Dead Dirty Vision

[Brian Moffet]

I pulled apart the forks today, after spending 4 dollars to make a tool (I don't think I have another tool as cheap.  No, wait, the 8mm hex was cheaper...)  It took a bit to get the nuts off the bottom, and when I looked at it after I was done, it looked like the threads had stripped!  Odd though, stripped thread remains are made of metal, not hard plastic...

On the right side for damper rod, I can see all the way through it.  On the left side, there looks to be a hard brown plug down at the bottom, about where the bolt stops.  It's the left side that had the junk in it.  I assume that it is "extra" lock-tight or something similar the manufacturer had put in there for one reason or another.

Now I can pull the seals, and put in new ones.  I think I want to clean out the inside of the tubes of old oil and other junk, anyone have any good ideas on what to use?  Soap and water with a good hair dryer after?



Brian

[JakeC]

There are enough pieces off the bike now that I get a niggling fear in the back of my head that I won't remember to put something on. 

Wow, can I ever relate to that!!  I look at the mess of brackets, parts, and bolts, and wonder how the heck am I going to remember all this!  Somehow, though, everytime I start putting things back together and it just seems to make sense as I go.  I keep the parts organized, so there is some logic to it, but it still amazes me when it all goes back together.  Good luck with your project!!  Looks like you have your work cut out for yourself!

Jake

[Brian Moffet]

Today I picked up the necessary equipment to clean out the threads on the forks, and picked up some Appliance Paint, which is a hard, scratch and nick resistant paint for appliances.  I tried it on a small portion of the bike frame that was hidden, and decided it would do just fine.  I removed the rear shock, the fender, put newspaper around the parts I didn't want to paint right now, and went at it.  I need to clean up a little on the rear frame, but it looks good.  You can tell the difference by the way the rear suspension looks vs the frame above it.

[Brian Moffet]

Cleaned up the fork lowers and painted them.  Same paint as before, an appliance black from rustoleum.  Unfortunately, the bottom fork in this photo fell over before I had a chance to secure it properly for drying, so I have to take out the dead leaves and repaint portions of it.  I'm not completely stripping the old paint off, just where it is loose or has some corrosion under it.  I try and feather those areas before I paint it, but I can still see some mistakes.  It probably wouldn't win awards at a show, but it will be solid and look good from 3 feet.

To keep the paint from entering the inside, I put the old dust seals back in, you can see it in the bottom fork, I removed it after painting on the top fork.  Now these babies can go back together (well, one at least!)

Not sure I'll get the engine looking as good, if possible I'm avoiding pulling it.

Brian

[Brian Moffet]

Today I cleaned up the fork lower that had fallen over last week, and repainted it. It promptly slipped and rolled around on the newspaper I was using to protect things. We'll try for take 3 on that one. I also painted the top portion of the triple clamp where the idiot lights go. I have a picture of it, but I've discovered that the high gloss black doesn't photograph very well.
I also wanted to get something put back together. So, I put the right fork back together. There is no oil in it right now, because I will be ordering some progressive fork springs for the forks. When I get those, I'll put oil in the fork. However, one thing has gone back together and is ready to go back on the bike. The bike is not ready yet, but that's another week.

[Mutt]

Nice! You'll definately have to change the name from "Dirty Vision".

Mutt

[Brian Moffet]

A combination of restoration and deconstruction today, I painted the lower triple clamp after I carefully wrapped plastic around the taper bearings to keep them clean. I also repainted, for the final time, the fork lower I've been having problems with.
I took off the radiator and the wiring harness to make it easier to get to the frame and the front valve cover. I removed the valve cover, which wasn't too hard, and look at what I had to do. It looks fairly easy to check the clearences and I'll be getting the guages to do that. In the mean time, my upper triple clamp below.

Oh yes, now that the wiring harness is out, I start getting that dread of "How in the h*ll am I going to get this back together???"  I keep telling myself, you have the manual, and the Haynes guide, and this forum...

[Brian Moffet]

Today I got quite a bit done. The remaining fork was put together, and the front part of the frame was painted. In addition I put the upper and lower triple clamps on with the forks. It's starting to look like motorcycle again. I also tried polishing the right engine case with Mother's Aluminum polish, and it's going to take quite a bit of work to remove the years of tarnish and stuff. However, the chrome radiator tubes polished up quite nicely.

Since I had the triple clamps off, I greased the stearing head bearings. I had long ago put in tapered bearings, and they seem to be doing quite well.  I won't annoy you with the other photos here, you can look at them on my website if you want.

[glennw]

Brian...
Next time we see you I don't think we will know it's your V....
Maybe the CROV spring run?
or at least the 25th V meeting in CO?
Nice to see you are doing it right!
GlennW

[Brian Moffet]

Next time we see you I don't think we will know it's your V....

Yeah, I'll create a new account and act like a newbie    My goal is to have it running (barring rebuilding the engine) by Jan 1, 2007.

Brian

[h2olawyer]

Looking great, Brian.  Hope to see it out here next June!

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

I spent quite a bit of time, probably an hour, cleaning most of the front wheel. I took a scrubbing pad to the gold portions, and with the exception of some nooks and crannies, returned the gold to almost new. After I finished with the scrubbing, some mother aluminum polish on the non-gold parts brought those to a real shine.

I also finished putting the bike back on the front end. This means I was able to take out the engine support which had been keeping the bike from falling over since July 23rd. 2 months later and the Vision is supporting itself all over again.

I'm almost done with painting the frame, I have to do the center section and the swing arm. I finished painting the W-mount and the removable support that goes on the right side of the engine.

Sometime soon, I'll be checking the valves for clearences and checking the compression in the cylinders.

[haunter]

she is looking GREAT!

if I can rent some good garage space this winter, I hope to paint the swingarm and shaft drive unit............maybe paint the front forks if I still am stuck with 82 forks

[Brian Moffet]

Yeah, I'm pleased with it so far.  And since I just got back one of my other projects (one I didn't want to be, but an accident forced the issue)...  I can now concentrate on getting the Vision done without worrying about my daily driver.



Brian

[haunter]

nice FC!  VERY clean  S3 4 or 5?  I can't tell that much of the differences on those 

my buddy has an 89 Turbo II he has done some minor work too.....

[Brian Moffet]

FC Series 4.  1987 base model, I purchased it from the dealer in December 1986.

Brian

[haunter]

FC Series 4.  1987 base model, I purchased it from the dealer in December 1986.

Brian

no wonder she looks so cherry!

how did you go about painting the swingarm?  just clean and paint over the powdercoat, strip it, or just rough it up?

[Brian Moffet]

I haven't painted the swingarm yet.  I'll clean it, wrap parts in plastic to keep the paint from getting in there, scrub with a scrubbing pad to roughen up the paint, and then paint it with gloss black appliance paint.  It seems to be doing a good job with all of the other parts I've painted on my Vision.  The swingarm will probably be all I do one day.

Brian

[Brian Moffet]

Well, my camera needed to go into the shop, so I don't have pictures.  I'll borrow one and put some in here.

However, I carefully masked off the rear swing arm, scrubbed it down as best as I could (okay, who ordered the rain for California!) and then painted the swing-arm.  I masked off the actual drive shaft, I'll take care of that another day.  I had so much blue tape and newspaper on it to try and keep from painting parts I didn't want.  I was able to get it painted, except for the cross-member where the swing arm connects to the frame.  I may not get to that, it's pretty difficult.

I also put the handlebars back on the bike, along with the instrument cluster.  While doing this, I noticed I had the ignition cluster 180 degrees out.  Easy fix. 

I've got progressive forks on order now from denniskirk, along with brake pads for the front.  Any order over 100.00 is free shipping (and 103.00 is over 100 :-) )

Once I put the progressives in, I'll seal up the front end with 15 wt oil, and that part will be done. I think the next thing to happen will be the drive shaft and clean up the rear wheel so it can go back on.  I need to pick up a bunch of cotter pins to replace the ones I removed.  I also am still considering a new rear shock, but we'll see how that one works out. 

Brian

Here's a picture that shows the difference between painted and non-painted areas.  The drive-train and mid frame have not been painted, the rest has.  Mostly it's a matter of careful masking to make sure over-spray doesn't get to someplace.  If possible, I would have had the frame powder-coated, but this seems to work fairly well.

[Brian Moffet]

Got my progressive springs.  Silly me also ordered one set of brake pads.


For a 1983 vision, with dual front brakes...

Doh.