Jennifer's Makeover

[Flyboy]

Now you are ready to start sanding with your first grit, the 360.
Sand the lense uniformaly untill all scratches and imperfection are removed, and the lense now has a hazy dull white appearence.


Once you are satified that the lense is uniform and all scratches and imperfections have been removed, repaet with 600 grit, 1000 grit and finaly 1500 grit.
Hours of sanding are not neccasary, about 5 - 10 min with each grit is fine, the plastic sands down pretty quick.

Warning: If you want to retain the Suzuki OEM wording moulded into the lense, inclding the DOT certification, don't do this, all wording will be removed by the sanding.

Here it is, ready for polish after 1500 grit


Final stage is to now hit the lense with your favorite polish, Mothers/Adams/Maguires, any good haze and swirl remover will do.
You can do it by hand with a clean microfiber cloth, but it takes a long time and I told you, I am lazy, so I break out the dual action polisher and give it two runs over with a foam pad and swirl and haze remover.






If you using a DA polisher, don't apply much pressure , just the weight of the polisher is enough, don't let it get hot, it is plastic after all.
If you polishing by hand, put on a DVD and park yorself down for an haou and a half with the polish in front of the TV, when the movie is finished, you should be done too.

Took me about two hours total to do these three lenses today, and they look as good as they did when they were still in thier little red Suzuki packets.


Not all can be saved


Hope it helps some one.

[Sci85]

Great write up Flyboy. As I was reading your post my mind was already asking the question of "how" and sure enough, you delivered. Thanks again passing along the knowledge.

I, like yourself, try and get something done, however little, every day. That way it never turns into a box of parts that ends up as a for sale, unfinished project.

Sci85

[Flyboy]

Also got around to getting a start on the storage locker under the tailpiece today, as well as the rear caliper.

Here is the sorry state of affairs we start with.






I scrubbed it down with Cleen Green and a toothbrush, removed all the dirt and grime, now am a little stumped on how to strip all the paint off without hurting the plastic, any ideas are welcome here.

Got the rear caliper stripped, and was pleasently surprised by what I found.
Apart from one of the allen bolts that hold the two halfs together stuck solid and giving me an hour long fight, which it lost in the end, the pistons and bores look clean as a whistle, pulled the pistons right out with no effort at all.
Not bad for 5 years of standing

[GateKeeper]

Great write up....

A little bit of super glue on that last one, and you might be able to get it good enough to be put back, if you have all the broken parts...

and that last piston on the left looks like someone used pliers or something to get it out, some teeth marks in it, good thing it's on the outside lip....

[Flyboy]

Thanks guys, GK not worried about that lense, I have a set of long stalk units lying at Dale's place which I will need for the front to clear the S fairing, so there will be a good lense there.
Yes, i see the marks you are refering to, that would be from pushing the piston back with a screw driver during pad changes, and being a bit ham fisted.
This is the first time these pistons have come out of these calipers since they were assembled 30 years ago.

[GateKeeper]

I think I will change up my side marker lights, if I can find what I am after, probably something similar to these

[Redneck]

I have those marker lights on my bike GK I really like them. Low profile when you are not using them but plenty bright enough to be seen when you are using them.

Flyboy things are looking good. Saw your seat coming along in the other thread. Glad to see things moving along for you. I think if I finish my hand controls tomorrow that I am going to delve int ot my brake calipers also.
Keep up the good work the turn signal lenses look great.

Paul

[Matchless]

A
I scrubbed it down with Cleen Green and a toothbrush, removed all the dirt and grime, now am a little stumped on how to strip all the paint off without hurting the plastic, any ideas are welcome here.

Stan,
Try some brake fluid to get that paint off.

You can also get a replacement rubber kit for a BMW car at Midas that has the exact size rubber seals for the caliper pistons, if your outer dustcover is still OK.

[rustybronco]

Also got around to getting a start on the storage locker under the tailpiece today, as well as the rear caliper.

I scrubbed it down with Cleen Green and a toothbrush, removed all the dirt and grime, now am a little stumped on how to strip all the paint off without hurting the plastic, any ideas are welcome here.

Let me see if the compartment is the same as the 'old' one from my 78. if it is, you are welcome to it. Steve (sedelen) gave me a spare 79 tail piece and I'm using the trunk from it on my 78.

Thanks guys, GK not worried about that lense, I have a set of long stalk units lying at Dale's place which I will need for the front to clear the S fairing, so there will be a good lense there.

You have three lenses 'in stock' to choose from.

[pete]

Stan, your patience is astounding and the results of your work amazing... now I've gotta try to find some time to do that to my tail light lense as it's a bit on the old and beat up side of things... it was an eBay score and is very "out there" they way I have it installed so I really should make it a little nicer to look at...

Glad to see your calipers are in good shape, and as for your parts from Boulevard, Ashley has now joined the GSR so you can PM her to get your email issues resolved She's simply "Ashley" on here...

[ged]

Yeah great job flyboy, my tail light is also faded and have been experimenting with stuff to freshen up the look. Your process looks like the way to go. Will post some pics when done.

[Flyboy]

Thanks GED, how are you doing for a seat pan?
I managed to dig my seat out eventualy, my most sincere apologies, for the delay, I just have not had time to get into the garage, been on leave for a week and today is the first day i have managed to get garage time in, also last day of leave.
It has a few little rust spots, but no where near as bad as yours, if you still interested, let me know, i will strip the cover and foam off and get a few pics for you, so you can decide if it will work for you.

Ok, so I got some work done today, for the first time in two weeks, although I have been doing things project related outside of the garage, so I get a point there.
Last week I hauled the old brake hoses off to the hydraulics shop and got them to make up a new set, no fancy braided jobs I am afraid, they were just a touch over twice the price so OEM style it was, but they still nice with their new supple rubber and shiny fittings, got a bunch of new copper washers as well.
Weather being glorious it was a perfect day to lay down some paint, 32C and very little humidity, so wire wheeled and painted the front caliper hangers and the T splitter for the brake lines, redid the headlight bucket, there were a few tiny blemishes, I was not happy with, and tackled the tail light housing, the plastic had faded a sort of yellow with age, so cleaned it up and hit it with some white, now it looks all brand new out the packet again.
Did a bunch of other stuff too, not sure what, you know it was one of those days, you been busy the whole day, but it feels like you have got nothing done.
Oh yeah, wire wheeled and pained the brackets for the rear indicators and the brackets that hold the front brake lines away fron the wheel.
once all was dry, I fitter the T splitter and the new front brake hoses, only to find that the idiots at the hydraulic shop fitted the fittings that fasten to the two front calipers 90 degrees out of line, so had to pull the lines off again, and will try to find a gap this week to take them in and have them redo them properly, jeeeez, they even had the samples in front of them, oh well their loss, just irritates me, I have little enough time as it is.
Sorry no pics today, will take pics next sunday of what has been done.
Just getting little odds and sods out of the way did not really seem pic worthy, but it sure does eat up a lot of time. Although she is looking more like a motorcycle every day.
Oh yes also spent a bunch of cash on all new connectors and new sleeving for the wiring harness and a new modern blade type fuse box. It holds six fuses as opposed to the OEM one that holds five, gives me an Aux I guess.
Will have to find a way to mount it properly, although it is not much larger than the OEM one, the mounting holes are on the top and bottom as opposed to the sides as as on the OEM one.
No problem, I will arrange my electrical mounting plate once the harness is done.

[pete]

That sounds like you've made some great progress Stan! It's those little bits that take up most of the time, and to get a lot of them knocked on the head certainly counts as good progress

[Matchless]

Stan,
Glad to see you are still at it! How much were the brake pipes? I need to get mine redone soon.

[Flyboy]

Still at it, just been busy with the family things over Christmas and all, and of course, no one open to go shopping for stuff during the hols.
Paid R1 038.00 for the four of them, I nearly had a gedoente, right there, but I guess they need to be done, and they ain't getting done again as long as I own the bike, so I guess a grand for 30 years service is justifiable.
The braided ones, they wanted over R2 500.00 for, so I passed on them.