1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up?

Hello, new guy here with a decent condition 1983 XJ750 Seca. Licensed and titled, runs and drives, everything works, 24k miles. I picked it up for $500 earlier this month and it's been in the garage since (snow snow snow).

Anyway, I've been reading a TON on everyone's build threads and technical threads on this site and I appreciate everyone's help (and you didn't even know you were helping me ).

Here's a mockup I put together in Photoshop. It's a photo of an xj650 but it was the best high-res pic i could find, and it's similar enough that I figured I'd go ahead and pretend it's a 750.



Most of it is paint work, except the obvious change of upholstery and filling of dents in the tank. I'd also like to find an xj650 headlight or something similar, as it is in the picture, as well as a new set of gauges that aren't so obtrusive. Also, perhaps some clubman bars in the future.

I wouldn't really call it a cafe racer project, more of just a vintage'd bike of sorts. I'd like to keep it pretty original but make it a bit classier at the same time with the new paint scheme.

What do you think of it?

 

Not really wild about the green, but I like the additional "blacking out" idea. I HAVE a 650 Seca like the one in your pics, but it came in the American silver scheme. I want to use the red scheme on it but black out a lot of components like the swirly wheels, forks, etc., myself. Since my headpipes are rusted to beat the band, I've been thinking about jet-hot coating them black instead. I think it looks great, thanks for doing that. I would do the rear shocks too, like on my 550 below.

I blacked out a lot of additional parts on my 550, like the rear brake, carb hats and a lot of detail items (it came with black forks.)

Now, for the real "vintage" look, you need some fork boots...

 

nicely done, you have a nice looking bike. it's good to see examples of blacked out parts on an actual bike.

i love the idea of fork boots! where can i pick some up?

honestly, for color, i used some software to get a color that accents the brown seat nicely... other than that there was no real rhyme or reason to it. i just felt that it looked pretty classy.

i think it would look nice in real life, since there's a lot of gloss and highlights/shadows that i cant mimick in photoshop. plus, it's a little different than the paint on other xj's.

the pinstriping would be pretty difficult with paint... any suggestions? I was thinking maybe I could just get some black vinyl die cut decals for the tank/side cover/tail and i'd also like to get the yamaha logo icon (the circle and piano forks only, no text) die cut in black to throw on the sides of the tank.

 

Re: 1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up

i like the new styling although like previous post, i'm not in love with that green. you've got just the right amount of blacked out parts to make it work without going over to the "dark side".
good luck!

 

if you take the black plastic rear fender off there's a metal one under it that cleans up nice and shortens the fender to half way down the plate

 

I tried something symilar except with a darker green. I used cheap paint because I wanted something easy and cheap to touch up. Parked outside all the time it faded really fast. But you (or I get what I pay for) I think the gren should be darker though and the black and grey scalllops should be two shades of metalic grey., drk and medium to almost look like shadows and I'd put the light the dark grey to the inside of the light grey. Fork boots; for sure. I agree with Polock on the fender too.
Handlebars, I'd take a good look bike master gp/touring bars, theyre symilar to the clubman except there are no right angles and they come in black. If you do the seat yourself (I did), with that color I'd get marine grade vinyl, and I have seen an Ostritch hide design (although it wasn't called that) at 3 JoAnns (2 in Vegas and 1 in Oklahoma). Loose the passenger strap. THe girl on back is supposed to hang onto you!

 

Re: 1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up

Looks good to me, If you like it go for it.

 

Try a drab army green in Photoshop? Not a big fan of green but it works with the seat.

 

you guys are crazy full of information! i'll definitely add the fender removal to the list, that sounds great. also padre thanks for the paint/handlebars/seat info, very helpful stuff.

i'm pretty confident in the green. i think it will come together in real life pretty nicely. also keep in mind it's just a mockup so the actual color isn't going to be EXACTLY what's in the picture.

 

The bar on my bike in the picture is a BikeMaster "European" bend; they're lower yet than the GP Touring style. I put them on both of my 550 Secas but I am also considering the GP Touring for my 650.

 

Re: 1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up

Since you have a 750 Seca you really should find a proper bike image to Photoshop than the 650 Seca. I say that because the two bikes do not really look the same (other than the engine) and a paint design on one may look totally bad on the other. Look in the Photo Gallery here as well as Google Image searching. Lots of them around. There was a 750 Seca build here not too long ago where the owner used Audi Silver and looked real good IMO (but he replaced the OEM head/fog lights with a single round headlight). I've also seen 750 Secas in Corvette yellow. Just depends on what you like.

BigFitz - what fork boots (AKA gaiters) did you use on your bike? I've seen many for sale (for other bikes) but not sure which ones would fit best.

 

Those are Kawasaki gaiters for a world market 550GT or somesuch. Neat little shaft-driven 550 "Standard;" Wiz was restoring one a couple years back and we compared notes, turned out its fork boots had the exact right sizes top and bottom to fit the 550 Seca. He got me the part number and I ordered them from a Kawi dealer here in the States.

The best way to find the correct gaiters for your application is to match your fork diameter for the top, and measure the OD of the top of your particular fork legs for the bottom number. They're sold by upper/lower OD most often, ie: 35mm/55mm, or 38mm/60mm, etc.

I was really lucky in that the Kawi boots have a rounded raised ridge inside the lower end that "snaps" into the grooves machined in the top of the fork leg; the tops are each retained by a black wire-tie that's hidden by the fork valance.

If I had ended up having to clamp them at the bottom, I was going to use the vintage-style black double wire loop type of clamps; Triumph still offers them.

I plan to find an appropriately-sized set for my 650.

I still don't understand why they don't come on bikes any more; every bike in the 1968 Triumph and BSA catalogues had them. Every one.

 

Re: 1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up

well, it's meant as a mockup, not a blueprint so I'm not too worried about it being identical. to me it's close enough. obviously some things are different but the big things are the same or at least close enough you know?

i plan to eventually replace my headlights in the same manner (to a single round). first and foremost though i'll be taking care of the cosmetics in terms of bondoing dents and cleaning it up. i also will need to replace all the turn signal housings because all four are broken off and electrical taped in place lol

i cant wait til the ice and snow melts off enough to ride it!

 

Tend to the brakes before you start riding it.

 

painting a bike green is a bad idea

 

why is that? how about red?


or white?


or maybe a good turquoise color?

 

I've got that thing with green bikes & cars, never been lucky for me.

 

This with black seat would look best to my eye 8)

 

Re: 1983 XJ750 Seca - What do you think of my design mock-up

How about Sea Foam Green?

 

Look up Raven's XJ750 Seca resurrection in the Modifications section. You can even "borrow" his photos of the finished product for your Photoshopping.

Thanks BigFitz. That Kawi model might translate to the Spectre (various displacements) imported to the USA for a while that had a shaft drive and fork gaiters. I measured my XJ750 Seca forks (should be real close to your 650) and found the small end to be 36mm (1 3/8”), the large end 60mm (2 ¼”), with an exposed area about 7” long. Not found gaiters yet that match (not seen many sold with measurements either - usually sold for a particular make/model). Not sure how that compares to your 550 Seca.