"Yellow Frank" Project
The Teardown
Next on the agenda is tearing down the bike to strip it down to the bare frame. This is done to check out the parts and to see whether things are missing, swapped out with the wrong parts, as well as to check for damage. I also plan on painting the frame so everything needs to be off of it.
I will also pay attention to all the electrical wiring and the connections to check for hot spots/melting due to the GS's famed "Stator" problems. Don had mentioned that the bike had stator problems in the past, so odds that melting has occurred are pretty good. He also mentioned that when the bike is parked, the battery drains to nothing so this is something that I will keep in mind as I tear into the wiring.
So my plan is is to take things off the bike from front to rear and get the bike naked. I have an official Suzuki GS1100GK manual on the way so that will help with the rear end since I haven't dealt with Suzuki shaft drives before.
As of 6/21/15 I have most everything off the bike except for the front fork & wheel, the engine, and the rear wheel and swingarm. I'll be taking them off soon,
I'll be heading to the big city tomorrow so I will pick up some Aluminum Oxide sandblasting media for stripping paint from all of the black painted parts. I'll be sandblasting the parts myself and I'll have to build a cage out of 2x4's and plastic sheeting in order to retain the media so that I can gather it up and reuse it again. I will also get some glass bead blasting media for the aluminum parts.
I am still looking at paint and I am steering towards using Eastwood Company paints, either Ceramic Chassis Black or Extreme Chassis Black. I've had pretty good success in the past with Extreme Chassis Black and the Ceramic is supposed to be even harder. They both give a powder coat type of finish which is what I'm after.
You are probably wondering why I don't just have the frame powder coated. The problem is both economics and the fact that there is no one locally that does it. I also like doing as much of the work myself in order to show others that it is doable by us "regular" guys. Now I haven't decided whether to spray the bike with a professional paint sprayer or use a rattle can.
The front end disassembly starts
Electrical heat damage
Got the airbox and all electrical ripped out
Another view of all electrical ripped out
Most of the parts are now removed
Update on 3/12/16 - The rear wheel, shocks and swingarm are removed.
