750 cafe project

[jonesti]

Alright! Looking good. Could someone maybe photochop Beergoods pics with the different sidecovers? I think bhappy did black on his 750??? I'm really interested how the different colors would look. Besides my imagination is taken up by thoughts of scantily clad females....(my wife if she sees this!)

[80GS1000]

Looking great! Really like that shade of red!

I tried Photoshopping the side panel black, but IMHO it didn't look as good as a single gray stripe to complement the other stripes in your paint scheme.

[beergood]

The side covers need to be repainted, the red crackled on one and my sand job wasn't that great on the other. Originally I was going to paint the front fender red as well, and I thought the two would help flow. Since I ended up liking the chrome (at least this week) I think that I am going to keep it.

I think some time over the week I will hit one of the sides with some black and see where it takes me. I have a friend that has a little bubble style fairing, I just need to take the time to go pick it up. I will probably try to knock both those out at the same time.

Thanks for the feedback everybody.

[beergood]

I tried Photoshopping the side panel black, but IMHO it didn't look as good as a single gray stripe to complement the other stripes in your paint scheme.

Thanks for the effort, I like what you came up with.

My concern with just doing black is that I want to red and black to integrate together, and not look like it is just sitting on the bike.

I had an idea similar to yours. I was thinking that I might paint the bottom third silver and separate the two with a black pinstripe.

Maybe I'll do one side black and one side two toned, the I will conduct a poll.

[byrdman76]

Alrighty, a little more progress:






Added some logos and stuff, a few layers of clear coat and chopped a couple inches off both ends of the front fender. Also rebuilt the seat.

Tried out a Dremel polishing wheel on a couple of little rusty bolts and stuff. Worked like butter. A little here and there and I should have everything polished by spring.

Next up: removing the front fork assembly, getting rid of the dorky reflector, painting the caliper, and polishing everything else up.

Looking better everytime man. If your talking about reflectors on the fork brake line cover they just screw on and off by hand - at least they did on my 79. The nut is welded on the inside to the cover.

[isaac]

I rike! Can't wait to see what it looks like with a painted front fender and maybe painted fork/wheels.

[KGB]

Nice job , nice flow to it.

IMHO I'd go with either the grey/silver stripe or just red.
Black might leave an "unfinished" look, know what I mean?
Not as an after thought, but to keep the flow from the seat-tank mating area.
I like the old school look of the tail section.

Are you leaving the instruement cluster where it is or altering that ?

[beergood]

God willing, I will have the front forks off today. I am thinking that I will paint the calipers red. I have about 10 ideas for the wheels/fork legs. Can't decide which way to go with them. Part of me wants to leave them stock, part of me wants to strip and polish sections of them, part of me wants to throw some red in there.

As for the instruments, a friend has a bikini fairing he isn't using. I am going to pick it up sometime soon. If I like the look of it, the stock gauges stay. If I don't, the stock gauges go.

[beergood]

file under: I can't keep my bike together for longer than three days

My frame has tons of little surface rust, and the engine/bolts are in dire need of polishing.

So, I took it apart again.I think this will take a lot longer to finish. Luckily, the weather is freakin cold.

Tasks in this project:

Paint front forks (black)
Paint Calipers (red)
Polish Engine (as much as is possible/reasonable)
Paint Frame (doing it in black, in chunks)
Figure out a scheme for the front wheel
Rebuild carbs

Beginning condition of the frame


After some grinding/preparing/painting


Front half of frame done, engine is beginning to get scrubbed


I know that there might be some people taking issue with this method. My reasoning is this: Next year I think I am going to do a full restoration. This will include stripping and coating the frame and rebuilding the engine. I just bought this bike in the fall and I want to spend a summer riding her and getting a feel for her before I go hog wild with her. But I still would like her to look as good as possible this summer (she deserves it). There is no way that I am going to go through the trouble of removing a perfectly good engine just to paint a frame, and it just seems easier to me to do the front half, reassemble it, then do the back half.

I do like the photo with the ravaged back end and the nicely painted front end. Kind of reminds me of the evolution of man chart.

Once again, thanks for reading, and all opinions/comments are appreciated.

[beergood]

Oh yeah, there was no progress the last few days...because I built a potato cannon.

Cost me $25 in parts from Lowes/Home Depot, and took a few hours to build.

It charges up to 100psi in a few minutes from a car pump.

Can shoot anything that will fit in a 1.5 inch barrel (barrels are interchangable, so can make larger/smaller ones)

Stands about 6 feet tall.

Should launch a potato around 200 yards.

From about 20 feet it shot a potato through the bottom of a bucket and shattered a sheet of ice about 2 inches thick.

Why am I telling you this? Because I am telling everyone. This thing is more fun than should be allowed.

It is painted the same colors as the bike because that was what I had around. Now I find myself daydreaming about mounting it on her (just kidding, that would be totally unsafe)

[jonesti]

"Oh yeah, there was no progress the last few days...because I built a potato cannon."

Fo shizzy!!!!!!
Bike's looking good. Did I read you're into roadbikes?

[beergood]

"Did I read you're into roadbikes?

Indeed I am. I have a 1980's Cannondale Crit, a 2005 'Dale R5000 and a mid 80's Bianchi that I have converted into a fixed.

[jonesti]

Indeed I am. I have a 1980's Cannondale Crit, a 2005 'Dale R5000 and a mid 80's Bianchi that I have converted into a fixed.

Any pics of the fixie? I'm currently building a Flyte frame with Ultegra cranks, derailers and cassette. And a mish-mash of other componets. I'm a newbie to roadbikes. My wife gets ****ed everytime she sees how much I've spent on a bicycle!

[80GS1000]

Wow, really nice work on the restoration of that frame. Looks worlds better!

And, uh, can I borrow that potato cannon?

[tkent02]

I love this forum!

Oh yeah, there was no progress the last few days...because I built a potato cannon.

As good as it gets!