The building of Big Red

[OldGold]

So here goes nothing, I hope this turns out like I had planned .
The idea is to have something sporty looking and I love the look of the old cafe racers
so that is what I am going to build.

This is what I started with

A 1975 Gl1000 starts but runs real rough wont idle the wiring had been hacked up and only the headlight and tail light were left working. No rust on the bike though thats good.

This is what's left of the wiring. PO's suck what goes through some peoples minds?
This is my solution to this problem. All wires are marked every 4 inches as to what they are.

While trolling through various sites I found these

Vintage Connections factory connectors will definitely make things go easier

Good thing to because this is all that is left of the entire wiring :shock: :shock: harness

The headlight ears were missing as were the turn signals so I chose these

Much cleaner and tighter look in my opinion. I got the same blinkers for the back
mounted them on the frame where the grab rail once was.
I am also swapping over to LED's all round except for the headlight.
The flasher pulses instead of flashing (think knight rider) all bulbs came from
Super Bright LED's.
That's all for now, save some for next time
:salute:

 

[AApple]

Whatta project!! The bike looks kewl, for sure. I don't envy you having to re-wire the whole thing tho. Take lottsa pics for us! :good:

 

[OldGold]

Thanks Aapple, yeah a bunch of things have been deleted or are missing and with the new harness I can't even use the old wiring diagram, have to make my own.
That is what has me nervous, I've wired up a couple of stereo's before but this is way more than have ever done before. I will be asking a lot of questions for sure.
waaaay more pics to come!

 

[joedrum]

looks to me you got the wiring handled ...nice work .....as for the running rough and wont idle or idle good is all in the carbs most likely .....your doing such a good job on the wiring when that was done i would go right to the rough motor thing .....check for good timing and spark and if thats good go right to the carbs and remove and slowly go at them ....theres some good info here and elsewhere to learn the unknowns .....the 75 1000 has the biggest carbs of any oldwings including the 1200s ...the 75 has the most aggressive cams that came on wings too ....doing a carb job is not as scary as its seems to be made out to be ....a good runnig 75 1000 are the angryest wings honda ever made .....nice bike oldgold .....if it has points ..... the after market dyna ignition is a huge upgrade and you can go back and forth nothing gets trashed ......lots of potencial in your bike .....cant wait to see the end result..... k: :mrgreen:

 

[joedrum]

after looking at pictures again i can see that it has the dyna ignition already.....i guess the ignition cap is missing on the bike or is it just off when the pic was taken :mrgreen:

 

[OldGold]

JoeDrum Thanks, I really appreciate your encouragement. :blush: :thanks:

In the past I have been left on the side of the road to many times
due to cutting corners, so now I make sure I go over and above what needs
to be done to ensure drama free cruising. Besides that this ones a keeper.

It does have almost new dyna coils and ignition. Money I won't have to spend :good:
I found the ignition cap in a bag of stuff that came with the bike.

Next on the list, I took the heads off to remove the carbon from the ports and to lap
the valves + new head gaskets make me feel better to.
:salute:

 

[joedrum]

sounds like a good plan ....your going to know everything about it this way ..... :mrgreen:

 

[slabghost]

What is that headlight assembly off of? I really like that! :mrgreen:

 

[OldGold]

Slabghost, It came with the bike. However not on it.
I am assuming it is a factory GoldWing part.

The headlight ears were 30$ from caferace.com and turn signals were 16$ a pair reproduction BMW style made by EMGO also from caferace.com.

Lucky for me the thread pitch and diameter of the signal shaft are the same as the
bolts that held on the headlight. So I ran the wires through it like this

I am not yet sure how much heat that headlight puts off yet but will probably end up covering those wires in silver heat shield left over from some ignition wires from
another project
:salute:

 

[OldGold]

Let the games begin boys!!! :clapping: :clapping:

Today I got the call from my buddy who did the powder coating,
saying it is finished, out of the oven cooling down, come by after work :good: :good:

So here are the results. I had the battery box and gas tank done in rough texture
semi gloss black

and the frame swing arm and center stand in gun metal grey hammer tone
(had to get rid of side stand to fit new head pipes )

It all came out really nice. It took a month of waiting to get to this point soooo
excited!!! Now to put it all back together to route and figure this wire harness out
:builder: :builder: :builder: :whip: :whip:

I wanted to see how it would all turn out I may now send my calipers, triple clamps ....
out next :beer: :salute:

 

[OldGold]

OOps so hyped up I forgot one

 

[dan filipi]

NICE!

Keep us updated and don't forget pics of the calipers.

 

[mcgovern61]

Boy that is nice!! :clapping: :music2: :music:

(Makes me a little jealous of my rattle can paint job :evil: :crying: :cheeky: )

 

[OldGold]

Thanks boys,
Yeah it's real nice.
The guy who did it gave me a deal and a mitt full of cards to hand out to anyone who asks about it.

He basically retired from all of his industrial construction stuff to devote himself to powdercoating and custom work and I am all for that because he is soooo meticulous (anal) about everything he does and it is awfully hard to find people like that these days.


That being said I have been busy setting things up because I couldn't stand to look at a naked frame on stands sooo... :builder: :builder: :builder:

I installed new swingarm bearings (old ones were stiff and crunchy)
have installed said swing arm, put the brake pedal and rear master (rebuilt) back on
installed gas tank and battery box and center stand .
I also put on the rear wheel to get it off jack stands so it is more stable

I have lost the charger for my camera and when I find it will post pics of progress :sensored:

 

[slabghost]

I like your color choices. It should look really nice when you're done.

 

[OldGold]

Thanks Slabgohst, I hope it does.

So here's what I've been up to so far...

I got out the trusty lapping compound etc and had at her it went very smoothly
and best of all no wacky valve guides :good: :good:

I still have some de burring on the oil return side and a whole lot of cleaning before final valve install (this is just for show)

And now for the frame. I will have to completely reassemble the bike to mock up the
wiring so here we go. Tank first

Then rear master and swing arm as well as new non crunchy swing arm bearings
with new progressive shocks I got for my birthday

These are the rear turn signals and fresh rubber (Bridgestone Battlax BT45's)

Then I rebuilt the forks, tubes were damaged so new forking by frank tubes were in order

:shock: :cheeky: :rant:

along with matching front progressive springs fresh seals...

MMMmm... fresh forks. I have not yet decided but will probably use scotch brite to give the fork bottoms a nicer appearance

and installed the renewed front end on the bike

I bought clubman style bars for it but they touched the tank sides so I flipped them upside down and they look pretty cool and the plus side is I get a little more comfortable upright seating position.

]Someone had messed up the gauges and removed all the dash lights and I was not so
keen on the factory ones so I found a CB 360 dash and am much happier.
The key no longer fits in the ignition so I will move the ignition on the frame Harley style

Here is a quick side view of what it looked like yesterday

:heat: :lazy: :laptop: for the next installment I shall finish the heads install them
do the alternator stator and a new clutch, a new water pump and put the motor back in the frame.
I now need a nap. Until next time my fellow wingers :salute:

 

[slabghost]

WOW!!! Coming together very nicely. :cool!:

 

[joedrum]

this is going to be nice......it looks great.... k: :good: :mrgreen:

 

[dan filipi]

Coming along nicely!

It's nice to see pics along the way, looking forward to more!

 

[mcgovern61]

VERY NICE! I love watching a project come together! :clapping: