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Looks like a lucky escape, the bike is coming along nicely

Thanks for the pics on you project bike, looking good!
Glad your fallen tree did not hit any of your buildings.
We had high winds in Illinois yesterday also and a large branch fell in our back yard.
The good news is that the winds blew all of the leaves off of my lawn!

Looks good so far. If you're planning on fitting a stock exhaust I think it is going to interfere with your center-stand which is why the LTD never came with one. I had a '78 until 5 years ago and made a rear axle lift as it is a pain not to have a center-stand, but trust me, they do look way better without one.

wrote:

Looks good so far. If you're planning on fitting a stock exhaust I think it is going to interfere with your center-stand which is why the LTD never came with one. I had a '78 until 5 years ago and made a rear axle lift as it is a pain not to have a center-stand, but trust me, they do look way better without one.



This bike came with a chrome Kerker when my uncle bought it in 78'. The header tubes were in pretty rough shape. I bought a Delkevik stainless exhaust system for it that is supposed to clear the centerstand. The Delkevik system we put on the 80' Suzuki GS 1100E fits perfectly with the centerstand on. We don't care about how it looks with the centerstand on because you can't see it while riding the bike.

 

We started installing the wiring harness after some repairs. We also installed the swingarm and shocks today.I have been cleaning up the fork lowers after stripping off the clear coating with a brake fluid bath. I'll be giving them a satin finish with 400g and using only sanding strokes around them, not lengthwise. I also smooth out any casting ribs and rough sandcast texture before sanding.

I finally finished the first fork lower. Then I figured out we got the wrong gauge mount and we needed different intake boots for the RS34 carbs. We sorted that out and got the K&N pods on the way. We also ordered a new gauge wiring harness because all of the bulb sockets self destructed pulling them out of the broken gauge mounting bracket while pulling out of gauges from the broken gauge mount.

That fork looks excellent!

Yes forks look great!  What was you technique ?  Brake fluid is a fantastic paint stripper and 400 grit sandpaper? Wet? 
please share  Thanks!

wrote:

Yes forks look great!  What was you technique ?  Brake fluid is a fantastic paint stripper and 400 grit sandpaper? Wet? 
please share  Thanks!



After the brake fluid bath I use a 6" coarse flat file and a fine round file to remove any casting and grinding flaws. Then if I need to because of corrosion pits I start dry sanding with 220g. Then I use 320g and finish with 400g.
All sanding strokes are around the part, never any lengthwise sanding strokes except for the fender and caliper mounting lugs. They are sanded with only lengthwise sanding strokes. Kinda like painting six panel doors, all of the brush strokes in the proper direction.
It turns out very close to the original finish but way better because of filing the casting flaws smooth before sanding. Hope this helps.



 

Mmm six panel doors?   Wow, quite the coincidence 

what I did last weekend!

Yesterday we picked away at the wiring harness repairs and did the final fitting on the new seat. We also installed the battery box, electrical panel, rear brake master cylinder and pedal. I'm still working on smoothing the upper triple tree and refinishing the fork lowers.

Bike looks really good Kelly; you should be proud of what you have achieved and in a short timeframe