So the FZR project is for sale...

[400bandit]

Hello all, as some of you may know, I have recently bought a 1987 FZR750 with the intention of lightly streetfightering it. It was initially going to be just a case of throwing on some renthals and changing the gastly headlight it came with... However, as with many projects there's just that extra thing you think to do now I have a mini project on my hands! I intend to strip it back a little, paint the engine, fit a jack up kit, sort out the front ends electrics (they work but look shit all wrapped in leccy tape) fit twin headlights and fit a set of renthals. If I have the money/dad wants to help out I want a mito or r6 seat and sub frame to graft on and replace the clocks too.

As I got her;

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/7dd8_11.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/7cca_11.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/7ec6_11.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/7fba_11.jpg

The bike has been sitting at home for a while and I have only just got back from Uni (well got back saturday). First things first, wheel her into the garage...well maybe, bollocks, the brakes have siezed on. Sort that out and she's finally in the garage. Maybe not, we have a massive garage (well I think it's fairly big) yet there wasn't room to fart! My dad has horses and prefers to drive them so he thinks he needs three carts! (two two wheeled and a four wheeler) Plus all the tack, has 3 pairs of harnesses and then a few single sets. On top of all off that, he has his harley in there (Pretty much a barge on wheels). Anyway rant over, after a jiggle around I finally made enough room to work around.

First day I just took off what was left of its fairings, tank, air box, carbs and exhaust

Tank off
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0718.jpg

Air box off
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0724.jpg

Carbs off
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0726.jpg

Day two:

Time to start getting the engine out. This was the second engine I have taken out before but the first one was a monkey bike style engine and sooooo much more simple. However, it wasn't too bad. Wasted time making stupid mistakes like wondering why the sprocket cover wouldn't come off only to realise there was another bolt to come out! Took a while to "un-plumb" the engine, mainly as I was trying to remember where everything needed to go back (I've taken pics and masked and marked cables and such)only problem I really had was when taking off the cradle, one sides bolt would not come out and the same one on the other side just fell out, its still stuck in the engine but I will apply some heat to it tomorrow along with some love taps!. Anyway, here are a few pics from today;

Radiator removed, all un-plugged, just the cradle remains
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100.jpg

Cradles taken off and engine is out!
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0741.jpg

Top Yolke removed to have some risers made
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0746.jpg

Wiring nightmare!
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0743.jpg


Jobs for tomorrow, clean up engine and maybe get a coat of paint on (or two?) Fit the jack up kit and polish the exhaust (full stainless quill)

Joe

(p.s. anyone else think I should polish the frame, I really want to but I've never done it before, how hard is it? Also, anyone have a suitable seat unit going cheap?)
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[TUG]

IF and i'm not sure, but IF it has an exup keep it in and base your carbs up around it. Try and keep it tasteful and original.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

[400bandit]

Nope, it's not an EXUP so I don't have to worry about any of that

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[TUG]

[400bandit]

Well I know that. The bike ran sweet before hand, its only done about 20/25000 miles

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[Whosthedaddy]

The FZR is a piece of piss to dismantle and put back together again except for one part, the air box and trying to seat the rubbers.

The only thing I couldn't do when my engine was out was remove the exhaust as some of the studs had seized and promptly snapped. Its a bit fiddle to clean with man sized hands but some patience and time it can look good.

Frame polished?

I started to clean mine and rubbed the frame sticker off and yes it does look good all shiny but may need lacquer to protect it in the long run so I painted mine, powder coat would have been better and more cost effective.

Don't worry about the wiring, just take pics as you have done and remember that there is only one of each connector so just connect the easy ones first, lamp, horn, switch gear etc and then continue until they are all done. The hardest part about it is the routing od the cables...under or over . This led me to doing things twice, three times as further on down the line I wondered why something wouldn't fit or why the throttle cable was tighter than a newbies ringer on their first day doing porridge.

I loved taking my FZR apart and the satisfaction of standing back and admiring an honest days 'work', and as for the first time it turns over and fires.

That said, they are ugly as feck.

Should be a nice winter project.
____________________
Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[400bandit]

Haha, funny you should mention the airbox business, it pretty much just fell off, I don't think it was put on properly.

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[Whosthedaddy]

[400bandit]

I think that the tank and seat unit must be slightly different to the 600 as I only had to remove the seat and two bolts to get it off
I think the front looks wierd because of the wrap around mudguard. I would like to swap the front end for a USD one but I'm doing this on a shoe string budget to be honest. It shouldn't look too bad with the twin headlights, smaller indi's and tidy wiring, oh plus the renthals (got the fat bars which I think look pretty good)

Today I got fuck all done as apparently I'm supposed to buy christmas presents and I was reminded that its only on tuesday
Got the engine up onto the bench and started to clean it up, I've realised that I only need to paint the cylinders and head as the rest of the paint is pretty good Used cillit bang and WD40 mainly to clean it up which worked pretty good. I got kinda stumped when trying to clean the area of interest though, I was banking on nitro morse paint stripper but it seems that enamal withstands it After that I was called in to finish off the hardboarding in the kitchen that my dad tasked me with as the floor is being laid tomorrow.

So the question at the moment is, what is the best way to take the scabby paint off without sanding it and then leaving scores in the metal that will show through paint? I suppose bead blasting or similar would be good but I'm not going to take the engine apart. Any ideas?

I have now found a love for polishing, uh oh... Only had a quick dable with it on a heel guard, not as hard as I thought. I do have a secrete weapon mind, a Black n Decker mouse! I didn't do it properly and skipped grades just to see what it's like. I did a spout with 240 on the mouse then a quick go with 600 wet n dry by hand then 1500 and then 2000 wet n dry with the mouse followed by autosol and then peak polish - result, not bad at all, there are still some light marks which I think would have come out if i had spent more time on the 240 and 600. So in conclusion, I am going to polish my frame (also a quick trial of autosol on my downpipes looks very promissing )

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[400bandit]

Back to the whole paint stripping thing, I think it might have something to do with the fact that the paint striper is really old, hmm, I'll get a new tin tomorrow and an abrassive pad thingymabob if all else fails.

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[hmmmnz]

dont polish the frame!!!
it looks cool, but every few weeks you'll have to polish it, because just like steel ali also oxidizes and then looks like shit,
there are some cool looking single seat units on ebay from a guy in germany, i have a speed triple one on my bike and its quite well made, although you still have to do a bit of filling and painting,
stick with the right way up forks, usd's just add extra weight, although they look cool as,

you have a good base, to work from,
keep the pics coming

____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[400bandit]

I know what you are saying about not polishing it but I really want to, hmm. How about putting a coat of lacquer over the top once I have polished it, I doubt it will look as good but surely better than a standard frame. Don't worry about the forks, with my sort of budget there's no chance of USDs
I was thinking about them seat units but the thing is it's not as cheap as it seems, I'd still have to sort out a sub frame rather than just modifying one and then there's lights and undertray. All adds up, theres a complete mito seat on ebay at the moment which I have my eye on, ends in two days so hopefully it will be the mito end. I do have a ducati tail piece and subframe at home but the seats a race seat and I'm sure it's wider than normal? (It's a bit trick too, I'm sure it's not just a fibre glass one, pretty sure it's kevlar )
Anyway, now I have finally cracked the once thought invinsible engine paint, I should make some decent progress, will get some more pics up tomorrow

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[hmmmnz]

yeah laquar is sweet as, i have used it on my single sider after polishing away all the scratches, if your dead set on doing it then defently clearcoat it. and do lots and lots of thin layers,
i used a scouring disc from b&q that fit my grinder, it looks like a thick green scotch pad,, and that worked a treat for removing the paint, it does leave small scratches, but they actually look quite cool under the clear coat,

as for seat unit, the 2 sets of seat units ive done on my 2 fighters have worked out approx the same, 1 gsxr subframe and seat unit £100 and still had to paint,
and £59 for speed 3 unit, + £10 for led brake/tail light £12 for micro indicators, then a wee bit of bog(filler) and lots of hours cutting my old subframe and painting,
i prefer to have something that is individual to my bike,
but if i could have done it easier with the mito ... i would have

your problem is going to be the same as mine was, in the fact that your seat plastics go under the tank, and don't just stop at the base of it, so you will always be left with a gap under the tank.


i would also recomend koso clocks as they seem to be the only clocks out there that have a water temp guage built in,
they dont look as trick as the acewell ones, but they are far easier to install (wire up) and they have many more functions and are lower price as well,

any way, keep us posted, i like seeing fighter builds keep it up
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[400bandit]

Ok, a little bit of an update, I finally managed to get that paint off . Took some doing I can tell you, 4 goes overs with the new nitromors (not counting re-application in the same coat) and that was after trying old nitromors and wikes own paint stripper! Anyway... finally got some paint on there, it's not great but I am happy with it, I knew that it would never be perfect but it's a damn sight better than the flakey shit that was on there. To do a decent job I really need to strip the engine and get it blasted but I think that's just taking the project a little further than I want to at the moment (maybe the summer?)
Here's how the lump looked before any cleaning

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0747.jpg

Lifting it on to the bench nearly had my bowels on the floor! It's a pretty high bench too, about belly button height and I'm 6'2)

Here's a pic showing the area of interest a little better

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0750.jpg

I forgot to take a pic of it all cleaned up but here shows a little area that came up well (and made me decide to only paint the cylinders and head)
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0751.jpg

Here's my paint area...
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0761.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0762.jpg

I'll get some better pics of it without all the paper everywhere once I'm happy there's enough paint on there.

I was playing around with the Ducati seat and it looks pretty sweet
https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0764.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0766.jpg

Only thing is that it needs more work than it's worth, has too many cracks in it and I don't want a race seat unit (even though they do look cool)

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[funmonkee]

Nice

If you want to go a step further a signle sided swingarm is a cool mod. Just so happens I have a full VFR800 rear end (wheel+good tyre, swing arm, brakde disc, caliper)...for sale £200 + postage... It would require too much mod to fit my gsxr
____________________
**** Don't ride faster than your angel can fly Get this Free Space
The democratically elected Mod of the Scottish Section - The Peoples Choice[b]

[400bandit]

I'd love to but I really can't afford it, getting a seat unit is a huge stretch as it is I really want some nice clocks too, was thinking digital at first but now I think that a pair of chrome analogue ones will look much better.
Hopefully tomorrow I can get the frame polished (and if I really push the boat out get it lacqured too but I doubt it)
Not looking forward to sorting the wiring, it shouldn't be hard, its just going to be bloody boring, the whole front end of it is just taped up so I'm gonna re-do the connections and heat shrink it, also want to hide the coils and whatever else I can, inside the frame to give a cleaner look. The main thing thats going to let the project down is going to be the thermostat which sits on top of the radiator, anyone think of a way to clean that up?
Thanks for all the hints, tips and support people, this is the first time I have ever really done anything to a bike so it's quite a leap, fun though

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[400bandit]

OK guys, do not fear I haven't given up. Christmas and all that jazz has slowed me down a lot more than hoped but things are back up to speed and it should be nearly finished. I will give a full up date either later on tonight or tomorrow but here's a list of whats been done;

Engine painted
Cradles painted
Frame polished (I couldn't help myself )
Heel guards polished (and lacquered)
Jack up kit fitted
Yolke sanded down but not polished (keys will only ruin it)
Risers done to match yolke (also put beveld edges on them)
Bars, grips and controls all fitted
Twin headlights fitted
Idicators fitted
Painted bits an bobs
+ what seems like loads of pointless near-not-noticable-consuming-tasks (god I hate them too)

Almost all back together now, just trying to figure out what to do with the front ends wiring, now thinking junking most of it and going with a bicycle speedo?

All I have to do is the mentioned wiring and finish polishing th exhaust and then fluids, MOT and ride

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[400bandit]

Rights chaps (and ladies), here's how it looks, I'm more than happy with it, didn't think it would look as good as thing (also didn't think it would take as long as this )

Any way here are a few pics, I'll give a full write up when I am less in need of my bed.

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/Complete.jpg

https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/JoeSnowden/Project%20FZR750/100_0849.jpg

What do you think?

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[Stiffler]

Erm.... I think you could do with taking some daylight pictures and maybe use a better camera if possible! So we can fully appreciate your work.

All I can make out from those photos is that you've taken the fairing off, put some renthals & twin headlights on and made the fame shiny.
____________________
Current Bikes - Kawasaki ZX-6R (636) | BMW G650GS

[TUG]

I dont like it, no offence but you've not really changed the back end and thats the uglyiest part on the FZR's. Do a tail swap and a repaint then its good to go.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

[400bandit]

You gotta love this forum, someone buys a NC30 and washes it people go nuts for it.

Lonewolf, I don't know if you mean to but your comments don't always sound as thye should, I've said that this is done on a budget and there will be more modifications when funds allow and big on the list is a seat unit but i need about 100 quid to do it properly. As for the pictures, I took them at 3 O'clock this morning when I finished and because of the dodgey lighting in the garage I took them without flash.

And yes I know it pretty much looks like I have just stuck some renthals on but I can tell you I have done a fair bit more to is, mainly silly little things but they all take loads of time, painted various bits and pieces, sorted wiring out and all that. Like I said there will be more modifications to come (looking for a 1000cc lump) but being a 19 year old students money is a real issue, I'm happy with what I have at the moment.

Sorry to sound like a dick but I'm probably just tired

Joe
____________________
Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[Whosthedaddy]

[SoND]

Wouldn't call it a streetfighter but it is nicely cleaned up. Good work

[hmmmnz]

i think it looks good
i hope you laquared the frame???
just need to cable tie the wireing at the front and she'd be good to go

if you dont want the ducati tail ill take it off ya hands, im bored with my tail
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[TUG]

I was untill i mocked it up and it looked wank, then i decided that i should just restore it. And its an 80's bike
I dont mean to sound like a wanker mate, but its not a fighter to me is all, and the back ends of the FZR's are the ugly part in my opinion, if you've not finnished it then why post "finnished" when i replied.
It is a little confusing you must admit.
Looking forward to the take on of the seat.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!