Poor mans StreetFighter/Bobber project. '82 XJ650 Maxim

Hello all, here is the start of my build. I have had bikes before, but have never modified one, all my experience is with cars. And my car experience is limited..
Anyway..
Picked up this 1982 XJ650 Maxim for $400. A lil beat up, dented tank and pipes. Two turn signals held on with duct tape, side covers intact but held on with yellow and pink zip ties.. lol The motor was ticking, turned out to be a loose head pipe. Two turns of a wrench and the bike ran smooth as silk. There was also a slow oil leak from the front left corner of the valve cover.



http://youtu.be/qorO_kacNb4 <----- Short vid showing the exhaust leak.

 

I have been prowling this site since the XJ purchase, which was over a year ago. Many threads on here have been very helpful. I rode the bike to work and back most of last summer, then this spring I checked out a few of the mod builds on here and got bit by the mod bug. I really liked the look of some of the bobber builds, so stole a few ideas from those threads.

Again, this is an almost zero budget build, so things are being done with that in mind. Well, not zero, but low budget..

Started by taking off the seat and seeing what was in store for me in removing the rear frame section. I have access to a welder, but no weld skills, so hardtail was out of the question for now.

 

The beginning of the unneeded parts pile. Going minimalist, so turn signals, horn, and some other items won't be going back on.

 

Exhaust removed.


And a growing pile. At this point I wasn't sure what my plan was fender-wise, so nothing is being mangled or thrown out.

 

Gettin naked.

 

Holy crap that's a lot of wires.. Luckily my father is a wiz with that, so further into the build I will be recruiting him for help. I found on here somewhere a minimal wiring guide for the XJ, so with that wiring shouldn't be a prob.

 

Parts pile started to take up a lil too much room on my buddys shop floor, had to consolidate.

You can see the duct tape on one of the turn signals in that one.

 

Eyeballing the back end planning where to make the first cut. Once the hacksaw comes out there's no goin back! lol
Take a look at the wiring there, one of the previous owners seemed to be doing some wiring along with the duct tape work.

 

And gone! Kinda cool, as soon as that rear section was cut off it gave it the open rear wheel bobber look.

 

The next step was moving it from my buddys shop to my garage at home.

 

New drag bars and seat courtesy of eBay. Seat was $49, bars around the same.



Toyed with a bunch of different ways to mount the seat, ended up turning the seat bracket backwards and having my bro weld in a 2.5" piece of pipe. That pic is comin up.

 

A buddy of mine took the H pipe and cans to work with him, in less than 12hrs he returned with these wicked lookin slashcut bad boys!!

Paint can mock-up. Perfect length, exactly what I was wanting.

 

Mocking up the seat to see where abouts I might want it.

 

Fender. Not sure I want it sticking out quite that far, but we will see. Limited tool selection will most likely play a role in where it is mounted in the end. For sure gonna have to trim it down, wouldn't want any of it visible by the shock like that.

 

Semi-gloss and flat black rattle can. After the test spray, flat was the winner! Everyone who has been in the garage has commented on the dents in the tank, but I think they add character!!! lol

 

Not sure what my plan is with the gauges, but somethin has to be done. mabye some smaller ones in cups mounted right to the bar? We'll see. That is a way way down the road desicion. For headlight I am thinking of using a pair of automotive foglights. Again, not sure yet.

 

Some random levers and parts were sprayed with the semi-gloss. Body will be flat, frame and some other things semi-gloss.

 

Masked off the motor and everything and did a test spray (rattle can of course) of that triangle section of frame.

 

Some painted parts made it back onboard.

 

Any chrome that is left will be sanded. Took an 80 grit sanding sponge to the gas cap, it turned out good! Just have to keep in mind which way ya want the grain to go. It is on a dented and scratched tank that will be sprayed flat black, but damn that cap looks good! lol

 

Tail/brake light is gonna be mounted off of the lower shock mount on the right side. I picked up a light made for a boat trailer, it has a clear section on the bottom for lighting up your license plate. While at the store I also found this plate bracket for like $2. It will need to be modified a bit to fit a motorcycle plate, but should work good!

 

Some other items I picked up. The pipes off of the head will be wrapped (I like that look), and the pipes will be painted. Grabbed a cleaner, primer, and high heat header paint for the pipes.

 

As I mentioned, the valve cover was leaking a bit of oil. Got a new gastket that I used along with some copper Permatex. While valve cover was off it got cleaned and primed along with the tank and pipes. Somehow I forgot to take a pic of the pipes primed tho.

 

Got my brother to come over and weld up the pipe to mount the seat for me.

The bracket for the seat fits tightly on either end of this pipe, I then have a bolt and wingnut to feed thru there to hold it in place. Ghetto mounting system, but that seat is rock solid when mounted.

 

The start of the pan for under the seat. My design worked, but looks VERY crude, at a later time this will be redone much more carefully with rolled smooth edges and everything.

front corners pounded round.

The side sections of the frame that had the plastic covers will be done in this sheet metal also, then some sort of graphic painted onto those.

 

reallyinterested to see how your cover for under the seat turns out. might have to steal or piggyback your idea!

 

I'll get some more pics up in just a lil bit here. It turned out functional lol. I am going to be redoing it for sure, but I will be following the same design. Just being a lot more careful with my measurements and cuts lol

 

Trimming down to size. I measured the width between the frame rails, thinking that this piece I am making would sit nicely between them. It was a good idea, but not the reality lol.

 

Besides how it looks in a couple of the pics, the sides of this piece are indeed cut straight.. lol.
Once I had it bolted back in place, I used a hammer to pound down and locate the ends of the pipe underneath that I had welded on for the seat mount. I will need to cut the hole big enough for my fat sausage fingers to get in there easily to put on and take off the wingnut for the seat.

 

See the gap between the plate I made and the frame? Yeah, I don't like it either.. When I remake this piece I will cut it an inch wider on each side, and then have those sides curve down and disappear behind the frame rail. So when remade it will look alot cleaner and finsihed.
But for a first timer playin with sheet steel, it didn't turn out too bad and functions exactly as hoped, so I guess that's what counts!! lol Should look a lot better once it is painted too.

 

Valve cover painted and drying.

Took the same 80 grit sanding sponge that I used on the gas cap and hit all the raised areas on the valve cover.

 

Pan for under the seat painted and hang drying. When I redo it I will be curving down the sides the same way I did the back.

 

Valve cover, tank, seat pan, and seat all installed. Rear fender is just mocked into place, still need to figure exactly where I want it and then trim down the sides and back. Don't look at the messy garage.

 

Tail/brake light wired and mounted up. It doesn't look as big and bulbous in person lol. You can see the miserable looking stock pegs in this pic. When cash allows I plan to hit eBay or something and buy some all metal dirtbike pegs.


Then the exhaust was bolted up, it looks good! The header paint I used on the pipes turned into a real unique black once they were heated and cooled a few times. Almost the color of charcol briquettes, looks like if you touch them you will have that black on your hands, which of course you don't, but I like how they turned out. The bracket for the taillight and license plate works well, no plate on it in this pic tho.

 

And yesterday, 7.22, she was out for her first long ride! Went all over town, hit the highway for a few stretches. The pipes are loud, but not pull-me-over loud. Lots of looks from Harley guys, kinda threw me off, I usually ride a rocket and they don't even glance in your direction then lol.
This pic is at a park not far from my house. I forgot to take pics of the rear fender trimdown and install, but you can see the finished result in this shot. And my RFY eBay shocks should be here later this week. Coming from China so shipping takes a while.


To do list:
- Need to make new side covers yet. I have the steel, so this will most likely be done in the next week or so, depending on how tired I am after work, this is a busy month.
- Need a new set of grips.
- I am going to paint the wheels with a satin black, and keep the outter rings silver.
- Automotive foglights to replace the big headlight
- Remove as much electronics as possible and rewire the rest of the bike. This most likely will not happen until I have the new headlights.

After the ride and going over the bike again in the garage, I decided I didn't like the chrome on top of the carbs. Pulled those out to go thru and clean em and will spray the tops black. Check out all that dirt and grime that carbs were hiding! I will be doing some engine block cleaning too it seems lol


On a side note, I had a buddy of mine stop over yesterday. He is a Harley specific MMI grad, who works at our local Harley dealer. We step into the garage and the very first thing he says when seeing the Maxim was, "You should lose the airbox and throw some cool lookin pod filters on there.". I responded with, "Dude, I have read alot about them being fitted onto these bikes, and I really don't want the headache.". The conversation went back and forth for a while and then was just redirected to talking about my exhaust. lol
pssh, Harley guys.... lol

 

I would avoid the pods buddy. At least until re jetting carbs is something your up for. It's coming along though. Keep me posted.

 

the pods are working just have to look up possible pod fix im working on a proto type doing another mod to proto type now...

 

When someone figures out for sure a flawless way to make pods work, I will be sending them a PM and my carbs in the mail to mod lol, until then I'm fine with the airbox.

 

Shocks came yesterday, they look good!! Should have them on tonight or tomorrow.

 

Dang. What shocks were those. And how much were they ha

 

those are some sweet shocks

 

He wrote:

Here's a pair: http://www.ebay.com/itm/320MM-Pair-of-A ... 6d&vxp=mtr

 

EBay man! Brand is RFY, with shipping they were $140, I thought that was pretty reasonable. This is the poor man's build after all lol

 

I can't find it now, but I came across a conversion kit on this site for putting a fatter rear wheel in the front.. does anyone have a link? And has anyone done this? Interested in how ride and handling and turning are affected....? Cause that might look pretty wicked. Lol

 

There are several threads, but here's the guy with the actual kit. I don't think he's making them right now, but you can ask him I guess:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... rsion.html

I can tell you that the people who've done it claim the ride is good, I myself have my doubts. Then there's the whole issue of that wheel/tire being heavier than a front wheel and giving you more unsprung weight. I have to admit though, I like the look. But I'm not giving up my dual calipers, no way, no how.

 

Thanks maximike for the link. I wonder too how the ride is. I only have the single disc so I wouldn't have to worry about that, but rideability HAS to change, no? The look is pretty badass tho lol.

I'm hoping someone besides the maker of the kit replies with some info on ride and install hassle.

 

Shock install!

Before:


This bracket was already angled on the rear side, but the front was square. Had to hit it with the angle grinder to make room for the angled part of the shock going to the reservoir.


After. I am going to pick up different hardware for the top mounts, there are mismatched nuts on there.

 

This is the paint I used on the exhaust. Love the finished product.

 

The silver of the back of the license plate kept catching my eye while walking thru the garage. SOMETHING had to be done lol