Rebuild and respray of zxr 400

[mongo]

It all started way back when i got my first bike (zxr 400 l5) which after owning for 2 years i sold to a friend of mine, 500 miles and 3 months later he had launched it down the road and this is what happend to it:



So there i was with my original frame and reg and v5 back with me, so i thought to myself, i know i`ll rebuild it and put it back on the road since i miss it so much.

So i started with getting the frame and swingarm sorted:

http://www.yamr1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/b ... yframe.jpg

I bought myself a spare engine and started to strip it down to do the headgasket and check to make sure everything is fine, at some point i may spray it to be a nice silver again:



At this point i also needed wheels so i purchased a set off ebay (which is specialized zxr from here) they were off an H2:



They were pretty manky, so i sprayed them up in gold:



requiring brake discs i bought the discs from a zx9r e1, these are the same offset and diameter as the 400 L models, so they *should* be fine on the bike, i will double check this soon enough:



Now heres the party piece, zx6r front end from the later models, i am going to attempt to fit this to the zxr 400 wheels and brake discs as im going to get some spacers machined up:



The brake calipers will have to be spaced out to fit the 310mm brake discs compared to the zx6r's 280mm i think they are:



THe fairings are currently having the decals stripped off and ready to be painted. I also have a spare set of polished wheels i can use if i dont like the gold wheels. But its gold wheels on a black bike with a nice silver frame. I will put up pictures soon of the rear subframe painted silver and generator cover painting also as well as trying to repaint the radiator!

Soon it will be time to put it all together, i am hoping to get some time to be able to put it together the end of the month, so i can have a rolling chassis together, or at least the engine rebuilt so i can plug it all together.

[ancozxr]

Α1+++

[RedexRobB]

So reminds me of when i was doing mine up!

I seen quite a few threads around recently of people stripping and doing up bikes here and on other forums, makes me wanna do it all over again! The satisfaction is immense when your all done and riding it on the road! Although mine wasnt finished the fact i was riding it was good enough for me! Only thing i missed through out the entire build was the rear caliper allen bolts, hadnt tightened them up and when i put on the rear brake it vibrated, scared the crap outme!

Hopefully ill be on placement next year with a full time job so will have the money to do another! This time something different tho

When i say something different, it'll be a ZXR400, just the way i do it will be different

[mongo]

this has been a forever build, its been like this for around 2 years now, just slowly progressing on.


I have purchased an ohlins rear shock now. Both engines are stripped down, i just need to lap the valves back in (still trying to find a 16mm valve lap sucker).

I will probably re-paint the engine, however i am considering the 444 rebore, maybe with some SP cams

[mongo]

right, got the engine sorted and in a bath of degreaser, awaiting to lap the cylinder head valves back in and then i`ll spray the entire engine:





Made some measurements, as i wanted to fit the original zxr wheel to the zx6r radial caliper'd front end, this will let me use the zxr discs for better braking, instead of the 300mm of the 05-06 zx6r front end. These were made up for me buy a really nice guy! (Thanks Mick!) including spacers to take the caliper a little further out:



The lovely shiney frame that i had resprayed, new headraces installed into the frame and on the yokes, banged on the rear swingarm greasing up the rear shock linkage which was in lovely condition. Then fitted the ohlins rear shock, then whacked in the forks and the wheel :



Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice, i then put on the rear subframe, just for the sake of it:









Alls i need to do is get some spacers sorted to align the front wheel correctly into the centre of the calipers (you cant run a speedo from the front wheel on this conversion, as it offsets the wheel too much to fit the brake calipers properly).

Will sort out the engine as soon as possible and im awaiting to get my fairings returned to me.

Still lots more to come!

[RedexRobB]

thats just simply stunning

[masterofinsanity]

quality!!! what did you do the frame in swinger in? aerosols or powdercoated?

[Guest]

unfortuantely they were not sprayed by me as i do not have a compressor (yet). They were sprayed by a family friend, on there compressor in 2 pac paint.

Painting is the most durable way, it doesnt chip then flake off like powedercoating can.

The same guy has my fairings and is doing them black. I don't mind spraying smaller items from aerosol cans, so long as you prep stuff properly it works out good. The engine and radiator and oil cooler will all be getting sprayed by me.

As soon as i have enough space for a compressor i will do my own spraying too.

[mongo]

hate when i forget to log in

[rene]

looks very nice indeed!

im going to be fitting 636 front end to my project as well, is it a direct replament job? or did you need to make up a bracket? also why didnt you not fancy the 636 wheel?

cheers
Rene

[mongo]

looks very nice indeed!

im going to be fitting 636 front end to my project as well, is it a direct replament job? or did you need to make up a bracket? also why didnt you not fancy the 636 wheel?

cheers
Rene

You can direct replace it if you use the front wheel from the zx6r as well, i had to get spacers made to keep the zxr 400 front wheel, i only went this route because it was £200 for a front wheel on average for a zx6r.

Theres not too much progress done, i have managed to strip the cylinder head down, get the valves out and lap them back in again and had the cylinder head skimmed.



Now i`ll bolt the engine back together and possibly spray it as well, then strap it back into the frame. Heres hoping i can actually have the engine bolted back together this weekend.

[rene]

cheers for the heads up. I guess you havent had a chance to see how the bike handels with the 636 forks yet? or what sort of handeling diffrence's they make?

engine looks nice!

[mongo]

cheers for the heads up. I guess you havent had a chance to see how the bike handels with the 636 forks yet? or what sort of handeling diffrence's they make?

engine looks nice!

Not had a chance to test it out, im not sure it will have that great a difference, but they are newer so heres hoping. Im sure with the front end and the ohlins rear it will make a significant improvement over the old tired stock suspension it once used to have.

Unfortunately now i need to go buy a piston ring compressor so i can put the barrels over the pistons, due to lifting it up a little too far and a couple of the rings popping out. Woops.

[mongo]

Unfortunately now i need to go buy a piston ring compressor so i can put the barrels over the pistons, due to lifting it up a little too far and a couple of the rings popping out. Woops.

I didn't actually need a piston ring compressor, the piston rings can go back in from the bottom end of the barrels if you squeeze them together (with your fingernails) for each piston, got to be careful tho as you dont want to put it in too much of an angle causing the piston to score the liners.

Im almost getting to the stage where i can get the engine sprayed

[mongo]

Finally managed to get round to spraying the engine, just masked off the bits i didn't want (after being degreased and a light rubbing down, then some nice acid to bite into the alloy a bit to clean it down some more).

I've ran over it with some VHT paint and then lacquer so it should hopefully stay there (maybe )






i have some other bits to replace, such as the generator cover, i prefer it in the black with the polished zxr bit.

Here is hoping i can get the engine in the frame this weekend. I have already fitted the tyres myself( what a pain in the butt this is with tyre levers) so i will hopefully have a rolling chassis!