1983 E Cleanup

[6pkrunner]

Well the old girl finally arrived last week while the wife and I were away on vacation. And the old adage of checking something out prior to purchase still rings true. I had thought the old girl in the area of a 7 to 8 or so out of 10, and a 4 point something arrived. I was really hoping that the body was good but the side covers and rear cowl have nearly all but not quite the mounts busted off. The girl has some oil containment issues and was never tended to. So there is a severe buildup all over the engine.

I had hoped/thought to fix a few minor items and be on the road by spring. While that is still the goal, the minor has increased a tad and the associated costs have spun out a bit.

Anyway, away we go.

How it showed up, minus a few pieces.











Most of the idea behind getting this bike was to avoid yet another restoration. While she will be done over at some future date for now it will go down to frame and engine as a unit and go from there. If the engine comes out, I will want to open it up and it will be a total resto. So I'll try this in hopes of getting her on the road in April or so.

About three pounds of road tar and grease were removed from the rear fender assembly. No need to break it down further so all's good.



The master cylinder looked like it was brought up with parts of the Titanic so it had to come apart and get the ultrasonic bath. It functioned fine prior to disassembly and works good after reassembly.



Nearly all the bolts save a few are done in the darkish green protectant rather than chrome or zinc or anodized. What is the best solution to bring some life back into them? Last resort would seem to polish them then paint them, but is there any product that can bring them back somewhat? I don't want to remove the covering if not necessary.

Anyway its here and has begun. See what April brings.

[6pkrunner]

A few more pieces.

[still_bluenoser]

Good luck with that one, I'm sure your "Non restoration" will be at or beyond what my best is.


Maybe we'll end up swapping GS parts now!

[6pkrunner]

Hey Patrick -how ya doing?

Yeah I found a GS that I thought was "nearly" a turn key. Drop the "n" and shove the tur into the key.

I forgot you got into the Suzi's a while back. You don't happen to be sitting on 1982/83 GS E body parts are ya?

Which old girl you wrenching on now?

I dropped huge coin into the Frighthawk this fall and still its an empty bucket wanting more. I had to step off and do something less pricey - or so I thought. I think for what I wind up into this adventure would have snagged some more movement on the 'awk.

[7981GS]

With what you started with, you certainly are off to a great start!
The first pic's were horrible.

Daniel

[sedelen]

OK,
It's not a turn key, and yeah it's dirty, and oily. All that oil is protecting those parts, give it a bath or two and then you can see what you got to work with.
The job you did on the fender and MC are an indication of the potential you have getting this bike back to a 10.
Luckily it's a '83 GS1100E where parts come cheaper and are easier to locate and not a GS1000C/E where the opposite is true.

[Homie]

Hey 6Pack! How's it going? So your 1100E just "showed up"? You buy it sight unseen off of Ebay or something? Yeah, they always look better in pictures than they do in front of you. Had a similar experience about five years ago. Bought an 1100E off of Ebay. It looked like a diamond in the rough on my computer and I thought that it could be rebuilt into a decent bike. When I got there to pick it up it was obvious that it was in far worse shape than I thought. I wanted to leave without it, but wound up taking it anyway. Was worried about "negative feedback" to my Ebay reputation and figured I could just part it out. So that's what I did - part it out. Hope your little diamond in the rough works out better for you than it did for me. Somehow I think that it will given the gleaming Mopes that you have tucked in the garage with it. Let us know what parts you need, chance are somebody on here has it.

[still_bluenoser]

I think thats the same one thats been on kijiji for a while Mike, I've been watching that one to see a price drop for its engine.... Likely a good thing that you saved it

Fixing up an 82 GPZ750 as a flip... Than I'm back at my Kat project.

Glad I'm able to follow another one of your builds, I'm not much around the CB sites any more.

[brslk]

That looks about as rusty as mine when I got it.
You live on the coast so that is to be expected... I am in landlocked Alberta so I have no idea why mine was so rusted.

Bruce.

[Homie]

That's a heck of a before and after on the front brake MC! From Titanic relic to near NOS! How did you do that? Get it cleaned up and finished looking like new? Tell me your technique....

[6pkrunner]

I think thats the same one thats been on kijiji for a while Mike, I've been watching that one to see a price drop for its engine

The guy never dropped his price on the ad. I emailed and then waited for quite some time before making an offer. He snapped it right away. Guess I could have gone lower, but I had thought it a worn rider in the 7 to 8 category from what I could see in the ad. For a 7 or 8 I thought I got a smokin' deal. For a 4 something - not a bad deal, I guess.

I rode a few of these that others guys had in the late 70s early 80s and always loved the power delivery and mainly the torque. So rather than beat the 900 up doing the 9 to 5 thing, I wanted a GS. Just no 'awk time from now until riding season, that's all.

OK,
It's not a turn key, and yeah it's dirty, and oily. All that oil is protecting those parts, give it a bath or two and then you can see what you got to work with.
The job you did on the fender and MC are an indication of the potential you have getting this bike back to a 10.
Luckily it's a '83 GS1100E where parts come cheaper and are easier to locate and not a GS1000C/E where the opposite is true.

Yeah its kind of funny. It was supposed to have its own shed to protect it from the elements. That's why the amount of surface rust is quite the shocker. There are a few pits in the chain guard that don't want to come out without really going at it but the rest of her looks like it should clean up well. See the 5th picture and the engine has 3 cans of engine degreaser sitting on it. I figure i'll let it sit a week or so and see where we go from there.

Here's a cough*CB*cough that went through the same stuff a few years ago. Maybe not quite the level of grease this old lady is wearing as makeup. But if you're totally insane and have too much time on your hands........

Hey 6Pack! How's it going? So your 1100E just "showed up"? You buy it sight unseen off of Ebay or something?

Nearly - it was Kijiji. The ad had two so so pictures with it. I never had the time to go see it. And with what I offered and was accepted I really shouldn't complain. Just the old thing with photos - I thought it looked nicer.

That looks about as rusty as mine when I got it.
You live on the coast so that is to be expected... I am in landlocked Alberta so I have no idea why mine was so rusted.

Well up to the last two years I've gotten two bikes that meet the rusted category. Usually arouynd here when the weather turns the bikes are laid up in some sort of enclosure to protect them. This girl seen some sea air and lots of water on her.

In Alberta - as you say, that's beyond me. The dry air you have has nothing in it. Here your flesh will rust if you stay out too long.

[7981GS]

That's a heck of a before and after on the front brake MC! From Titanic relic to near NOS! How did you do that? Get it cleaned up and finished looking like new? Tell me your technique....

Ditto.
I thought that there was no hope at all for it.
What magic dust did you use?

Daniel

[6pkrunner]

A little more done during the week.
The seat showed up from GSexpress and was everything that I was told it was. Nearly NOS.





The clutch perch


Front headlight stays and blinkers. The bike either fell off its sidestand onto grass or someone banged into the left signal. The stays were bent but there is no damage to the signal at all. So it had to be hit by something softer than pavement. I beat at them for a bit and gave up when they hit "almost there".


Top tree


And the right side footpeg mount. And indeed, idiot boy put the forward peg's washer and cotter pin at the rear peg. Smooth, real smooth.



Hopefully more will get done this weekend.

[spyug]

Very high quality work you are doing sir. The before and after photos are going to be really something to see I can tell.

I was commenting yesterday on all the resto projects going on at the moment and it seems to me everyone, including yourself, are doing some very fast but thorough work.

Keep it up and keep the pics coming. You guys are starting to get my juices flowing and I'm hankering to get back at it myself......soon as I take a stick of dynamite to the man cave and clear out all the crappola so I can get some manouvering room

Good luck with it.
Spyug

[6pkrunner]

Her's an overall - not nearly enough yet.