1974 XS/TX650 rebuild

[th62]

Painted the tank, seat, guards, headlight and callipers with 2k clearcoat this morning. Unfortunately, I can't wear glasses under the respiration so I couldn't see too clearly - bloody great run on the tank, damn. Couldn't get any non isocyanate free, so just the usual 2K.

It's been over 40 years since I used 2k, so I couldn't remember what coverage was like, how much paint I'd need, googled it in various painting forums. 2litres minimum for frame, tank, guards seat, headlight I was advised. Armed with that knowledge, I shyed away from 2k because it would have cost near as damn it to $450/$500.

Seems our painting professionals haven' a clue., I mixed up 250mm clear, 125mm catalyst and a little thinners. Got three coats down on tank, guards, seat, headlight and callipers and still had 200mm of mixed paint left.

By the look of it, I won't be spending anytime compounding or polishing the paintwork.

This pic should give you some idea why painting and, polishing aren't my favourite past times. Scared the crap out of the dog.

[th62]

As you are probably aware, when fuel runs low in bike tanks tank, due to the tunnel one carb can run dry, BS carbs overcome that problem by linking the carbs via a short hose between them. I run VM carbs on the TX so there is no fuel link. Previously I had a jumble of hoses and T piece barbs linking the petcocks, but that was just so untidy, so today I made a fuel distributor. Not quite finished yet: I still have to drill the linking gallery through so the petcocks are linked, but, I don't have a 4.5mm drill long enough, so I'll have to drill from both sides and blank one side off with a screw and copper washer, then punch in three brass barbs, clean it up a little, round off the edges and polish it.

The distributor mounts underneath the front lip of the ally battery carrier I made some time ago.. A tube from each petcock attaches to the two inner barbs via a small filter, fuel line links the two outer barbs to the carbs.

I was going to make one with integral sintered bronze filters, but the unit would have been LARGE , so I decided to go with the two inline filters.

The left side works well, plenty of room for the hoses and filter as the carb hose attaches to the side of the distributor, but the right side is a little crowded as the fuel inlet on the carb is on the same side as the left hand carb, I may have to make another just a few mm wider.

I'm going into hospital today for five days, that'll be followed by about of month sitting on my bum, so it'll have to wait a while before I can finish it off.

[asterix]

As you are probably aware, when fuel runs low in bike tanks tank, due to the tunnel one carb can run dry, BS carbs overcome that problem by linking the carbs via a short hose between them. I run VM carbs on the TX so there is no fuel link. Previously I had a jumble of hoses and T piece barbs linking the petcocks, but that was just so untidy, so today I made a fuel distributor. Not quite finished yet: I still have to drill the linking gallery through so the petcocks are linked, but, I don't have a 4.5mm drill long enough, so I'll have to drill from both sides and blank one side off with a screw and copper washer, then punch in three brass barbs, clean it up a little, round off the edges and polish it.

The distributor mounts underneath the front lip of the ally battery carrier I made some time ago.. A tube from each petcock attaches to the two inner barbs via a small filter, fuel line links the two outer barbs to the carbs.

I was going to make one with integral sintered bronze filters, but the unit would have been LARGE , so I decided to go with the two inline filters.

The left side works well, plenty of room for the hoses and filter as the carb hose attaches to the side of the distributor, but the right side is a little crowded as the fuel inlet on the carb is on the same side as the left hand carb, I may have to make another just a few mm wider.

I'm going into hospital today for five days, that'll be followed by about of month sitting on my bum, so it'll have to wait a while before I can finish it off.

There is also « dead space » between the two air filters. This is where I plan to hide my fuel filters on my Bonneville.

[IntheGroove]

It would be great if you could figure out a way to put the sintered bronze filters in the block. And get well soon...

[Rikk]

Another nice job!

Heal quick, I'm sure you will come up with many more things to do the the 650 while you recover.

Take care

[th62]

New fuel distributor.
I binned the fuel distributor I was making, too big, and made another smaller one. The design has changed a little: There are outlet spigots either side of the fuel distributer which feed the carbs via fuel hoses, the two outlet spigots are joined by a 4.5mm through hole. A line from the petcock feeds into small plastic filters which feed into the two brass spigots on the front of the distributor, via fuel hose, and these feed into the 4.5mm through hole.

The brass spigots have been undercut on the face connecting to the distributor to allow for an O ring. The brass spigots are a push fit in the distributor so shouldn't leak, the O rings are just added insurance.

This was about as neat as I could make it and certainly neater than the jumble of hoses, adapters and T pieces I had there before.

I didn't bother polishing the ends, that was a mistake - looks unfinished, so I'll have to remove it and polish the ends.

Here's lots of pics (as usual), including the build process.

[th62]

I stripped the clear coat off the side panels because the polishing wasn't good enough. Interestingly, After soaking the 2k clear just wiped off the blasted inner surface, the outer polished surface was a different matter, had to scrub and scrub and scrub to get it off.

Then I polished again: Sisal and black, sewn cloth and white and then loose leaf cloth with green. Finish was pretty good, but I wanted better so finished off with a loose leaf Swansdown mop and green compound. Normal loose leaf cloth mops are calico, Swansdown is a finer, softer material providing a better finish. But don't be fooled, all mops, sisal, calico and even Swansdown mops leave streaks in the aluminium, you just have to look closely. You can reduce the streaks by polishing in different directions leaving a cross hatch finish, again, if you look close enough. Polishing with a very soft touch will reduce the streaking even further.

The compound is what does the polishing, don't use enough compound and all you'll produce is heat. Compounds when running lean will leave little globs on the surface of the material, particularly around holes and edges, particularly green compound.

I use Silvo as a final hand polish, Silvo has a finer texture than aluminium polishes such as Meguires and Autosol, so provides a better finish. Final polishing with Silvo and a microfibre cloth will also scratch the material, particularly if used in a circular motion. So, take note of the direction in which the streaks run, polish with the microfibre in the same direction, streaks are then less noticeable. These streaks are hardly noticeable unless you look very, very closely and are very, very fussy, not something you would normally notice.

I've been at it for over 55 years, so I'm very fussy. Here's some final polishing I did today; side panels, engine mounts and a filter mount I made some time ago. Aluminium will never polish up like chrome or stainless, it is a more 'subdued' shine, which I prefer. Nevertheless, it does come up nice providing a good mirror finish. In pic three you can see the hairs on my fingers..

[th62]

The clear coat on the forks and sides wasn't up to scratch so I stripped them and re polished them. I also re-polished the chain adjusters, headlight brackets and brake backing plate. I might make some new headlight brackets, these ones are looking a little shabby. Brake backing plate came up pretty good with just a quick rub on the mop . The wheels have been sitting on the floor of the study for a couple months now so have lost a bit of their shine. When I've finished with the other bits I'll de spoke and polish up the hubs and rims again.

[th62]

I've clear coated most of the polished aluminium, smaller bits, just have the wheels to finish. Unfortunately, the clear coat dulls the shine quite a bit. Funny stuff to spray on polished aluminium: I had to spray a very light coat first, give it a few minutes then hit it again with a heavier coat so the paint would pool and flatten out. Still a bit of orange peel though, particularly on the triangular engine mount. The clear coat doesn't behave the same over painted surfaces, just polished aluminium, very disappointed in the finish. I may not clear coat the wheels as they'd be hard to get the clear to pool, there's a very fine line between pooling and a run. Float coating seems to just run and build up on the edges. I'm also thinking of painting the side covers black, they just didn't come up to scratch.

[th62]

A little premature, but I did a little detailing. Stainless fasteners don't look the best straight off the shelf, so I've started neatening them up a little. Allen heads have striations on the side of the heads and numbers stamped on the face of the heads, so I chucked a heap of them and turned them down a little before polishing. Hex heads were very rough, so they were ground down a little before polishing. I ground and polished the ends of any bolts that were seen as well as removing the excess thread..
I've only done one side of the bike, tomorrow I'll tackle the other. Then the engine fasteners, a few little ones on the carbs. I haven't done the washers, can't figure out how to hold them without polishing the ends of my fingers.
The footpeg holes to which I mount the mufflers are 12mm, heads of the fasteners on the inside looked like they'd scrape against the swingarm, so I turned up some brass shim tubes and pressed them into place so I could use 10mm fasteners, they just clear the swingarm.
Once I've finished, I'll remove the clear coat and just leave the ally bare.