Wes Cooley - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

[mskiwi]

Gas Tank Cleaning and Repair

Time to clean out the varnished gas tank (it had been repainted with a spray can so no need to retain paint) plus I have a couple of extra tanks from my Z1R and ELR projects that I will do in the same batch. The pant is toast on all of them so they will be stripped to bare metal.



For this type of project I like to use a chemical approach. The first is a cleaning bath then I will attack any rust in the tank. The products I use are cider vinegar, Milk Stone Remover (MSR) and then a rust inhibitor to control any flash rusting. I use a heavy duty plastic bin from any big box store that is a perfect fit for the tank.

GPZ tank soaking in vinegar. It is a 50/50 mix and I leave it in for 2 days.



A quick rinse with the hose and all the varnish is gone. Also all loose paint will come off. I then apply paint stripper and remove all paint and then pressure wash the tank. The last soak is in MSR (50/50 mix works fine)and this is perfect for removing all remaining rust. Here is the product that you can get from most tractor supply companies.



Here are the tanks after I have then applied the rust inhibitor to control the flash rust (this starts almost immediately you pull them from the MSR bath).



The Cooley tank looks good -- just a little body filler and prime and ready for the top coat.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Mike, that is some pretty impressive work, lots to learn from you.

And I love the scale you are doing it on, that's almost a production line.

Keep up the excellent reporting and great photos, I'm sure I'm not alone in recommending this thread for 5 stars.

Cheers,

[mskiwi]

Quick look at the Britten ...

While I'm in NZ I took a trip to Te Papa, our national museum in Wellington. Getting a quick bite to eat I snapped the following shots of NZ's own hand made Britten - the world beater (yep won in Daytona just like the GS1000 that Cooley/Croz back in 1980). Amazing to see how advanced this design was considering its was developed by hand in John Britten's garage in the late 80's.






Interesting fact -- it was running a Suzuki transmission. Based on its success at Daytona, I thought it deserved a place in my GS1000S thread. Amazing story - a real piece of art.

[GregT]

My first day working for John, i was shown a couple of boxes and told there were all the bits there for a new GSX1100 gearbox. On finding they had no manual, my next move was to the local public library where i photocopied the relevant pages....This was the early version of the bike. I believe the later ones like your pic used a GSXR1100 box.
A couple of years later the team heard I'd made a 6 speed GSXR750 box live in an 1100 racebike and asked if it was feasible for them. I said no, too much torque....so they stuck with the 5 speed.

[mskiwi]

My first day working for John, i was shown a couple of boxes and told there were all the bits there for a new GSX1100 gearbox. On finding they had no manual, my next move was to the local public library where i photocopied the relevant pages....This was the early version of the bike. I believe the later ones like your pic used a GSXR1100 box.
A couple of years later the team heard I'd made a 6 speed GSXR750 box live in an 1100 racebike and asked if it was feasible for them. I said no, too much torque....so they stuck with the 5 speed.

Wow great moment in time. I would have loved to have been you working on that problem. Nice job - clearly the 5 speed worked fine.

[GregT]

Not a great moment when you discover that practically nothing has been written down about the bike you're working on and the owner is vague to put it mildly...They'd had problems with it jumping out of gear as they'd been using secondhand gearboxes and didn't know anything about undercutting dogs, hence the brand new box bought as a collection of parts from the Suzuki agent in ChCh.
I only lasted a fortnight as i had a "difference of opinion" with Kirsty. We bred Burmese cats and she wanted one to breed from. She was happy to get moggy crosses and i wasn't so I wouldn't sell her a Burmese...The NZ Cat fancy has me to thank for there not being a Britten cat breed...
I do have one unique distinction...EVERYTHING I did I got paid for...