A couple of things are now in the completed file. First, the muffler is mounted to the chassis. The exhaust wasn’t manufactured for a 1981, but I got it to fit. Looks real nice, if I do say so myself. It sits low, which adds to the low-slung look that I’m going for.
Don’t mind the wooden board. It’s there to hold the rear brake lever in the down position. I’m hoping it induces some gravity bleeding to the rear brake.
Bleeding brakes on older Japanese bikes has been a pain in the tookus, at least for me. This time, I bought Speed Bleeders and installed them without even messing around with any of the frustrating brake-bleeding methods. Then, I learn that they don’t work very well at all when bleeding a dry system. On to other things then for now…
The drive foot pegs are on the chassis too, minus the long rear sets or whatever they may be called. Mounting the foot pegs without the rear sets cleans up the look and gives me room for a heel-toe shifter. It will have to be fabricated, but I have a good starting platform in a heel-toe shifter off another bike. A little cutting, a little welding, some grinding and polishing, it should look good.
Changing and installing the foot and hand controls has been a lesson in patience. My mind tells me to go fast because I’ve worked with these things hundreds of times, so let’s go. I mean it’s only a cable or lever or whatever. But…getting everything routed just so and making sure all the little pieces are there and not interfering with one another can be tedious. It doesn’t seem like it should be though…so maybe I’m just old and cranky.
I know I mentioned Quick-Glo in the previous post, but this stuff flat out gets the job done. These pieces are the backside of the instruments—speedometer and tachometer—which, like all the other parts of the bike, suffer from corrosion, oxidation, rust. Not anymore.
I don’t have pics of the tank and side covers. They’ve been thoroughly shot with primer and about ready for color. I’m going to get complicated with the paint job—three colors, pin stripes and graphics. I’ve never attempted anything like this so I hope it works out. We’ll see.
Next: Brake lines and carburetors