Naths first build!!!! 79 gs850

[nath_44]

HI GUYS AND GIRLS!!!

my name is nath and im in australia. just thought id share my very first bike build with eveyone.

dont really know where this project is taking me, cafe/bobber/stock, but im liking what ive done with her in the last month or 2.

picked her up(dont no her name yet) for 300 bucks from a neighbor of a job i was doing in a local suburb,(im a chippy by trade) and was lucky to find her at all!!!

so i brought her home in the back of the van, gave her a bath and a very hard spit shine and now for a slap of paint.

im the kind of person that thinks if someone else can do it then so can i! im a chippy by trade but also do most of the necessary things to build a house also. plaster bricklaying tiling ect.

ive just started airbrushing 8 months ago and do a bit of metal fabrication on the side also. have built off road cars and motorized eskys, just boys toys!

hopefully ive done my 79 GS850 some justice and she will live for another 30 or so years under my wing. thanx for reading a bit about me and hope to speak with some of you soon!

Nath

'Use what you can, Make what you cant'

[nath_44]

all clean and working out seat. doing 2 seats one for taking a passanger and a solo for me!!!!

[nath_44]

all the font end painted tonight. love the matt black!

[pete]

Hey Nath, certainly much cleaner than it was! Oohsam is down in Melbourne there somewhere and he's doing what should be a nice cafe at the moment... and you've also got S0nia who just joined who scored herself an immaculate 450T as well.

There's a fella by the name of Leigh down that way with a 750 if he ever bothers to log in again

I think there are others down there too but can't think who at the moment...

[bccap]

Looking good Nath44. I like the matt black. What did you use to clean up that engine ? Whatever it was, you did a bang up job. Oh yeah, what is a chippie ?

[Rover]

Mad Max fairing...love it.

[ptexotik]

Looking good Nath44. I like the matt black. What did you use to clean up that engine ? Whatever it was, you did a bang up job. Oh yeah, what is a chippie ?

Carpenter (chips away at wood)
Kinda like 'Viccy' (short for convict ... an endearing reference to the non-native australians jajaja)

[spyug]

Welcome and nice work so far. One question though........what the hell did you use on the front tire????????? Looks downright dangerous as in shiny slick. Please don't try and ride on those. Way too scary.

Looking forward to following this thread.

Cheers,
Spyug

[Curly]

Hopefully it was just washed, but it looks like tire shine.

OP, that's meant for sidewalls ONLY. You WILL fall if you try to ride on it. It gives you the same characteristics as riding on an oil slick constantly.

[nath_44]

hey thanx guys shes pretty sweet. good to know there are more in melbourne!
yeah chippy is a carpenter. shoulda pointed that out!

front tire just has bit of shine on it for the photo. will be gettin a new set of tires for her before i ride anywhere! those have been sitting there for over 3 years without moving! bit shabby.

glads everyone so far likes the matt black. always thought it was a bit tougher than gloss. way harder to paint up, had to relearn how to spray. nothing like spraying gloss.

as for the engine, well, that was a pain in the arse. was going for the full polished look but looking at the man hours it was going to take to polish, decided a good scrub will do! used paint stripper first to get the old clear off. took 3 goes because the clear is from factory and is over 30 years old.

then just a strong,undiluted mix of aluminium cleaner, scrub really well with toothbrush and leave on for 24hours then spray again with cleaner wait 30mins and hose off.

all of this was after 3 or 4 goes with strong degreaser. all products were just off the shelf stuff. hope this helped.

ill keep everyone updated every couple of days.(or how ever long the missus lets me in the shed!)

thanxs again for checkin this out!!!

Nath

[nath_44]

hi guys

well ive had a little play lately and this is where im up to.

seat is ready for upholster, indicators are on, back wheel and shaft drive painted, waiting on shock rubbers and then have to do rear brake light.

update in a couple more days!!!
not long now!!!!

really lookin forward to riding this beast. never ridden a gs 850 before!!!

nath out.

[nath_44]

updateing naths build

hey guys and girls!!!
this has taken a while coz i tend to take on too many projects at once! renovating the house and trying to do up a bike and im airbrushing aswell not to mention the other 300 things i try and stuff into a week!!!

got mirrors, levers, petcock rebuild, rear brake rebuild, and a few other bits and pieces on the way so really keen to get those bits on. other than that i been polishing, polishing and more polishing.

also doing the 2 seats rather than one is taking time too, all the fibreglassing is done on the solo seat and mounting lights is next for that. The dual seat is all wired up, with quick release plugs for lights,(doing that to the solo as well so its a quick swap over) so the dual just needs wrapping in the gipper seat material and its good to go.

solo seat is getting painted rear dome and just a small cushion so there is more paint work than seat.

also lathed up some top rear shock bushes outa alliminium coz it was kicking around the shed and i was bored

i'll try keep the updates commin a bit more often. feedback on the build is greatly appreciated!!! suggestions also welcomed!!

thanx again

Nath

[nath_44]

solo seat

another pic of the solo seat

[nath_44]

buff engine

pic of my clean engine

[pete]

Mate the engine and headers are lookin' good!

That solo seat should come out nice too once you get some padding and stuff on there... glad to see you updating again