long and drawn out 450L bobber project.

[bleed gasoline]

now moved to the correct section

Alright so I got the L home today and she needs some work! engine and carbs are in good condition so I wont mess with them but everything else has some issues.

as a prelude I will drop some before pics.

now for the issues.

going to cut the frame at the shocks. some take issue to that. guess what I don't care. its happening. since I am doing that the seat goes. I already have a nice sofa in my living room. shorter shocks will lower the back and give me a bobber look.

the headlight is a honda or something and is way too big. Anyone got a lead on a good shape L headlight?

other wiring issues. the controls are honda handgrips and some buttons are missing or jury rigged. i can see the electrical gremlins around every corner and somehow sense that I am going to need a new harness.

tank is in good shape except for the paint. solution, strip all the paint and do a brushed aluminum tank.

I want to move the foot contols forward. I already have a nice sportbike so i want something i can stretch out on. not sure if this is even possible might take some heavy fabrication work. if it gets too heavy ie; expensive I will learn to live with the stock control location.

thinking about swapping the front end with a mid 90s savage or volusia. it will be longer and have more rake giving me a custom look. plus spoke wheels on the front. Then all i have to find is a spoker for the back.

pipes are getting wrapped possibly straight headers sent out one side.

this whole project will probably leave me with many left over parts. Anything I don't need I will gladly part with and i will give a healthy gsr discout to anyone needing something that I do not.

going to get my bike jack from my folks house this weekend so i can start dissassembly and cleaning. wish me luck

 

[albertaphotog]

Here is what I came up with

Here is what I came up with

I don't think you will find a lot of appreciation or enthusiasm here for your build project. There is a lot of excellent technical information from a broad knowledge base here but I would say mostly the members are into more traditional restorations and upgrades. You could also check out, bobber talk, chopper underground, chop cult. Google would be your friend here, there are a lot of people into this kind of bike. Just not many here. and there is nothing wrong with that.
I did this over the winter ( Canadian winter is a long time, haha ) This is a 79 GS1000L hard tailed with a few mods. I would call it a low budget rat bobber.

 

[Blake]

I don't think you will find a lot of appreciation or enthusiasm here for your build project... mostly the members are into more traditional restorations and upgrades.

yup. i've learned this too. i know my bike makes some of these guys stomachs turn lol

 

[Guest]

I'll come along for a peek.... I ain't a bobber fan at all, but I like seeing people doing good work and sometimes it gives me ideas too.

The most grief you'll find on here is if you cut something badly and give up on it or are running straight pipes with no mufflers. These GS' love to have back pressure from my understanding and are incredibly difficult to jet correctly without it.

Anyways, looking forward to seeing what you do with her

Oh, one last thing... it's an L, so most won't care what you do to it either

Also, for your wiring, I do some searching on here and there is a diagram or three floating around that should allow you to do one up yourself without too much drama that will be far simpler and more reliable than the stock one if it's been butchered.

 

[bleed gasoline]

getting everything torn apart pretty well. and the engine is actually in better shape then i previously thought. a little tlc and it shined up nice. think i am going to hit the case covers with the wire wheel and give them a brushed look to match the tank. the tank is going to be sweet. i will post pics when I am done stripping it. had two of those little screws that hold them emblems on break on me though, that should be fun to fix. probably have to drill and re tap. the electrical system might not be as fried as i previously thought either, just some funky wiring on the headlight and controls.

photog: that is a sick build I may have to pick your brain on a few things

blake: got any pics of yours. I am moving back to GA in jan so we may have to do some cruising next year

 

[albertaphotog]

My head light bucket was shot. I got an after market 7 inch side mount for around 50 bucks. I think they look better than the L bucket you are looking for.

 

[Blake]

mine's nothin special, kinda ugly, but i like it and its fun. the PO chopped it up. rebuild is soon to come since it literally took a dump on me today. Went to leave the girlfriends house and there was about a foot and a half wide lake of oil on the ground. ran fine the hole way there, didnt give any trouble starting up, didn't make any weird noises or anything out of the ordinary. so I'm scratching my head for now. tear down planned for next week.
What part of GA are you moving to? I'm in South West GA. I usually ride with my 2 buddies, one has a 70-somethin Suzuki GS 450 bobber and my the other rides an '85 kawasaki ZL 900. i usually run through a whole tank when we get together haha.
But I'll quit bs'in and post the pic. probably the best one i have right now.

 

[Guest]

Blake that really is takin' a dump! Sheeesh... got any idea what it was yet? That's a lot of oil to drop, almost like the sump let go or something... ugly!

Oh, and I only have one serious problem with this build thread... which is the "long and drawn out" bit... I want instant gratification

 

[bleed gasoline]

well i got the tank stripped and it looks great

oh except for that:

fml thats not coming out. its small but very noticeable. looks like I'm not going full brushed aluminum. I think I am going to try to paint black accents on the side and keep most of the tank brushed. probably going to be a royal pain but if I pull it off I think it will look great. I will see what I can do this weekend. Now that the tank is bare i think i need to hurry up and gelcoat it before it rusts. still have to kreem the inside but that is sop for a bike this old.

Blake: yours still looks better than mine right now so don't feel too bad. and i am going back to GA state in Atlanta so i will be back there.

pete: I want instant gratification too but i figured i would be patient for a change and actually take things slow and do it right. hence long and drawn out. plus i have to go get all my tools together.

 

[Guest]

Black accents should look good actually... and yeah I should learn to be patient too, mine's taken years and it's still at least a few months away from being done... probably longer

 

[Blake]

Blake that really is takin' a dump! Sheeesh... got any idea what it was yet? That's a lot of oil to drop, almost like the sump let go or something... ugly!

yep. pretty much. engine needs some love anyway so im pulling it tomorrow.

Blake: yours still looks better than mine right now so don't feel too bad. and i am going back to GA state in Atlanta so i will be back there.

its in pieces now. hah but we should put together South East meet get everyone together.

 

[mighty13d]

subscribed. can't wait to see how this turns out. I like the way bobbers look. I don't think I would want to ride one. I do most of my riding out of town, not around town. You have some great inspiration though.

 

[bleed gasoline]

time to kreem the tank. it is pretty nasty. I degreased it and threw some steel shot in there to loosen up the rust chunks but there is still a nice coat in there as can be seen in fig.1

letting the tank prep A sit tonight and might run it through again tommorrow if i still have issues.

sealing the tank turned out to be a royal pita. luckily i had a spare tank with a shot petcock so that sucker is in there now plugging things up.

also wasn't able to get up and get my lift this weekend so I am nowhere near as far as I should be with dissassembly.

 

[Guest]

Man tank rust sucks... just did the POR 15 treatment on mine the other week. Wasn't too bad rust wise, just enough to have flakes being siphoned out with the fuel and to put a nice coating around the fuel tap.

PITA to fix and line, but well worth it for peace of mind I reckon.

 

[bleed gasoline]

got the tank stripped and kreemed (thanks pete i used your thread for a reference) now i think it is in my best interest to get this thing primed and painted so i dont have to keep brushing out the rust. sprayed it with some rem oil and taped it up. cut out the side accents probably will prime tommorrow. might do some reshaping though.

if all else fails i will slap it on for now and look for a clean one where i can go full brushed. damn rust spot.

 

[Guest]

Glad to be of help, but to be fair my technique was half POR 15's guide and half Nessism's recommendations...

Just looking at your taping there makes me think that would be a good looking paint job with those cutouts...

 

[bleed gasoline]

well the tank just got its first coat of clear. the paint job turned out pretty good. far from perfect but i give at an 8 out of 10. To my defense it was a very difficult job to pull off. I ended up going with the black but i got a can of gunmetal grey and ghosted some flames on there. there were a couple spots where the paint ran under the tape but i managed to take a dremel and grind them out with minimal damage. it will look good from a few feet away but the closer you get the more flaws will show up.

prepped

side

shot with the top detail.

time to start sourcing parts. going with 10.5 rear shocks to lower. will do the mock up with GS wheels but I do need spoke wheels for the finished product.

 

[Blake]

my tank and fender is the same way. up close you can see the imperfections and it looks like a home job. but from a couple feet away it looks pretty nice.

and lemme know where you find some spoke wheels. i need one for the rear of my bike. lol

 

[Guest]

Bit hard to tell from those pic's, but I think it looks good... I like the flames anyway

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Found your thread today and wanted to chime in that not everyone here is against bobbing an "L". Keep the updates coming!

the headlight is a honda or something and is way too big. Anyone got a lead on a good shape L headlight?

Hmmm. I got the OEM headlight from mine, and think about a larger one. Let me know if you still want one to replace that 7" Honda unit, I can take some better detailed pics of it... and see some of yours, be nice if we could just swap.

Any how, I'll be watching here