1984 Katana 7/11

[ged]

Looking good Pete, you have got some skills there young fellow...............

You will be getting a new tail light cover?

[Weasel]

Great project and good work so far.

[pete]

GED, cheers! And yep, new tail light lense for sure! I was given that one for free but it's quite cloudy with a few cracks and the reflector mandated by the you know who doesn't stay in place so I will definitely need to replace it when I get to that point. For now it works to make the new assembly.

And cheers Weasel, nice to have you along!

[pete]

I really wanted to get the steering head bearing on the lower triple clamp this weekend so I could start re-assembling the roller when the bits arrive from Mick Hone but unfortunately I just ran out of time.

I did however get most of the compressor room in the shed sorted, just need to make a door for it which will open vertically and double as a work bench.

Unfortunately this photo highlights the slight lean of the shed and also the one wonky bit where we ran over the formwork for the concrete and lifted one corner up... hence the shim under bottom piece of pine. Basically it's essential to have the doorway as close to a perfectly squared rectangle as possible.

I'll run some left over bits of MDF/melamine and quad up the sides and across the bottom to make it look a bit neater and I hope to get a strip of foam rubber for the compressor to sit on to stop it vibrating directly on the concrete. Also need to cut a breather hole up towards to the top.

[pete]

This is getting extremely frustrating... just can't seem to get back to the Kat at the moment. The biggest issue is that while the shed remains unfinished, the workbench in the garage is cluttered with all the stuff that should be in the shed, so I have no room to move to cut the posts for the tail light assembly nor start cutting the aluminium for the battery tray etc.

I did at least get to Oz LED on Monday avo' to pick up the tail light.

At least the shed is very close now, really just need to get some peg board and shelving up to be able to un-clutter the garage and make the shed useable.

Compressor room door was done on the weekend:



And yesterday we managed to almost finish it up to double as a workbench. Just need to figure a method to hold the legs against the door while it's shutting so they don't drop on the compressor (apologies for the blur):



So damn close!!!

[nvr2old]

Close is good, Pete. You'll be all set in no time. Are the legs on hinges, too..?

[pete]

Yep Larry, they're hinged to fold straight back. The only thing I need to sort out is a way to lock them in place so I don't kick them out and lock them back against the door.

I have a plan which involves some steel plate I have here and some rod to make a pin. Basically one hole in the leg and two holes in the plate, one locks the leg forwards to stop it being kicked out, and the other hole to lock the leg back against the door so it can shut.

It's a bit hard to explain but hopefully I can get it done on the weekend and hopefully it works.

[pete]

I've been trying to get a mock up done of the colours I want to paint the Kat but I stumbed across a photo on the Interwebs which closely resembles what I want.

I'll use a "redder" red as this one's a bit off but it's pretty much the scheme I'm going for.

I was initially thinking just a black seat but the KA guys are right that a two tone seat is part of the visual appeal of the Kat, so I'll be sticking with a red seat too.

ebay_121567640463_1.jpg

[Charlie G]

That will be nice Pete!

[Big Rich]

I'm just going to drop this here......

http://lazonenoire.blogspot.com/2016/01/tattooed-katana-gyuszi-gulyas-artwork.html?m=1

[SVSooke]

WOW that looks WAY better than I'd have thought.With a "reder" frame it would look even better IMHO.

[pete]

Cheers guys! Yeah I think it will work well but yes, definitely have to have a different red.

Rich, that's some serious skill there! Well beyond me but thankfully I'm not keen on that on my tank

[pete]

I finally got the shed that much closer by finishing the shelving and getting some pegboard up.

No photos of the pins to help hold the compressor room door/workbench legs in place yet as there's still too much crap up that end to open it, but here's the shelves and peg board at least:





I've been able to move everything from the work bench in the garage back to those shelves now so I should have some room to get going on the tail light again.

[pete]

Pretty much got the shed sorted yesterday so I can start using it now. I have still yet to organise fans/filters for spraying and the little section out the front so I can expand it for some extra room, but I'm nowhere near paint to need to do that just yet.

Gave it a big clean out and got some whiteboards and cork board up.

Here's the pins in the compressor room door hinged legs to make it a workbench. With these in I can lock the legs back real easy:





And the whiteboards/cork board I picked up from KMart...



Unfortunately my skills with applying sheets of contact are not so good... this was $3 so I can tear it down and do it again if the bubbles/creases are too annoying, but it's a real good size:



That should mean today is steering head bearing day provided my phone doesn't keep ringing like it has so far this week...

[pete]

Progress at last! Got the lower steering head bearing on.



30 minutes in the oven for the bearing, freezer for the lower triple clamp, Bob's your aunty.

Got a bit of organisation done in the shed...



Means I have room now to do this...



One of the fellas on the KA forum has made a spacer to replace the speedo drive, just have to collect that hopefully on Saturday morning.