Off to the painter
All the body work is off the bike. The tank will be aired out and will be ready to pack up by the weekend. I'm anxious to see the new paint. It's going to be a long three week waiting.
Also discovered some pretty sloppy wiring fixes that were done on the tail light, turn signals and around the battery box. Oh well. I guess I'll be doing some wiring harness work too. I'm sure it's not going to be the last unexpected chore I'm going to find as the project progresses.
I posted a few new photos in the gallery (link in right column).
The Teardown Begins
The first step of the project was deciding on a paint scheme. Rather than reproducing the stock paint (this is a restification after all), I decided to duplicate the paint layout used on the 1979 GS1000S Wes Cooley replica bike. The purists will hate it but I really like the look so that's what I'm doing. I decided to use Josh Hot Rods in Springfield, Ohio to do the paint. His work looks great, the price is very reasonable and he seems like a nice guy as well. We'll see how it turns out.
Tonight I pulled all the body work - tank, fender, tail and side panels. Once the tank airs out for a couple of days, I'll pack it all up and ship it off.
The next step is to strip everything down to the frame. A quick check after pulling the bodywork showed that the frame is in pretty good shape. No rust is apparent, just lots of grease and junk. Closer inspection will determine whether or not the frame needs to be powdercoated when the swingarm and triple tree are done.
Introduction
Hi and welcome. This blog is devoted to the restification (restoration/modification) of my 1978 Suzuki GS750C.
I started riding in the late 70s and restored/rode a 1975 Honda 550K until an unforturate encounter with an oblivious driver in the spring of 1985. After recouperating, I still wanted to ride but was leary of the street so I took up racing. I campained a Husky in hill climbs and hare scrambles and a Kawasaki in enduros until retiring in 1990. At that point, I sold the race bikes and I put my last remaining bike, a dual sport 1984 Honda XL250R into storage.
Flash forward to 2005. I took a new job (computer geek) and several of my new coworkers were riders. I was again bitten by the bug, big time. To my wife's dismay, out came the Honda. A carb rebuild later, I'm riding again! Yahoooooo.
It didn't take long for the 250 to feel too small so I started a search for another '75 Honda 550K. Found one in Brooklyn, NY that I bought but the owner couldn't produce a title. Back to the search.
In last August I was checking eBay for any 70s UJM (universal Japanese mototcycle) when I spotted a 1978 Suzuki GS750. $840 later, she was mine. The bike came from Z1 Entriprises (www.z1enterprises.com) in Marion, NY, near Rochester. Jeff, the owner, was great to deal with and I highly recommend him for any of your vintage Japanese bike needs (end of commercial).
The bike had 10,945 miles on it and was in fairly good condition. The rear tire was about shot and went flat on me the first week I had the bike. It'd been over 15 years since I changed a tire and it took me two hours to do it on the side of the road - 97 degrees, sweat in the eyes, cussing at the tire irons - what a blast! Now this is fun.
I've put about 3,000 miles on the bike since then with no other mishaps. New Avon tires, front and rear, NOS Jardine exhaust and a windscreen are about all the things I've done so far but I've got plans....lots of plans.
I've rented a garage for the winter so I've got a place to work. Stay tuned to follow my restification.
