That bloody tank

And it's myriad layers of primer and paint. 8 hours graft and metal us eventually free, just.

The new seat...

... Has landed. Brilliant job done my an amazing upholsterer, who us a tru perfectionist and craftsman... Im happy as Larry this afternoon.

Wiring

Some goodies have landed today, ready to attack the ingnition and wiring... Looking at the wiring diagram it is not going to be a two minute job. Maybe 5 buy definitely not 2!

Wallpaper

Had a single print edition of Wallpaper run last year to sum up sum up the brilliant summer and it's been gathering dust ever since. Jetset bought me a matching frame for the poster print so it is ready for the wall on Saturday.

Bruiser sat and waited whilst I framed it.

Next to the desk are some treats for Saturday afty... Can't wait.

Tank stripping

After a long round trip to Cambridge today I swang into the DIY shop and stocked on some nitromorse, brushes, a stripping blade and dug out a pair of unused gloves.

After applying a thick coat to the top of the tank and top yoke I sat and waited, once blistered on went the second.

So an hour of waiting & scraping has removed most of the gold, the primer, the original red and the original primer is now exposed.



I want raw metal.

The Runner

Here's what's happened with the bike. In the last few weeks momentum has picked up (from the square root of 0) and things are a happening at last.

Uv gone from wanting to bin it to loving it and everything I'm learning along the way - probably about myself and lack if patience to be frank.... Which has been addressed ;-)

After this I am up to date and ready to keep on track in 'realtime'... Thank **** for that.

Last weekend without the seat and tank, note the old bars hanging off due to breaking a bloody bolt in the switch housing.

New bars, grips, switches, levers, speedo (now moved again since) and mock up seat

The shite I have removed form this bike to date, she is a lot better for it.

Beofre the new drop-bars went on.  note last years rattle can tank with petrol spill down it!

Note to self; you cannot make something tidy by simply bolting something new to it.  do not repeat.

Last years home-made improvised seat... it did the trick for a few months and will be missed

New skinnier seat layout ready for a good mate to cover it properly for me.

last weekend, getting there slowly.

and from the front, she is no lingerie model but I love her again & she getting there.

Its back

Ok, so it's been a while. I have fallen out of love with the bike... and then head over heels in love again. This bloody little machine has been driving me mad for months - sat there in rain, snow, rain and rain. However just as the nights have gotten a little lighter so the bug has bitten. So much has happened that the blog had come to a stop. It too is back now in flow, More posts to come

GT550 - Next on the list

Next on the list is to attack the single tiny split pin that has yet to be rmeoved form the bike.  This annoying little thing is solely responsible for the delay in getting rid of the big 'n ugly centrestand.  Come tomorrow night its having it.  If the weather is good I iwll also wire up the nice new rear lamp and the indicator I broke.

Once Barca is done the search is then on to get the front end 'thinned'.  Needed for this to begin with is...

• Risers
• bars
• small speedo
• bates style lamp
• new grips.

Once these are bought and fitted I will then invest in some little micro switches for the electrics on the bars and also get a new barrel to have the ignition neatly tucked away somewhere. Along with some footpegs to get rid of the chunky rearsets, some new rear shocks, tyres and a thinner tank it is then ready for stripping and TLC applied to paint and metal.

Helmets

While the rain has been pouring I have been playing with my helmet and some paint.  Caught a video on Youtube (I will tag it later if I can find it) showing some painting and thought I would give it a go, broke out the old brushes and spent a couple of hours doodling.

Pretty pleased with the result and the cling film/firm brush trick to get a very weather beaten look seems to have been a good one.

This is a cheap helmet for playing about with and after a few more practice runs I will grab a lighter US version for daily use.

GT550 - New & much thinner seat

I am in the luck position of having a friend who does the leather upholstery work for Morgan cars who has offered to re-trim the new seat base for me.  An offer like that cannot be refused so today has been focussed around getting the base unit made up for drop-off before I disappear to Barcelona.

Several hours later, with glue all over my un-gloved hands the finished panel is done.  4 layers of dense foam bonded together to a 4mm dibond composite sheet gives a very light but strong replacement.

The criteria was it had to be thin (off course), comfortable enough for a 100 mile trip, fit the curve of the frame and leave room for two.

More importantly it will cover the entire rear frame to remove the need to chop it and re-weld it and also have enough room to cater for Jetset's perfectly formed ass.

GT550 - So far...

This is how it currently looks (up until this morning anyway).

 To give an idea of what has been done so far...

• Stock (huge) indicators removed and replaced with much neater units.
• Rear fender & tail-light unit (again huge) have been removed and replaced with a small lamp/number plate holder
• Side-panels and front mudguard resprayed
• Tank resprayed and fuel cap replaced with chrome version
• Rear rack removed, this has saved approx half a ton
• Seat and all the rubbish underneath it removed an temporary panel seat in place.
• Both of the huge wing-mirrors removed, small under bar mirror fitted to right side only
• Heavy bar-ends removed and grips replaced

GT550 - Rear frame et al

Next was the very thick and dense seat to come off (after half an hour working out where the bloody catch was!

Seat removed the grinder was then bought out to cut off all the unnecessary rubbish that the seat was hiding, including the seat latch, mounting panel, helmet lock, etc.

A temporary seat was quickly knocked up to test how it now felt on the road, and the tank given a lick of gold to get an idea of the final look.

The pile of bits on top of the box in the back ground of pic 3 are the sum total of what has been removed so far, there was so much crap attached to this bike it was unreal

GT550 - Painting

A few weeks ago I removed the mulitcoloured panels, broke out the masking tape and bought some rattle cans.

GT550 - The Collection

Due in part to the shit British weather I have done nothing all day, so here is the start of the long awaited photo diary of the 'cut your teeth, find out what your doing'  project  Kawasaki GT550 so far.....

Bikes as bought in April including rust, heavy tat attached, multi-coloured panels, etc, etc,

It has been christened today too. The Runner.