Amazing what a P.O. will do

[ManitoulinLad]

I bought this bike as a rust bucket last spring & its taken me till this spring to get it all sorted out. So when I got it the P.O. stated "Hey don't you like the way I painted the gas cap looks good eh?" This is a MNS so it was spray painted gold. Mental note - not original cap must of spray painted a special chrome one damn. I replied "ya cool" (it really looked like crap, bad choice type of of gold colour, etc) So a quite few nights ago I am cleaning something with acetone for something and got some on my hand & must of touched the cap for some reason. So last night I finally decided to re-spray paint the cap with a better colour gold. I take the cap off & the some of the old paint comes off & low & behold a non chrome shinyness comes out. Man alive out can this happening? The acetone bottle comes out & I felt like I was rubbing for a Genie hehe. Well the cap is original & the glaze on it is all crappy (guess thats why he painted it? who knows?) Out comes the steel wool, & rubbing for the Genie. I just about crapped! I ended up with a bright as 14k gold shiney cap with the now nice shined aluminum key entry. Its on the bike & looks awesome. The big guy must of been lookin down & gave me a gift for all the work. Just thought I'd throw this outthere as you never know what you'll end up with from a little hard work - Dan

[tinman905]

[QUOTE=ManitoulinLad;261071]I bought this bike as a rust bucket last spring & its taken me till this spring to get it all sorted out.

It's not spring yet Dan But you are right PO's just seem to get lazy,cheap or stupid and really butcher these classic bikes.

[CatatonicBug]

So, did you take pictures of it??

[XJ Rob]

wtf?

The PO did the same thing with the motor on my bike. Painted everything with silver paint including all the little rubber wedges between the fins. It was a PITA to clean out all the paint from between every fin. After I removed all the paint, The fins looked great!

It just blows my mind how people can just let a bike go to hell and think a little paint will make it all better.

[ManitoulinLad]

Hey Catonic: I haven't graduated to that level of computor savy to get pics up. I know you got the tuturial, which is great, its still a bit heavy duty for me. I figure maybe when the boys come up this summer (Slo MO & The Tinman) I can get them to take a couple pics of my bike & the forwards that a few guys have been wanting to take a look at & include that when show the ride on the forum. - Dan

[RS Thornton]

another PO paint story

bright yellow high temp engine spray paint
zero prep, prework or taping
petcocks, mirrors, rubbery bits etc included

But the price was right and some winter I put in the time with sandpaper and reprep the whole thing.

Scott

[slow mo]

hey dan

i hear Manitoulin is beautiful around the end of June! ride safe ,,slow mo!

[xs11lover]

When I got this one it was all spray painted black, I had about 40 hours of cleaning and polishing. I guess it helped keep it all nice under there.

[Rev.Rick]

Great looking ride there sx11lover! I wish I could scrape off the cheap paint job on my tank and side covers and find something as clean as yours under it. No chance of that I'm afraid. The PO put a heavy layers of what I'm assuming is some kind of fiberglass mat over the entire surface of the tank and side covers. Not sure why. I haven't poked around too much because the tank doesn't leak now and I don't want to create one just in time for spring. I'm thinking that they may have done it to cover the holes and indentions where the factory emblems were. I guess they never heard of body filler. Whats worst is they didn't even block it out before painting it bright yellow. I have to admit I kinda like the color, but it doesn't hide flaws very well. I have to also be very careful not to get any gas on the paint when I fill up because it turns into a mess. I'm hoping to get some riding in before I strip it down a do it right.

[Yard Dogg]

Your midnight specials are beautiful! Makes me want to cry. When I got mine, I was missing the side plates and It was weathered really bad. The seat was ate away, and most of the paint oxidized. I've tried to rub and scrub but it just isn't pretty. I still have the original parts, but I put a rear bobber fender on it and decided it would be cheaper to make my own seat. One day when I was clipping along at about 110 for 30 miles or so and loving every second of it. I started hearing some exhaust noise and my foot got real hot. Looked down and found a big hole in the original pipe. It had been patched and I had noticed it, but I thought it was a part of someones melted shoe. I ended up having to make new mufflers for it. They have the same back pressure cause I cut the exit hole out of the originals and it's a bit louder now. But I have still been looking for a place to get some anodized black 4 to 2 pipes. Does anyone know who might sell these? Is your 4 to 1 anodized black?
http://www.yamahamotorcycleforum.com...pictureid=3640

[ManitoulinLad]

Hey XSLover: That is the most decent MNS I have ever seen. Man its looks new. What a great looking bike, unbeliveable. Hey Slo Mo, Manitoulin is really nice near the end of June - usually lots of cold beer & steaks too, but hell thats alot of wknds up here at the lake. - Dan

[yamtom]

Beautiful MNS

Hi XS lover,

That is one gorgeous MNS, at least as good as the best Ive seen. I would consider forty hours to be a bargain if I can get mine to look that good.

[IMIX]

The PO of my bike installed 2 plastic red air horns spray painted black under the engine by the oil filter with the air hoses run under the engine up to the two compressors mounted on the back wheel bars.
It was god awful.
He also ran that cheap radio-shack speaker wire through the electrical in a frightening attempt to have running lights.
Being my first bike, I was very confused as to WTH he had tried to do.
ripped all that out and all the electrical started working correctly. go figure.