1981 XS1100 Midnight Special Restoration - Pic Heavy

Yea... I'm going to go look at the price of a vice today.

There are some things every garage should have and a vice is one of them.

 

Bet the vice is cheaper than the ER bill. Sorry to hear about your injury.

 

Alive, lay the bike on it's right hand side & lift the frame off the motor, 1000 pc easier.
BTW. do you have Bunnings there? only I got a 100mm engineer's vice for $24.00

 

Bill.... Emergency health care is free here. Covered by ACC.

Wizard. That's exactly how I'm planning to do it. I was originally going to keep the wheels on, but now they must come off first.

I have a bunnings just up the road. It's just across the road from a Mitre 10 Mega... 2 huge hardware shops less than 10 minutes drive away is a good thing

 

I forgot your location - be a few hundred dollars here easy....

 

That's scary. We do pay for it through our taxes. Operations an illnessess can cost too but primary health care is basically free.

 

sorry to here about your finger, our health care is "free" to if you believe anything is free we used to pay monthly $44 for a single $88 for family but they stopped charging (at least in alberta) starting jan 01/09 so they must be getting it out of us somewhere else!
Shaun

 

Well I finally made a little more progress...

 

mmmmmm, rusty...

 

Overall it looks pretty good. Hate it when they get that neglected though.
Did you have to take those calipers off to get it to move ? :roll:
How many miles/KM on it ?

 

Looks like a lot of cleanup not much money, I used CLR to clean up the rusty bolts ,but then you have to clearcoat them or they just rust again.

Looks like you have a nice project.

 

Yea there's plenty of rust... But not for long

It's done 53k kms or 32k ml... but it's been left sitting outside for the last couple of years. Seat, tank, exhaust are all junk. The frame needs the shock and centre stand mounts fixed but is in better condition than I thought.

Front calipers were already off when I got it. I started taking the rear one off but stopped when I couldn't get it off because of a stripped screw.

It's all repairable. Just a matter of time and money... I do have a bit of cash t throw at it from time to time, I'm just wary of spending more than it's worth so I'm trying to keep the spending to a minimum,

 

That tank and seat were from an XS1100 standard and not the special model. It will look better with the right parts. I used to assemble those bikes from crates. Your pictures bring back a lot of memories. thanks

 

Alive,

Looks like your project will start going the other way soon. I was wondering are the wheels supposed to be gold and is the engine supposed to be black or did someone get wild with a couple of spray bombs. I know the company made "Midnight Maxims" it kinda looks like thats what the bike looks like. If it is a Real "Midnight Maxim 1100" I can't imagine there was many of those running around.

 

I believe with the 1100's that they called this one a midnight special. So yes the gold rims and disks are original. The engine side covers have been replaced on both sides at some point so the originals would have been different.

There's been a fair amount of paint thrown around this beast so lord only knows what's truely original and what's not :lol:

I like the black and gold so will be sticking with these when I start repainting.

 

Thats great, Can't wait to see.

 

Great way you have of removing the engine from the frame!

Also, are you sure this is an XS1100 and not an XJ1100? They made Midnight Maxim XJ1100's also.......only for sale in Canada, I believe.

 

Yes the ID tag on the frame says XS1100

 

I actually removed the frame from the engine 8)

 

Can't wait to see more. Are you going to reuse the oil cooler? I've been looking for one.