1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Oh man I can't stand working with fiberglass! Good luck with the duck tail. Wish you were local so we could just make you a metal tail!

Haha well I haven't done anything with it for about 20 years, and I remember it being messy as, however I reckon I have a chance of success with it compared with metal. My electrics tray is somewhat... agricultural at best.

Oh, for some reason i thought that you were using a larger diameter tubing. Bending that stuff is a piece of cake compared to what i thought you were dealing with.

As to the por-15, I need to do this myself and have been putting it off for a while. I guess i can do it after i finish the rest of the modification.

Yeah it bends real easy, I just needed something to help me curve it.

The POR 15 thing is a PITA and something I was hoping to avoid, but never the less, it needs to be done

SAFETY WARNING:

You bought galvanized wire. Make sure when you decide to weld on it your wearing a respirator in a well ventilated, preferrably outside, location. Galvanized metal gives of very nasty fumes when welded upon.

Paul

Thanks for the warning Paul! I had no idea, but that was the only steel rod they had...

How concerned should I be if I don't have a respirator? I have some face masks around but nothing like that. There should be a few small welds only (I'm envisaging only about 8 total to join the rod together), so as long as I do it outside or under the garage door (close to outside if it's raining) do you reckon that'll be safe enough? Of course I'll have to do some practise welds first too so I don't ruin it...

Yep, and I know it sounds stupid but drink a glass of milk before you weld on galvanized metal. The calcium in the milk bonds with any zinc released in the fumes and helps it pass on through your system rather than hang around and make you sick to your stomach

Cool, I'll give that a go for sure! That's an easy little trick to do

Thanks heaps guys, I might even be able to do this yet...

[mlc216]

If you strip the galvanized coating a couple inches back in the areas where it needs to be welded (which I suggest you do for a good welded connection), than you probably won't even release any of that funny white zinc infiltrated smoke.

[pete]

If you strip the galvanized coating a couple inches back in the areas where it needs to be welded (which I suggest you do for a good welded connection), than you probably won't even release any of that funny white zinc infiltrated smoke.

Cool, and by strip... sandpaper good enough? Or does it need a chemical type strip (not sure if it penetrates the steel)?

[pete]

Oh, and given the state of the existing duck tail frame, I may end up giving it all a coat of POR 15's Blackcote like the rest of my frame just to give it some protection against rust. I'll probably just do the rods though, not the mesh.

[landshark]

Cool, and by strip... sandpaper good enough? Or does it need a chemical type strip (not sure if it penetrates the steel)?

Grinder, the more gal you get off the better the weld.

[john82q]

see your grinder, and raise a file!

in the door way will be fine pete, if you have have a fan have it going blowing in the back ground to push the smoke outwards.

[Redneck]

IF you are just tack welding, like you will be with the wire. Do it outside with a good fan blowing across where you are welding so the smoke does not rise up. You will not be welding enough to make huge amounts of smoke.

Paul

[pete]

Grinder, the more gal you get off the better the weld.

Makes sense, but I wanna do as much prep work as I can while I'm doing other stuff at night, so I might do Johns's suggestion below... save the grinder for when I make a mess of the welds

see your grinder, and raise a file!

in the door way will be fine pete, if you have have a fan have it going blowing in the back ground to push the smoke outwards.

Easy done John, even if it's raining I can still work under the garage door and have the pedestal fan in the garage blowing out like I did when boiling the carbs in the carbie cleaner.

IF you are just tack welding, like you will be with the wire. Do it outside with a good fan blowing across where you are welding so the smoke does not rise up. You will not be welding enough to make huge amounts of smoke.

Paul

Cool, even better

I'm sure one or all of the above will get them safely welded up... thanks guys!

John also loaned me his art of welding book today (thanks again John) and looks like I should be able to get the hang of it easily enough as what's in there all makes sense, so probably just a matter of diving in with some scraps and getting an eye for it (a well shielded eye of course!).

[pete]

And so onto the little bit more progress I got done tonight...

The good news is that my reinforcement of the old cat pole with the strip of metal seems to have done the trick. Still a little on the flexible side when bending, but not as bad as it was and if I was to need to bend something in a tighter radius (which I will), then I'm pretty confident it will do it without collapsing.

Anyway, I straightened the first one I did last night a little so it was more inline with the shape of the existing frame, and put some slight bends in a couple of other bits that will run down the side of the frame right behind the seat pan.

Then I tackled the most difficult bit which is the rod that will need to bend over the tail light bracket.

Chocked the bracket up on a piece of wood for some leverage and set to work:





Ended up almost perfect. One side goes in a little further than the other, but hard to notice and I'm happy enough with it like that.

Bits I've done so far:



And sort of how they'll work in with the existing frame work:



So I reckon I've got three pieces left to do which will be the two sides where they'll need to curve down from the top of the frame to the bottom, and one gently curved piece to run between them, although I may only need the sides yet.

If I can get the frame work done, then I should be able to use some thin wire I have lying around to tie them together so it should be easy to weld them how they should be.

Given there's also plenty of room in there for either a small maintenance free battery or one of those flashy new A123 style batteries, I reckon I can make up a tray that will simply bolt in to some of the existing mounting points there too which will let me use the existing battery tray area for my secure weatherproof storage area.

[mlc216]

Looking good pete!

Note: If it's a gas welder than fans blowing are NOT your friend... Your weld will end up with more porosity than than swiss cheese and will likely break off by hand.

If it's a flux cored welder than the fan shouldn't hurt it

[pete]

Cheers MLC!

I'm led to believe it's a standard stick welder so should be no dramas with the fan running

[pete]

And last but not least I got my first GIMP mock up done.

The seat was copied from a random picture from Google and appears to be a bit "fat" at the rear, and hopefully mine can end up a little slimmer.

The only two things really missing from this are a fly screen and hand guards, but neither of those will impact on colour and I'm pretty sure they should fit in with the whole scrambler idea...



Any feedback? I'll be using this to start looking at colour options...

[john82q]

looks good to me

pete,

My thought, maybe a small step in the seat, so its thicker for the pillion, and rider dosnt feel like their arse is sliding back from the power of it all when mighty twin is fully unleashed.


BTW didnt mean point the fan straight at the job, just oscillating in the door way to make a outward draught. (works for me..)


John

[mlc216]

I'm a fan of black. Very glossy black. With some tasteful pinstriping!

[pete]

pete,

My thought, maybe a small step in the seat, so its thicker for the pillion, and rider dosnt feel like their arse is sliding back from the power of it all when mighty twin is fully unleashed.

Yeah good call, and the pan itself sort of encourages that as there's a bit of a step already in the back of the pan where it sits on the frame cross member.

Mighty twin hey? I like it... haha

BTW didnt mean point the fan straight at the job, just oscillating in the door way to make a outward draught. (works for me..)


John

Makes perfect sense...

I'm a fan of black. Very glossy black. With some tasteful pinstriping!

That was my wife's first suggestion too, but black frame, mostly black wheels, black fork lowers... not sure on that but I can always stick it in the GIMP and see how it ends up.