So this is the beginning of what will hopefully become a modestly successful facelift for a 1996 GS500 that I got this past May.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cOj6C7Kaf6Q/TsgcZdjh-pI/AAAAAAAAADo/mLHp5XY48Mk/h120/mail.google.com.jpg)
The previous owner had taken good care of it after it sustained a parking lot tip-over. The dented tank was professionally filled and repainted matte black, as were the rest of the plastics. The bike looks great already, in my opinion, so my plans to repaint it and add some more plastic are a bit tentative. That said, here's what I'm thinking.
The general concept is to turn it from a street fighter to a british racing green roadster. I'd like a green tank with an offset gold strip, a la
(http://combustioncycles.com/images/salePictures/74honda_cb750k/74Honda_detail.jpg)
this beauty done by Combustion Cycles in Durham, NC. Perhaps some gold pinstriping as well.
In addition, I'm planning adding plastics and changing the seat color and shape. First the plastics: this week I got a little gift in the mail from adidasguy (well not exactly a gift, since I paid him for it, but you get the idea): a mint condition, still in the box, original gs500 upper cowling. I wanted to put it on immediately, but my short front turn indicator lights wouldn't allow a clean fit. So, a little ebay searching turned up some longer stalk turn signals that were for another year's model run of gs500's (I think earlier than 96 but I'm not sure). Here's a comparison with the longer stalk lights on top.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DP6lGyWB7mQ/TsgcQZ3sVFI/AAAAAAAAADM/mk0JWX9mp9o/s221/-2.jpg)
A few days later I had them in hand and was ready to get to do some easy rewiring and assembly.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HoNQTvcJ-Xo/TsgcQrYoLzI/AAAAAAAAADc/XOZqse5w4Os/s221/-1.jpg)
The old indicator lights came out easily and the male attachments on the new indicator wires fit right into the old female attachments.
The rest was easy work with a socket wrench, though the attachment holes on the fairing didn't quite match up with its accompanying bracket. I had to loosen everything up a couple times before all the screws were at least partially threaded.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RjJqLKdecPE/TshDoAXiGLI/AAAAAAAAAD4/-8Xtbq7MH0E/s640/111911171245.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5IP4QYnkDy0/TshDsaBeKTI/AAAAAAAAAEA/dcOJ3Q4R4js/s640/111911171211.jpg)
Right now I actually think the bike looked a bit cooler before put the cowling on :icon_confused: , but it doesn't look bad and I think that, with what I have planned coming up, the whole thing will eventually come together quite nicely.
So here's what I'm looking to do going forward.
1) Original GS500 belly pan
2) As mentioned, repaint british racing green with offset stripe and/or gold pinstripes. I'm thinking similar stripes on cowling and belly pan flowing back towards the rear plastic frame covers... something like the black and silver striping on adidusguy's bike (no I do not have a crush on him; man just has good taste is all)
(http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb442/adidasguy/GS500/red_black.png)
3) Recover the seat with brown leather colored marine vinyl. It might be hard to see in the small pics above, but I already switched the old black vinyl cover out (it was cracked and starting to peal) for some grey vinyl. The brown leather color should give it a bit more a classic british racer look.
4) Seat Cushion: I'd like to add some cushion to the passenger seat and to the front of the rider's seat, making the seats overall lines a bit more horizontal and the overall shape a bit more cafe-racery.
5) Wrapped Wxhaust: DEI makes some nice "titanium" exhaust wrap that ends up looking kind of gold in color. I think it'll work really nicely with the gold striping.
6) A gold final drive.
7) And finally, repainting the engine cover which has "beginner motorcyclist" written on it just below the "SUZUKI" marking. :icon_lol:
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OVd5oMrGeLE/TsgcQD-MjLI/AAAAAAAAADA/t-JSejwi1PE/s221/-5.jpg)
Anyway, send advice, criticisms, denunciations along. I'll keep you guys posted as I proceed.
I think the color scheme will look great. Good Luck with the project.
Any update on this project? I'm interested in seeing how this turns out
yeah colour scheme looks fresh bro! :) .. Nice concept for project too .. Just one minor thing .. Standard naked gs500 is not a streetfighter .. Just standard bike .. Cool and all .. Cheers
updates???? :technical:
So...
I started this thread thinking that I would post periodic updates as I worked on the bike. It turned out that every time I completed a stage of the refresh project, I was too exhausted from the work to take pictures or type. So, below is a bit of a retrospective on the refresh, accompanied by pictures of the generally finished (though I'll do some more work off an on in the future) bike.
The first thing I did was strip, sand and repaint both engine side covers, each of which had been badly scraped during a couple of drops and one low side, low speed slide out. This took some time, but wasn't nearly as hard as one would think. I used airplane paint stripper, which works great to easily remove old paint down to the metal. Smells awful, but works fast. Then some medium grit metal-specific sand paper to smooth out the small scrapes and gouges in the metal. Finally a single coat of rustoleum's black gloss engine/hi temp spray paint.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Vr_z2xwiucQ/T80gMtPOoBI/AAAAAAAAAKI/KtZecvDZyt0/w364-h272-n-k/DSC06052.JPG)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JwRVDOrIju4/T80gEbPAzoI/AAAAAAAAAKA/rxfIdhOcxJc/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06051.JPG)
Next I put on some coyote moto frame sliders. I bought these off of ebay from a shop in the UK. They seem well made and when a friend I was teaching to ride accidentally dropped the bike, they did take the brunt of the fall, though I think a small portion of the engine side-case did make contact with the ground.
Then I fitted a used centerstand I got off of ebay from pinwall cycle. Pinwall is a very professional salvage dealer, and I'd be happy ordering parts from them in the future. Installation was generally pretty easy, though getting the two springs onto the bike frame involved a ton of yanking and cursing.
I also added some padding to the seat cushioning. I used two different cushioning materials, both of which I got from Jo-Ann fabrics. I used a purpose-made seat cushion material, a kind of synthetic, cotton-looking stuff that gets used in boat cushions and outdoor furniture. (http://www.joann.com/images/14/34/5/xprd143458_m.jpg) I used this softer material for the two places where my ass bones really poke into the seat or, to coin a phrase "ass-engagement points" (AEP's). Then, around those AEP's I placed a higher density rubber foam that I harvested from beer coazies, sliced from top to bottom and unrolled flat. (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSaeEkX9ouE7RECqzAcFuHkeuqxwf-O4Nv3Fpf6khkC6aiDOsSVxjPziu8) That's why the seat looks slightly bunchy in the pictures--there's a whole lot going on under the black vinyl. I may try to clean that up in the future, but so far the seat has proved significantly more comfortable. Basically the seat is just much for contoured to the differential pressure between the AEP's and the surrounding buttocks stability sector or BSS.
And then came the hard part--painting. I almost don't want to recount how torturous and frustrating the process was, but in the end, I'm happy with the way things came out.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-heNPRcTWF80/T80dlYYRUII/AAAAAAAAAHY/pxxxVb0pXQw/w597-h448-k/DSC06030.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-adTRELazztc/T80eX2G3FfI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/OivuPDHexMo/w364-h272-n-k/DSC06037.JPG)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m3u_rr9cugM/T80fAQM4niI/AAAAAAAAAIw/k7Yv83yZoz8/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06041.JPG)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Xc4uQXLT8ps/T80g_gpur-I/AAAAAAAAAKo/4raVjhGWfNk/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06056.JPG)
There are a number of reasons why the painting was so difficult. First, the tank had been dented a bunch by the previous owner, who had a shop fill the problem areas with bondo. They did an okay job, but the filled areas were clearly noticeable. So I began by stripping off all the old paint, sanding down the old bondo, adding some new bondo, and then trying to "feather" it so that it blended perfectly with the surrounding metal. This is a fairly easy procedure on a flat metal surface, but there are no flat surfaces on a GS500 gas tank. Especially difficult was filling a dent that banged up the edge above where your knee goes on the left side of the tank.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-muuwvItxwyg/T80fG0UYEgI/AAAAAAAAAI4/N_fRJJ9nWk4/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06042.JPG)
Recreating the exact contour of the edge with bondo took a number of failed ettemps. What eventually worked was cutting a triangle shape into a credit card with the exact angle of the edge that I wanted to achieve. Then I ran that shape/mold along the part of the tank that I needed to fix, and it left a trail of bondo in exactly the right shape.
Other problems: I had originally wanted to use striping tape to put blue stripes alongside the tank and the side covers. I used 3m vinyl striping tape, which is especially made for this purpose and started off working great. Its super malleable and allows you to make tight curves without bunching up.
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdvYJx72nk5lcmQblKsxsR6hkPErWXFrY6zCBb4rsEqYGqptkrfplHoA)
So first I did a coat of blue, laid down the striping tape, then sprayed over the blue with the Duplicolor Gunmetal Metalic that you see pictured above. In some places this worked fine, and looked awesome. But in other places, when I pulled off the tape to reveal the stripe below, the tape actually pulled off the blue paint revealing the primer below that. No Good. I can't quite figure out why that happened, or why it didn't happen in other locations. I cleaned everything thouroughly between coats, sanded as per-manufacture specs, and allowed 24 hours for the blue undercoat to dry. I think, however, the problem might have been solved by using and adhesion promoter, which creates a stronger chemical bond between paint and primer. Duplicolor sells one alongside their spray paint.
(http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/public/X4Z8ZtTW5_mwFqXIyvSdpR8ZSgq9xn2B0mOhzzHGhO_2wm53mgN9zvTX5oZNm_vGjxGhDvKaBq5SZy6bFJzeNtUr5TC5G3l5-ljHQbUOOly6OzHB2qMauZsXGv20cz7ku71zpDrGx8kPXC_lDf0vOhbE6ULISyUP42rQO1F3ZaHIRIf-UWYcsxs4W9Ep8AlQLMe7T4lEK2XMOaZePYnT_UwgY4d0mGjQjICz)
Anyway, by that point I had made so many late night runs to auto-zone to buy more rattlecans that the cashier was beginning to think I was either a graffiti artists or a huffer, and I just decided to do the whole bike in gunmetal.
Looks good! Came together looking nice.
O0
Refresh Restoration continued...
Other problems with the paint: apparently the clear coat i applied does not like gasoline. Below you can see that it got discolored where I spilled some.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5aIwmVrZIE8/T80fhRxDCeI/AAAAAAAAAJY/LpwlCaDy6wE/s640/DSC06046.JPG)
I have a feeling I can clean this off somehow. We'll see and I'll update you if I figure at solution. There's more to come, but I have to run to meeting so I'll leave off here for now.
Continued...
I should also mention that while I had the tank off for painting I did some other routine maintenance, including a valve/cam clearance check. I had one shim out of spec, which was easy to replace with the oem shim tool.
I also swapped out the old fork springs for some .85 sonics. They are much stiffer. I weigh about 170 and this is as stiff as I'd want to go, but suspension settings are clearly a very personal decision so take mine with a grain of salt. Its definitely nice not to bottom out the fork every time I come to a stop sign.
You might also have noticed that I changed out the handlebars, putting on a new set of Bikemaster Dragbars. I really like the way these look. They give a much sleeker impression over the more utilitarian oem bars.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-QaKMpYu__D8/T80e60pHIaI/AAAAAAAAAIo/PVIKXkflf5M/s640/DSC06040.JPG)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-eeeW7aayELY/T80eD8J5fuI/AAAAAAAAAH4/2LrwpUfYjHw/w296-h221-n-k/DSC06034.JPG)
They are not too low as to be uncomfortable and probably offer a nice compromise over clubman or clip on bars. If you want your bike to look a bit racier, without having to be crouched over like a horse jockey, these seem to me like a good way to go. As for handling, I haven't noticed that they're any buzzier than my old handlebars. The bike feels just as responsive, maybe a bit more so, even.
Installation was not difficult. I brought my old handlebars along with the new ones to my local bike shop (plug for Triangle Cycles) to have them drill the fitting holes for the plastic electrical switch housings (turn signals, starter, on/off, etc.) It turns out that where you decide to put these holes matters a fair deal, as it determines the orientations of the switches, relative to your hands on the handlebars. For instance, you wouldn't want your starter switch pointing down at the ground. So think a little before your drill. Another thing to consider is how you're going to mount your brake fluid reservoir. Because the handlebars run down near the triple tree, your brake line runs close, if not right up against it. This decreases the amount you can rotate the bars forward and still have your brake lever pointing down in line with your arm (the most ergo way to go), but I think there's still plenty of room.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dGdZolREis8/T80fa9tVBVI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/ynJGB4LlVTc/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06045.JPG)(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MIZHOZnctV4/T80fUQSkjrI/AAAAAAAAAJI/qXh0ixey9vk/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06044.JPG)
I've only found pictures on the web of a couple other GS500's with drag bars. Here's one I particularly like.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6139/5936473121_3d3e3111b2_z.jpg)
As you can see, the owner has his bars rotated downwards more than I do, which makes them look almost like clip-on's or clubmans. I think that would be too uncomfortable for my tastes, but it sure looks cool.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6005/5936473103_eaedd26e58_z.jpg)
All told, I'm really happy how things came out. Most of all, I'm just glad to have my bike back in one piece and ridable. I love this little GS way more than is reasonable.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-s2gNFGW9geM/T80g4g_R8II/AAAAAAAAAKg/2jqCuPfBeRo/w364-h272-n-k/DSC06055.JPG)
PS Are there any NC natives out there able to figure out where these pictures were taken?
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3-C0d7XL0IY/T80hGBvsH5I/AAAAAAAAAKw/gpb6pC18z4Q/w363-h272-n-k/DSC06057.JPG)
Looks great. I dig the grey paint. Probably wouldn't look quite as good with a silver frame, but looks pretty slick with the charcoal. Just different enough that's it noticeable while still being discreet.
So, you're not going with the windscreen after all? Still have it? Interested in selling it?
I was waiting for the windscreen issue to come up.
I am going to sell it but there's just a bit of a back-story.
The windscreen was sold to me by Addidasguy (who else would have an oem upper cowling still new in box?). Upon selling it to me he said, and I quote:
"PS: Take it off if you intend on having a front end collision so you don't damage it. LOL"
Well, I didn't have a collision, but it did get slightly scratched in the low side/low speed slide-out I mentioned above.
Now I had already decided that I wasn't crazy about the way it looked on the bike, and was planning to sell it. So when I was doing all the repainting on the bike I took the windscreen off, stripped the black paint down to the primer, sanded off the scrapes and reprimed it with duplicolor acrylic primer. It looks very good now, and I'll take some pictures to post so you can see for yourself. If you know where the scrape was, you can kind of tell that it has been sanded down slightly in that area, but honestly its not noticeable unless you're specifically looking for it. Anyway, I'll post pictures soon and then you can make an informed offer. The good news is that now it's primed and ready to be painted whatever color you like.
Sounds good. I think you can already count it as sold to me. :) Toss up some pics & I'll PM you to work out a price.