82 maxim project

Been lurking around here for awhile. Bought this beast for cheap because it wouldn't start. I've restored old dirtbikes, but this is my first foray into streetbikes. Just trying to make it my own...for cheap. No restoration here, I want this thing to be a mean SOB. Progress is slow, garage time is usually late at night when the kids are in bed.

When I got it:


Teardown:


Seeing how it'll look, custom kickstand :


Seat & fender mount, not bad for not welding for 8 years:


Lowering front forks 2 inches:


No front fender, no fender mounts needed:


Other side:


Clean shaven:




No need for centerstand or brackets either:


Hillbilly shock compressor, cutting them down 1.5":


Hillbilly valve compressor:


No wonder it didn't run, cam sproket bolt came out:


Tore it up a bit:


Lots of cleaning to do:


That's where it stands now. Waiting on warmer weather to paint frame, tins, wheels. Cleaning up the engine and putting it back together, redo the wiring, figuring out exhaust, putting on the drag bars...hopefully it'll be done by riding time.

 

Ain't it fun? Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Keep us posted on your progress then.

 

SIMPLIFY THE WIRING!!! It'll make things much easier. There are several diagrams on this site if you search.

 

Well fellow XJers, making a little more progress on my project. Buttoning up the engine tonight and loading it in tomorrow with my little bros help. Def. going to do the simplified wiring.

Paint:


Putting in back together. Still need to paint fender/tank:




Decided to make a new seat, didn't like how the stock pan was flowing:

 

Did a good job cleaning up where fender mounts were! What prep and paint did you use on your shocks???

skillet

 

Skillet-thanks! for the shocks I did scotch brite pads, cleaned, self-etching primer & then rustoleum satin black. But, the paint isn't holding up too great, going to have to redo over next winter.

 

Got the carbs cleaned and bench synced. They were nasty:



Added fluids, made a temporary fuel tank, and she fired right up. Sounds mean as hell. Still need to fab up my tag/tail bracket, front turn mounts, wire my rear turns and tail light, get new tires mounted and paint the tins. This is how she sits now, boy is it slammed to the ground! I had to take a big chunk out of the kickstand and weld it back up to get it to work right.



Ended up sticking with all the wiring. This is my first street bike, so I wanted to keep all the functionality for this first season. Probably going to minimize the wiring loom next winter when I work on cleaning up the engine now that I know it runs.

 

Air in the tires will help :wink: ! IMHO you really need around 4" of ground clearance...

skillet

 

Do you have mufflers on those pipes or are they just srtaight?

 

WOW....this makes me ashamed that I haven't done more work on mine. Great job. I can't wait to see it all put back together and outside ready to ride.

 

Thanks Koolaid!

Once my custom lowrider tires are replaced with new ones, looks like I'll have about 4.5" of clearance. That's plenty, I'm not gonna be racing this thing.

Yeah, there are mufflers on there, the ones that were on the bike when I bought it, just painted with high-temp exhaust paint.

Not much progress. Got the tag/light mount ready to weld, finishing front turn mounts and waiting on the stupid Ohio rain/humidity to take a break so I can paint. Oh yeah, still need to go to the DMV and get my endorsement.

 

OK guys, looking for some help here. Got the tank stripped and came across a bunch of "patches". Could this be JB Weld? Should I dig out and redo?

 

AS for paint-I do allthe painting I can with Dupli-color
engine paint,It's extreamly hard once it has completely cured
and out lasts standered rattle can by a long shot.
A couple of coats of the low gloss black makes a nice even finish.
Then three coats of clear and it looks like factory high gloss.

 

In the home stretch, sealed the tank with POR-15 over the weekend, mounted the tag/tail light bracket I welded up and painted some parts. All that's left to do is body work on the tank, then paint and new tires.

Some crappy phone pictures-

Front:


Rear:


Close up of tag bracket and rear turn:


Side view:


Thanks to all the knowledge on this board, this thing is almost road worthy!

 

wow, great job man, its really coming along great. you've come along way since you started, and in so little time. Im building one I got real cheap as well, except I have NO real knowledge of anything, so its going to take me some time to get it ready.

 

Can i ask, How exactly do you lower the front forks??

 

Loosen the bolts that hold the forks in place and push em up a little bit. Thats how I did it. Gotta get new lines though. Squishin my brake lines too far up. Gonna upgrade to stainless soon anyway
-Chris

 

chris is right just dont move them more then an inch without checking clearance and drive it .it changes the steering geometry maskes the wheelbase shorter can cause vibrations .any farther your asking for trouble you might be ok but drive it to make sure.
Chris you really must have really lowered yours alout if you need new lines they bend alout

 

I didn't move my forks up in the tree, I lowered the forks by disassemblying them and cutting the spacer at the top of the fork 1.5" then adding a new 2" spacer on the dampening rod (is that what it is?) above the spring:



Here's the link to the write up I used to do mine:
Lowering forks

 

Got the paint almost done. Gonna wait for it to cure and then add clear, but I couldn't wait to put it together. Put on my new standard petcock, added gas and fired it up. It ran, but gas was leaking out of the pod filter on carb 3, so I'm going to have to pull them again.