Back with a M900 series I

[Albie]

Got my speedo cover replaced by a nicer on from Nasher but not the NOS one as it had an accident with a pavement . This one is as good as I want and may even be hidden behind a fairing but nice to know its decent. Tbh I got the scrape off my one but seems to have a coat of black paint on it so is looking ok if painted again.

You can see the scrape on this picture.




This is the better one.





Hoping to order the Simoniz paint recommended by Dookbob tomorrow if I can be assured right colour so painting of engine will go ahead. I need to make up some kind of cradle stand.

[Darren69]

When the rest of the bike looks that good, you need the engine to look good too? I've used Simoniz black engine paint on 2 stroke exhausts before and iirc it goes on pretty well and doesn't burn off too bad so it should last ok.

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Darren69

When the rest of the bike looks that good, you need the engine to look good too? I've used Simoniz black engine paint on 2 stroke exhausts before and iirc it goes on pretty well and doesn't burn off too bad so it should last ok.

I used plasticote vht on my xt500 build and was very nice paint indeed.

[Darren69]

That looks good, looks slightly glossy. I'm not sure if the Ducati black on the cylinder barrels is gloss or matt as I've never had a new one to compare but I remember it's more matt. The engine casing covers are sightly glossy though, kind of plastic coat look so that looks to be a good match.

[Albie]

I used a satin Matt on my barrels on monster

[Nasher]

Not standard, but I've gone with cheapo Halfords VHT Aluminium paint on the 900/966SS mongrel I'm currently building



Nasher

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Nasher

Not standard, but I've gone with cheapo Halfords VHT Aluminium paint on the 900/966SS mongrel I'm currently building



Nasher

How does it compare to your monster. Did you just do the crankcases and heads

[Nasher]

It's cleaner

Seriously, it's brighter, more Silver, less Grey.

Although of course my M900 engine is still wearing it's original 1997 paint, so it could have changed colour over the years, especially if it's been overheated at all.

The SS is going to be far from standard, and the engine mostly covered with a fairing, so as long as it looks clean and tidy I'm not worried if it's not the correct shade of Silver.

Nasher.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Nasher

Nasher

Sorry to hijack Albie, but I like the engine stand Nasher: is it a DIY or can you buy them?

[Darren69]

Originally Posted by Nasher

It's cleaner

Seriously, it's brighter, more Silver, less Grey.

Although of course my M900 engine is still wearing it's original 1997 paint, so it could have changed colour over the years, especially if it's been overheated at all.

The SS is going to be far from standard, and the engine mostly covered with a fairing, so as long as it looks clean and tidy I'm not worried if it's not the correct shade of Silver.

Nasher.

Looks like its gonna be a cool little bike. Did you swap the head studs out for better ones? AS you may know, the originals have a tendency to break. Is that Superlight seat carbon?

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Albie

How does it compare to your monster. Did you just do the crankcases and heads

My heads and barrels were vapour blasted clean. I like the way you went for silver against standard black.. The crank cases were cleaned as best I could and took days with tiny scraper wet and dry and scourer. I had to dress up some welding spatter that must have come from some work on it over the years.
Have just ordered my paint online after some advice from Dookbob so we are going to get somewhere soon. I like that simple engine stand so need to adapt something similar.

[Nasher]

Sorry Albie, I didn't answer your question.
I did the whole engine after I'd bolted it together and spent an age masking up what I didn't want painting.
I scraped and cleaned as much as possible, but did just blow over some of what I couldn't get to. Slapped wrist I know.

Darkness
The idea for the stand came from Kato, and I was going to make them, but they came up on Ebay before I got started.

Darren
Yep, went for APE studs.

The superlight seat is Carbon, I brought it at a Bike jumble for £80 - Bargain.
It will need to be resprayed in Red, but I will leave the strip of carbon showing along the bottom.
I didn't like the fact that you had to remove the four bolts holding it on to access the storage underneath, so have converted it to take the standard seat locking mechanism. I've also added some support brackets underneath.

Give me a short while to upload some images to photo bucket and I'll show you what I've done.

Nasher.

[Nasher]

Seat unit plonked onto the frame as purchased:



Front support brackets added using old tank rubbers, plus front of an old saddle added to hook under frame cross piece as per a standard seat:



New pin I made in my lathe and milling machine(Slot at the rear) added to the original catch bracket attached to the frame, plus rear support bracket added:



Original catch added to the seat, cable extended and the original keylock recessed into the back of the seat:





The whole seat unit now just unlocks and lifts off in a similar way to a standard saddle using the ignition key.
It gives the Superlight look with the ease of use of a standard saddle.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself for coming up with this solution.

Nasher

[Nasher]

Sorry Albie, didn't mean to hijack your thread, will stop posting now.
Nasher.

[Albie]

No worries mate I had a single seat I was going to fit on my ss600 what I sold to Scrapps
Going to look for that engine stand