New GS1100 G Restoration Project. Rebuilding my Dad's bike

[londonboards]

Higgibaby - thanks for the look up. Well nothing has happened on this project for a while as you can see.

I firstly got fed up with not having a bike to ride so I bought another GS1100G (1982), got that to be road worthy and started to ride that about. See my Road Runner thread / blog in my signature.

Then I came across a 1983 GS1150ES (we call them GSX1100s here) on UK Ebay that had been shipped across from the US. By now my eBay addiction had taken full hold of me and I couldn't resit it. This bike turned out to be a real dog and I have spent most of my time and money, buying a new engine and parts for it and starting a rebuild on the original engine. See my GS1150ES Makeover thread / blog in my signature.

So I have been somewhat distracted. I am also at the point in the rebuild of my Dad's GS1100G where I have to make a big decision - which I keep putting off. The frame and running gear is ready to go back together but I have not even started on the engine. I know the engine has genuine low, stress free miles (we have had it since new) but cosmetically the engine needs some serious work. I really want to get it soda blasted or vapour blasted which would (I believe - having spoken to a ton of people about this) necessitate stripping the engine down to cases, which as you can imagine, I really do not want to do. So I have been trapped in that dilemma for a while. My experience of painting brake calipers and so on, proves that unless all the corrosion is effectively removed from the aluminium parts with some kind of blasting, the paint will not adhere correctly. So I know I have to blast the engine but I don't want to strip it because it is good. So I'm a bit stuck here and keep putting off making a decision about what to do.

Thank you for contacting me, as with this reply, I have crystallized my position for myself as much as anything and I can see it is now crunch time. The winter is upon us here in the UK (it was 0 deg C overnight last night) and it's time to prepare the garage (very limited space) for my winter wrenching. In my heart I know I have to start on that engine but I have also just sent the GS1150ES crank away to be repaired (new bearings and rods and balancing) so when that comes back I will feel the need to put it back in it's cases!

I guess this sort of things happens to many bike restorers - we get easily diverted.

I must be strong and stick to my original project.

Your post might just have been the nudge I was looking for.

Thank you.

Greetings

[Higgibaby]

Higgibaby - thanks for the look up. Well nothing has happened on this project for a while as you can see.

I firstly got fed up with not having a bike to ride so I bought another GS1100G (1982), got that to be road worthy and started to ride that about. See my Road Runner thread / blog in my signature.

Then I came across a 1983 GS1150ES (we call them GSX1100s here) on UK Ebay that had been shipped across from the US. By now my eBay addiction had taken full hold of me and I couldn't resit it. This bike turned out to be a real dog and I have spent most of my time and money, buying a new engine and parts for it and starting a rebuild on the original engine. See my GS1150ES Makeover thread / blog in my signature.

So I have been somewhat distracted. I am also at the point in the rebuild of my Dad's GS1100G where I have to make a big decision - which I keep putting off. The frame and running gear is ready to go back together but I have not even started on the engine. I know the engine has genuine low, stress free miles (we have had it since new) but cosmetically the engine needs some serious work. I really want to get it soda blasted or vapour blasted which would (I believe - having spoken to a ton of people about this) necessitate stripping the engine down to cases, which as you can imagine, I really do not want to do. So I have been trapped in that dilemma for a while. My experience of painting brake calipers and so on, proves that unless all the corrosion is effectively removed from the aluminium parts with some kind of blasting, the paint will not adhere correctly. So I know I have to blast the engine but I don't want to strip it because it is good. So I'm a bit stuck here and keep putting off making a decision about what to do.

Thank you for contacting me, as with this reply, I have crystallized my position for myself as much as anything and I can see it is now crunch time. The winter is upon us here in the UK (it was 0 deg C overnight last night) and it's time to prepare the garage (very limited space) for my winter wrenching. In my heart I know I have to start on that engine but I have also just sent the GS1150ES crank away to be repaired (new bearings and rods and balancing) so when that comes back I will feel the need to put it back in it's cases!

I guess this sort of things happens to many bike restorers - we get easily diverted.

I must be strong and stick to my original project.

Your post might just have been the nudge I was looking for.

Thank you.

Greetings

Hi Richard,

I only just picked up on your reply here, so sorry for not responding sooner. I see your distraction on your blog with your other bike there...it looks like you have your hands full for sure, but it seems that is coming along well!! I hope you'll be riding that by springtime at least!

Your original blog for your dads bike which I started following was a great spark for me to restore my 850GL, which I finished last year with great results...I was super proud of how the bike came out...and your site gave me all the info I needed! And I saw the amazing process you made with everything, and it stopped...(there were tears!!...lol) Your frame looks amazing powder coated, and all your individual parts looked great...but I didn't realize you hadn't started on the motor. Now, from doing my motor I see your point in the time it takes...it is a time suck for sure, I was on the fence with vapor/soda blasting...im not mechanically minded so I didn't want to take it apart...so I didn't. I cleaned everything as best I could, got all the grease off and then I bought some blasting soda, and hooked it up to my compressor and after lots of masking and sealing any holes up I blasted it! The results were pretty impressive, and I didn't take anything apart. Leaving all the masking still on there I just went straight to high temp paint and did a few coats and it worked incredibly well. The other thing I did was polish the cases, which took the most time to be honest, but the look really works well...the "L" has a lot of home parts on it, so it matched the look of the bike quite well, I'm not sure ill do the same with my "G", but we'll see. My current restoration, the motor is a lot worse than my previous, so I'm buying a steam cleaner today hopefully that will help with my cleanup, its in a real mess....

So, I hope you will get the opportunity soon to get back to your dads...like you've seen, Im restoring pretty much an identical bike right now...and would love to see your progress again! And I grew up nearby to you as well (Rochester, Kent), so I have that 6th degree of separation there...lol, so its good to follow a fellow enthusiast who is close to where I'm from.

Heres a picture of my finished L from last year...which I used your blog to help me get it to where I wanted it... And the motor was really badly oxidized, so there was a lot of sanding involved to get that out, but for the most part the soda blast cleaned it brilliantly. (I don't have a before shot, sorry)

[londonboards]

Holy Moly. That bike of yours is amazing. If mine ever looked that good I would certainly die a happy man!

My 1100G engine is going to be black (as per original) so it won't ever look as good as that.

Thank you for your encouraging comments. I get a lot of fun writing about my bikes. Not as much as riding or restoring them but I love that ability to share with like minded people around the world. And you came from Rochester. Oh my Lord. How strange is that?

And there has been progress on Dad's bike. I got the frame back out of the loft and set it up on a desk in my home office. I am staring on the front end and will work on it over the winter. The engine will have to wait until it warms up again as I will need to wash and blast and it will have to be done outside.

Thanks for your interest.

Greetings

[londonboards]

Steering Stem Mock Up Day 848

Yes it has been a while. Got distracted by 2 other bikes (see my Signature). I had put the frame away in the loft (attic) for safekeeping over the summer and I have just retrieved it and it's now in my home office where I have made an indoor workshop for it.

See my blog: Suzuki GS1100G Steering Stem





First job is to pack the bearings with grease.



See you soon - I promise.

Greetings

[tatu]

Is that a copy of practical sportbikes with Chuck's bike in it?
Will you put the engine in before building the rest, lowering the frame over the engine?

[londonboards]

tatu

Is that a copy of practical sportbikes with Chuck's bike in it?

It sure is. Nice couple of bikes he has there. You are supposed to be looking at my frame and not the mess of my office!!

Will you put the engine in before building the rest, lowering the frame over the engine?

I've got a lot of cleaning up of the engine to do - especially to get rid of all that corrossion - before I paint it and put it back. Not going to work on the engine until the spring when I can get it outside again.



Greetings

[Higgibaby]

tatu



It sure is. Nice couple of bikes he has there. You are supposed to be looking at my frame and not the mess of my office!!



I've got a lot of cleaning up of the engine to do - especially to get rid of all that corrossion - before I paint it and put it back. Not going to work on the engine until the spring when I can get it outside again.



Greetings

Richard....there it is! Been looking forward to seeing the rest of the bike...Engine aside, it looks great so far. That engine will be clean in no time with some blasting! If I was still in the UK I would help...lol!

[alke46]

Am waiting for your return to the project. Have been following and am quite interested in your progress. Good work so far but I can see by your other bikes that this project is going to take a while. I have enjoyed reading about your other rebuilds as well.

Larry

[londonboards]

Engine Clean Up Help

Long time since I've posted about this project. It just seems to get stuck when I think about this darn horrible engine.

Whats the best way to clean it up?

1. By hand
2. Seal it up and blast it (vapour/soda/walnut)?
3. Dissemble and blast individual pieces? (although engine very low mileage and running great.

[hampshirehog]

By hand: fine if you have many, many hours to kill and a decent radio and plenty of beer in the garage.

Seal it up and blast: I would only do that if I could use a medium that wouldn't cause any damage if some of it got in to the engine AND was man enough to do the job. I've never used any of those 'soft' materials like crushed walnut shells so can't comment further.

disassemble and blast: not excruciatingly boring like 1 above, plus you can safely use more aggressive media if needed, plus you get a good look at the inside of the engine. I would go this route personally. I presume you can get decent gaskets for the engine easily enough.

[londonboards]

Engine Comes Apart

This project has been stalled for too long. I could not find a way of cleaning up the engine - it is so corroded. So it has to come apart.

See my blog posting: Engine Comes Apart

Look how bad it is:





It had to come apart to be vapour blasted and re-painted. So I start with the cams:



The cams and journals are in tip top condition:





Next is the head and barrels.

[alke46]

Good to see you are back to this project. I'm sure you will be proud after it is finished.

[Charlie G]

That is the worst corrosion I've ever seen on an engine.

[londonboards]

Heads Off

Now the heads come off. All the nuts came off quite easily but I had sprayed them with WD-40 a few days ago.





I was surprised by the amount of carbon build up given this was such a low mileage bike (17,000 miles maybe):





But honing still showing through:



Cam guides show little signs of wear:

[londonboards]

Sump Comes Off (Day 1,523 of the build - how bad is that?)

I can't believe I started this project 4 years ago. I didn't fall out of love with bikes or anything like that. I just got diverted by the other 5 bikes I bought. I now have 7!

So this project, restoring my Dad's bike (originally bought in Canada but now in the UK) started 4 years ago but it triggered a whole new passion for bikes. The next thing was that I was buying bikes that I could ride so this project got put on the back burner.

Well this winter I'm rebuilding the engine. I am getting back on track.

See my blog post: Sump Comes Off

I took the sump off. Everything has to come off for the vapour blasting:



There was some coagulated oil but nothing to worry about.





And nothing in the sump filter either: