look what followed me home ma!

69.5CUDA

Blah Blah Blah
so..ive been on a bike hunt a while....and had been looking into converting moms old mr 175 into street duty...my stipulation on a bike was it MUST be either a honda or a ktm..and lets face it im not going to find a ktm for cheep

i found a 1980 xl500s....it looks ALOT worse than it really is..new cdi new rubber and a spare front wheel with good rubber....the bad..the carb is gummy and ALL of the street gear is gone....also...my reading shows me its 6v...the good..its solid i seem to be the 3rd owner..the paint on it is falling off so it should actualy clean right up....the inside of the ORIGINAL tank litteraly looks like it came off a dealers shelf yesterday

ive never been on anything bigger than a 250..aside from the 400 4x4 cow quad and that just aint the same...its also been atleast since 93ish since i was last up on 2 wheels...but i got my first bike at 5 a 1980 z50 off the showroom floor..road it every weekend....every other weekend we went out to camps or dunes..when i got to about 9 or 10 i was given moms mr175 riding was less often but ive got more seat time on a dirt bike than i could ever count

so once shes cleaned up and back in street gear....ill have to go get my endorsment...mom swore id never ride on the street...she was wrong :naughty:.....i still wouldnt mind me a f1-f4 cbr but ill find me one later

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allready ripped the mudflap the hell off :dgt:

not bad for 300$
 
tanks off plastics off air box and carb too...got 1 fender stripped back to the bare red plastic...the carb stripped and deer god..ive seen some gummy carbs but this bastard is GLUE!!!!..i had to pull the float needle our with a pair of pliers slowly ...im sure ill have it clean by tommaro..the body work will take a couple days..im thinking tuesday ill haul it up to the 40 and have a test ride
 
I wanted to saw the Blowtie mudflap in half with my Leatherman. He wouldn't let me. :D
 
nope i didnt want half a chevy mudflap on the bike..i wanted ALL of it gone...now theres a ford parked on the flap in the driveway....

hey fishy maybe we should wrap that chevy mud flap around your tree on the 40 ...:toot:
 
nope i didnt want half a chevy mudflap on the bike..i wanted ALL of it gone...now theres a ford parked on the flap in the driveway....

hey fishy maybe we should wrap that chevy mud flap around your tree on the 40 ...:toot:
Well I was gonna cut it off, then let you unbolt it from the bike. ;) And the tree idea.... we still have access to the rifles? ;)
 
im sure we do fishy


so the carbs cleaned out and up back on and that ANIMAL refered to as a bike tryed to throw me off the back in the driveway...holy hell what an animal

plastics have been stripped to bare again..washed down the bike...just need to strip the crap off the frame and tank..but that will all wait till a good HARD beating out on the 40 tommarow..after its proven itself..shes going to the bone for a re-paint and full lube job...22$ for a quart of pre-mix red and i have the black .should look like a brand new bike by next weekend
 
an old rattle can of black took care of the seat...for now...ill order up a new skin for it once ive beat the hell out of it...the fenders and side covers got a full coating of citri strip nd have returned to being JUST plastic...tho the side coveres were factory painted red before the uglyness was added...sooo...ill have to re-paint them along with the tank.....the tank i hit with an old can of silver just so i could live with it thru its trial beating period

once me and fishy are done beating the hell out of it we will blow it apart..re-seal and lube EVERYTHING blast the frame tank and swing arm..strip everything we cant blast and ill toss some ppg black on the parts that should be black and get a quart of red for the tank and side panels.......anyone got any tips for painting the side plastics?

if nothing else its presentable enuf that i wont mind riding it...not that anyones going to see it where were riding but i personaly could not stand the uglyness


anyone know anything about the premix car paint on the shelves of most parts stores?..i saw they have a red for 22$ for a quart....it may not be the "right" red but surely it would do for the tank and side plates...

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Big improvement!

Whatever paint you use just make sure the paint shop knows it's for plastic. They'll need to know that so they can add more of the flex agent to the paint. Otherwise it'll just crack when ever they get to blowing in the breeze.

The other (budget) option is to use that Krylon Fusion paint. Works great on plastics as it was meant to and I didn't have to fork over the big bucks for true automotive paint. I've seen it available in a color pretty close to that Honda Red too IIRC.

FWIW: They don't offer anything that's anywhere near the Yamaha Blue color. :D
 
That's looking better. Lot's of guys use the Krylon Fusion, cheap and easy. For regular automotive paint you need a special primer for the plastic so the paint will adhere properly. An "Animal" eh? But it's only a 'lil 500....;)
 
ugh id really rather not use rattle can..as i know that stuff useualy has crap for UV protection..but iol consider it

i WISH i was setup to powder coat right now...id blow her apart and powder coat everything i could

i totaly forgot about the required flex agent DOH..still ill price it all out..but ima do everything i can to stay away from rattle can if i can..tank will get true auto paint OR engine paint...since i know engine pant can take fuel on it....but i still plan to media blast that tank before i shoot it..as well as get me the WRONG stickers for the bike...i want true 80s honda script with the yellow gold wings just like my 1980 z50 had

fishy has some GREAT pics from today...thats the biggest bike ive been on..the on/off road tires are squirly as all hell in the soft slippery dirt/mud we have going on right now......aside from a on/off switch issue 2 broken clutch levers and a leaking valve cover that thing screams out like a scallded cat...3rd gear was insane on the 40 acres...and ive got 2 more gears left o.0
 
Fun!! :clap:

Don't sweat the paint so much, it's a fuggin dirt bike after all and will get scratched anyhow.;)
 
Fun!! :clap:

Don't sweat the paint so much, it's a fuggin dirt bike after all and will get scratched anyhow.;)
That's a given but the tank looked like someone with a bloody ulcer chugged a gallon of anti-freeze mixed with a few shots of yellow paint and hurled all over the tank. It was disgusting! At least the silver isn't so offensive on the eyes :D
 
its a honda...i want it somewhat to its former glory...maybe ive got too much respect for hondas?.....LOL

yeah it will get scratched and beat on..but i want it atleast presentable when i cross the boarder with it to the great white north...yeah i plan on putting some serious milage on this thing

and yeah shes going to see PLENTY of dirt too

really im not stressin so much on the paint i just want to make sure she looks descent and lasts another 30 years
 
Neither the paint we used to sell (Akzo Nobel) nor the paint we sell now (Dupont) require flex agents in the paint or the clear, if using clearcoat. However, the primer needs to be specific for plastic--that's where the flex agent needs to be.

The only "off-the-shelf" paints I have are equipment enamels and Dupli-Color's "Paint Shop" system. Equipment enamel is far more susceptible to fade and chalking than rattle-can paint. It's designed more for protection and durability than to be colorfast and pretty. It's for equipment, after all. The Dupli-Color stuff is lacquer, for God's sake... there are very-good reasons lacquer went away (for the most part) a long time ago.

Rattle-can paint can be fantastic if done correctly using quality paint. I've done some pretty-amazing things with pisscans over the years... and spray paint can he impressively durable. Some of the stuff I did many years ago, living in harsh environments, still looks amazing when cleaned.

For the plastics, I'd use Krylon Fusion primer if it's still available, or a color close to your final choice to promote adhesion. After that you can use any rattle-can paint you desire over it, as long as it doesn't cause lifting. As an example of durability: when I stripped the original engine-bay paint from the LeBaron, I did it with WalMart carb cleaner and a putty knife. It took one pass to get to bare metal. I then refinished it using Dupli-Color sandable primer, Dupli-Color touch-up spray-can paint, and then I covered it with Dupli-Color Engine Clear. When I changed my mind on the color of the car, all that had to come back off... it took 3 passes with aircraft remover, and I still had to use a 3M "finger wheel" in my die grinder to get the last of it off. It was way more durable than the OEM acrylic enamel. In fact, it was damned-near indestructible. As a plus, a friend of mine in the body-shop business refused to believe those results were not the result of professional spray equipment.

If the spray can doesn't say Dupli-Color, Plasti-Kote, Krylon or Rust-Oleum, keep looking. Of the four, Plasti-Kote is my least favorite but it still works. No-name or store-brand paint is generally garbage, particularly since they use really-bad nozzles that lead to most of the paint not landing where you want it--tons of overspray.

Cool bike, by the way. I can't wait to see the final result!
 
yeah im with ya on that doc ive been squirting rattle cans on stuff for ages..and generaly swear by duplicolor engine paint..i just figured i could get something more solid..course i also like VHT but it can be hard to find..plasticoat ive NEVER liked and always had troubles with

whats that on the shelf stuff most auto parts houses stock these days that they show off on hotrod tv etc with the chevy on the lable?....and is it any good?..i just know its "pre mixxed"
 

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