they can be a pain to balance but.............got me thinking about buying a hydrualic press so i can do my own.......and other peoples of course. Already got the v-blocks................now, if i can find the room to put one.................

 

'will it wheelie',,,,,,,,, 'will it be faster than my mates ped'

are you forgetting what its like to be a kid? haha these are the two main things they worry about,,,well me and mates did,,get it sold,,if its not this kid it gona be another

good work though fella,how much you charging to do a rebuild like this?

 

anything new on the bike over the weekend steve?

you should build a nice one for yourself lol

 

Yes , new stuff over the weekend. Will post more a bit later. Mad busy with STUFF.

 

Well, I got the crank back from the shop, had a quick chat with them and it turns out that he doesn't like doing these cranks because it takes too long to balance them, plus, as standard they have no thrust washers each side of the conrod, which he also doesn't like. I'm sure if Suzuki thought that they needed thrust washers then they would have put some there wouldn't they?? Apart from that, it's fine. So at least I can start to build the engine back up again.

So I spent all day saturday, and i mean a good 10 hours, rubbing down the panels. Halfrauds bloody laquer


By the time I finished I had rubbed through the skin on two of my fingers! And one of those is the important one!!!!!

Then all day sunday plastic welding, sanding down the welds, priming, sanding, topping up, sanding, priming........til it got here:



Then some more prep work to the primer.........400 grit, primer, 800 grit, more primer............and all this whilst the bloke is here cleaning the carpets and rugs in the living room. Had to move the bloody lot of furniture out for him as well. And he wanted paying for it! Bloody cheek, should be grateful I gave him a job to do
Not really, he done a great job considering I'm always in and out with my boots on.

I digress;

Scramble over the crap to the racks, grab the paint, et voila!

I just noticed that if you look close at one of the photos, you can see my ugly mug in the reflection



Not laquered anything yet but looking good so far.
Still have the purple flashes to do when i work out how I want them, but that's in a few days time.
Got the engine to rebuild and the wheels to do yet.
Post again later in the week.

 

Looking good mate

 

Hi Forde,

I was going to do this one for myself, as a back up to my zzr1100. Something to use over the winter months. Might stand a better chance of keeping this one upright in the frosty mornings. Panels are expensive for the kwak. And seeing as i did that one about 4 years ago and it still looks good, i don't really want to send it down the road sideways.
But I have been thinking about selling the 1100. I mainly only use it for work and back, 7 miles each way with the odd trip down the motorway for scooter parts. Trouble is I wont really save anything on costs. Insurance on the kwak is only £105 fully comp, £78 tax and £20 a fortnight in fuel. I really doubt if the insurance on the scoot, once it's modified will be cheaper, I know the tax will be, but the fuel costs will be about the same i reckon.
And i love the power of the kwak. Scoobies, skylines, porsches, gtr's, I haven't come up against one yet that can beat it from a standing start. And trust me, around here in Birmingham, there are plenty that think they are fast; until they become a speck behind me.

 

Good job, bro. Keep going on it. By the way, what was with variator cover? Was it mouldy?

 

Naa, aluminium corrosion.
Always happens to anything made of ali eventually. Take a peek at your cars alloy wheels, where the paint is starting to blister, scrape a bit off and you'll see white rust underneath.
Just made me realise though that I painted all that stuff black and didn't do the belt cover!
DOH!

Never mind, I've still got to do the wheels, mainly purple but with black spoke flashes.
I'm bloody sure there's something else that needs doing black but can't for the life of me remember what it was

 

Good luck!

 

Yikes, what a day, managed to do absolutely nothing all week on the scoot, but got the whole day in today.
Starting to look like a bike again now.
Had to sort out some of the electrics, front brake light switch wiring had been crushed and split so cut it back, extended the wires and new terminals, replaced the rear brake light switch which for some reason wouldn't sit right in the lever clamp, new terminals on that as well. Yay, brake lights
One of the rear indicators needed fitting properly, flopping about like a fish, done that, soddin' 5mm fitting, then found the wiring from the indicator to the loom was about 2 inches too short! Genuine suzuki as well.
Indicator off, stripped, re-wire, new terminals, re-fitted, aaahh thats better. Yay, indicators now as well.
Checked that the oil pump light is working, good job i did 'cos the bulb holder was shot with corrosion, new holder, shorted the connection and nice red light on the dash. Lovely. Will check the sender unit tomorrow so i know that is good as well.
Then shorted the fuel connection to check that, all the way up and down again. Nice.
Bit of untidy wiring and dodgy/tired looking bullet connections on the rear end so replaced all of that as well.
Now at least I know I will have good connections with very very little chance of failing and me having to spend hours looking for an electrical fault in the wiring.
Thought i had better fit the panels because they stand a better chance of not getting scratched if they are on the bike rather than sitting on the shelf where i am always reaching for things.
Decided that I'm not going to do the gold flashes on the body, gonna keep it all black; wheels will still be gold, as will the fork bottoms and collars and brake caliper, but have ordered new decals in metallic gold which should set it off nicely.
Still have to spray the foot board and knee panel satin black, but as you can see from the photos, the under-seat panels have turned out nicely, makes it look like new again.

More to do tomorrow. Maybe clear the bench off and do the engine, we'll see.

 

Well...................got the new crank bearings and seals in, new crank half gasket, looks like this:



Now i got a little mindbender.

It's notchy

When you turn the crank by hand, it's not smooth. It's like the second hand of a clock, no noise or anything like that, but it's as if you are turning a dial and it's dropping into position, like off a cam and onto a flat, but there are no flats.
I think I got a duff bearing. New one as well. Ah well...............split it again tomorrow i suppose and have a looksee.