A GR650 Overhual!... And Improvement!

[Jedz123]

Well I'm Back! Hope every one had a great holiday this year. I had 9 Christmas events over the course of 14 days and 1000 miles of traveling. Throw in my 1 year anniversary with my girlfriend and my 31st Birthday. I haven't had much of a chance to get out and work on the bike till this week... Whew.

So to start off PartsOutlaw's shipment came in. I installed these bad boys right off the bat. These are SGPs (Suzuki Genuine Part) and it was nice to see they had these readily available for my machine.
They fit perfectly and the motor is buttoned back up! Engine should be set and I don't need to split anything else.

So I decided not to run with 450E tail or seat. Once the I got the parts I knew right away they weren't going to work well. Fitment issues are definitely the run in. The E seat leaves an ugly gap between the seat base the top of the side cover. Also it's too long.

Here's the mock up.



So with that done and tried I've decided to run with the stock tail and seat to maintain the stock look...

Because it is January I'm ever closer to give the ole' GR a fresh paint job...
...So I had to ready the body bits for their trip to the body shop for painting.

I had to strip the decals and pin stripes before sending out. Also I wanted to match up the tail light mount the same blue as the rest but unfortunately its composed of a plastic base and a chrome metal wrap... It's an odd thing and it's totally trashed as I stared to "prep it" only the rotted parts of the wrap flung off leaving the non corroded parts stuck on it. No matter how hard you try, you can't sand the metal and attempting with the wire brush just ends up destroying the plastic and leaving the dam wrap... I have to find a replacement... Looks allot like an L bit so I'm sure I can find a replacement here or on the Fleabay.
Parts are now ready to go!:

The tail bits were gross... Rusting and minor pitting on the chrome. Bolts were rusted and the plastic was crudded on. I detailed this up pretty well.
Before

After


I also changed the oil filter when I dropped the oil pan to ensure all the ATV silicone was out of that area... I didn't like the black and figured I'd give some more contrast to the engine and polished out the cover.
Before

After removing the paint, brushing then a good polishing up

[Jedz123]

OH no it doesn't end there my friends... I did some more work!
So the tank needed to be stripped so it gave me a good chance to once over the fuel petcock... I actually have a good functioning petcock. So cleaning it up with out tearing into it was an added bonus on this project.

And after a de-gunk, detail clean and polish

The next thing I did was to take a good long look at the motor in the frame...

I definitely don't like the red valve cover (that was a; I thought it looked good then but... not so much for this build now)... I liked the look of the oil filter cover so I decided to remove the red and am borderline thinking of stripping all the paint and giving it a pure brushed aluminum UJM look.. What do you guys think? Should I strip all the paint off the motor or just do the valve cover?

You know what I'll do a poll... In the poll section.

But the motor is back on the Bench . Not very light for a twin, luckily I got two big guns up my sleeves to move it up and down and in and out of the frame...

[Big Rich]

Don't know how I missed this one so far...

UFO plastics makes a universal fender that fits the GR frame rather well (in case you don't want to keep the chrome tail).

[Jedz123]

Thanks Rich, is there a link for that? Budget is tight at the moment... I'm on the cusp of getting my B-king (or Hayabusa, whatever I come across first) Once the new liter is in then I'll have extra to spend on the GR.
I look forward to getting this one all set by spring. Parts get shipped out to paint tomorrow. I have to pack them and send them to NH. Going for a brand new look. It will look awesome for Americade!!!
So Polls don't work anymore... Dumb, so any insight guys? Brushed metal or stock black paint for the motor???

[Big Rich]

Here ya go, $19:

https://m.denniskirk.com/ufo/universal-mx-black-rear-fender.p614199.prd/614199.sku

It sticks more straight back than the original, but can be trimmed easily.

[HamamatsuSuzi]

Brushed metal or stock black paint for the motor???

I agree to lose the red valve cover. I like the polished look. Here is mine with polished valve and engine covers. The head fins come polished and respond well to refreshening. Mine has the original paint. I like the contrast that the black gives to the polished aluminum.

[Jedz123]

I will be keeping the block black. I think it adds good contrast as well. Any polishing techniques your willing to share? I'd prefer to get the motor all polished up while it's still on my bench!

[HamamatsuSuzi]

Any polishing techniques your willing to share?

What I do is remove the parts from the engine so you can handle them easily in your hand. I use a Craftsman 3D sander you hold between your fingers and has 3 separate rotating discs. This allows you to get around corners easily. I don't think you can buy it anymore. If the cases are badly corroded I use a 180 grit, otherwise I start with 220. After that I go to the polishing mop on my bench. I start with a sisal mop and black buffing bar, then move on to a polishing mop with white rouge. Nothing special really.

[wymple]

I admire your tenacity. Lots of us think we should do exactly this type of refresh to our daily rides, but never seem to get going. I think it will look great, as well as being something other than the norm when you are out and around. Ride to a couple of rallies (any make) and see what attention it gets. I suggest Guzzi rallies, as we have the best.....

[Grimly]

I admire your tenacity. Lots of us think we should do exactly this type of refresh to our daily rides, but never seem to get going. I think it will look great, as well as being something other than the norm when you are out and around. Ride to a couple of rallies (any make) and see what attention it gets. I suggest Guzzi rallies, as we have the best.....

I look forward to getting my hydraulic bench built - oh, the shine and sheen and sheer cleanliness of the bikes will be a sight to behold. As it is, right now, I can't be assed crawling around on my hands and knees, and with my back, I should cocoa.

[Jedz123]

So Off to the races to restore that Valve cover
I used a nice stripper that wasn't too harsh but got the job done in a couple of coats. Unfortunately I did a very good job on the paint so it was reluctant to come off...
Stripper I used

Fist coat with it on and it ate the paint pretty good...


After cleaning up the first coat of remover... Still aways to go

I found using compressed air was very helpful in removing all the flakes and the hard to reach crevices on the engine...

After removing the second coat if stripped and blowing off the flakes it was looking really good... I put it back on my bench to attack the rest of the paint with a wire brush.


After hitting it with the brush!!! IT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER! I also took the time to micro clean/detail the rest of the engine.


Not done yet. I decided that I wanted to really change the look of the bike so I ordered a 8" Train headlight from Blowerbike on here! Here's the difference in size difference, Stock GR650 light on the left 8" train light from a GS1100E on the right.


And it one the bike with the freshly cleaned engine!!! It's looking sooo GOOD!



So you can visualize a finished product I did a quick paint on the tank blue... It will be sent out soon, the deal of a paint job is on hold until the body guy has an opening...



It's been a very exciting time here in the Jedz garage. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with this project. I'm getting a new motorcycle bench of the course of the next couple of week's. I also just put a down payment on my next daily ridden bike a 2008 Suzuki B-king.

All I got today, I'll be planning to attack the electrical system and brakes next. I have 35mm forks coming in so I can do a twin disc setup. Very excited. Bike is going to look and ride great!

Thanks for tuning in!

[Jedz123]

AND! THE TANK IS IN! It looks pretty good. I like the look although I think a cross wire on the exact color got crossed. Anyway covers will be in soon as well.. I think it looks 10X better then it did. Didn't pay much at all for the work so I really can't complain.



Next step will be exhaust and tackling that headache. Then rejet the carbs and put it back together. Should be a good season!!!

[Jedz123]

So I did some more work on the ole' GR650, with the smell of Spring in the air I caught on the back of the FZ1 yesterday. I knew it's time to put a crunch on getting my GR650 ready in time.

Today I ran wire... Ugh It's so damn tedious. I also cleaned up the harness before she went back into the bike. I also loomed in the harness into the 1150E train light. I can't believe how much more room there is that thing. Everything came together well North of the steering neck. I'll have to figure an option for directionals.

Anyway the clean harness coiled into the new headlight bucket.

I then installed the polished Brake master and horn, then wired those cats in and put the headlight on when it was all wired in.

I then worked down the frame and re wired in the coils and snaked the harness to the battery box... Where I lost ambition and switched gears to another project, My Stands...

As you can see the center stand doesn't return all the way anymore because the R6 shock is in the way. So it needed to come out...


Two bolts hold it up but they are quite a PITA to get out... After a little struggling the stand popped out.
The Side stand is also dumb. There is little angle to the side stand so the bike won't lean much with it out. It worse now that I've dropped about 2" out in the back with the R6 unit. So I had to bend the side stand out to ensure I had a proper angle to the side stand. This was hard I ended up just grabbing the Side stand and man handled it out by pulling it to the angle I wanted... Good Idea? Not sure if I caused any damage but the side stand and mount didn't suffer from any noticeable damage or cracks... Bike leans in a way I like now.

I also buttoned in the rear chrome fender, why? Well I'm an L freak and I love the chrome.

Next goal is to finish up the wiring and I need to figure out what exactly I'm going to do with the front end. I need to figure if I will swap the front Forks over to 750 forks and run a twin disc setup or just run a stock brake setup with a stainless line. Either way I need a new disc, mine is shot. I also need to get the fueling and exhaust sorted. Also need to figure lighting as in corner lights and brake... So much fun.

My buddy was suppose to bring my welder back to me yesterday but he's reluctant in handing it back. I'll need that to fab up the custom 2 to 1 I intend on using.

[oldrookie]

Like what you are doing to the GR. Sold mine last summer when I got my SV650, but I really miss that old bike. Learned a lot about working on bikes (and still couldn't do most of what you are doing,) but a lot of your pictures brought back memories. Particularly the master cylinder--those weren't particularly good memories.

[Jedz123]

Thanks Rookie!
It's been a thorough project for sure. When I'm done she will be a fair weather ride only. More to come over the next few days. I need to custom fab the exhaust and I think I'll be running stock air-box to keep it simple. Those projects I hope to be done by the tail end of Monday. I would like to get it to fire up. Front rotor should be in @ some point during the tail end of this week. I need to order a front tire... It's closer to being done then it looks. Side covers are still out getting painted, you get what you pay for, cheap and good doesn't equal fast...