[The CyberPoet]

All bumping around as I was trying to fit them into place caused a bunch of little knicks and chips.

The longer you let the paint cure before you handle the pieces, the less likely that is to happen. A typical paint job will take a good month or so to reasonably cure in a typical garage or basement during winter -- upping the heat & fresh air helps, but even in the summer, it can take a couple weeks to get a decent cure. This is why paint shops normally use bake-lights -- to accelerate the curing process. Even with bake lights, it still takes at least a full day to bake out to a decent cure and a month or three afterwards to fully cure all the way. Once the paint is cured, it's much less likely to chip.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[ctandc]

The longer you let the paint cure before you handle the pieces, the less likely that is to happen. A typical paint job will take a good month or so to reasonably cure in a typical garage or basement during winter -- upping the heat & fresh air helps, but even in the summer, it can take a couple weeks to get a decent cure. This is why paint shops normally use bake-lights -- to accelerate the curing process. Even with bake lights, it still takes at least a full day to bake out to a decent cure and a month or three afterwards to fully cure all the way. Once the paint is cured, it's much less likely to chip.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

Good point there too.

I was using hair dryer and the heater to help speed up the drying of the parts I painted last night...at least that's what I tell myself...cause it was REALLY warm doing that after being outside.

I plan on building a detached shop hopefully next year. Then I do plan on scrounging the stuff to start powdercoating. It's not hard at all. And you can use a normal old oven...you're just of course limited to the size of parts.

Alot of the expense for powdercoating from shops (At least the one's I know) is the prep work. But since these guys know me, I can get stuff done fairly cheap....still not cheap enough for me when I know it's not hard to do.

I got quoted $175 to powdercoat both my wheels if I brought them in bare and ready to go.

[benzo007]

You can powder coat pretty big size things with a conventional oven.
You just need to build a box that is the size you need, has an opening for the oven door, has a window and light, and is very well insulated.

It will take a while for it to heat up to the proper temp, but it works. The tricky part is to seal up the opening where the oven door and box meet up. My buddy used accordian boot heavily coated with ceramic paint, then some high temp caulking.

It takes a while for the oven to heat up, but it gets the job done.

[ctandc]

Well I couldn't get the Kat back together to ride today.. (it was in the 60's and supposed to be nice most of the week) because the rear caliper rebuild kit I got months ago, is of course the wrong kit. It's for a GSXR / GS. But luckily enough Chris (Arsenic) was good enough to hook me up with a piston kit w/ seals (my pistons were pitted badly) and I'm hoping it will be here Wed / Thursday. Thanks Chris.

Got most everything else ready to go and some more cleaning / detailing done


Dirtiest thing yet...took FOREVER to clean with several different concoctions and a brush. Much better afterwards though. Added some fresh grease as well



Here's the new 150/70/17 Z6 mounted, cleaned the wheel, and the new EBC rotor to replace the trashed original. Couldn't find my loctite so I have to pick some up before I torque the rotor down




Painted the calipers while they were apart along with the caliper bracket. Not perfect, but much,much better




The swingarm after another couple of light coats of paint and several coats of Clear. I used the Duplicolor Wheel clear. We'll see how it holds up. Next time I tear it down I'm thinking it's going to get powdercoated, as I'm hoping to build another small shed to free up room in my garage for an oven and powdercoating setup.



And someone asked for this pic, I ended up using the insulated pipe hangar to hang my post 98 Scorpion exhaust..it worked fine after some "re-engineering"




Tomorrow I hope to get all the suspension bolted in and torqued down. Go ahead and install the wheel, get everything in place but the caliper...which I'll install once I get the new pistons and seals.

I'm going to clean up the fork preload adjuster / cap (thanks MD86) and get it installed along with a 9" PVC spacer in each fork. I'll probably order the progressive springs for the forks when I order my stainless brake lines for the front next month.

After that it's pulling the front sprocket cover, cleaning and lubing everything, installing the new clutch cable and adjusting the clutch.

Then I'll take apart the bars so I can paint 'em, and install the new switch gear and splice them into the existing harness.

New turn signals came in yesterday, and the Creese bracket should be here tomorrow, so I'll also cut the fender and relocate the license plate as well this week.

After that, I hope to get a few rides in, before taking the body apart again to prep it for paint.

[benzo007]

Looking good dude. Keep the pics coming.

[arsenic]

that swing arm looks awesome, so much better.

[wcj]

Looks like you've been busy! I need to do the same to my 750 once I get it up and running.

[ctandc]

Well got the new bolts for the suspension after work today. Got the homemade license plate holder / turn signal mount roughed out. ( you can see it here http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.p...66#post1388366 ) Went just now to loosely bolt the suspension together, so there is less to do tomorrow...

Well a little gotcha with new bolts.

I replaced fine thread metrics with coarse threads, and since they only thread into the matching nut, no big deal....BUT the lengths are impossible to match up perfectly with the OEM bolts..

And so that 2MM that shouldn't matter, matters ALOT when you consider you're adding washers to each side and the nylon insert nut is actually wider than the stock flange nut.

So the bolt that holds the cushion lever to the frame is too short. Gotta pick up a longer one tomorrow..and both my new shock bolts are too short...same with those. And one of the rod to swingarm bolts was mispackaged and it's too short............

Just one of those things.

On the bright side, if the brake parts come in tomorrow (Thanks Chris) I should be able to thrash and get this thing rolling my tomorrow night and can ride it to work Thursday.......... I've been having withdrawals...I haven't ridden in almost two weeks......

Here's a couple of pics



Nice pretty, cleaned and painted swingarm and Bandit 1200 shock fitted.



Nice pretty painted suspension pieces and the shiny new bolts.

Downside is the painted / cleaned parts make the other stuff look NASTY.

So it looks like I may bite the bullet and clean / paint the frame when I tear down the bodywork for paint.

I shoulda left it dirty and just kept riding it......

[ctandc]

For those keeping score......

Got the Kat back together. Started around 8:30. Got the suspension / swingarm / wheel back in and everything torqued with new bolts.

(Note: The Duplicolor wheel clear in the rattle can looks like it'll hold up pretty well...I banged on the swingarm and dropped a wrench or two on it, and no damage to the paint)

Rebuilt the rear caliper (Chris - Thanks for the parts...but for whatever reason, the dust seals you sent were smaller than the originals. I messed with those things forever, until I compared the two. They are noticeably smaller than the original seals) used the original dust seals after cleaning them in fresh brake fluid, got the pistons and seals in, everything bolted up.

The Bandit 1200 Shock does raise the height of the bike (As people had told me it would) and I REALLY like the feel. Makes it look more aggressive as well (to me). I did end up having to adjust the chain a bit.

Everything is buttoned up, was planning on riding to work tomorrow as it's been warm here the last week........and wouldn't ya know it...today at lunch they were saying high 50's tomorrow and clear...now it's low 50's and 70% chance of rain. With a brand new tire and the suspension changed I'll probably bag it so I can get used to the bike now in the DRY.......I'm ****ed.

I'll pull the homemade plate bracket tomorrow night and paint it, didn't feel like it tonight. Still need to do some finishing trim touches on it anyway.

Had a heck of a time getting the rear caliper bled. Even with the speed bleeder. Tried cracking the line on both ends of the master, had fluid. Pump / pump / pump...nothing. So I completely removed the speedbleeder...pumped / pumped and I could see some fluid in the bleeder screw hole, but still not enough to get thru the valve. Broke out my little vacuum pump, and of course it's busted...nice.

Ended up doing it the old-fashioned way...sucked on the line connected to the speedbleeder while pumping the pedal, that did it...and didn't even get a mouthful of brake fluid. After that, ran 3 or 4 resovoir's worth of clean fluid thru it and buttoned it up.

Fought the chain adjustment...until I stopped looking at the marks on the swingarm and just counted threads on the adjusters. Worked fine.

Fought the urge to start it up as the kid and wife are sleeping.

Going to bed now, hoping I'll wake up to sunny skies.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[ctandc]

Rode the bike to work anyway.....

It rides GREAT!!!! I love change to the suspension with the Bandit shock. Turn in is much smoother and takes less effort. Seating position is actually more comfy, unless it's just in my head. Everything was great on the ride to work.

Except the fact the ONLY bolts I didn't tighten all the way down were my tag bolts. So when I went to show my fender eliminator to a guy at work, realized my tag was GONE...

I'm going to call the DMV now.

LOL