busa1300

Wiring....not my favorite thing to do, and I held off as long as I could to do it. The hand controls were pretty rough, so I took those completely apart and restored them. Generally cleaned up all wiring and ends, and fixed the chopped up ends from having a fairing (ignition and headlight were gone...had to hot wire it the first time I started it) Added new throttle cables and re lettered everything back to new fresh white labels Added Dyna coils, wires, and ignition to replace to old original parts....just because I don't want any problems with the old stuff while on the road. As well as rewired for a new super heavy duty reg/rectifier and lithium battery to keep peace of mind....if that's possible....

Damn.....that was a LONG time ago.... Anyway.... I originally wanted an XR11/TR/RG style front fender, but couldn't find one here in the US... So I took a 82 1100E model fender and cut the back off.....not quite the same, but I think it will work.

I originally went with 18's because I thought about vintage racing at one point, and rules call for 18's. but I also think the 18's help the bike look a bit smaller comparatively than if it had 17's.....plus 17's would have cost quite a bit more than my investment in these old used things.... The tach cable has plenty of room, I made sure there was no binding or clearance issues of any kind for any parts up front when I did my dry build. I wish I still had my first GS1000, bought it back in1982 with under 1500 miles....original owner had a friend who bought one same time. They went out riding one evening and only one of them ever came back....the bike never moved again until the guy sold it to me....This was where my love started for Suzuki's Traded it in June 0f 1984 for a new FJ1100.....OK, you can hate me now This is me back in fall of 82 smoking behind the building A perfect bike for a 19 year old to raise hell on

And it finally rests on it's own two feet again......

I soda blasted the GS1100E forks, then stripped them down and cleaned them up. Did a total rebuild with all new seals and bushing, went through the antidive, cut springs and added spacers, then topped off with 15w oil

Next, I had to get the bike up in the air a bit to get the suspension back up under it. It's almost looking like a bike again PS.....I had to stretch the rear footpeg/exhaust mounts out a bit to clear the GS1100 arm

Time to start bolting things back together I'm starting to feel better about all the time and money I've wasted on this now....

The day finally came... Engine going back where it belongs.....I'm finally making some progress here on this I put the engine in the same way I pulled it out.....But I did ask a friend to stop by to help me get it off the floor and back on the table.

I did say NUT and BOLT restoration.... Something I have seen on fully restored show only bikes.....and wished my bikes could look as fresh But I ride my bikes and have always thought it to be too much work to do every bolt, just to let them degrade with time/use.... Until now... I couldn't bolt the clean new looking engine, into a spotless frame with the bolts looking 38 years old

Stripped the bike back down after I welded up the damper bracket, and took it to get sandblasted and powdercoated. Made up a table to work on it, and now I am almost ready to start bolting things back together.....almost....

Yea...... I guess it helps from getting pics deleted.....

I picked up a set of 1983 GS1100E forks and a steering damper off a drag bike for the project.... And I lucked out and found an original paint matching blue tail piece, so it was time for a dry build to see if I was going in the right direction. I also had to put the front end together to figure out how to set up the steering damper. The paint on the frame was OK....but I decided after I welded up the mount the frame needed to be blasted and powdercoated next.

New tires for the wheels....I made a commitment to the spokes. Avon 150x70x18 and 110x80x18, much better than original sizes .....a bit modern yet oldskool....

Collecting more parts for the project A pair of Japanese home market 1994 final edition GSX1100S shocks And a Yoshimura oil cooler from Japanese auction site also...

I'll probably just hang onto the tank as decoration in garage.... It really is rusted BAD....holes even in the top, it's still full of scale inside, and any more rust removal will probably turn it to dust. With the renewed interest after getting the blue tank, I thought I'd play around with it a bit to visualize my next move. I had a front end and rear wheel from a 86 GSXR1100, that I wanted to test out on the GS....just to make sure I was going to go with the wire wheels (and decide what to get for tires for the wires) I really liked the GSXR look on the GS, but I needed a bike with wire wheels.....so the GSXR parts went to my GT750 project.

After getting the engine cleaned up and ready, I started thinking I am at a point where I need to decide how deep I really want to get into this. I couldn't put that engine back into the frame and just bolt it back together.....I had gone to far.... It had to be a COMPLETE nut and bolt restomod.....a direction I had never gone before with a bike. So after I got the tank, I became motivated again to get back onto the project and soda blasted my exhaust. No rust anywhere (all those years in a desert) but was scraped up in a few spots and a few small dents.... It looked good....but....not good enough. That was the last straw. This was not going to be a nice quiet stock looking bike, it had to have a header.

Thanks... Realizing the tank I had was just too far gone for a ratrod look, I started the search for another 78 tank.... Soon I realized there were non to be found.... On one occasion I had found a complete C model, that was about the same condition as the one I was restoring on craigslist....Except this one had a much better tank He wouldn't sell just the tank, but would take $350 for the whole bike....so that weekend I drove almost 2 hours after arranging to pick it up. I got there and the bike was gone (his story was someone stole it the night before....) Soooo..... After about 5 months a nice clean (externally) 78 C model tank popped up on Eblag....I didn't care where the bid would go, I was going to get that tank, because I was not going to try and buy a whole bike to get one.

Once the engine was out, I wanted to soda blast it and get it back to fresh aluminum. Repaint the top end. Then pull all the covers and polish them back up like new, and check the bottom and top end before I put everything back on with new bolts

I finally bit the bullet and decided to do this project right, and pull the engine. I do EVERYTHING on my own, so I did the proven lay the bike on it's side method... Worked great...

I hope you guys don't mind a lot of pics..........they tell more with less words.....

The rat rod look.....I actually had thought that was the route I would take, and try to use the tank. Tape up the seat....keep it rough looking but still able to haul ass. So I attempted to rescue the gas tank....I put in some vinegar to get the rust out from the inside, but planned on leaving the outside as is. After about 4 days the vinegar was gone and close to 50 holes appeared...!!!! So it was time to look for another tank, and some new ideas.

Thanks for the interest guys. I originally had the rear spoke wheel saved for a GT/TR750 project (that is still a long way off) But I wanted something somewhat oldskool, yet cool and updated just a bit. So I stole the wheel from the GT and grabbed a GT550 hub, found a 18x2.75 matching sun rim, and had stainless spokes made to fit them together (laced the front myself/first time) The rear was originally on a old drag bike and is a Sun 18x3.5 aluminum rim. After test fitting the bike with the GS1100 swing arm and wire wheels....I was 98% sure that was the route I was going to take. The GS1150 rotors were a perfect look/fit I was going for. The swingarm actually came from Japan....These 1100 swingarms are going for crazy money here in the USA. This one came from a GSX1100S (1984 home market Katana) for about $20. I also was buying parts for one of my RGV's so shipping wasn't a big deal.

Here's the other 78 I have.... been collecting parts for this for years to make a time period correct AMA style race rep.... problem is I keep bringing in other projects in front of it....one of these days I'll get it put together with a shelf full of stuff I have waiting...

Once I got the CBX going again, I spent a bit of time playing with the GS... I knew what parts I didn't want on it, but was not sure the parts I did want to use So it was time to dig in.....

Needless to say.....it took about six months to finally get a title for the bike. In the meantime I started collecting parts I thought I might want to use, as I still wasn't sure how I wanted to build it. Since I originally hadn't planned on having another project, the bike got pushed off to the side for a while, as I had a CBX to finish up (another long term project, that was so close I had to finish) Sorry about posting a Gurls blouse pic.....