Back in 96 when I was 19 I bought a brand new GSX-R 750 using Suzuki's free TPFT insurance which was free when you used their finance. In 98 they ran the scheme again and so I bought another one, a 98 (now injected) version. I've owned a lot of new bikes but this was the only one I missed; About 4/5 years ago I spotted one identical that had been stored for 14 years and had just 3500 miles from new. I made an offer which was accepted. It had already had its tyres renewed, I gave it a full service and stuck a 1000 miles on it within a week taking it to the TT and back. This is it on Douglas sea front. All was well, but it did have a few bits on it that had suffered due to poor storage. The anodising had started to fail a little bit on the rough castings which got me thinking about stripping it and having the frame re-finished. Then, I thought, If I'm going that far....
I decided that I would fully strip the bike, have the frame, sub-frame and swinging arm Cerakoted and then rebuild it with some significant improvements. I started compiling parts and bought; GSX-R1000 K8 forks, yokes, brakes, wheels and wheel spindles. I stripped the forks, had the tubes mirror polished and then anodised gold, I then had then fork bottoms vapour blasted and Cerakoted. The whole lot was then dropped at MCT who rebuilt them with new springs, seals and valving to suit the SRAD. This has a triple benefit; 1) They look cool 2) They should improve the handling 3) They allow a much better brake set-up. The GSX-R 1000 wheels are much lighter than the SRAD wheels and so aid acceleration, turning, braking and handling. They look a bit nicer too. I found A NOS full Yoshi Tri-Oval System and Arrow rear-sets in Greece and snapped them up. I also found a cosmetically very good Ohlins rear shock. That will get a full rebuild. While all this was being brought together, I found a set of R1 calipers off a 200 mile bike which are much better and lighter than the GSX-R 1000 ones and so they came in and the Tokico's were eBayed. Some pics;
From here my plan was to have the motor flowed, ported and maybe some cams and then when back together, the ECU re-flashed to suit that and the Yoshi system. Last was to have the the whole bike painted. However, then I bought a building plot and am now in the process of selling and moving in to temporary accommodation while building a house. The last thing I need is a bike in a million pieces right now. So the big plan has been put on hold and the parts mothballed. What I decided to do was; Cerakote any easily removable parts, fit the brand new tank (Which I bought right after buying the bike), fully service it again, change the brake hoses, pads, coolant hoses, chain and sproket set, rebuild the original forks with new seals and oil, new mirrors, fit a quick action throttle (again already had it) and new tyres. The end result will be a very tidy, fully fresh bike which will be a pleasure to use for the next couple of years before I unleash plan A on it. I have made a start; This is where the frame anodising had started to fail, it will be Cerakoted in the future but for now I have soda blasted it and then treated with ACF-50. I'm pretty pleased with the improvement.
Thank you for all the kind replies, I must admit that I didn't really expect anyone to be interested on here. As I hinted at, I'm a little way ahead of the above, I'll put an update on this evening, bear with me. I would have put more on last night but I was having issues with picture sizes, probably as most of them were taken on my camera. I take tons of pictures to help remember the orientation of things - my memory doesn't work anymore... Standby...
If you get some pictures without explanation, it's because I'm just pulling it all about and trying to edit it etc...
After the soda blasting it was time to strip the bike of all the parts to be Cerakoted. Head fairing, headlight, clocks removed to get to the fairing support bracket which had started to flake. Side panels, forks, wheel and mudguard off, top yoke still in position. I ran it up to temperature like this to thin the oil prior to draining it, prior to removing the engine cases. Engine cases pulled as was the top yoke. I gathered all the parts to be Cerakoted together and stripped the fuel filler down to every last piece...and then lost the 2mm ball bearing that locates the little key flap... Thank goodness for eBay. I only really take pictures as a reminder to me, I have already re-fitted the yoke and engine cases but have taken some pictures of a couple of finished cerakoted parts before and after so you can see the detail of the finish. I love this stuff, it's as hard wearing as powder coat but doesn't have a podgy finish and doesn't blow. It will chip but it chips like paint and the edges of the chip will stay stuck firmly to the base metal. I like it because you can use it on parts with very fine tolerances and it won't muck up the fitment because it adds just microns to the surface thickness. It's also a thermal heat barrier and is oil and chemical resistant. What you need to bear in mind is that because it's such a thin finish, it won't hide ANY surface imperfections. If you notice less weld spatter on the side stand, that's only because I ground it off prior to coating. NB; The fork bottoms above have also been Cerakoted. Anyway, pics; **IGNORE THESE LAST TWO PICTURES, THEY ARE REPEATED FROM ABOVE BUT I CANNOT DELETE THEM**
If you look carefully you can see some very faint pock marks on the black piece. Both inner and outer parts have been coated. I should have corrected the pock marks with wet and dry, but it is very minor. I mention it purely to reiterate, this stuff is superb but it hides NOTHING!!
Some side stand before and afters; I went for matt finishes instead of gloss, mainly as I forgot to ask for satin...which is what the fork bottoms are further up in this thread. Regardless, they look fine but it's no big deal to have them done again in the future if I decide to when I give the bike the full plan A.
Both engine cases had evidence of poor storage; This is the all the parts that have been Cerakoted just prior to being packed off; This lot was £132.50 including return postage.
With the forks out of the bike I was able to remedy the leaking fork seal. New seals and fork oil from Wemoto, the old oil was reassuringly clean.
I couldn't really do much with the bike while waiting for the return of the Cerakoted parts. This was mainly because the engine was not sealed and the bike was still caked in soda from the blasting process. What I did do though was cleaned up all the gasket faces and thoroughly degreased them ready for new gaskets and a sniff of ultra grey sealant. Once I had the Cerakoted parts back I refitted the engine cases, top yoke and forks to seal the engine and get it back on it's wheels so I could deal with the soda blasting. The more I took off the bike the more I realised that soda gets everywhere and the more the it looked like El Chapo had used it for his Deliveroo service; Henry hoover did his best;
