XJ650 Cafe Racer Project

New to the forum, thought I'd post up my latest project. I've been wanting to do a wee Cafe Racer type bike for a while but when the opportunity came up to collect an XJ650 (in bits) for free, well, I jumped at the chance - Seems like a great platform to start with for such a project.

Got it home, all the boxes and stuff took up the remaining space in my shed (not good lol).









I Nitromors'd the frame and started sandblasting it.



Got fed up after spending hours having been covered in sand :lol:

I want to get the frame/swingarm/wheels/etc and the engine done fairly quickly, giving me a rolling chassis (with engine) to get some much needed space back in the shed.

Back to sandblasting the rest of the frame, 99% back to metal.

Primed


Painted & Lacquered. (was going to powdercoat but thought i'd do the best i could do with hat i have, that way it's all done with my own hands.)


Will leave it a few days and polish it up, get a nice smooth shine on it.

Need to tackle the engine next.. sandblast it to a nice even finish. Not sure whether o just lacquer it after that or paint it black and buff up the fin edges again.. hmm..

Anyway will keep yous posted.

 

I gave the engine a wee go with the sand and got 90% of the crap off the fins. Gave the rest a degrease and seems ok, still needs a wee clean but I shoved it in the frame.



Started on the swingarm







Wheels next.. oh joy.

 

Hey Man, that looks good! Keep doing and keep us posted!

 

comin along great keep up the good work!
Shaun

 

Yeah I'm just after doing pretty much the same to a wee Bandit 400 Limited Edition (you can see in one of the pics) so the thought of going through it all again makes progress slow lol - Will get there in the coming months though.

 

Well i've been too busy trying to get the Bandit running sweet, still a wee bit rough above 8k but anyway!

Polished up the fork legs a little tonight





Went about getting the race off the bottom yoke:



Polished up the top yoke a bit, new bearings etc and wanged it on.



Will finish the forks tomorrow and stick them on. If i get time I'll put the shaft in and the swingarm.. then onto the wheels.

 

Got the forks on today:



Then set about the front wheel, some stages of the process:

Before:


Paint:


Polished:


Whacked it on the bike, beginning to look like one now too :up:

 

Nice work.You make me feel like I am one lazy Bi**h,for hanging in the house in this crappy weather.

 

Oh I've been there, best not to think about what you're going to do, just go out and do something lol... stand & stare too long and I end up going in the house.

Been too busy cleaning and tuning the carbs on my other bike, it's been a b**ch but she's running sweet now so I can hopefully spend more time on the XJ.

 

Sort of polished up the brake drum housing a bit. Cleaned up the diff. Polished & painted the wheel (same as front), whack the swingarm, shaft, wheel, brake and diff on.



I've got Marzocchi shocks there to put on but they're in a bit of a mess paint wise.. hanging up now drying off, will put them on just now until i get a new set of chrome numbers or something.

 

nice man coming along...

 

Managed to get a bit more done recently.

Shocks on:


Bars painted, headlight on but the brackets need a tweak, not quite straight. Will end up with clip-ons anyway so they're just on to make it easier to move etc. (why paint them? lol)


Carbs were utterly manky inside & out.

Before: (you cant see the dead spiders & insects in the pics lol)




After:




Next I will get all the bits and bobs on the engine in prep to get the bugger started to make sure it runs before I go any further.

 

is it me or are the shocks upside down?

 

the one in the picture sure looks like it is...

 

Well usually with gas shocks the reservoir is at the top, same here.

these are the same type shocks i have on

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MARZOCCHI-SHOCKS- ... 240%3A1318

 

awesome concept! i originally wanted to turn mine into a cafe until i discovered that i really dug the bobber look. anyway - i have a fiberglass cafe seat - i'd love to see pics on how you mount yours...never know, maybe i'll stick it on and have a bobber/cafe combo.

 

a bobber cafe sounds very interesting :lol: got any photos of the seat? would be intersting, and maybe give me some ideas.

Straightened up the headlight and made a wee bracket to hold the speedo. Not going to use the rev counter or the warning light cluster. The chrome back to the speedo was buggered so I used the one from the rev counter and had to cut a wee bit out the side for the trip screw. Warning lights, well, I'll make up a wee bracket with LED's, something very minimal and hardly noticeable.

 

Not done too much recently but I decided to sort out the front brake and components. Bit manky but generally in good nick.

The blobby stuff in the tub is the brake fluid! some of it sort of jellified :lol: .. the master cylinder was solid because of that but i cleared it out ok and working a treat again :up:



Was in two minds whether to paint the calipers black or not, the deciding factor was that I don't have any plack paint (apart from hammerite smooth) so started polishing them up.



Ideally still needs a bit more work on it. I've only got 80 grit sandpaper, then it shoots up to 600 & 800 grit.. really need 160 & 320 or something so a bit limited in the shamoothness stages.

 

Just finished up some polishing of the calipers:




Finally mounted:


Put a few bibs and bobs back on the engine. Looking to fit all the electrical stuff next and hopefully get it to a stage where i can make sure it runs within the next few days.

 

Spent the day adding the bits and bobs to the engine, generator stator etc, coil pickup and so on. Longest bit was cleaning the loom up and identifying all the connectors, not difficult stuff, just boring and manky.

Put the carbs on the bike, tight fit.. had to heat up the inlet rubbers, add a bit of WD40 for lubage, force one side in, screw it up, then force the other side in.

Putting the loom and coils etc on was easy enough. Just had to figure out why it wouldn't turn over. Had to short out the clutch switch, add the instrument panel and make sure the neutral light was on, and ground the right-hand switch gear - cranked over

Added fuel to carbs, leak.. leak... leak. :evil: Noticed it was leaking from the fuel inlet 't-piece' pipe that fits between #1 & #2 carbs, the o-rings were perished so I replaced those, all ok

Cranked it over, few seconds later it started running, sounding a bit menacing with no exhausts but running :twisted:

So that's that! time to sort it out for real now.. feel so much better now i know it runs though... good day.

 

Yup was good to hear it fire up and spit flames out all four cylinders without any messing about (more than I can say for my Bandits :lol.

Slow progress, split the downpipes and the endcan to give them a wee clean up. Surprisingly not that much corrosion.. 2 or 3 bits around the collector box need welded, one wee bit on one downpipe, and at the bracket on the endcan. The endcan is rattling about inside, sounds as if the whole inside is moving as one.. I'll cut it open and see another day. [sorry no pics]

Started setting about the master cylinder, was manky. Half hour clean up & semi-polish. The sight 'glass' (rubber) was very brittle, damaged it trying to get it out - Made a new one out of plastic and glued it in, should be ok (and looks better imo).

 

looking good dude, keep the pics coming

 

Done a few bits and bobs recently. Stripped the loom down and removed all the redundant wiring etc.



Removed some more after that, too. After taking the pass switch out of the left hand switch gear I filled the space with the blue plastic out of the original warning light panel and glued it in place, rerouted the cable also to power a bulb (couldn't be bothered looking for an LED) for when full beam is on.

Here it is with the switch gear and levers on.



That didn't last long as I decided to chop my bars - Now looks like this:



That's as near as clip-ons I can get without getting in the way of the tank, feels good though when on the bike :up:

Another one from the front (notice the rear end coming together:



After much faffing cutting the subframe, cutting the original seat up and plastic welding it back together with a blow torch and pliers :lol: , adding a few brackets to secure it more, cutting the foam out and fitting it, then just adding an old rag to cover it temporarily (couldn't use the original covering as it was ripped) it's looking like this:

 

WOW! from a box of "bits" it's starting to look like a real bike! You've done a great job giving the bike a shine. Are you going to give the valve cover and, the side covers the same treatment? Also, I'm really liking the single gauge look. Keep up the great work! And another XJ comes back from the brink of death!
Cheers
Ken

 

Thanks Ken,

I did plan on sandblasting the engine, lacquering the black parts again and like you say, polishing up the valve cover etc.. I got fed up at the sandblasting part as I was doing it in the open (don't have large enough booth)- I wanted to make sure it would run before I spent too much time on it.

I may get round to taking the engine out one day (shouldn't take that long) - Or I can at least do what I can with it in place.

 

Went out to start on it again but I caught my old ZXR tank in the other end of the garden (been there for years)... The rear end looks about right:



Roughly sitting where it would:


Covered just to see the shape, not going to cover the curved rear part it'll be painted.


Think it looks a lot more like what I'm after so I'll set about that one another day.. going out a wee ride since the weather is good(ish) :lol:

 

Did you ever return from your ride?

 

Fine work cleaning up the forks. You're also making me feel like one lazy ba$t**d.