Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

I will try that tomorrow, it is entirely possible. The Kawasaki solenoid had a green and black and a yellow and red wire coming from it. I assumed possibly erroneously that any wire with black in it was more likely to go to earth.

[350TSS]

So after 2.5 months the project continues.................
The reason for the hiatus was that I needed to erect my paint booth and there was 230 kgs of dormant ZX9R in the way with siezed front calipers and a flat tyre that I could not get an air line on. After a struggle I got it shifted outside the garage but could not leave the poor thing out in the then very wet weather. The Monster needed its tank sealed before it could be painted and that was along and arduous process, JB water weld along the seams and Caswell's ethanol proof inside the tank.
I tried about 5 times before I got rid of the leaks and worse the witness stains on the sides and shoulder of the tank showing where petrol vapour was escaping through the outer skin.
Not very interesting to read about and nothing worth photographing.
Aside from de-rusting the inside of the tank the ZX9R should be ready for an MOT next week.
Back to the Monster, I have started the painting. I bought the paint a long time ago from RS motorbike paints. It consists of :
2 pack etch primer
water based base coat
water based colour coat (red - because it will make the bike faster)
2 pack lacquer.
I was very sceptical when I got the parcel, mixing 2 pack and water based paints did not "feel" right. However this is the best paint I have ever used; the etch primer (2 pack) went on so flat and covered a lot of very slight imperfections, the sort you can just see but are not worth breaking out the filler for. This was flatted down with 800 W&D
The grey base coat was also brilliant, going on smoothly and drying to a beautiful flat mat finish.
Tomorrow the red, also water based, probably 5 light coats, hope it works as well as the preparatory coats.

you are my world poem

[Tim88]

That cliff hanger is a real shocker! My favourite thread and all! We need pictures!

[350TSS]

The spraying of the colour coat did not quite go to plan. The paint instructions said " use light coats" and "the water based paints are usually supplied pre- thinned" and "use no more than 10% water to thin the paint if required" and "the objective is a flat matt finish with an even colour" .
I tried light coats and all I got was a grainy, dusty finish and when I opened the valve a bit I got a nice deep satin gloss. Worse, as I was finishing off one mix a gobbet of paint dropped right on the top of the tank.
Instructions also said " do not flat off the paint before applying the lacquer and under no circumstances use water as it will dissolve the paint".
Thinking about it I realised that the paint was too thick to go on flat and matt.
I had to wait a couple of days for it to harden off before using 1200 wet and dry (dry only) and it took me the best part of a day to repair the damage. The wet and dry very quickly clogged and the paint trapped on the surface scratched the workpiece.
Today I had another go and I thinned the paint by 10% with much better results, though a long way from a flat matt surface. It is a bit satin in some places, particularly the transition between the top and the sides of the tank where you cannot help but put more paint on. I even managed to get the colour relatively consistent. across all the areas painted.
With hindsight I would not use this paint again, too much skill, experience and knowledge required to get an even finish. All sadly absent in my case.
Tomorrow the lacquer, hoping that it will a) adhere properly, b) go on flat enough to hide the multitude of imperfections on the "flat, matt colour base coat" c) the atmospheric conditions do not cause the lacquer to bloom.

[350TSS]

Another 2 weeks has gone by and over the last couple of days, with some weather without preciptation, I tried again to get the coloured base coat down in a flat mat finish ready for the lacquer.
I must have used about 20 sheets of 800 W&D (dry only) and about 4 more sprayings to get the surface finish I thought necessary to accept the lacquer coat. I have nearly used a whole litre of the water based colour coat to achieve this and most of it is now dust either coating all the surfaces in the garage or stuck firmly to the 800 W&D.
Today was an unmitigated disaster.
The lacquer coat went on like spraying cement dust, grainy, with white specs which I can only assume were air bubbles trapped when I mixed the 2 pack. The white specks largely disappeared as it dried but the grainy nature of the finish was extremely disheartening particularly when I remember the hours and hours I spent rubbing down the buck, the mould and finally the finished moulding to achieve a good finish.
I think I can recover the situation but it will be hours more rubbing down and possibly another (hopefully compatible) paint laid over this very expensive lacquer undercoat.

[350TSS]

Well, nearly 6 weeks have passed since the last posting with very little to show for not very much work on the Monster. The ZX9R passed MOT but riding it only a few miles I realised that I needed to adjust the footrest position rearward and downward (standard original position was simply horrible and with my arthritic joints downright dangerous to ride) so I made up some rear sets out of 10mm plate.

Then to get the ZX9R back in the garage I realised that I would need to strip completely a partial S4 I bought about 18 months ago (no tank, seat, wheels, exhausts etc - I am not sure what possessed me). This took far too long as about 30% of all fasteners were corroded in place.

The next realisation was that the S4 engine was too heavy for me to move on my own so needed a stand so it could be moved about.
A cheap e bay special engine stand was acquired but this needed adapter plates to fit the engine to the stand, these were cut from a scrap piece of 100mm x 100mm x 5mm steel fence post.
betta fish turning white.

[350TSS]

After all that I finally started again on the Monster. I have in the past week repainted the tank, seat and fly screen and after about 3 rounds of painting rubbing down and re-painting (because I rubbed through the new paint) I have it in a condition where it is about as good as I can get it. It is not completely blemish free and is not quite as good as I would have hoped to get it. There is always a time/quality trade off when you do stuff yourself and traditionally I always have compromised quality for time and this is no exception. I could spend another 6 or 8 weeks and another £100 on more paint but the reality is my skill level would probably only enhance the finish by 2%.
The heaters are staying on in the garage tonight so I can put the first lacquer coat on tomorrow and then put the transfers on. The tranfers will be lacquered in subsequently
I decided to remake the instrument surround (originally in CF) as each time I changed the wiring new holes appeared in it to accommodate the changed wiring design. The result was that there were more blanking grommets than clean CF behind the instruments. I made this out of 3mm polypropylene "welded" together with a 35 watt soldering iron. The arc around the speedo had to be done in 2mm as the 3mm would not bend easily enough to fit.

Fitting the new instrument panel meant that the wiring had to be separated and re-connected to pass through the back of the panel (it was previously hard wired as there is no room for connectors behind the panel) and I took the opportunity to tidy it up.
The principle problem I had with the wiring was that I could not get the main beam to work when the switch was pushed. I could get Off, DRL, dipped beam but no Main beam. I think I will alter the wiring from the LH switch so that the dipped beam is lit when the pilot light setting is on so the switch will be configured as: Off, DRL and dipped beam, and main beam.
If that works I still have yet to ensure that I have an ignition system that works.

[350TSS]

First coat of clear lacquer went on yesterday and today the fly screen and seat hump got their decals and another coat of clear lacquer.



The tank decals were also applied but a) they look too small and b) neither went on sweetly, one with a small air blister and the other with a small tear in the top above the C in Ducati.
I used the Cagiva script decals because that matches the script cast into the crankcases and the cam bearing covers. The decals were originally designed for a 750SS fairing and tank. Tomorrow I will remove the tank ones and order some 750SS fairing decals which are approximately 75% bigger.
.

In the painted colour the tank looks and is too big for the proportions of the bike and probably the first, post completion, modification will be to build a smaller tank, 30 to 40mm lower on the top surface.

[350TSS]

Two steps forward today and the inevitable one step backwards. The seat and the fly screen got a rub down with 2000 and 4000 grit abrapads then a couple of coats of lacquer each. Subject to a cut back with 4000 grit and some polishing compound the seat and fly screen are now as good as they are going to get. I am only very slightly disappointed with the outcome on these two parts.

Tomorrow I will remove the masking tape/ paper from the seat and connect up the rear light harness and fit the seat. Subsequently with the camera mounted I should be able to complete the wiring for the rear view camera and test the monitor on the instrument panel.

The fly screen will probably take a little longer as a) I cannot remember how I fitted it during the dry build (it is so long ago) and b) I will have to make sure the interface with the headlamp and the bezel is as tidy as possible. I have some 10mm x 3mm x 10mm U shaped rubber moulding which I hope to use to finesse the gap between the slightly elliptical hole in the front of the fly screen and the very definitely circular headlamp bezel. I have a small amount of up and down and fore and aft adjustment on the headlamp shell mounting but I can see this job being a bit fiddly although the slightly domed profile of the bezel should help.
The step backwards was taking the decals off the tank. These were not lacquered in and the adhesive onto the tank was strong. I tried peeling it with my fingernail but after an hour or so had only manage to remove about 5 square centimetres of one decal. So I tried gently warming the decal with a heat gun. This was a big mistake, all it succeeded in doing was making the adhesive very, very strong, so strong in fact that when the decal was lifted it pulled the paint with it. Worse, where it did not remove the paint the remnants of the adhesive were baked on yet still sticky to the touch. I tried all sorts of available solvents (brake cleaner, methylated spirits, white spirit, Hammerite thinners, petrol. I stopped short of using acetone as that would have ended very badly). The only way to remove it was with wet and dry. The whole tank will now need re-painting. It is not as if I have anything better to do.

[350TSS]

I fitted the fly-screen today and realised that the mounting arrangement I used during the dry build was far from ideal. The fly-screen has two 12mm diameter x 75mm long tubes bonded into the CF beneath the headlamp that locate inside two tubes mounted onto the bottom yoke. At the top 2 x 6mm bolts go through the instrument surround through a 20mm spacer andlocate into a male /female rubber isolation mount bolted onto two lugs bonded into the screen bit of the fly screen. The female part of the isolation mount only has about 6mm of thread depth into a blind hole.
My re-design requires male/male isolation mounts and the spacer to be threaded. All the isolation mounts I had in my stock are either too large in diameter, too long or far too stiff. P)reviously I have obtained isolation mounts from TME in Poland so completion of the job will have to wait a week or so for them to arrive.

Whilst I was fitting the fly screen I had to connect up the headlamp to fit it into the bowl. I obviously tried it out to check whether the fault with the dip/main beam had magically cured itself without any intervention on my part.
Oddly it had.
Although the fault recurred intermittently on subsequent tests.
I am leaning to the view that my dosing the LH switch gear with WD 40 to cure the stiff indicator part of the switch has actually caused the problem by coating the contacts within with an insulating layer of silicone. I shall buy some contact cleaner and dose the switch with that and see if that solves it completely.
The tank got rubbed down and re-painted and new larger decals have been ordered from Image Works, Moto Rapido no longer supply the Cagiva script fairing decals. Overall the finish on the tank is better than before but the places where the old smaller decals were removed along with the paint can be detected. I am hoping the new larger decals will make these blemishes less noticeable

[350TSS]

One downside from today was that I ventured to sit on the bike whilst on the stand/ bike lift. This is the first time I have had the opportunity to sit on it since it got dismantled all those years ago.
It soon became very evident that the footrest hangers will have to be re-made to lower them (c 25mm) and move them rearwards (also by 25mm).
On the gear lever side I will have to spacer them out by about 10mm to clear the swinging arm and re-make a longer gear shift rod. On the brake side I have to be very careful of the alignment and distance between the pedal actuator and the rear brake master cylinder and the mounting point for the exhaust hanger and also probably lengthen the pipe between the master cylinder reservoir and the master cylinder.

[350TSS]

Well I re-made the footrest hanger plates from 10mm aluminium. Initially I positioned the footpegs as per the original Monster relative to the swinging arm pivot (c100mm behind, 75mm down) but ran into clearance issues with the exhaust on the RH side so I had to remake them and raise them by 20mm. Both are now about 40mm inboard of the original Monster position so ground clearance should not be an issue.
When I came to fit the gear linkage the pedal fouled the return spring on the side stand.


I was never happy with the side stand seemingly waving in the breeze so I decided to remake the side stand mounting bracket

[350TSS]

The new side stand bracket was made from 4 pieces all welded together. 3 cut from some 100mm x 100mm x 5mm steel fence post and a 20mm bolt turned down to 18mm to provide the post the stand sits on. The first piece was drilled to match the crankcase mounting holes, the second was a triangular piece tack welded to the first to provide the separation from the crankcase and the angle for the third piece also tack welded on to hold the post. 10mm nuts welded to the third piece provide the stops for the stand
All the tack welding was done off the bike so that the welder did not fry the Ignitech unit or the Hall effect triggers for the ignition.
I took the precaution of marking up the original position of the foot of the stand on a block of wood clamped to the hydraulic bike stand so I could gauge where the foot mounted on my new bracket came to rest relative to the original. I also made the post that the stand sits on about 10mm longer so I could shim its position in or out.
This took a long time and tacks were made and broken and remade a number of times before I got the foot of the stand to sit approximately where the old one sat.
When I was reasonably happy I welded it all up. Expansion and contraction during welding caused it to move a bit from my best tacked position. it ended up about 20mm further forward than the foot of the original stand.


screen shots
The gear lever now clears comfortably and I think I can get it at an angle that will enable me to change gear satisfactorily.
There is about a 10mm gap between the foot and the floor at the moment which shall probably mean that I shall have to add a foot extension to the bottom but I shall leave that until the bike is off the bench and on the floor.

[350TSS]

Next jobs are:
Fit the right hand side footrest hanger, possible issue with length of pipe from the rear brake master cylinder to reservoir pot
Fit the larger fairing side decals to the tank and lacquer over
Fit the tank to the bike (involves making a front latch/bungee arrangement)
Connect up rear lights and camera and see if I can get the camera to talk to the monitor
Re-design the top mount for the flyscreen to make it more durable and easier to dismount (awaiting delivery of rubber isolation mounts)
Finally mount the instruments and the lens covering them, fit the voltmeter
Fit rear number plate and reflector - I have a plate already fitted for MOT purposes but have ordered a smaller 7 x 5 plate which will look loads better
See if I can get a spark at the spark plug from the Ignitech ignition system
Get the bike off the hydraulic bike stand and weigh it
Put petrol in and take for a test ride / MOT
PIECE OF CAKE???

[Jez900ie]

Once you have "Put petrol in, taken for a test ride & got it an MOT" you will deserve a piece of cake!