Wifes' 81 450

[Guest]

Been meaning to put this on here for a while. Old pics. are here and after pics. of my wifes' 81 450 that was about a year project. and is almost done. Was a lot of fun and some frustration but I loved it! Ps, color is my wifes' favorite! terrylee

Before:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...light=terrylee

After:

http://s1114.photobucket.com/albums/k537/jsykes66/

[SVSooke]

You to? Can't show my wife this thread,never hear the end of it!

[cowboyup3371]

Looks real nice. What did you use to do the painting - spray gun or rattle can?

Edit: What kind of bars are those?

[SVSooke]

Told you so

[pete]

Nice one! Your case covers came up way shinier than my polishing efforts, and that paint job looks good, even if it's not my sort of colour (but I bet your wife loves it).

[azr]

Are all those chrome pieces (headlight ears, gauge cluster, etc..) the same ones you started with????? fantastic job on the bike. I bet she's happy!
If that's the same front fender and exhaust I'd really like to know how you got them to shine so well.

[terrylee]

The paint job is rattle can metallic purple Rustoleum brand and Max two part clear coat in a spray can(great stuff) Think I did four coats of color after stripping to bare metal, priming with duplicolor filling primer and sanding with different grades in between. Then about three-four coats of clear coat. Most of the chrome is what came on it, except for foot peg holders. Used evapo-rust alot, leave it in solution till most of rust is gone, then 0000 steelwool and lots of elbow grease and chrome polish. Did sides and few other pieces with buffing compounds and buffing wheels on grinder.(lots of work, lots of time-but great results!) Handle bars are off of ebay, friend of mine has old Honda 250 that has same bars and always liked them, thought by be easier for my wife since she's a new driver. Still want to paint wheels and few more bolts, but I'm really proud of my first winter project. terrylee

[azr]

Rustoleum paint...unbelievable how good a rattle can paint job can turn out, nice job. How have you dealt with all the rusted bolts? I can see you replaced a bunch with SS allens, very nice improvement, what about the others?

[Leigh]

Wow..
Now that's devotion to the cause.
From a bike that was stored in a duck pond to a sweet little show piece.

Well done.
I bet you earned some good points with the wife..

[sachsaca]

Wow excellent, wonderful, nicely done. Good job.

[Larry D]

Okay.....maybe Rusty isn't such a good name now......

Great job, it looks fantastic.

[Flaming Chainsaws]

Very well done . And in only one year. Love the purple .

SVSooke, you know what will happen if the misses sees this thread...

[terrylee]

Thanks guys! It was a labor of love for sure. I did replace alot of bolts with allenhead SS, but some of the bolts were merely soaked in the evapo-rust and turned out great. Still have a couple I want to replace on the triple tree and motor mounts. Yes it is hard to believe it was "Rusty"! Just got a set of almost new coils from Flaming Chainsaw, and hope to put them on soon. I learned so much doing this, now I'm planning to rebuild both my sons' and my carbs., and some brake rebuilding on mine over the next couple of months! It is amazing how addicting this can be!