strip and rebuild full bike ( to powercoat frame )

[Jimzxr400L1]

please dont shout at me if this is in the wrong bit lol never posted just wanted to know what sort of problems i might have if i strip the bike rite down to the frame im a apprentice car mechanic so have tools and think im capeably just wanted to know what problems i might hit......any answer would be appritiated and sorry for rabbiting haha

[masterofinsanity]

you might need to buy chocolates & flowers to keep her indoors sweet whilst you spend hours working on your bike

[cargo]

First up . . . WELCOME
Second up . . . . Good question.
I come at this from a different angle I reckon your biggest problem will be that your newly coated frame will highlight the rest of your bike and make the rest me it look less than perfect and so the problem will be the cost of all the extra polishing painting and time me getting the rest of the bike looking as good as the frame.
I've sort of done this myself when I stripped a complete bike and rebuilt it with a replacement frame did it in 2 days it was of course a race bike so easier to do.
Great project and I'm sure we will all be keen to see how you get on. And you'll get lots of help and advice I'o sure

[Jimzxr400L1]

thanks lads ......well powdercoating is free and i think im gonna label little tubs and put the bolts in them as i take them out ( i know im being anal if this was a car i would just throw it back together lol ) im only 18 still restricted of cource and i will be stripping down my pride and joy so this is a must lol but im a perfectionist and just hope i dont get to stuck i was only gonna strip the carbs and clean em due to a sticking throttle wehn this idea popped into my head will keep you updated and post some pics should be starting weekend wish me LUCK!!

[cdstirland81]

currently doing similar, i used re-sealable sandwich bags (lol) for bolts/spacers/small fittings for each particular section of the bike. you'll end up getting all chassis parts done for that new bike look, so get prices for your subframe, swingarm, clock bracket, etc... i dont know about L's but on the H i always put loom over the top of the gearbox before i refit to frame or its a git to route loom through...

[RedexRobB]

thanks lads ......well powdercoating is free and i think im gonna label little tubs and put the bolts in them as i take them out

That is quite possibly the best idea, this is what i did when i did mine. Also remember to take out anything rubber or plastic off the frame, for example there are well nuts that hold the coils onto the frame, they will need to come out. I ruined mine trying to get them out as they wouldnt budge so be prepared to buy some new ones if need be. Also tell them where you want anything masked off such as the head stock bearing cups and any threaded holes for things like the bodywork brackets.

cant think of much else.

hth

[masterofinsanity]

fill any threaded holes with old bolts, keeps the threads clean for rebuilding.

[Jimzxr400L1]

THANKS .....again another few things i diddnt think of ive been pricing up bearings because im going to need new ones ...rite??? gonna get wheels powderdcoated green you see and frame black just hope im not biting off more than i can chew ...im sure there will be always b a mate around to help lol but im still worried i need to stop being a bitch stop thinking about it and get it done. thanks again zxr crew lol

[RedexRobB]

You will more than likely damage the old ones taking them out for coating so yes u probably will need new bearings. Wheel bearings aren't too bad price wise, its the needle rollers in the swingarm n shock linkages that cost you, not sure if you can get some pattern parts on those as when I did mine you couldn't. And kawasaki charged £10 a bearing, n I needed 6 or 7. Head stock bearings there are pattern one available I'm sure. like the needle rollers I couldn't get them so had to pay kawasaki price of £35 for each bearing. Total of £70 for the headstock. That was an expensive day back then......

[edl]

I usually just chuck all nuts/bolts bits&pieces in a tub all together, then scatter bike round rest of garage, leave for couple of months, whack it all back together in a random way, chuck all left over bit's away gotta be lighter and faster without them ! Am i the only one employing this tactic?

[cdstirland81]

wemoto do decent swingarm pivot and headstock bearings, i not long ago got all wheel bearings and swingarm pivot and headstock for £80. swingarm ones were twenty five, headstock thirty. the swingarm set even came with genuine kawasaki sealing washers!

[Jimzxr400L1]

cheers for the relpies every one helpfull evern the guy that said bin half the parts haha . i should figuer it out am a mechanic after all if i dont i know one place where to come ....

[Mori Man]

If you got a digi cam - photo each stage of the strip down - especially how cables and wires route, where that special strange shaped bracket mounts also helps come rebuild time

Don't trust the powder coaters to mask off critical areas - do it yourself, for bearing cups make some plywood discs (thin alloy OK) and bolt straight through on headstock , wheels and swinger. If you aint got enough old bolts, fill holes with acrylic filler , when parts are returned the baking process shrinks the plugs and they are easy to remove and the bonus is they have cleaned the threads too

As you build up and tighten/torque parts onto chassis mark them with a cheap marker (easily cleans off later) that way you don't loose track what parts you've fitted to see how it looks ad what ones are finished with.

Print out all the pics you took and put on a clipboard and ue when rebuilding - what I done with mine

Make a new thread in the build section of the forum and get posting pics