1985 Yamaha FZ750 - rebuild

[ShadowFocus603]

Something to be said for a well executed single color paint job. Looks awesome GK.

[GateKeeper]

With a bit of colour that's looking much better, great job. Looks very classy with the silver, kind of a gentlemanly hotrod. I have to say my FZ was by far the funnest bike I've owned. Man that thing took a beating. It ended up being white with a big Yamaha decal on the tank from the FZ1000 belly pan. Sort of like on your GS. I don't think it would look right on yours for some reason though. Plans for any really subtle graphics? This was taken in Colorado National Park probably late '80s and yes that's the new to me EFE in the background. Cold day, warming my hands. Note the RZ350 drilled disks up front vs the stock laminated ones that seemed to be prone to warping when overheated.

Agreed, with the color combo now the, bike is really starting to look much better, the ALL black was just not doing it for me, and I am glad I only did the PlastiDip route initially.

I have all the decals for the bike, other than the striping that goes along the side panel, and on the tank, basically I have everything that has a letter or number to it, and those will go on in a day or 2

No depending I might do some pin striping, but only after I put the other decals on, just to see how it looks

lover your crash bars, I have them as well just did not put them back on the bike, I still might, just have not decided yet.....

Something to be said for a well executed single color paint job. Looks awesome GK.

Thank you very much....



My bigger issue now is the right hand mid fairing is not lining up correctly to the frame where the one screw goes, it's off by a 1/4 inch or so, not sure what is going on, maybe the bike got dropped at some point and something has moved, so it seems I will have to grind off the tab that holds the special nut, and have it welded up a little higher and then it should all be OK, and properly secured, and I really hope my Dzeus fasteners hold, wanted to try something a bit different instead of always using screws.....

[GateKeeper]

Finally a picture of the bike in the sun......

I am really liking this bike, it has turned out somewhat decent.....

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[JEEPRUSTY]

Very Sharp very nice graphics to sett off the colour.

[steve murdoch]

Looks great, GK.
Classy!

[GateKeeper]

Very Sharp very nice graphics to sett off the colour.

Looks great, GK.
Classy!

Thanks guys.....

[eil]

Beautiful! You know how to restore bikes to make them better looking than the left the factory.

[GateKeeper]

Beautiful! You know how to restore bikes to make them better looking than the left the factory.

Thanks

maybe I should give up my day job,,,,,,,not

but I do have fun doing it....

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[jbird7262]

You did a great job on the bike, and the finish looks great! Thats coming from a painter, at least you had the use of a booth, my buddy has a custom furniture building company and he lets me use his nice downdraft booth. See... if you get the right product, the end result turns out fine, you will never get those kind of reults from krylon or any other rattle can, but automotive basecoats put in cans are a good alternative to not having a compressor and the tools to spray, then you don't have to worry about all the used paint, primer, clear that you have to dispose of. I have a solvent recycler that will "distill" the solvents and return about 5 gal. of clean-up solvent after cooking 15 gal. of crud.

[Sandy]

Yes, that does it. Very nice.

[SVSooke]

Had been wondering if you'd get tired of the all black look.The silver was a good choice.Seems to me you're a better painter than I am

[GateKeeper]

You did a great job on the bike, and the finish looks great! Thats coming from a painter, at least you had the use of a booth, my buddy has a custom furniture building company and he lets me use his nice downdraft booth. See... if you get the right product, the end result turns out fine, you will never get those kind of reults from krylon or any other rattle can, but automotive basecoats put in cans are a good alternative to not having a compressor and the tools to spray, then you don't have to worry about all the used paint, primer, clear that you have to dispose of. I have a solvent recycler that will "distill" the solvents and return about 5 gal. of clean-up solvent after cooking 15 gal. of crud.

My younger son works for his Godfather, and the booth we used is part of their companies custom wood working shop, they do custom kitchens, wall units, finish trim, all high end stuff, so at the end of the day they let me use the booth, I thought I was going to do this in my garage, but got lucky and was able to use a proper booth, at least I did not get overspray all over everything in my garage...

The paint in the cans was actually really good, I could have used one more can to get more of an even coat, as it turns out, the finish is a bit blotchy, light and dark areas, but since it's like that on every part it looks almost as though it was intentional. The 2K clear was really easy to use and really made the parts shine.

I see my prep was not the best, but I was not going for perfection, it's a 30 year old bike, and it's a daily ride for now, so the way it turned out is way better than I even imagined

Yes not having to worry about getting rid of excess product is good, I basically sprayed until the cans were empty, and all I had was to dispose of the empty cans, easy and no worries about contaminating anything.

Yes, that does it. Very nice.

Thanks Sandy....

Had been wondering if you'd get tired of the all black look.The silver was a good choice.Seems to me you're a better painter than I am

Actually I was not tired of the black, but more, it was peeling and rubbing off, I used the PlastiDip stuff, to protect the parts first off as last year I did not have the time or cash to do a proper paint job, and I wanted to see how it would look all black, well it was OK, but it was way too much, and it really did not suit the bike, maybe if I had some decals and such, but it was not really growing on me.

I saw a few pictures of the same bike in the silver and the full decal set, as well as in the white and blue, but I already have the GS in white, so I decided to try the silver, and it seems I got lucky, it turned out not too bad.....

As for being a better painter, I wouldn't go that far, maybe I just got lucky, maybe because I had the use of a booth, or the paint I used, it probably all played a role, of which I was probably the least bit a part of.....LOL


I also did not follow the conventional way of doing this, very few steps were taken....

prepped all the parts, filled in all the dings and dents, cracks and so on with some bondo

applied a few coats of primer, fixed up a few obvious areas that still looked bad with some glazing putty (I think that is what it was)

used a pad to scuff everything up a bit, then used some 1000 grit paper for a final sand, wiped everything with a rag

applied the paint, one coat but heavy, ran out of paint, lol

purchased another can of paint, waited about 3 days, back to the booth, painted the tank first, then the rest of the unpainted parts, and a 2nd coat on the parts done first

as parts were being sprayed and other parts drying, it was time to clear coat the dried parts

all the parts were in the booth and I started applying the clear to the parts that were painted first as they were the driest, the last part to get clear was the tank.

everything was left in the booth over night, it was a Friday so no one was in the next day, around noon Saturday me and my son went to get the parts, everything was dry and brought home, put in the garage and off to Cuba I went....

fast forward 4 days I am back, I put the parts on the bike, add the decals, and applied a coat of wax to all the parts.....

Done deal.....and it looks OK

as I said, not the conventional way of doing things, but she sure does look pretty....








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[psyguy]

Very very nice GK!

[steve murdoch]

GK, how much paint did you buy?
Looks like yours and most of the neighbours cars are silver as well.

[allojohn]

Holy moly, outstanding work there GK. You are a bit of a perfectionist methinks.