My First Street rat build

So I bought my xj about a year ago not intending to buy a yamaha it just happened that way,I also picked up a 78 xs 750 and a 73 a cb450k5 as a package deal.So with the truck loaded we made the trip home and filled the garage with a few decades of rust pitted chrome and mud and spider webs.I was no stranger to bikes but unfamiliar with yamaha Thanks for all the advice from everyone who helped play a part on this resurection build.
You can see the bike was mostly complete but drapped in alot of after market touring parts from the po.It all needed to go so low and lean was the way to go I'll try to add the pics to date as the build unfolds.With pb blaster a sawz all and the bolt cutters i chopped the tail and seat hinges off.about a hundred sheets of sand paper to remove 18 years of rust.Then the next step was repainting and fabbing a new rear fender and seat pan Wich was made from wood at first to get an idea.It didnt really look to bad but I was happy enough to move further forward on the bike.Thanks to everyone on the site a locked my sights on the fuse box.I've seen many ways of replacing this but at the time money was in issue so to the junk yard I went.Courtesy of a small ford passenger car I picked up a 6 slot inline mini fuse block that fits great and works even better.Next I would tear the carbs down welcome to the church of clean lol.So with a little luck and my fingers crossed She started up with the touch of a button and Idled :lol: Next was to dive into what was left of my front forks wich were in my opinion not worth saving after dissasembly so With a measuring tape and mic I Added the front forks brake system from an 86 gpz900 I was able to play around with bearings and axles a little so I could retain my front wheel but the rotors from my xj didnt line up so now I got creative and started examining the 78 xs for more salvage Come to find out the rear rotor was a perfect fit.And after to failed e bay attempts I was able to obtain another matching rotor now I have brakes and a lower front end :wink: The bars looked pretty silly to cruiser for my taste so with the help from my buddie a couple beers and some silliness we got the idea to flip the kawasaki bars upside down and reverse the left and right and it was awsome.With some tweaking It was a match made in heaven It handles like a crotch rocket with the comfort of a cruiser.Now it was time to work on the gauge cluster and headlight I restored the original to working condition But it just didnt look right so I cut it in half and removed the digital display but it was still to ugly So I found a set of gauges from an 84 honda hawk I think it was and removed the gauges from the housing and found I could move all the indicator lights to the honda assembly the tricky part was removing the mechanical tac and adding the electric.I made the swap with some garage engineering and it works great.The mounting as you can see from the pics looks factory as far as mounting is concearned the stock headlight bracket was another issue I had to use the stock light because at the time it was what I had and I was penniless So yet another creation was born So moving on the bike at this point was running pretty nice and not looking to bad wich brought me pretty close to date But the bike needed side covers a propper rear fender and some lighting So with some help from another xj,er I got some side covers and began fab on a chin spoiler and rear fender I new I wanted an old school look but my metal working skills werent up to par so I traded some labor for some labor and Got my chin spoiler custom made and it functions like it should.I started the paint /priming process and decided to go fighter plane with the overall schene of things Not really sure now I got some reservations about it.What do yall think ??? The front turn signals have been added and rear flush mounts have been ordered the tail light on the bike is there just to look legal for testing purposes not for keeps The engine paint is not yet complete nor is the paint scheme so maybe with some help from you guys Ill sort it out I got a week or so before the title comes back to decide.So thats it if anyone wants any exact details Im happy to share Having trouble sizing my pics so please check my gallery pics .Till then enjoy the pics and thanks for the Help !!!!

 

Sorry gang I cant get all the pics to up load these are the first 3 I took I have played around for hours trying to add more pics to no end and I just cant get it done sorry.

 

Hey nice build so far. try photobucket and then you can load your photo links on here. it's easy and free.