[shpielers]

I've only ever had 1 Allen head bolt round off on me ever...maybe your Allen keys are the issue?

Heat the bolt itself.

[Morgion]

Nah, I have several sets of them and all of the other bolts came off easily with them except for these three.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[Morgion]

Aaand I did get the goddamn brake discs off! Needed a heat gun cranked up to 550 degrees centigrade, my trusty impact driver and a bigger hammer to finally get the three bolts off.

This is the amount of punishment I had to deal to the bolts before they came off:




I also managed to break the largest flat tip of the impact driver in the progress, which is weird because these are supposed to be made of vanadium and not break from normal use. Gotta go ask for a replacement tip at the store, warranty is still in effect.




As you can see in the background, I also got the fuel tank off. In the absence of a large enough container, I'll wait until I have driven the tank of my car empty enough (1994 Volvo 940GL, underpowered, outdated and fuck-ugly but a damn good car) and drain the fuel from the Kat into the Volvo.

Painted the wheels a cheery black:




Also started prepping the exhausts for painting, used CRC exhaust repair gum to plug the holes caused by the shitty welding at the seams:



(Yeah, I did go a bit overboard, but it'll be sanded down and covered by paint and exhaust wrap, so it won't show.)

[IhmeJanneFIN]

Nice work and great to see another fin on the site.

[Morgion]

We are few and far between, it seems.
Damn yanks everywhere...

Painted the exhaust today, apart from the mufflers. Went full ghetto and just bought some heat-resistant grill/oven paint, that did the job admirably. Will take pictures once the mufflers are done (or once I've wrapped it all).

[Morgion]

The exhaust all painted and wrapped!




Next it's detaching and repainting the swingarm and the forks and then I can remount the exhaust and the wheels.

[Morgion]

So here's what I've done in the last two months:

First the tank:

Taking the decals off (the goddamn clear coat was making it take ages):




Sanding (all parts I paint are sanded 160 - 400- wet 400 before primer with additional 400 grit between layers if needed):




Primer:




Paint:




After two layers of clear coat (will add one or two more):




The color is a dark semi-matte gray-green with little metal flakes in it. Almost impossible to take an accurate photo of. I like my paint thick and sturdy so I always use two to three layers of primer, three to four layers of paint and two to four layers of clear coat.

Then the swingarm:

Detached but intact:




Suspension disassembled:




The swingarm all scratched and beaten and worn:




Swingarm after sanding, painting and clear coat:




Put back together (the dog bones and cushion lever with worn factory paint really stand out compared to the shiny swingarm but fortunately they're pretty well out of sight after reassembly):




And finally getting rid of the allen bolts holding the brake discs in favor of hex bolts:

Rear wheel:




Simply four size 8x25mm hex bolts (13mm heads) and washers.

Front wheel:




Ten size 8x30mm hex bolts (13mm heads) with washers and a home-made spacers to fit the broadening base of the factory allen bolts.

Bolt, washer and spacer:




Assembled (yes, really...):




The spacers are cut out of a piece of rigid industrial-strength vinyl tube with exact dimensions of 8mm inner diameter, 10mm outer diameter and 10mm length. I will replace them with steel equivalents, but haven't been able to source any steel tube in that size yet.


Started working on the fairings themselves:

[92xjunker]

Not liking the hex head mod on the rotors, the Allen head bolts are hardened to take the heat.

[shpielers]

Paint looks great! But...why the move to hex heads?

[Morgion]

Why? For general utility. And because of my long-standing hatred of allen bolts. For particular reasons, see post #33.

the Allen head bolts are hardened to take the heat.

As are the hex head bolts I replaced them with. I really do think of everything. (Although I have to source some steel spacers to replace the vinyl ones ASAP.)

[Morgion]

Rear suspension maintenance and rear swingarm painting and installation done. Also changed rear brake pads and cleaned, inspected and re-lubed all bearings I could get my hands on.





Rear fairing painting half done:

[Morgion]

Reinstalled exhaust:





I like how the wrap job turned out, it's meant to be purely cosmetic but it should also redirect the heat from the headers and downpipes further back:




Removed front forks for painting, modding and an oil change:





And promptly ran into a setback.

Apparently the previous guy who changed the fork oil managed to strip the threads in the fork, tried retapping the hole to a bigger size, succeeded partly, didn't manage to get it to seal and instead slapped some sort of sealant goo (which I first thought to be dried fork oil) on it. Judging by the amount of oil in both forks, the sealant did its job admirably, but when I cleaned it off and removed the bolt, I couldn't get it to seal afterwards:




Featured here the sub-standard tap job. Don't know how much you can make out of the picture, but there's barely any threads in there and what few there were came out with the bolt:




And the definitely aftermarket drain bolt:





How do you guys think I should proceed to fix that drain hole? Retap it even larger? Slap the old bolt back in with generous amounts of Loctite and sealant and hope for the best?

[Jimmie]

How about a thread insert, Heli-coil or similar? The copper washer on the drain screw should keep the oil in the right place, not the threads themselves, provided correct torque is applied.

[Morgion]

When it comes to operation-critical parts (brakes, suspension etc.) I wanna be safe, so I'm taking the fork to my favorite mechanic (the guy who does the stuff I'm lacking the equipment/knowhow for) and tell him to either weld a nut in there or retap it professionally. Shouldn't be too expensive or time-consuming considering it's just one hole.

[Morgion]

Stuff done since last update:

• Polished and reassembled the fuel tank (pics after install)
• Took fork with stripped drain hole to mechanic to be retapped (I can go fetch it tomorrow)
• Went shopping for new carb and drain hoses. No correct sizes available. Will try another store
• Played around with bar-end mirrors, limited success (pics later)
• All sorts of minor maintenance (mainly lubrication/rust prevention/cosmetic)

Rear fairings ready for clear coat (the clear coat will make the black pop out, the swingarm is done with the same paint):




Also this is a plan of how the finished product will roughly look. All of the decals will be handmade, although I'll buy the text decals somewhere if I can find any in black. Also final incarnation will most likely have bar-end mirrors instead of original mirrors, or at least aftermarket mirrors installed in stock location. Windscreen will also be modified/aftermarket.
(Depending on your display, the image can be somewhat dark. The black thing on the tank is obviously my tank bag. Also the green is way off.)




Made a TEMPLATE for that, too.