My 78 GS550 Cafe Project!

[germanicus]

Hey all.....

I am new to this forum and it has helped me out tremendously! I bout my gs550 about 3 weeks ago with the intetion of restoring it as a cafe racer.

I built the seat/cowl out of fiberglass and made a fiberglass seat pan added some HD foam and wrapped it in marine vinyl

Did a quick temp paint job and bodywork....Metallic grey

Put some dirtbike bars on and turned them upside down (I'm waiting for my Clubman's)

Started to polish the cases....I plan on polishing the whole thing!

I will end up painting it silver.

Lemme know what you think so far.....

I NEED some side covers....if anyone has some they want to get rid of...please let me know!

Here's the BEFORE:



Here's what I've done to it so far:

Very cool!
I really like your seat, too bad I ride 2-up most of the time.
You'll need barends for sure.
Have you thought of a flyscreen or bikini fairing? I think it would match the style. Since you work with fiberglass maybe you can make your own...
Here's an idea:

http://omarsdtr.com/fairings.html

Great bike!
German

[pozzi]

dig it bro!

like the seat!
you should sell those...looks CLEAN!
that's a quick flip for only 3-weeks.
i'm impressed!

keep it up and let the updates flow!

I photochop'd a GS550 to see what it would look like cafe style, this is what it looks like:

makes me want a GS 550 rear tail section...hhmm...sooo, wha'dcha you do with yours???

[bhppy101]

OK....Here'es what I did on Sunday\\/

Painted it silver....Fabricated a tailight/license plate bracket....did a little more polishing to the forks and starter cover.....and got the clubman bars on! Woo Hoo! The bars don't hit the tank!!!!!

[Tarbash 27]

hows your back feel with those bars? now you just gotta get a smaller exhaust.

[bhppy101]

Its not bad at all......actually....feels alot more safe than the ape hangers that where on there before!

I'm used to the crouch.....I just got rid of a Zuki TL1000.

[bhppy101]

I was having trouble with my pics.....here they are again:

[pozzi]

nice work!
looks super clean w/ the lighter silver paint.
you squirt that yourself?
looks good.

just need to get all snappy with your glass skills and fab some sweet triangle side covers to match.

man! i wish i had wires! look so classic.

[bgmart450]

Nice, you should get a bicycle speedo or those smaller gauges to finish the look off. Are you going to put a fender ont he front?

[bhppy101]

nice work!
looks super clean w/ the lighter silver paint.
you squirt that yourself?
looks good.

just need to get all snappy with your glass skills and fab some sweet triangle side covers to match.

man! i wish i had wires! look so classic.

Yep....I'll be making some panels tonight...

I painted it with Duplicolor spray cans.....shot it with 3 coats of primer.... 4 coats of base.....and 6 coats of clear......sanding betweet coats with 1500 grit and did a final sanding with 2000 grit wet. Polished it out with compound and it was done!

[bhppy101]

Nice, you should get a bicycle speedo or those smaller gauges to finish the look off. Are you going to put a fender ont he front?

The gauge cluster will be gone soon.....I just need to get a wiring diagram so that I can get rid of it without cutting something that I need.

I will probably go with a small speedo.....just need to find the right one..

I chopped up my front fender and will be painting it silver....but it will be back on tonight!

[pozzi]

Yep....I'll be making some panels tonight...

I painted it with Duplicolor spray cans.....shot it with 3 coats of primer.... 4 coats of base.....and 6 coats of clear......sanding betweet coats with 1500 grit and did a final sanding with 2000 grit wet. Polished it out with compound and it was done!

nice DIY!

rattlecan for life!
if you do it right, you can get it to come out just the same as a pro.
getting the right colors is normally the hardest part.

there is a thread about gauges here.
from www.mikesxs.com

these are probably the ones i'm gonna go with, since they have a few warning lights in them...
save you the trouble of rigging up a set of warning lights using boat dash lights.

[bgmart450]

The gauge cluster will be gone soon.....I just need to get a wiring diagram so that I can get rid of it without cutting something that I need.

I will probably go with a small speedo.....just need to find the right one..

I chopped up my front fender and will be painting it silver....but it will be back on tonight!

You won't regret it, I like mine with no dash at all Now I need to find a smaller (dual perhaps) headlight!

[bhppy101]

fiberglass covers

OK.....I started fabbing up my covers tonight. Heres what you see so far:

I taped off the frame and other areas
I made a 2 cardboard templates...one for each side (matching exactly)

I positioned and taped the cardboard so that I can get a general shape and ensure that they mirror each other.

I poked a bolt through the cardboard where the original mounting grommet is so that I can glass the bolt head in the cover and use it for mounting.

I layed sown 2 layers of chopped mat to get a workable base...making sure that the bolt od thouroughly soaked for a good permanent bond.

Heres what it looks like so far.:

Left side



Right side

[CamaRod]

dayum, very nice

Did you make the rear fairing out of fiberglass as well or did you do what most do and find an old gas tank to cut up

[bhppy101]

dayum, very nice

Did you make the rear fairing out of fiberglass as well or did you do what most do and find an old gas tank to cut up

I made the rear seat/cowl out of fiberglass as well....I used some 1/2" plywood and cut my seat base......Chopped off some of the rear frame.......took some green shaping foam (bought it at Michaels Hobby...its used to stick fake plants in) and glued it to the rear of th seat......Shaped the foam to my liking.......masked the whole seat and layed about 6 layers of fiberglass matt and cloth.....Sanded it down....added some body filler to smooth things out....and presto.....I got a new seat!.....I also had to make another fiberglass base for the actual foam part of the seat....so the assembly is actually 2 pieces.


Heres how my side covers are turning out.....I layed another couple of layers of fiberglass matt and cloth.....then I cut it to its general shape.

I still need to do some shaping and filler to round things out: