An introductory build thread...cafe style

In the spirit of moving to florida from new jersey over a year ago, I never thought I would be interested in a motorcycle. My parents said I would probably be disowned if I bought a motorcycle or got tattoos. So I did both and all is still well. I picked up my 82 XJ550 in nj for $500. I had been sitting for 3 years in a really nice barn but I was never sure if I could get it to start. I replaced fuel and tinkered with choke to get it to start and yay it works. Fast forward a couple months and now I have a pile of parts and an empty wallet. This will be a slow build as I am a full time student and full time employed.

When I picked it up:


The night it arrived...Disassembly begins:


Where's the motor...wtf!?:


Crinkle paint:


a little sanding:


I redid the clutch. WTF was I thinking polishing the cover. Now I have to polish everything:


Just wet sanding:


and a Finished cover:


Inspiration:


The color Monterey Blue from PPG:



Planned mods:
Front forks and brakes FZR600
Some type of 7in round HID headlight
Black Frame
Pod setup
4-1 exhaust and no muffler with thermal wrap
Everything hidden on handlebars
Integrated throttle
Hidden Brake master cylinder
Grip-ace controls
Seat done with Blue-alcantara(royal blue) and black diamond stitch.
Oil filter conversion from Chacal
GP shift configuration
Monoshock conversion and R1 shock
kawasaki tank(I forget the model number) with aircraft fuel cap

I'll update this thread as I do more work

 

Hi Onetrackstu. It looks like you have a good donor for your Cafe Racer project. I was in the same situation as you six months ago. After many, many hours in the garage total obsession has possessed me. I expect you will have already scanned these forums for advice so I won't bang on about what to check or replace except to say there are some wise people on here and to ignore the basics when rejuvinating a 30 year old motorcycle would be folly. Your obvious enthusiasm suggests your battle towards your vision is already half won. Keep it up and keep us posted. Cheers Rob

 

Thanks for the comments, any advice/criticism is most definitely welcome

 

The best advice I can offer is
#1 click top right of page on the XJ4ever icon then read 'Information Overload Hour' from start to finish.
#2 trust anything written by Bigfitz and RickComatic as though your life depended on it.

 

The best advice I can offer is
#1 click top right of page on the XJ4ever icon then read 'Information Overload Hour' from start to finish.
#2 trust anything written by Bigfitz and RickComatic as though your life depended on it.

 

sounds like your off to an awesome project, keep us posted

 

And I just broke where the bushings sit in the alternator cover. You think one off an xj650 would work?

 

A little update




Swing arm welded in place...ish


Overall(without the swing arm welded


keep in mind none of the swing arm welds are permanent yet. It will be finished later this week.

 

And some more work on the monoshock:






KZ650 gas tank that will be fitted





All primed up and ready to be fitted



Let me know what you think. Lots of work still to be done of course!

 

A little more work and no seat support welded yet

 

Battle scars....that are way worse now


New seat support


What is this for....remote master cylinder

 

How hard was it to mount the KZ tank and what mods did you have to make?

 

The tank slides right on. The only modification is to the back of the tank where it would join the frame. I haven't really thought of how to secure it but it looks fairly straight forward. Weld a bolt to the bottom, slide it through the mount on the frame, and secure with lock washer/wing nut

 

Nice! That same 550 is the inspiriation of the cafe that i may or may not ever build. If i find one though, you bet I'm going to!

keep it up man!

Love this video of that bike, such a beautiful sound.

Only thing i would have done is finish it - new tires, pods, and a round single headlight. imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6WDE4pZwWM

 

Good to know, thanks onetrackstu.

 

I'm glad the guy on the video doesn't live close to my place. A noisy bike like this would drive me crazy enough to punch its owner real bad.

 

lol's! my first thought was "sounds sweet!" my second thought was, "your neighbors hate you!". nice monoshock conversion. your steel fab skills are very good.

CN

 

thanks guys, its still a long way from being complete but the more work I put into it the more impatient I get. The carbs are back from a complete rebuild....$467 later. Yeah they were that bad. The mechanic asked me if it even ran when I took them off. Of course, the priceless face he had when I told him yes

 

Bad picture(everything is so discolored). Everything is straight and ground down flat. Sand blast and paint time

 

Master cylinder mounted under the tank.

 

Are you still able to get the ignition coils out?

 

Looks to me it's mounted underneath the coils, horizontally on one of the twin tubes that run under them, so the coils would still come in/out the normal route. (you can see one of the tank mount rubbers top right of the pic to get the orientation)

 

I just couldn't remember if they came out from the bottom or the sides or both. So long as they come out, though, then I guess he's good.

 

lol, I only put mine back on a couple of days ago so I remembered they fit in the sides Wouldn't have been a nice thing to find out at the side of the road though if the master cyl bracket had made the coil a permanent fixture!

 

I hope so but now based on what everyone said I should be good to go 8)

 

Now how do I fuel this thing? Get an adapter plate from dime city for the tank...but what petcock? Vacuum right?

 

Your choice tbh, vacuum is convenient as long as it's a working one, manual is possibly cheaper to buy and more reliable as long as you're used to switching fuel off after a ride.

 

Yeah I hate to admit it but I don't really have a ton of experience when it comes to mechanics of a bike; more of a give me a computer and a car and it will be a completely different beast. Hmmm then the vacuum pretty much does something for me that I was originally taught to do. Any petcock will work, cool

 

Hey well, you only gain experience by doing what you're doing after all, we all start somewhere and mostly that somewhere isn't a monoshock conversion with undertank master cylinder Respect is honestly due, It's nice to see someone doing something actually different than the usual run-of-the-mill bobbers everyone & his dog does these days!

 

:lol: Thanks man.

 

and you work with angle grinders, welders, air tools, trolley jacks , on a gravel floor,
WITH NO SHOES? :?

 

wow yeah never noticed that! And I thought I was hardcore changing tyres in my boxers (sweaty work "going tubeless" with tyre levers)

 

it does get very hot and annoyingly humid here in south Florida. I'm always in sandals(don't want to get zapped) and I sometimes do pay for my lack of safety equipment. BTW always wear eye protection!

 

Hot and annoyingly humid here as well( Mississippi/Tennessee state line near the Mississippi river). At least you guys get some rain to cool things off a bit, we just keep baking here.

 

I open my car door and find this!!!!


All ready for paint:


Name the movie: "I hope you have a big trunk....because I'm puttin' my bike in it." yes everything but the motor in the back of my GTI

 

40 Year Old Virgin!

 

Pffffft weak! I fit an entire bike - engine included, into the back of my 98 escort wagon

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haha nice progress man, think that rear tail piece is going to be strong enough with such a short top to bottom span with the tail extending out so far?

 

I haven't really been posting any progress but I was quoted $2200 to body fill and paint the frame. NO WAY! So I figured after all this metal fabrication I'll take my chances with body work. Mistakes are easy to sand away. I <3 aircraft stripper too.








Lots of thin coats and sanding to follow. Everything was filled with as much metal as possible so not to risk the filler cracking and to reduce flex. I thought that would be the correct thing to since I don't want it falling apart while I'm on the road.

 

Aircraft stripper is amazing, used it today to strip my frame and some other parts for powder coat

 

I hate sanding but I'm pretty sure I most of this finished in 2 weeks. Here is some progress, it just needs maybe one more thin layer and fine sanding. It is only just the seat section so there is plenty of work to do :x

 

How much of that work on the frame is weld & how much is bondo?

 

With the frame we took a structural approach. Being that some main support was removed we decided to use as much metal as possible to reduce any or all flex and use the bondo to fill in the "imperfections".

 

progress:

 

We probably have 4-5lbs of wire on the bike. The body filler has metal under it.

We did more sanding today and added a battery pan under the sat. Sure Stu will post up picture later. The new metal added for support brackets were 3/8" thick.

 

You need vertical supports between the shock loop and the swingarm right where the loop starts its curve. Viewed from the side, the shock mounting loop and the swingarm form two sides of a triangle; complete that triangle.

Take a look at any modern monoshock swingarm; especially on low-mid price-range bikes where it's a welded up piece similar to yours. You'll see what I mean.

 

Funny, that came up today when we worked on it.

We have 3/8" gusset plates in the rear on top of the parent parts which are welded on both sides.

I guess that's up to Stu. Easy to add, it would take a little stress off the weld, frame (box) it out.

 

Some pictures from this weekend:
The spring before any anybody know what that rubber piece is called that is on the shock(it needs replacing):

YAY chemical stripper FTW:

I think I'll do red:


Welded, body filler, and primer:


As for stabilizing the swing arm. Mike(everlastsupport) thinks this bike lock will suffice.

 

That "rubber piece" is the bump-stop. If it needs replacing then the whole shock is probably due for a rebuild.

 

Thats what I thought it was called. Do I really need to rebuild it if its not leaking and rebounds like it should?

 

I was really excited about putting my front end together tonight. Good news the FZ600 front forks came in. Bad news yeah they were definitely damaged during shipping. Oil on the box, in the box, and all over the packaging, I am pretty sure the seals were damaged during shipping.