Mad_bohemian's VooDoo '82 xj750 Project-FINALLY COMPLETE!

Hi all.
This begins my build thread on my latest project bike, an '82 750 Maxim. I picked it up for about $400. Flat front tire, wiring at the headlight all unplugged. The guy told me the bike had been sitting for about a year.He got the bike from a friend who got the bike from some guy who ran it off the road into some heavy brush. Supposedly it ran after the crash and that owner had replaced the front forks. Clutch cable is gone, brakes need a new MC and lever. The guy I bought it from said he couldn't figure out the wiring to get it started....
Fast forward 2 months. Got the wiring all hooked up and with the help of forum members here I got my starter circuit bugs worked out. PO had swapped the starter relays.
Once I got that straightened out I took my carbs off and cleaned out the bowls. Pretty ugly. Everything was gunked up so I know this winter I'll be rebuilding those.I just gave them a quickie clean job and slapped 'em back on the bike. Put in some gas and hit the starter. She sputtered but wouldn't start. Used some starter fluid in and she fired right up. She had trouble running but then the rpms kicked up to about 4k and stayed there. I used the key as a governor to keep her running but not screamin'
So, at least I know she runs. Now I can start my build knowing that it will at least RUN when I'm done 8O
So here's the plan so far:
Shorten the rear suspension.
Drop the seat area of the frame.
Move the controls forward.
Fabricate a solo style seat.
New rear fender.Not sure if it will be bobbed yet....
new front fender
Still tossing around the idea of a bolt on type chopper front end, nothing radical, 5-9 deg rake with 4inch over down tubes. Pocketbook will have the final say on that one though.
Drag style bars or something close to that.
Want to upgrade the dash to something simpler/cleaner.
Probably change/modify the headlight assm as well.
And will fabricate an exhaust system for it.
Good thing I have all winter and spring to do all that 8O

SOME PICS! Remember ...WITHOUT PICS, IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!
Here's what I started with..



Here she is after I got her running. Getting ready to start the frame mods.




First thing I did was cut the tail section off just behind the shock mounts..



You can also see where I mocked up an 11" 'shock' to see how low I want to go with the rear end.


This shot shows the area of the frame I'm going to change. I want it to follow the lines of the side cover closer...




Next I carefully measured and marked where I wanted to make the cuts to bend the seat section down.



I made a second cut to give me some room to contour the new end sections so they would mate up with with down tubes later.


Then I heated the frame and bent the seat section down till it met the 'down tubes'. I also moved the end of the down tubes in about 3/8 of an inch.




Here's the job when I got done welding and grinding...




And here's with the side cover on.



My only concern is if there's enough strength in the frame at the shock mounts now. I was thinking of strengthening it with some gussets or maybe like this...



Whaddya say guys...Do I need to bolster up this area of the frame??

So that's where I'm at so far. Next step is to get new, shorter shocks and a rear fender. Then once I have that mocked up I can proceed with stripping the frame....

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

bracing is always a good idea...

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

gussets are awesome. cool chop you have going....keep us in fresh pics!

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

i think you better do the braces, you already have them made
make up some struts for the compressed length of the new shocks

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

Good idea polock. Anybody know what the compressed length of an 11" or 11.5" shock is???




p.s.
Here's the first project bike I did with the help of my son. An 84 Shadow 500
Before

After

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

looks very very good, i was going to do the same thing with my frame to give it a drop seat type of effect. i would skip adding the extra tube to the top and do a gusset along the full length of the bottom.

i think the best option would be to relocate the shock mounts to where the 2 frame rails come together. You already went this far and doing that would make it alot easier to achieve a finished look

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

i fired up ms paint to try and show you what im talking about. These gussets would work out well because with the struts/shocks pushing against the frame it would have to acctually rip the metal before it could bend. I even put some stylish speed holes in it for you

just remember when you do gussets: it may look cool to have the gusset run down the middle of the tube but its not as effective/safe as have it along side the tube.

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

Any updates on this project???

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

If the tubing supports will not interfere with the seat, I would strengthen the shock mounts with them and not even consider attaching gussets.

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

could of just slapped some new rubber on a headlight and rode....yeah i know that would have been to easy and there is really no fun in it that way..its looking good

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

No updates yet Winter has come and it is COLD in my garage. (yup..I'm a wuss.. :wink: ) Not much room in there either since I have 3 cars, 3 cycles and a bunch of my son's stuff packed in there since he moved back home. Right now I'm just scavenging pieces and parts that I'll be needing, from evil bay. As soon as I get room or some warmth in my garage I'll start posting updates

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

Kick Your Son Out, and Buy a Heater...... I'm anxious to see some more progress !!!! :wink:

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

Yeah, his move back home is just temporary...and I actually do a a heater...just can't afford the $250 + they want to convert it from natural gas to propane....yeah..I'm a wuss and a cheap azz too!! 8O

p.s. You're welcome to donate to the "Keep Mad's Azz Warm" fund if you're so inclined :wink:

 

Re: '82 xj750 Project begins....

UPDATE:
Okay...so being laid off and sittin' around the house goin' stir crazy...I decided to suck it up and brave the cold....
Alrighty then...so I picked up a rear fender , and seat and did some cuttin' and slashin' on those. Because the fender was wider than my rails I was going to try to have it mount coming up from the tire, instead of dropping in like normal.....baaaad idea. It left me with some very large gaps that my seat wouldn't cover (no pics of that abortion... sorry ).
The fender is a Rick Doss "Dixie" Here's the stock version




Well, first thing I decided was the frame needed to be wider. So I split the cross brace, heated up the frame and spread it out about 1 1/4" and welded in a spacer. I made the spacer a little smaller then the cross brace so I can weld a small 'tongue' on the fender so that will help locate it without interfering with the seat.



You'll also notice I went with the topside gussets to strengthen the frame for the shocks. So with the wider frame I was able to drop the fender in from the top....But that meant I had to make some modification the to fender and eliminate my boo boo. So basically I cut off the snafu'd part, rotated the fender to bring the tail up and also removed the flat section. I don't have a pic of just the fender ..but you'll see it later

So next I started on the seat....
I picked this LePera up from Ebay..



First thing I had to do was tear it apart so I could modify the pan. Then I cut 2 clearance slots in the pan for my frame rails...(I also moved the tongue on the front of the seat so it would work like a stock Maxim seat under the tail of the gas tank but I did that after everything else.)



I then took a piece of exhaust pipe steel and cut and ground and hammered and bent the puppy until I had made a liittle 'hood' to go over the rail and give me something to rivet the seat cover to.


It's kinda hard to see...but this is what the bottom of the pan looked like originally.


Then I used a wire wheel to clear out now-excess foam on the seat...



So it would fit correctly on the modified pan..



You'll notice also that I took the mounting tab and moved that inboard more so I can add a mating tab on the frame rail, then I can bolt them together to secure the seat

Then I riveted the seat cover back on, took it out to the garage and did a quick test fit with the fender





I LIKE where this is going


One nice thing about my fender snafu...it left me with a piece left over that worked quite nicely as an integrated tailight housing.



That's all for now. Next on the agenda is to fabricate some fender struts, get the shocks on and finalize the back end details. Hopefully I can get my stepdaughter, who is a phenomenal artist , to do the graphics when it comes time to paint. I really wanna do this on the side covers...





that's all for now....

 

Re: UDPATED 02-13-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

I like where this bike is going. The integrated light housing looks like you had it planned all along

 

Re: UDPATED 02-13-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

looking good MB can't wait to see the finished product
Shaun

 

Re: UDPATED 02-13-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Update - Tail light:
Been working on the tailight / turn signals and I can't make up my mind. One way would be easy and quick but I am thinking about an even more custom look. I'll give you guys the option and you can help me decide.....

I picked up some LED turn signals and a flexible strip of LEDs for the brake light.


Then I fabricated a mounting bracket for the tail light to mount on.




Drilled and tapped it for 10-32 screws to hold it on the fender.
Then I'll mount the LED strip to it for my brake light, which should look something like this..


I took a piece of prismatic plastic from a florescent light and trimmed it to fit the cowling.
Plan is to laminate transparent red over this eventually.


So here's where my other idea came in... If I go with my original plan with the turn signals mounted on the fender the end look would be kinda like this (the signal is small and on the left side of the fender)



But... then I thought " What if I take the LED turn signals apart and mount them along side the tailight??"... (only one is shown to the right of the tail light)


And the split the lens with red in the middle and clear on the sides so it would look like this..


Not sure if there is a safety issue to worry about, but what do you guys think??

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Man I like the look of the integrated signals but I'd be afraid of the visibility issue. I want the cages to know I'm turning or changing lanes. If they are bright enough it may not be an issue.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

+1 on the visibility issues but man does it look good!
Shaun

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

The look is great!
I to would worry about the signal being seen but, the signals are tiny as it is.
Probably little difference outboard or in board.
If you put the tinting on the inside of the lens, you wouldn't see the transition between the red brake and amber turn sections.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Those were my thoughts too guys. Especially hound's, I wasn't sure how much visibility those lights would be even mounted on the fender....soooo.....what I think I will do is, make the integrated turn signals in the brake light housing , then, when I get to fabricating my fender struts I'll machine a 1/2 x 1 1/2 slot and mount these in the slot to aid in visibility....


That should do the trick!!!

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

That should help the visibility a bunch and look good too!

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

This looks freakin rad so far. Good job

 

Re: UDPATED 02-17-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Thanks guys!
Got the tail light 95% done so I thought I'd post some pics of it. Turned out pretty good I think with the addition of the strut signal I should be pretty safe...well as safe as anyone can be on two wheels around cages...


With no lights on..


With just the brake light.



with the left signal and brake...



and finally with the right signal and brake..

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

That looks so kick-butt! You basically built your own "Clear-Alternatives" tail light like all the sportbike riders (myself included) run.

If you have the room, I would get another strip of red LED's and fill the middle of the red ring with more red ones, that only come on with the brake to increase intensity w/ braking.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Dude, that setup ROCKS! I'd love to see that when you are done.
Very neat appearance (still have a visibility issue but it gets major bonus points for cool factor).

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Thanks guys!!

What I'm thinking Robert, is that I'm going to mount some additional signals in my struts when I make them (scroll up a little to see the light I'll use). I'm thinking that should work to kick my visibility factor up a notch or two.....

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

wait..... does it get brighter for the brake light? ot how does that work?

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

yeah Schooter, the tial light has two different intensities.one for running lights and brighter for brake. I just has the brake light on for the pics. There is a special wiring harness with resistors that get wired in series with the brake light to accomplish that.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-22-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Got my handlebars and shocks in. I'll try to get pics of that tomorrow.Gonna try to get the handlebars replaced since this set has a pretty poor chrome job done on it...but I digress....
Now that my shocks are in I can start proto-typing my fender struts. Got my first set made tonight...


Now all I got to do is have them machined. I'll probably start by machining one out of wood to make sure they will fit. That pic is what I modeled up in some cad software. The GHC is the initials for the name of my "business" - Green Horse Customs....The slot is for the flush mount signals I'll put in the struts for better viibility.
Hopefully I can have a friend of mine cnc cut these for me cheap cheap....
..that's all for today...

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

I'd give my left one for a CNC or a water-jet machine.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

ya, i may be able to get some possibly, out tech center class quit its metal working class for some dumb reason, so we have some 30 CNC machines laying around collecting dust, i may ask my teacher if he wants to sell one, he probably cant though....

oh and mad bohemian, what cad software is that, its realyl good, ive "mastered" pro desktop, and now im working on pro engineer

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

nothing

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

Uhhhh Feds! Young Schooter was just kidding about the CD copying thing. His post was infiltrated by a nasty Harley owner with loud pipes! Go get 'em Mr. GMan!


Schooter! You can't say that stuff on a public forum. If Mr. GMan doesn't buy my above explanation you had better change your name(Schooter 2 should be enough to confuse 'em) and you had better move. Software is protected by copyright and violations carry stiff monetary penalties. Unless of course it is in the public domain.

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

ok sorry, i changed it, and my instructor burns them all the time.... i have a burned copy...

 

Re: UDPATED 02-27-09:'82 xj750 Project begins....

It's all done in solid 3d modeling.
Well here's the pics I promised of the bars and shocks. Had to remove the lower bracket for the shock and fab a new one. These are 11" harley shocks and they're nice and stiff so I won't have to worry about bottoming out on the fender.





Here's one with the cardboard strut stuck in place to test fitment and alignment...as best as I could with a cardboard part anyways..


You might notice the strut looks different from my model. I had to revise the original strut because I made that one before I was finished with the seat. Glad it was just a matter of cutting cardboard and not re machining steel!! 8O phew!!!
The handle bars are 1" with a 4" rise. I slotted the existing holes in the top of the tree. Still got a ton of work ahead of me.....

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

ok time for an update.
Got my new 1" handlebars with the new controls all put together....








And while I'm waiting for my soda blaster to get here I started buffng out some of the engine covers. Here's what I started with...
Left side of the engine...


And the finished covers...




Right side...



and what I have done so far...


I also started on the top of the triple tree. I tried blasting it with one of those Harbor Freight $100 soda blasters....it took me 30 min to get about 3/4 of the top side done ..so I took that back and now I am waiting for my Eastwood blaster. For grins I did some sanding and buffing on what I had blasted to see if I would need to paint it or not when I'm done....here's the results so far...



Whaddya think, go with the buff or repaint it?!?!

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

Buff.

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

buff looks good. where did you get those controls they look good.

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

Great project man. I'd also like to know where you got the controls...

Gotta say I love the integrated tail light look, plus you did a really good job on the polishing. There are several good threads about polishing, but what was your procedure?

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

Awesome looking bike! And I'd have to go with buff as well. Looking really good.

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

this is sweet! nice job with the mods. really like the look. love the bars...

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

Thanks guys! Bars, grips, controls and switches were all gotten from ebay, for less than some places want for the handlebars alone. 8) That's one benefit of living in Michigan and doing this stuff over the winter...you have plenty of time to be patient and wait for the perfect deal
As far as my buffing procedure, I put it in a thread here

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

isnt there a way to use a regular compressor as a soda blaster?

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

handlebar switches look like harley switches... is that true? Or are they just harley "style" custom switches?
Would you just use them and cut the molex connectors and wire the proper wires to the wiring harness? Im trying to figure that out myself and was considering doing the same if possible on my project xs750. Anyway, great build going on here, looking forward to future updates!!

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

What is that tripple tree from, mine has integral bar clamps which are a pain in the arse as they really limit what bars you can get away with.

cheers

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

oh, those bars didn't always look like that, i ditched it last month

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

Thanks blistered, and yes, the control and switched are 'Harley' that I will wire in to the correct location on the existing xj harness

Plumber, the triple tree is the stock one on my xj. I took the mounting holes where the stock bars are mounted and opened them up bigger and slightly offset toward center to mate up with the new bars.
You can see it here, I circled the holes...

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

cheers, they are nothing like mine, what model xj was it??

 

Re: UDPATED 04-18-09:'82 xj750 Project continues....

hey mad do you find that the pullback on those bars is far enough that you could go for long distance rides with out it being a strain on your back?

thnx

S!