[jackedup93]

That looks really good so far. Look forward to see it finished up and painted

id say just clear it go for the camo look

[j_wal]

^^^ haha that would look pretty cool too. Something different for sure

[Catcha23]

looks good to me, nice work!

[neoshifter]

Looks really good.....awesome work!!

[Cheriff]

This weekend I decided that it was time to do the newer model tail swap. No sense going through the work of painting the old one only to switch it out next winter and have to paint the new one. Found most of the parts on eBay at reasonable prices. The only thing I think I am missing is the taillight bracket. The OEM busa light coming has one on, but I heard it was too wide.

[redciv1]

Very nice work.

[Cheriff]

Made something to get the front end off the ground. Now I can get the front wheel and fender off. It doesn't look that strong, but I ran three lag bolts up through the bottom of each board. She feels pretty firm to me.

[Enjay386]

I tried some chrome mirrors myself but I think the black ones just blend better with my color bike. Looks like a cool mod on yours though.

[Cheriff]

Sorry, no new pictures worthy of an update. Recently I have been working on the wheels and final prepping of the fairings for primer.

If you are considering polishing the lips on your wheels, heed this advice: the paint on the edge of the wheel comes off very nicely thus making the aluminum easy to polish. However, if you decide to polish the entire lip of the rim I must warn that you are in for a lot more work. The wheel was manufactured from a sand casting. In some places the rough finish of the sand casting was machined. In other areas it was just painted. By trying to polish an area with the sand casting you must first attack it with abrasive sand paper (think 60 grit) in order to remove the aluminum so that the valleys of the sand casting are exposed. After that is completed you can begin polishing process.

[MAZDA]

Great project! I think its coming along great. Painting the inner parts of the headlight is a great idea, i might attack that on my Pre!

[Cheriff]

Getting closer... I spent most of today sanding and polishing the wheels and working on the tail conversion. I purchased a new inner fender to go with the updated tail, but ended up trimming off the two holes that I think were the only difference between the inner fender I had and the new one. Oh well... my shovel chop job on this one is much improved.

Wheels - got through the sandcasting marks enough that I am satisfied. They could look better, but frankly I can't handle working on them anymore. Tomorrow I am going to tape off the rim portion and paint the spokes with the duplicolor wheel paint (in gunmetal grey).


I picked up the fairings from the painter on friday. I did the initial sanding and they sprayed the primer. I am going to wait a few more days then I will sand off the guide coat (the blue color) and drop them back off to the painter for spraying the color.


The most gratifying part of the day was working on the tail swap. I first cut off the shovel of the new inner fender, modified the license plate/turn signal bracket to fit, and switched over the lock cylinder into the bracket for the newer rear fairing. Now once the rear fairing is painted I can just mount it on the bike and not worry about scratching it by handling it so much.

[1997kat750]

Bikes looking amazing i like the polished lip idea for the rims

[Kapp555]

: I want those damper cover thingys!!! :

+1 did you buy those or make em?

[Cheriff]

+1 did you buy those or make em?

I made them. The longest part was finding a sticker/emblem that would fit in the center. I searched the internet far and wide to find something small enough to fit. I may make some more, but I am trying to get a different job and when that happens I will lose my machining access. So until I convince the wife that a mill and lathe is a good business decision and that I don't mind kicking my car out of the garage, I won't be making anymore. I could look into outsourcing them but then the cost would be ridiculous.


------------------------------------------
On a separate note: yes, that dent in the lid of the litter box is from my arse. Between sanding the fairings and the wheels I have 40+ hours on that thing.

[Cheriff]

The fruit of today's efforts: (painted the spokes gunmetal)