[shpielers]

Really?!? Wow. Way to go prior owners...

Got some work done! As was previously stated, the header had a huge dent in it. Pulled out the MAPP torch, heated things to a nice glow, and pounded it mostly out. First time doing something like that. Not perfect, but definitely much better than before.









No way propane would heat it up to that nice malleable cherry glow. I'm no smith, and don't have any specialized tools for this, but hey, better is better. Ended up with this:







Yep, that's right. That's the after picture. Still dented in a bit. My dumbass forgot to snap a before pic so you'll have to trust me, it's way better.

Then started hitting it with a wire wheel and sand paper. Someone hit the pipes with paint at some point, probably as a rust prevention. There's a fair amount of rust so it's kind of slow going. Need to pick a larger wire wheel, only have a teeny 2" one. Sure it works, but super slow going. Plan is to remove old paint, remove as much rust as possible, treat the rest of it (evaporust, vinegar, etc), then repaint it with high temp header paint. Since I'm leaving the fairings on the pipes won't be super visible, so it's for further rust prevention, not looks.

Here's how things started turning out.






Better and better. Bye bye rust.

[katanarider]

then repaint it with high temp BBQ paint.

I painted my cars turbo manifold with Rustoleum "High Heat 2000 F " (silver) and its held for several years now. I also clear coated it with the same product, just clear. I've used regular Duplicolor 500 F gloss black Engine Paint on my Kat600, and it held for about 2 years on the header , but about 4 yrs on the tail pipes. Just be cautious about spraying degreaser on the exhaust at the car was because thats what made my tail pipes tips eventually turn dull.

Oh yeah, 3 coats of each is what I done.
And, don't get me wrong, the Rustoleum clear has flaked some, but the color still exist.

[shpielers]

Didn't know high temp clear coat exists, nice.
Was initially planning on sticking with black paint, but last night I wire wheeled the center 2 headers to steel - shiny! It would pop a little bit on a mostly all black bike. So now I'm thinking silver might be the way to go. Spent almost 2 hours removing old paint/rust last night, looks much better now. Still need to do a chemical treatment on a few spots though but got the major stuff. Also ground the header welds a teeny bit. More evened them out than anything else, was looking to make airflow more uniform, not increase total airflow. Once I get a jet kit maybe, but it's already lean enough as is.

Before:



After:



Yay progress!

[shpielers]

Last week, pulled the header and started working on it. Beat the dent back into shape (mostly, definitely better than before) and wire wheeled all the old paint and rust away on the 2 center headers. Yesterday got those 2 cleaned up and primed/painted/clear coated, as well and stripping paint/rust from the #4 header.















Used for removing old paint/rust - nothing special. If you've got a drill, and a lot of free time, you can do this.



Also got that one the full paint treatment. Did end up going silver. Also got the power screen assembly cleaned up a bit and lubed it up. Today got header #1 cleaned up and ready for paint. No time to apply today though, that will have to wait until Thursday (hope not and longer). After those are done, I'm going to pull the midpipes and they'll get the same treatment. Holy hell this had been an arm workout, sooooo wishing I had a garage with a workbench and vise right now.
Results aren't perfect, I'm not the greatest painter. There's a few runs etc, but honestly, no one ever gets close enough to a header that they'd be to tell. Definitely liking the look so far, and it should do a decent job if keeping further rust at bay. Pics will follow once I get everything cleaned, painted and reinstalled.

[shpielers]

Over the last couple weeks, haven't had a lot of time between work/family/gf/being sick, but did manage to get all headers done. Also got one of the midpipes done. Part of it seems to have been powder coated black - I'm not grinding that material off, too much of a bitch. If there's rust spots there, I'm cleaning that up and I'll prime/paint over the powder coat. Not sure how well that'll stick, but guess I'll find out. I was supposed to go to the mountains for some Father's Day camping but opted out due to being sick. If I'm feeling better tomorrow might be able to work on that other midpipe tomorrow or at least play around with that damn rear wheel spacing (katanarider, you gave me an idea, thanks mate!) Haven't really had a chance to look into it in a bit, got distracted by carb issues that turned out to be the exhaust leak that lead to me stripping and painting the exhaust in the first place. Which reminds me - the bike has been down before and one of the cans is scratched up - I'm going to attempt to polish that out too since I have it off the bike. Someone (Loneraider) just did a nice before/after post if his work, so feeling inspired by that.

[shpielers]

Ok, so got those midpipes as cleaned up as they're going to get, and that powered coated area sanded down a bit for hopefully accepting primer.

Here's the before pics - notice the crappy attempted paint (guessing it went on with 0 prep work), rust, and more dents. WTF happened, how does something on the bottom of the bike get dented in like this? No, don't tell me, I'd really rather not think about what abuse this poor girl has gone through. I still have delusions of riding her.













Here's halfway done.



Done stripping.







So...wtf are these weld looking things on the left set? They go through all the way.



Not sure what that's about. Hope it's not an issue. They're now ready to accept primer/paint/clear. That's for tomorrow.

Side note - get a painters mask or respirator for doing this type of stuff, and I'd highly recommend doing it outdoors. There's a ton of dust that gets released.

Also, started getting gear for the gf so she can ride with. My ex had her own because she grew up on the back of her mom's bike. Even it it had been mine, there's no way anything would have fit my current gf. No pics of that, she'd kill me. I choose life.

Tomorrow: finish midpipes, and reinstall everything. Then play around with that rear wheel spacing. Don't want to run the bike yet, want to give the paint a chance to cure more first. Yes it's hi temp, and heat is part of it curing, but 3x coats of primer, 3x paint, and 3x clear...I'd rather let it cure on it's own for a few days before applying heat. Don't want it bubbling off after this much effort.

Edit: almost forgot - wire wheel won't take out those scratches on the can I mentioned - too deep. Damn. Did clean up things a bit, so still looks better.

[katanarider]

Man, those mid pipes look pretty fancy the way they are. Looks more robust, expensive etc...I would just clear coat them and paint the tails, or polish the whole thing and clear it all.
Just my opinion...,Anyway too much paint could cause problems such as wrinkles, or you may want to weld on them some day...Then you've got a ton of paint to remove again.
Like the Food Lion says, just my .02 cents.

[shpielers]

Was able to finish painting them, but it hadn't really cured enough for me to handle them by the time it was close to dark, so I didn't want to handle them (ie install) them if I didn't have to. Turned out ok, like I said I'm no paint pro. But they'll pass the 20ft eye test . Going to wait on posting pics until I can get them mounted and have some of the whole enchilada.

[Wild-Bill]

Looking pretty good but the stock, flat black sure does cover a lot of sins. Just sayin'...

Might save a bunch of labor and, besides, it's going to be covered mostly by the fairings, right? After that, it's about flow, not show.

[shpielers]

Only took 3 weeks but finally able to get them installed! Look great! And yeah, Bill has a point - black would hide a lot of dirt, grease, oil, etc. but it sure looks purdy all silver! Also finally able to figure out the rear wheel spacing! Needed to adjust the caliper more than anything else. Pics and more detailed explanation so anyone else can replicate to follow. Didn't have enough time to fire it up and try syncing the carbs before dark, so that's next time. Battery is all charged up, so just need to add in some fresh fuel.

[Locomotion]

you wont see much of it with the plastics on, rust prevention more important.Have to say they looked good without the paint so old coating did its job

[shpielers]

Nope. Someone (poorly) spray painted over the rust that was already there so it wasn't as visible. Felt it was better to be safe than sorry, so stripped it all.
I'm definitely more concerned about rust prevention than looks. It's a nice surprise/bonus to have it look good afterwards.

[shpielers]

So got to play with it again. (Minds out of the gutters folks) my rear brake was binding so I did a quick tear down and reassembly. Then had a hell of a time bleeding it. But, I'm stubborn so I won. Also finally got the rear torque arm finished up. Bend a bit here, a little more there, file a teeny bit and presto. Reminder: this is the original 1100 arm mated to a 95 Kat caliper. Caliper and now arm slightly modified, but 0 welding required. Wheel spins a bit better now.

Front wheel was also binding so I dive in on that. Turns out A) my adapter for the speedo was warped. Smoothed that down. The speedo also wasn't spinning very freely so I tore it apart, cleaned it out and regreased it. Realised whilst doing this that I never lubed the speedo cable, so that's on the to do list. Ran out if time, so it'll have to wait a bit. Finish that, then fine tune the front caliper spacing/stop it from binding. Slowly making progress. Can't work on it next weekend, helping my sister move. Hoping for more wrench time the following weekend.

[4wred]

[QUOTE=shpielers;2351763]Ok, so got those midpipes as cleaned up as they're going to get, and that powered coated area sanded down a bit for hopefully accepting primer.



So...wtf are these weld looking things on the left set? They go through all the way.



Those weld things have anything to do with the California emissions(testing) bullshit?Damn tree huggers make working on your bikes seem a little harder.

[katanarider]

shpielers, I think I remember you saying you'r having issues with drag on the front rim. I just thought of something. The speedo drive plate you made, did you cut the center out enough to clear the bearing center lip ? I think when you tighten down then axle it pinches/the axle does not turn, but the outer gear meshes with the wheel and it does turn. I just installed my front wheel and I bent my speedo gear tabs out a few millimeters. I also made dust cover, but I think I'm going to trash it now that I think about it.

EDIT: Forget what I wrote, I found your picture. It appears you have good clearance. I'm stilll removing mine. I think that thing will bounce around in there.