133 replies to this topic

[laughin in a windstorm]

 56767887957.jpg   130.6KB   0 downloads

 

I have removed the seat panels and it has been rubbed down along with the tank and front mudguard, I did have a problem with the seat panel in that there was paint 'broken' along an edge which I had to fix with a bit of filler and blue paint 

 dftyr687.jpg   51.69KB   0 downloads

[laughin in a windstorm]

having fixed the seat panel paint (which was probably down to being 'flexed' too much) with a blast of the blue base coat, I set about marking out my design, I do this with chalk as it is easy to wipe away and re-do until you are happy with it, remember this is based on Tiger stripes,

once the design is ready in chalk I gradually replace the chalk lines with fine line automotive tape, in this case it is 3M 3mm tape, it is done by removing one chalk line at a time with a wet sponge and putting the tape in its place, this is another very time consuming job, it took me a whole week just this afternoon  ,

I did make the mistake of thinking I had enough fine line tape but I haven't, so I had to order a new roll, I will concentrate on the mudguard and seat panel until the new roll arrives

 

repaired paint damage, bodywork marked out, design replaced by tape

 panels.jpg   103.12KB   0 downloads

 

the tape is quite flexible in that you can create reasonably tight curves with it but there is a limit before it breaks, therefore the tape lines can only go so far as to following the squiggley chalk lines, the 'inner' parts of tape joins will be cut once the full masking up has been done

[leehenty]

You will become our go to Paint Guy.

[Snowbird]

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished job!   

[laughin in a windstorm]

You will become our go to Paint Guy.

ha ha, I'm not a professional but if I can help anyone via my own experiences then I will

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished job! 

thanks, so am I but the weather is becoming challenging with cold and damp conditions, neither of which are good for sticking tape on or painting,

 

I have managed to get the seat unit and the mudguard fully masked up and hopefully I'll get the orange sprayed on today,

I'm still waiting for my new roll of fine line tape to arrive (I've had things from China delivered quicker  ), but in the mean time I'll get onto the fine line taping of the the fuel tank with what I've got left of my existing roll,

it took me 6 hours yesterday to mask up the other 2 parts,

due to the amount of time involved it is probably better to do it as a 2 part job as I don't like to leave tape stuck to paintwork for too long, the 'glue' can become too attached and cause damage when removed,

I like Vodka and Ribena, it so so so so  helps with patience 

[laughin in a windstorm]

well I managed to get the mudguard and seat unit sprayed, I didn't think I was going to be able to as it was non stop rain all morning, the sun came out early afternoon though

 

all masked up, all sprayed up and masking removed

 se5667ry.jpg   102.19KB   0 downloads

 

the masking and un-masking take many hours together, it is easy when sticking on lots of small pieces of tape to miss a tiny area of base colour or not fully press down all edges of the tape, and when spraying such contrasting colors the new colour will find a way through,

when removing masking it is vital that you go slow and methodically as just ripping the tape off could pull the base coat paint with it, you have to give the glue on the tape a chance to separate from the surface,

remove all the masking tape first and leave the fine line tape until last, pull all tape up and away from the fresh paint and never towards the fresh paint as there is a chance that you could 'peel' the fresh paint from the surface, by pulling away from the paint you give the tape a chance to 'cut' a neat edge,

I have a couple of areas that need to be smoothed from where the paint that was on the fine line tape left the surface of the tape and created a loose area, this normally happens and once the paint is properly dry it can be wiped away,

tank next

 

more and bigger pictures on my face book page 

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 29 September 2025 - 08:05 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

so today I will get the stripes sprayed on the tank as yesterday I managed to get the fine lining and the full masking done  ,

while I was looking at the bike I realised this is one bike that I never bought a stainless steel engine bolt kit for (all those years ago), facking hell hell those things are expensive now, averaging around £100 a kit  , after some searching I managed to find a kit for under £20, they look unpolished and rough but I can sort that out, I'll keep you posted on this

[laughin in a windstorm]

yesterday I was able to get the striping done on the tank, all done as in the previous method

 

 ftyr776.jpg   50.68KB   0 downloads

 

[Catteeclan]

That's going to look great in the sun.

[laughin in a windstorm]

I managed to keep up with the weather and got all my clear coating done   , I took the seat unit apart to spray the parts individually as I didn't want the clear coat to fill the joins and then crack at a later date

 

unfortunately no sun today so the colours can't be fully appreciated, all parts will now be stored out of harms way to harden off while I get on with other parts of the bike

 sw3456658.jpg   103.66KB   0 downloads

 

 

incidentally my stainless engine bolt kit arrived today and I'm rather pleased with them, I thought they were going to be very dull but they have a 'half' shine to them and that is good enough for me, at under £20 it was a good buy especially as many suppliers are selling kits for close to £100, but I am surprised that I never changed them when I had the bike 20 years ago

 

 

ps. I will not be doing my Tiger graphic on the tank this time as my wrist is too knackered to be able to control a scalpel anymore when setting out the design

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 02 October 2025 - 03:37 pm.

[laughin in a windstorm]

I changed the spark plugs and found it to be probably the most awkward bike I've ever had to do it on, what a stupid design Mr and or Mrs Yamaha, what were you thinking ?,

I didn't want to drain all the coolant out unless I really needed to as in the past I've found that disturbing old connections can lead to leaks and more expense,

I found a you tube video showing someone who managed to do it with the radiator in place so I did it that way, it helps if you have really small hands (mine are medium'ish) and are very patient

[laughin in a windstorm]

today I got the engine damage sorted, all filled and painted, I used a colour I mixed up years ago to touch up the engine on my MT03 660, it is a pretty good match and I'm pleased with the result

 

the damaged areas,

after filling and painting and coated in gloss clear coat,

front of engine done too as it was mostly bare dirty metal, no gloss

 cg89887gf.jpg   154.74KB   0 downloads

 

 

I hope the paint will stay on at least as good as the 'poor' factory finish as it is not a specific engine paint, I had used similar paints on my V-max without any problems so fingers crossed

 

 

[Bjørge]

... on my MT03 660 ...

I've been thinking about the old MT03, is it any good?

Edited by Bjørge, 04 October 2025 - 07:08 pm.

[laughin in a windstorm]

I've been thinking about the old MT03, is it any good?

 

I found it to be a great bike, obviously I don't know about your own particular tastes in riding but for me I'd happily have one as an only bike, my first one I bought purely as a work bike and my Son has that now,

later I bought a newer model and made a few modifications to it to suit my own tastes etc.,

I had it as a companion to my V-max of the time and then sold the V-max as I was using the MT much more, then after a while I 'thought' I wanted more power again and traded it for an XJR1300, I was wrong and regretted it after a week  ,

I used to get around 80mpg on a steady ride out, top speed is around the 100mph mark but I rarely went there, mostly cruising at around 65mph which is what I'll be doing on my TDM when it is ready (as long as roads are dry and temperature is right  )

 

this was my second one

https://www.facebook...53629726&type=3

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 05 October 2025 - 03:59 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

when I loosened the radiator to give limited access to the spark plugs I found the mounting bolts for it were a mixture of partially rusty hex head and allen head bolts, I like balance so I sorted some allen head stainless bolts to replace them, it was also obvious that the threads on the fixing points were less than superb, so I 'chased' them through with a tap to clean them up,

before fixing the radiator back in place I gave it a quick clean and a fresh coat of paint as it was a bit flaky on the edges, a new cover will be made at a later date,

I also did a bit of wiring inspection under the air box as one area of 'bending' had worn through the insulation tape where it touches the frame, some areas bend or flex because I have removed the fairings and fitted head lights that turn with the handlebars, on a standard machine the wiring mostly all stays still, it was good to see no wires were actually worn through so I just added some fresh insulation tape, I will need to do a similar check when the clocks come off,

I have also changed the engine bolts for the new stainless ones that I bought, the kit gives a full engine set including many that you can't see like on the oil sump, because of that I only changed ones that are on view and I'll change the others if I ever need to remove those parts

[laughin in a windstorm]

got the front end removed to replace the steering bearings, I was a bit surprised to see it still had what I believe is the original ball bearings at 44000+ miles, the bottom set are quite rusty, once everything was removed the yokes took about five pounds of pressure to make them move, no wonder it was fighting my choice of direction, I have tapered roller bearings to go in

[laughin in a windstorm]

the bearings have been replaced and the yokes fitted back in position

 

the original bearings, top yokes, all refitted

 dfgsre4565687ty.jpg   133.92KB   0 downloads

 

 

the colour I've used to paint the replacement top yoke (and my frame covers) is darker than original but I'm ok with it, I could've spent ages mixing up different shades to get it closer but I just went with an aerosol that is available off the shelf for ease, besides the lower yoke is black as standard anyway so 'match' is just a thing of choice,

 

I have now stripped the insulation back on the wiring loom to try and make it fit neater against the frame, the standard loom cover has quite hard areas which do not allow much flex

 

 

ps. the stainless plate on the front of the frame is what I fitted 20 years ago, it covers the hole left by cutting off the original fairing mounting bracket

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 09 October 2025 - 04:32 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

to be able to try and sort the wires into a more suitable position I need to have the clocks/ECU holder and its framework in place first, but I thought instead of fixing it all back in place only to have to remove it again I may as well try and polish out the scrapes and gravel rash marks first,

before trying to polish out the marks I also thought it would be best to modify it to take the standard indicators, I had after market indicators before which were small aluminium items and intended to use some after market items again, I do have a set of smaller chromed led items that would have gone in nicely but my experience has shown that after market indicators often fail in some way in quite a short time, for that reason I am going back to the reliable standard indicators which are actually quite a nice shape,

to fit them requires a large egg shaped hole as they are not the 'bolt through' type, when fitting bolt through types all you need is to centre punch the correct spot evenly on both sides and then drill the size hole you need,

marking and cutting an egg shaped hole evenly on both sides and at the correct angle took a bit more thought, I can't mark it out while the housing is off the bike as I will have no chance of getting the angle correct, you can not just swivel these standard indicators up or down if they are a bit out of line,

so to mark the holes out I need the housing fitted to the bike, the areas where I want to mark were covered with masking tape so I can use a pen to draw lines on, first I had to work out how much space is available as the indicator stem is quite wide, so I measured the area where the clocks base line is and allowed thickness of the metal turn under at the bottom,

now with the bike upright and the steering pointing straight forward I used a spirit level to draw a straight line across the area to give me my angle, from that line I could measure up or down and front to back to centre where the indicator will go, once I had the horizontal and vertical lines centred on both sides I used a little cardboard hole template I made of the hole shape needed, I folded this over front to back and top to bottom to mark the four even points all around it, then I lay it on the lines on the housing and make sure the four points touch the horizontal and vertical lines, then draw around it,

to cut the holes out I used a centre punch to punch little marks all around the drawn area but just inside the drawn line (when you draw around a template the line is slightly bigger than the template), I did this while it was still on the bike as holding it still afterwards without ruining the tape on the opposite side would be troublesome,

with the areas marked on both sides I could remove the tape and then punch a few marks around the inside of the previously punched lines to use as drilling points, then it is a case of drilling lots of holes all around the inside of the marked lines until you have basically cut out the centre,

once this was done I was able to use a die grinder to smooth out the drilled areas and take it to the marked punch lines or outline, when the hole shape is able to snuggly fit the previously made template I know the hole is correct, then I used a dremmel with a small drum sander to smooth the edges and remove burrs, I tried the indicator in place and it was good, although I do need to make spacers for the insides as the fitting area of the indicator is 5mm and my clock holder steel is 2mm,

 

marking it all out, hole cut

 sdfzdf56567789.jpg   92.12KB   0 downloads

 

 

now to try and polish out the scrapes, some of them are very deep and will require a lot of metal removal to get rid of them, this would make the metal too thin in places so I will just go for as big of an improvement as I can get, I do not have the patience to remake these parts anymore 

 

the scrapes on the clock underside cover, they are hard to photograph as it is a shiny object but trust me they are there,

and after stage 1 polishing

 fghjgyu678789.jpg   65.5KB   0 downloads

 

 

[Catteeclan]

I'm enjoying this, thanks for posting.

[laughin in a windstorm]

I'm enjoying this, thanks for posting.

 

thank you, I am adding more detailed and larger pictures pictures to my face book album if any one is interested  https://www.facebook...96432136&type=3