Appearance suggestions 1980 GS450.

[apopleptic]

OK, in the process of a rebuild. Looking for some feedback.
I realize I am asking for alot of feedback here. what I am trying to avoid is having something look stupid at the end, so bear with me.
So far this is what I started with

I think the bike requires some repainting on the tank and fender even though it photographs pretty good. and I will not be going for a really stock look, but I figure I'll stay pretty close with a red/black finish. bits of chrome here and there.

So far painted the caliper red and painted the bracket black.

Figure I may paint the exhaust black as well.

Now My thought was to paint the rotor black and do the wheel black as well.

1. What is anyones thoughts on the black wheel with black disk in the same flat finish as the above bracket? or perhaps a gloss wheel?

2. Black Exhaust? same flat black?

3. Do you think I should paint the bottom half of the forks? or just polish them? if so What color? (gloss black?)

4. should I paint the headlight brackets? or just clean them? if so what color? (gloss black?)

5. same question for the steering stem and the fork cover.

6. same question again rear drum? (flat black?)

7. Also noticed that the engine mounts are a bit rust so I was thinking that they might look good painted red. (same as caliper)

8. Engine paint or polish? or half and half?

9. Carbs I think I want to polish

10. Chrome front fender? or red again to match the tank? I think they would probably be closer in red to the caliper red than the original maroon.

Or do I just paint the whole thing neon orange?

 

[Souske]

For the wheels and brake disc, I would reccomend gloss black.
The problem with flat black paint is, it manages to hold a lot of dirt, so keeping it looking decent is a pain. On my jeep bumpers, I was repainting them once a year due to the paint being too soft.

Ace has a great black appliance epoxy rattlecan, it keeps a nice easy to clean film longer than any othe paint I have tried.

 

[Guest]

Have a look at mine to see how the forks and brake drum and so forth look gloss black. Ignore my brake disc as I need to replace that and I think the one I'll be getting has a black centre anyway.

I also did my wheels all black except the very edge of the rim which I left raw alloy and will polish up.

If you still have the S fairing, why not go the whole S deal and modernise it a bit with new lower profile 'bar end mirrors, shrinking the tail end a little (see what I did with mine as an example), or something along those lines...

 

[SVSooke]

Try a satin black.Not as harsh looking as the flat black.Used many cans of gloss and satin on Old Yeller.

 

[apopleptic]

OK, the rotor is being done in black and the little holder bits are black along with the caliper bracket.
I think the front fender there is going to match the caliper in red.
So what do you think? lower fork in white, black or red? how about the rim?
I feel I won't be able to get a satisfactory polish on it for chrome to work out, but I'm sure thats just me being lazy...

 

[Hornswaggle]

I think the chain guard painted red would be a nice accent too. My 'T' is chrome everything and I wish at least the fenders would have been the same color as the tank and side panels.

 

[apopleptic]

I think the chain guard painted red would be a nice accent too. My 'T' is chrome everything and I wish at least the fenders would have been the same color as the tank and side panels.

I was thinking of redoing the chain guard with a fresh coat of black, but I think you may be right.
I guess I could polish up the forks, but I think that they would do better with color.

I'm not a huge fan of chrome, Although I love the way the shiny bolts end up looking.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm... do you have a theme or style you're trying to achieve?

 

[apopleptic]

honestly, not too much in mind. The original paint is just bad enough for me to want to redo it rather than touch it up. Mainly because of one rust spot on the front fender and one on the tank.
I was thinking to keep to the red because the bike says red on the title. But, honestly I almost want to do all black with white racing stripes and just have a few red highlights like the caliper and the hand levers.
I may put off painting the body tank and the fender until it snows, depends on if I get enough parts to put the bike back together this weekend (not likely).
Color matching has never been my strong point. I can execute things pretty well, but I usually need some sort of feedback to get to the end point.

 

[Guest]

Aaah I see... I'm somewhat the same, hence my confusion about colours until someone put it in Photoshop...

That's also why I'm hesitant to give advice on what colour to paint things

 

[MAdams450]

Well I repainted Everything on mine, and I'll just let ya know what I did.

Brake rotors-Gloss Black
Headlight brackets-Gloss Black
Forks-Gloss Black
Steering head-Gloss Black
Rear drum is polished aluminum
Polished engine.

I'd leave exaust stock or at least just paint the headers black. Just what I've thought about.

 

[apopleptic]

Well I repainted Everything on mine, and I'll just let ya know what I did.

Brake rotors-Gloss Black
Headlight brackets-Gloss Black
Forks-Gloss Black
Steering head-Gloss Black
Rear drum is polished aluminum
Polished engine.

I'd leave exaust stock or at least just paint the headers black. Just what I've thought about.

Nice, did you paint your wheel rim? do you have any pics? I'd like to take a look.

 

[Guest]

Nice, did you paint your wheel rim? do you have any pics? I'd like to take a look.

Actually I would too

 

[apopleptic]

Boy I think I hate polishing.
Anyone have tricks for getting into the little tight spots?
Side by side before and after.

 

[Guest]

Dremel is the easiest...

 

[apopleptic]

ok, so I downloaded GIMP and messed around.
Here is what I came up with for a mockup of the paint I'm going for.

Feedback?

 

[Guest]

Hmmm... not sure about the white crankcase cover... and I think if you're doing the front wheel white you should also do the rear wheel white...

Plans for the missing side cover?

Olddaddy has white wheels going on in his rebuild thread:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=179991

 

[apopleptic]

I've actually got the stock side covers. I'll be doing them red to match the rest of the bike.
And I plan on doing both wheels the same white, just quite a pain in the but because the rocks of my driveway were a similar enough color to the wheel that I had to do the fill in by hand.
I was also thinking single white racing stripe from front to back. Every time I went to draw it it would come out square though. Hard to do detail work with a trackball built into the keyboard.

 

[Flyboy]

Satin Black discs and flat wheels with polished spokes and rim, polished forks, the wheel is not black, it is a dark charcoal colour, a bit darker than the stock colour, to give contrast to the polished bits, I was also going fo the satin, brushed aluminium look on the forks, but couldn't get the tone even, so I said sod it and polished.
I think it looks bitchin'...........but then again, I would, wouldn't I?

I do like wat you have done with the brake caliper and carrier, I think gloss black forks would not be out of place either.
I like the painted fender better than the chrome, mine is being painted to suit the bike as well.
I agree with Pete, loose the white engine cases, give them a polish.
And I agree 100% with you, you can't do a refrubish and put in old rusty or dull hardware, it spoils the whole job, and nuts and bolts are cheap enough.

Oh, yeah, you are right by the way..............it is just you being lazy

 

[Flyboy]

By the way, nice job on the forks, it is a world of diffirence before and after, if you want to maitain the aluminium look, hit them with some 800 grit paper now and it should look stunning.
As I said, I was going for that, but the tone was not even, some parts had a shine to them, others not so much, so I gave up, easier to polish.
I used a bar of red rouge on a white sewn wheel on my drill, works a charm.
The stuff is dirt cheap, I think I paid around 20 bucks for a bar, probably 3 or 4 of your Dollars, and there is enough there to polish a steam locomotive and then another one.