Jennifer's Makeover

[Flyboy]

Yesterday I went shopping for bearings and fork seals, got everything except the swingarm bearings and the fork seals, my mate will track some down for me on Monday, regardless, i could not get the front end in this weekend anyway, as I still need to get all my fastners done, I will take them into work this week and drop them off with the aerospace platers on the airfield, so they will be ready for next weekend.
Even so I was hoping to finish up the front wheel today, but unfortunately when I dropped into the paint shop yesterday to pick up paint for the wheels, their machine had gone on the fritz, so they could not put it into cans for me damn....more delays, and I will pick it up next Saturday.
Well without paint, i decided to get the sanding, polishing and masking done today, so next weekend I could spray and start to put together.






Well I got 75% of the sanding and polishing done, all the sanding is done, and one side is polished, just need to polish the other side.
Reason was, I was in too much pain to carry on, I literally sanded until my fingers were bleeding, I am not looking forward to the rear wheel.
the things we do to pretty up our rides............

[cowboyup3371]

Did you sand all the old paint off?

[Flyboy]

No Scott, just polishing up the spokes and the outter rim.
The new paint is going over the old, which has been scotchbrited down.
Used 120 grit, to remove all those pesky ridges on the spokes, then 360 to smooth it down, then 600 to remove the scratches left by the 360.
Then hit it with black rouge on the cotton wheel and finished off with pink rouge on a cotton wheel.

[pete]

Mate all I can say is ouch!

I'm so glad I painted mine now as I was able to just wire wheel the whole thing except the outer lip which I left alone to polish.

Bummer on the paint but good to see you're getting somewhere!

[Flyboy]

Just a small update.
Managed to make progress on the front wheel this weekend.
After sanding until my fingers bled last weekend, I was seriously thinking about giving any work on Jennifer a miss this weekend, give the fingers a break, anyway I sort of rationalised skipping work as I had a bit of shopping to do for Jennifer, and, hey, that is doing something towards the build, right?
Well last weekend I could not get the paint for the wheels because the machine that packs it in the cans went belly up, so yesterday I was down to the paint shop to collect my paint.
Well trying to get the correct colour grey/charcoal whatever was another story all together, I went through about a million swatches of all kinds of shades of charcoal, not helped by the fact that I left the wheel at home and the paint on there is 30 years old and faded accordingly not to mention worn away.
So who knows what the original shade was?
Anyway, as it turns out, the colour I got is slightly darker than standard, I think, but it is all good, I purposly choose a bit darker rather than lighter, because I feel it will contrast better with the polished spokes and rim.
I am quite happy with the result, so it stays.
I also dropped a bunch of fastners and hardware for the front end off with the platers at the airport to have them zinc plated, which I got back on Friday afternoon. I am disapointed with the result, I don't think he put them through the brightner, or long enough in the brightner, they look good, but no shine, so I will decide if I get them done again, somewhere else, or put together a little plant and do them myself. or just leave them for now.



You know what it is like, got home from the shopping trip, with paint and fastners, of course now I can't just leave the work on Jennifer, no gotta get this done...now.

Wheel finished polished, awaiting masking and paint


Wheel masked, awaiting paint


Paint going on


Wheel done



Mock up withh brake rotor


Brand new wheel bearings

[pete]

Mate that wheel's looking great! Nicely done

Personally I reckon those fasteners etc. look good the way they are, but if it's not what you want then get them done again so it doesn't nag you in the back of your mind...

[Matchless]

That wheel looks familiar! Excellent job you are doing.

I wish I had thought of plating the fasteners myself, but after the problems with trying to have the headlight ring re-chromed, and the choke bar lost in the acid bath by the "chromer", I just did not feel that way was safe!

She is on her way to looking better than the day you bought her!

[Hoosier Daddy]

B-e-a-utiful!!!

[SVSooke]

Very nice indeed! Just stripped my Skunk rear of it's red paint yesterday.What a pain.Got to figure a way to do the rims with my grinder/ buffer

[psyguy]

Looking good Mr Flyboy !

Not sure if there may be other processes available but when I enquiread about bright zinc plating I was told they can't do small batches... apparently they need bits to rub against each other to get the bright oem look. The guy said to me bring me a couple of kg of fasteners and we could do it...

[Flyboy]

Thanks guys, slowly but surely we will get there, and I really don't want to take short cuts, this is an exersize in self dicipline second to none.
And a balancing act to boot, because doing it right costs, and I am on a budget here as well, skimming a bit off the grocery money every month.
With that said, I must put a HUGE thank you out to Rustybronco who really has gone faaaarrrrrr out of his way and way beyond the call of duty to help me with this one, Dale, you a special kind of person.

Pete, I hear you, the fastners are good, but don't look OEM, they look....well....painted, but then again I had them done on the side so I can't really take them back.
Psyguy, I am not sure what the process is, and I have no reason to doubt what they told you, but I can get a kit for about 2K, less than $300, to do them myself, and if I weigh it up, it may just be worth my while after I have had everything done. But mostly it will get rid of the aggrivation factor.
I needed a new through bolt for the lower triple clamp, so Saturday morning I shoot down to the engineering supply to pick up a few bits, including said bolt and a new castle nut abd washer for the front axle, only to find that the right bolt comes in black, and the castle nut is also a dull grey colour, charming, I had all the bits at the platers the day before...uuurrrr

So it is a serious consideration at this point to buy the setup, that way I can help guys like Andre as well, and he won't get his parts lost.

SVSooke, yeah, wheels are a pain, this one must have taken me the better part of 20hrs to do, there is no getting away from the sanding, which takes the most time, if you want the high polished look, to get the old paint off, good dose of paint stripper works wonders, but the evil stuff, not the watered down, bunny hugger friendly rubbish.
The polishing I do with a white linen pad attachment on my drill and red rouge, that part is easy.

Andre, if I decide to go for the electroplating kit, you welcome to send your stuff up, and I will gladly do it for you, then the only thing you have to worry about is speed services couriers loosing your stuff.

Hoosier Daddy, thanks for the compliments, looking at the quality of your builds, that means a lot.

[SVSooke]

Used some pretty potent stripper,think one more round is in order though.Will try to make a stand to get the wheels up to the machine.
A +2 for Dale being a great guy.Him and Chuck Hahn have made the 2 disc conversion on mine possible.

[rustybronco]

Looking good Mr Flyboy !

Not sure if there may be other processes available but when I enquiread about bright zinc plating I was told they can't do small batches... apparently they need bits to rub against each other to get the bright oem look. The guy said to me bring me a couple of kg of fasteners and we could do it...

Azr had a bit of replating done. it might help if some asked him about the process. http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...53&postcount=7

Thanks for the kudo's gents but, I have a feeling most of us would do the same for someone else if the opportunity presented itself.

Stan, I could have saved you a bit of time. I have a spare set of wheels. wonder if you could call in a marker on them?

let me know if you need any spare fasteners and I'll see what I have.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Check this out Flyboy, "Copy Cad® & ZINC PLATING KIT" may be what you are speaking of already, but figured you may be interested...

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zinc.htm

[pete]

Stan, I could have saved you a bit of time...

Aaaaah! I knew I'd seen your name somewhere Flyboy but couldn't remember where or what it was! Now I got ya