'82 XJ750J Before And After Shots

All,
I bought this gal sight-unseen for $300, in non-running condition. She hadn't run since 1992 and her front brake MC was frozen solid, as was her tank petcock and mice had been making her home for some time.
About $150 later and 35 hours of labor and i have what i think is a pretty decent $450 motorcycle. What do you think?
all the gold structural parts are powdercoated by me and the tank and sidecover badges are hand done with 14kt gold leaf.
Since the pictures were taken, i've powdered the underseat rail to match the side covers.

 

Right side after:

 

engine before:

 

engine after (still have to address the engine side cover, but i'm getting there).

 

Dash and Bars before:

 

Dash and bars after ( i just have to replace the broken right side turn signal)

 

Great bike. Good job. Enjoy!

 

Thanks!
The Brake MC rebuild kit came from Chacal!

 

Sweet :wink:

 

Beautiful job.I love seeing these before and after posts.They keep giving me more and more inspiration to keep working on mine.

 

i like the scotch tape on the blinkers, how did u get the rist off your chrome parts?

 

super nice. Good work!

 

That's alot of work.
Nice job!

 

Thanks all, for your kind words. It's a labor of love. Lots of work, just like you said.
Main and pilot jets were plugged solid, as was the left side front brake line.
She runs like a top now and wheelies with no problem. :wink: Not even a hint of smoke from the pipes, letting me know the rings are good.
Less than 9000 miles on the clock.

"i like the scotch tape on the blinkers, how did u get the rist off your chrome parts?"

The right front signal is pretty much toast, only held together by the tape. I plan to either OEM replace or replace all four with sleeker new pieces.

As for the rust, i used 000 and 0000 steel wool and Turtle Wax's Chrome Polish and a LOT of elbow grease and patience.
If you look REALLY close at some parts, you can see the little zit-like pits where the rust was, but it's not rusty anymore and it passes a 2-3 foot inspection.
if the rust comes back, i can just powdercoat everything.

The gold powdercoated parts were oxidized UNDER the factory clearcoat, so i used aircraft stripper to get to bare metal, then soapy water with coarse steel wool to clean, then 220 grit wet sanding to smooth and remove oxidation, then powder coated first with Eastwood's Reflective Chrome, then flocked it with Translucent Gold.

The new Dunlop D404 goes on the front tomorrow and then i'm tackling the black on the engine cylinders and then i'll probably redo the engine side covers.

I also read the patent for the Diamond Head process to jewel the cooling fins and may have a go at doing that myself.

I also had to apply Eastwoods tank restorer kit, that leaves the white plastic liner in there, since it was pretty rusty when i got it. (Muriatic acid is nasty, but great stuff)

Y'all keep up your good work. Don't scrap 'em, restore 'em!!

I'm really digging this site!

Cheers,
Christopher.

 

Beautiful bike! A lot of work went into it, but it was worth it. I hate to see some just get chopped up or scrapped.
Don't scrap 'em, restore 'em!!
I love that motto.

 

I don't suppose you could explain that a little more? I've never heard of it.

 

Wow! Nice job!

 

Congratulations! You did a great job!

 

The patent for the Diamond Head process details enough about how it's done to try it yourself.

It basically uses an ovoid shaped diamond bur in a dremel-type tool to grind football shaped concavities at 45 degree angles such that the tips of the footballs just barely touch the top and bottom edges of the fins.
Also, each concavity must be tangential to the previous one at near the middle of the fin centerline.

This technique has been done for more than two decades, but the Diamond Head people were granted a patent by claiming it was also a cooling mechanism. I won't weigh in here on the controversy over that, or the fairness of forcing shops who have been doing what you're doing for 20 years to cease and decease because the gov't grants you a patent for that very process. But i will say they all started out doing this technique by hand. Now Diamond Head does it robotically, but they still do hand work.
It's as much an art as anything and takes skill to pull off by hand. Suffice it to say i will be practicing on scrap fin materials before i touch my bike.

I will also tell you that i've yet to see a picture that does the reality justice. A properly jeweled engine positively glitters in the sun and looks like diamond bracelets haved replaced the cooling fins. It's stunning in sunlight, in person.

 

that is very cool great job by the way! post some pics after the jeweling and good luck i like the look but it far excedes my level of patiants!

 

I did my fins with a dremel tool with mixed results. I need to clean the edges up with some polish first. The black high heat paint on the fins brings out the "etched" fins better.
I need tp black out the upper part of the fins and paint the bodies of the carbs black too.