1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Flyboy]

Man, don't you ever sleep? It has to be 5am there, yep, a nice chrome heat shield will look wicked, I see some more fabrication in your future, can't wait to see it.

[pete]

Man, don't you ever sleep? It has to be 5am there, yep, a nice chrome heat shield will look wicked, I see some more fabrication in your future, can't wait to see it.

Man sleep's over rated... takes away from GS time

My wife's an early riser, so I normally just get up when she gets up, and then I tend to stay up a bit later at night which gives me a little time in the garage or on the forums or whatever... works well enough

And yeah, 5:15am as I'm typing this...

I can't wait to get the pipe back, I wanna see it and touch and hear it... not sure if I can make something to do it justice but we shall see...

[landshark]

I think heat shields can look good when done well, i saw previous pics of the triumph.
These old huskies look good too.

[pete]

Yeah, some of the CL350/450 heat shields are a work of art too...

I'm thinking maybe I could stencil on "Suzuki" and cut it out with the dremel... might be overstretching my ability there too

[davidduarte]

SNIP
I then discovered that my thoughts on using rocks small enough to get out the filler hole was stupidity in the extreme... I should've aimed for small enough to get out the fuel tap hole! The lip around the inside of the filler hole makes it a nightmare to get them out and you have to keep trying to shake them out while bouncing it up and down to get them over the lip.

So this is how it was in there after that:



And now I got some smaller rocks to chuck in with the marine clean, this time small enough to get out the fuel tap hole:

I tried the same thing with BB's and lead pellets, what a pain in the ass it was getting them out, even though they did fit through the petcock hole. I'm so glad I had my tank coated; now I don't have to worry about it rusting ever again

[davidduarte]

And dried out ready to line, got a very small amount of flash rust as expected:



I remember to put some wire through the breather hole, and for you other 450E/S guys, it's actually in the left side of the neck, not the front like I've seen a lot of other models reported:



[/URL]
SNIP

Your tank cleaned up quite nicely. Good thing you sealed it up; you'll be glad you did. Now you don't have to worry about rust getting into your carbs.

[landshark]

Yeah, some of the CL350/450 heat shields are a work of art too...

I'm thinking maybe I could stencil on "Suzuki" and cut it out with the dremel... might be overstretching my ability there too

I actually know someone who could probably do that for you on a laser bed, then you could just bend them too bend it too shape.
I dont think it would be too expensive, and the result would be awesome.

[Woodsy]

Dooooooo IT

[pete]

I tried the same thing with BB's and lead pellets, what a pain in the ass it was getting them out, even though they did fit through the petcock hole. I'm so glad I had my tank coated; now I don't have to worry about it rusting ever again

Yeah, definitely glad I used the smaller ones the second time 'round! They all came out with ease with the marine clean when I drained it.

Your tank cleaned up quite nicely. Good thing you sealed it up; you'll be glad you did. Now you don't have to worry about rust getting into your carbs.

That metal ready's awesome stuff, has done a fantastic job of prep'ing the metal and converting any basic surface type rust I've put it on so far including the frame and everything, so definitely happy with how it works!

And yeah, definitely a sigh of relief now the lining's done. I also don't want to have to worry about rust in there again...

I actually know someone who could probably do that for you on a laser bed, then you could just bend them too bend it too shape.
I dont think it would be too expensive, and the result would be awesome.

Man now you got me thinkin'!

I'll have to wait and see what the pipe looks like when it gets back, but I was thinking I could probably buy some 2 inch tubing, cut it in about a third and get it chromed, however getting it laser cut would be awesome. Can it cut curved metal or just flat? I know nothin' about that... big question is if I could curve it neatly enough to do it justice... definitely given me something else to think about!

Dooooooo IT

Yeah yeah... read above

But it would be sweet...

[pete]

Rightio... mesh day today! It's done, for better or worse...

I only poked myself with sharp bits of wire a couple of times, so very little blood loss...

Started with one sheet from the top down the back to start with:



The mesh was tied in the roll with some very usable tie wire, so I said thank you very much and used that to tie it to the frame work. Bonus! Especially seeing as I had to buy 10 metres or something stupid and I only used about 3/4 of a metre...

Anyways, back taking shape, and you'll notice I trimmed in the middle of the left and right sides to allow it to curve a bit nicer rather than just keep flexing out of shape:



You'll also see I cut the bit out for the seat lock as well.

Then I got a couple of bits on for the side panels:



And folded around the back:



This saw the essential shape of the tail piece formed, and I must say I was quite surprised at how simple it was to do (but very fiddly) and I was pretty happy with how the mesh was able to bend and curve around but still retain its shape once formed.

Now, you may recall I ended up with the left side a little too short compared with the right side, so I sorted that by tying on an extra piece of rod which brought it down to about the right length:



I also started bending the excess mesh up towards the back there to try to keep in line with the rod on the right side.

[pete]

So, bottom of the left and right sides mostly trimmed and neatened up for the right lines:



Now, for the front of each side, I'm following the lines of the stock duck tail and it kicks out a bit towards the bottom to flow in with the panels that run along the bottom of the seat pan, so I got those bits trimmed down pretty much right, which means these next pic's are the mesh completed:



Except for one minor refinement of extending the size of the hole for the seat lock after checking with the grommet for size:



And that's the mesh all done, ready for glassing.

I'm pretty happy with it overall. It's not perfect, and some bits will need to be refined with a combination of the fibreglassing and putty, but that's what both those things are for, so all is good by the looks.

I had to duck out and do some things and when I got back I wasn't sure if I'd have time to do the fibreglass or if I'd be rushing, so instead I got organised for the spraying of the caliper paint.

Gathered everything I need to paint first up:



Including my 'bar mounted choke adaptor bits:



Then setup somewhat of a spray booth by tacking a drop sheet up in the corner of the work bench and hanging a bit of rope I can tie the bits onto:



So I should be all set now to both paint and do the fibreglassing, although I believe I'll be doing some house cleaning tomorrow so I'm not sure that I'll get both things done, havta wait and see.

All in all, coming along nicely so far!

[Woodsy]

hurry up and glass it!

[pete]

hurry up and glass it!

Geeez and I thought I was impatient!

I'm hoping tomorrow, but I don't want to rush it... I just realised that having my birthday on Monday means it's been around 21 years since I last did any fibreglassing... makes me feel old!

[Woodsy]

What tail light are you going to use?

[pete]

This one from the CL360 I picked up:



'Tis on all the mock ups I did for the paint and tail etc.