With the motor out, I spent a few hours taking everything else apart. Once I had the frame all bare, I scrubbed it and cleaned it the best I could. Now it is time to decide whether to paint or powdercoat. While powder seems like the logical choice, there are too many brackets and gussets on this frame, that I'm not too confident a powder will sufficiently coat everywhere. I may just go with a good 2k urethane paint, which, coincidentally, costs more than powdercoat.
So, mulling this over, I started inspecting the vast array of parts that took over my garage. I found a few issues here and there, and decided to tackle them right away.
Item #1 - a broken stud in the headlight mount. These studs seem to be inserted into the plastic housing while it is still hot, or rather, they are probably molded right now. Somehow one of the studs was broken off (it was a used bike).
I cleaned the broken part with a file, squared it, and found center. Then I drilled it, and tapped the hole for 6mm bolt.
I used a regular stainless steel bolt that I cut to the right length, applied some red loctite, and screwed it right in. Seems like a good, secure fix - much better than buying a new headlight :)
Item #2 - There was a crack in the rear plastic section, right where the tailight is housed. After some scuffing with an aggressive sandpaper to give it a decent bite, I used polyester resin and fiberglass mat to make it nice and strong.
Sanded fro the other side. A few more passes, some glaze, and it will be ready for paint.
Item #3 - well, there are four of them. The silly PAIR secondary air gizmo the 1200 has. The pipes were all corroded and not looking healthy.
Wire wheel and sandpaper later, the base metal looks good enough to keep.
Coated with VHT high temp enamel, drying before it goes to the oven. Originally, I thought about powdercoating these, but than I was not sure how hot these get. The local powedercoater does not have any high temp powder, so I decided on the enamel instead. It's good to 650 degrees, and once it is baked at 200 degrees for an hour, it turns into a fairly resistant finish.
Well, that's all for today. More to come soon.
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