81 GS550T Full Rebuild...In Ohio

[cowboyup3371]

Hey Pete, it's all okay.

So what's the latest on your pipes? Sure will be glad to hear when yours is on the road again.

[pete]

Looks like you're making some good progress, those clocks look good!

I'm waiting for my 'phone to ring at the moment to tell me it's ready to pick up... I'm hoping I can go down tomorrow to get it. That'll make 3 weeks without it and I'm going stir crazy!

[cowboyup3371]

After putting together my new tool chest, I started in on removing the races from the steering head. The top one came out fairly easy with the dremel - meaning it only took me about 45 minutes or so after my first cut.



However, the bottom one - !@#$%^&*()

Although I read about Flyboy's efforts at removing it using the swingarm bolt and a washer, I figured it couldn't be that much harder to use the Dremel and cutting wheel. After a quick conference about it, I started in on it but quickly realized it wasn't coming out. Several more cuts and still no luck when trying to chisel it out after each one. Finally, I got tired of using my crappy wood chisel (the only one I have that's old and beat up - won't use my good ones) and bought a proper cold chisel. Still having no luck, I asked if Steve would come over and lend a hand. While waiting for him, I re-heated some leftovers for dinner and sprayed PB Blaster in there figuring it was stuck from the grease and grime. Changing the side of the frame I was sitting on, I took a few more whacks at it again. It finally broke free and things fell out before Steve even made it past his local gas station. Of course, he was nice enough to still come over and inspect things so that I knew I didn't mess much up. Fortunately, I didn't and just need to take a round file to the area I cut into while using the dremel.



Now I'll just pack that section with paper towels/tape/whatever and ship the frame off to the powdercoater in the next few weeks.

[cowboyup3371]

Dropped my frame off at the sandblaster today; got a little nervous when one of the guys started talking to me and I couldn't understand a word he said. Found out he is from Turkey and even the guy who wrote up my sheet said he never can understand him. I was assured all threaded holes would either be plugged or taped off so hopefully the job will turn out good; find out more on Monday.

[pete]

Good luck Scott, hopefully you've found a good one who does what they say! I've seen a few on here go pear shaped so it'd be nice to see one that goes as planned for a change...

[cowboyup3371]

Yea I'm nervous only because I don't know what to expect but am hoping for a quality job. It's the same place the powdercoater I'm using will send it but they recommended I do it beforehand on my own. More to keep the paperwork straight than anything.

[pete]

Fingers crossed for ya'!

[cowboyup3371]

The frame's back from the sand blaster:









I'm hoping I can get it to the powdercoater on Monday - keeping my fingers crossed.

[SVSooke]

Here on the wet coast if you waited till Monday you'd need to blast the rust off again.

[cowboyup3371]

With as much snow on the ground as we have right now, it's one reason I threw it in the house. I'll probably call the powdercoater on Thursday and see what I can work out.

[pete]

Oooooh a nekid frame

Don't see one of them too often! Hope the powdercoater can get his mitts on it real quick for ya'.

[cowboyup3371]

Dropped the bike off at the powdercoater's today since he said he's willing to wait until the 18th for payment so at least it won't sit in the house too much longer. I also told him I'll bring other pieces over next week (swingarm, triple tree, side/center stand) if I can get out to the base and use their sandblasting cabinet on Saturday. The frame alone he thinks will run me $150 so hopefully they do a good job. At least he does plug holes as I saw one gal doing nothing but plugging them.

I also asked him about ceramic coating my pipes and he said he doesn't do that anymore as he could never get it to be right. Plus he never made any money on it. Supposedly, no matter what he did for prep or what kind of material he used the pipes would always look like junk after 6 months. He said something about ceramic coating being a liquid spray but I don't know.

Anyone here have experiences to share about the ceramic coating? I'll also post up a question in the exhaust forum.

[pete]

All I can say is he must be doing it wrong... my pipes were just as good after over a year than they were to start with. The ding was the only reason for the re-coat and there's not a lot of difference between the header with the original coating and the header that got re-coated after the repair.

[cowboyup3371]

Made it out to Wright Patterson's auto hobby shop today and used their blasting cabinet on a few pieces. As I just now realized I'd left some stuff at home I wanted to do too, I'll probably head back over there tomorrow. It wasn't very hard at all and pretty cheap - only paid $5 for the two hours I was there. Of course I spent a large portion of that time watching the shop personnel try to remove the bearings from the swingarm. The right hand one came out fairly easily but the left side race just didn't want to budge after they busted the bearings themselves out. They also tried to heat the swingarm but actually deformed the hole a little. Fortunately, they promised to fix it for me when I install the new ones.

After a bit, I stopped working there and instead tried to remove it with a dremel and chisel here at home. Despite breaking some pieces off, the race just isn't moving at all. I'm not sure if heat will help anymore but will try to come up with something before I blast it.

Here's the pieces that are blasted and will be going to the powdercoater next week:

[cowboyup3371]

Yay success!!!!!! eldest and I did some more hammering with the cold chisel and it finally broke free