"Winter Projects" Revisited: Retro YZ Kit.

[biglou]

It sure is nice to build a bike on someone else's dime, isn't it?! We've got Jamie's (Thunder 33) 99 YZ400F in my garage all set for tear-down and rebuild with the One Industries Hurricane Kit. I know Zoomer's got/had the same bike, but if anyone has any tips or tricks to add for this project, feel free to post them here.
The plan is that this will take about two weeks. We have all new plastic, including tank. We are going to strip everything off as much as practical, mask the engine off and repaint the frame a dark metallic gray similar to Suzuki's frame color. He already has black Excel rims so this should look pretty darn good when we are finished. We will post pictures of the progress. It's gonna look a whole lot better than it currently does!
Here is the bike as she sits right now:

 

[Okiewan]

That'll be sweet :)

 

[TwinSpar]

I hope you take the time to apply the correct fender stickers this time. ;)

 

[biglou]

Re: Fender Stickers.

Look closely at the kTm in the background! That does present a problem, though. I had two sets of fender stickers but gave one away, and I plan on picking up my very own 426 this summer. That leaves Jamie out.:debil:

 

[Patman]

Why not pull the engine? It shouldn't take much more time than to deal with the masking.:)

 

[XRpredator]

I must agree with Pat. It would be far less time consuming than masking, plus give you better coverage. What is there, a couple oil lines from the frame? You just gotta make sure you block off all the holes properly.

Another option--Powder coating. :cool:

 

[JuliusPleaser]

If I ever go to all the trouble of painting a frame, it'll be powdercoated. I bought a hammered 95' XR200 a few years ago, stripped it and painted the frame with automotive paint. After a couple of rides, the paint was already worn off the frame legs.

The YZ looks like an interesting project. I'd look into doing the 250F, but I don't want people thinking that I ride a Suzuki. :p

 

[biglou]

I told Zoomer at DirtWeek, "That's a funny lookin' Suzuki you got there!"

As far as pulling the engine, I thought you needed Billywho, Eric and Rich for that?:eek:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Originally posted by BigLou
As far as pulling the engine, I thought you needed Billywho, Eric and Rich for that?:eek:

Only if you want to do it in the middle of a field :D

 

[Patman]

BigLou maybe consider black appliance epoxy? Very retro Yamaha and it has a higher solids content than most other paints (especially PJ1). Be forwarned it takes a full 24 hours to cure because it does go on pretty heavy but after that it's the next best thing I've found to powder coating.

 

[zio]

I vote for a masking job with whatever paint you have in your garage. I've found that it's the fastest way. You can read all about it and other home repair, landscaping & gourmet cooking tips in my book- "The Indespensible Half-Assed Manual for Lazy Bums". It's essential if for anyone who plans on watching as much TV as possible. Of course, it didn't do well at the bookstores, but I attribute that to never actually finishing the book. The first two chapters are great, though. E-mail me and I might forward you a copy.

I repainted my first bike, an 89 CR250, at least a half-dozen times with this method and it never failed to produce the quickest results. However, if you just leave a healthy layer of mud on the frame, you'll find that you never really need to paint it in the first place.

 

[biglou]

Jamie's gonna poop when he sees his bike!

Took me about two hours and I got her stripped down to a frame with engine and a swingarm that I can't seem to get off. It's the linkage pivots, not the main swingarm pivot. Anyhoo, what a blast. I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to do it for Billy all the time, but this has been a learning experience.
BTW-I am going to pull the engine. Here's the cool part that I was saving: We have both a powder coat line and a polish shop at work.:D That means, you guessed it, polished swingarm and guards, and possibly a powder-coated frame. I have to see if I can sneak it through or get it done in the batch oven. This is gonna be sweet!

So far only two casualties: The rear brake pedal pivot bolt twisted in half. Gonna have to extract that. And the rear brake master cylinder mounting tab was cracked off (part of the plastic molding of the MS). Other than that, it's "All Systems Go". Got all the plastic and graphics except for the tank. That should be in Monday. I'll need to get the digital camera and get some shots of a totally violated 400F!!!

 

[dhoward]

Re: Jamie's gonna poop when he sees his bike!

Originally posted by BigLou
I'll need to get the digital camera and get some shots of a totally violated 400F!!!

Sometimes you frighten me, Lou.....

 

[Shaw520]

Fun Stuff

I'm gettin bored, gonna have to find beater to restore. Did a frame-up job on a DRZ last year, I do like that factory Suzuki 'gun metal grey',
Lou, dont forget to mask off all thread holes, steering head, swingarm pivot, oil-line holes, ect, before powder coating.:)

 

[Jamir]

I did poop when I saw it! Man, it is good to have a friend like Lou, who will tear your bike down to nothing and call you 10 times a day to tell you what else you need to buy for it! I think I should have just got some new blue plastic. Nah, this thing is going to be the cat's meow when it is done. If I could just keep the trees off my house and car, I could go do some work on it myself. Lou, once again, YOU DA MAN!

 

[biglou]

Re: The cat's meow.

Well, I'm glad we tore it down for a few reasons. The stuff that I found really needed to be fixed ASAP. No denying that. Plus, as always, it has been a learning experience. Last, when we get it done, it is going to be as clean as it was the day it rolled off the showroom floor.

Only bad thing so far-Power is STILL out at work so I haven't been able to snag the digital camera to take some mor "before" pictures. Plus no pwer=no ploisher! I've got all the soon-to-be-shiny parts sitting in my cold, dark office waiting for KCPL to turn the power back on for us.

 

[Papakeith]

Sounds like a very cool project Lou.
Ain't it amazing what you learn by tearing into a bike like that?!

 

[Jamir]

Last night, after about the 1000th call from Lou explaining what is and is not wrong with my bike, I was telling my wife how cool it is to have someone like Lou who can rip through a bike like this. She asked me if I was sure he knew what he was doing. My reply? "He used to work on fighter jets for Christ's sake! Yes he knows what he is doing!" She looked at me smugly and said, "Honey, your bike is not a fighter jet." That brought me down a notch or two.

 

[Papakeith]

She looked at me smugly and said, "Honey, your bike is not a fighter jet." That brought me down a notch or two.

Where did your wife get her permit to use logic? Those are supposed to be male issue only.;)

 

[Jamir]

Well, lets just say that Logic is not the only male issued item that my wife keeps of mine!

 

[Patman]

"He used to work on fighter jets for Christ's sake!"

But did they fly afterwards?;) I worked on an alarm clock once when I was 5 and it never rang again.:confused:

 

[70 marlin]

Sounds like fun!

them suspension bolts can be a real bear! did retro last winter on a 83 rm 125 had the same trouble. have fun.

 

[biglou]

Project Update:

Well, having the power out at work for the past eight days has slowed down progress considerably. Not to mention the fact that there are about 100 chords of wood to be cleaned up at my parents' and my place. But I digress.
Everything is apart and salveged (thank God) with the exception of the oil drain bolt. Taking the engine in Saturday to get some help from our head machinist. The subframe is sandblasted and will get powder-coated tomorrow. Saturday is for sandblasting the main frame and next Friday it will see powder. All the plastic is on the floor in the basement, including the new yellow tank. Waiting on a few misc. parts from the shop (clutch cable, chain, etc) and we will be reassembling next weekend. Sure hope I can remember where all them pieces-parts go!:scream:
Will post pictures when available.

 

[biglou]

More progress:

Thursday I sandblasted the subframe, which makes an excellent textured finish for the powder to adhere to. Got the waterpump guard, top engine mounts, front engine mounts and rear brake master cylinder guard polished. Friday the subframe was powder coated and the pipe (all of it, including the can) and swingarm were polished. Also sharpened the footpegs with a die grinder, blasted and coated them, too. The powder coated parts look absolutely brand new. Simply amazing. The best part is the polishing, though. Every part that was polished looks like a mirror! Jamie came over wtih the wife Friday night and neither of them could believe that they were the same parts. Jamie just kept saying "My God!" over and over again!

Saturday saw the completion of the two biggest challenges of the project: Sandblasting the main frame and extracting the case oil drain bolt. Blasting the frame was pretty straight-forward, but takes a little muscle to manipulate it inside the blsat cabinet. Plus there are countless little nooks and crannies to blast. The drain plug was so amazongly stuck that I had never seen anything like it before. As it turns out, it was the flange that was galled to the flat on the case and not the threads-Thank God! I was never happier to see a bolt break loose in my life. It took the machining of a jig to get a hole driled nto the center of an already grossly disfigured bolt head, a little heat, an easy-out and a machinist tapping the flange with a center punch and ball-peen hammer whilst I torqued on the easy-out. Once it moved just a bit, it was free. There is now a new Moose magnetic drain plug with washer and 14mm hex head residing in the drain hole. And this one's not made of lead like the OEM bolt.:silly:

Friday will see the frame getting powder coated and then, reassembly at last! We went with a matt black finish instead of the metallic gray. There are several colors available, but the black will be the best, I think. Given that the rims are black, I think it will look better, more retro than the gray.

Stopped by the local shop on the way home and snagged a set of Motion-Pro throttle cables for $23, and got a clutch cable ordered for $13!

 

[Jamir]

This project has been much easier than I expected. Maybe because every time I talk to Lou, he has about 100 more things done to it! While I have been dealing with a hole in my house, a totalled car and about 4 trees laying in my yard, this guys has been turning my dirty old 400 into a masterpeice! That is a true friend there. Who da man? Lou da man!