Unintended GT750B restoration

Here you can write about your restoration highs and lows and hopefully final success
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philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

The paint has dried overnight. Not completely dry, but dry enough to carefully scrape the edges and any dribbles. Happy with the result so far! I'll clean them up better once fully dried.
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philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

Side panel badges pretty much finished, bar a final polish. Not perfect, but they'll do. I had a few issues with the satin black coming off with the masking tape, and the same when I used candle wax to mask off instead. I think I rushed the job and laid on too thick coats, then left it too long before removing the masking tape. Awkward, fiddly job. The defects I touched up with a satin black touch up paint bottle from Halfords, so the finish isn't as even as I'd like.
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Compared to first effort where they came out too dark
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philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

Tank paintwork was generally fine, except for some blistering under the tank flap and a couple of chips on the edges. The underside was another story, with a variety of colours of overspray, a rough finish, and what looked like some kind of underseal in places. A mess. After careful masking off, hours of rubbing down, and a srpay with a few coats of satin black followed by a few more coats of gloss lacquer (yes, I know, odd combo, but it's what I had leftover!) it looks more presentable.
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Last edited by philshort7390 on Thu May 04, 2017 9:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

I have fitted all the cables - some cleaned up OK, but the clutch was kinked and stiff so a new one was ordered and fitted. That Barnett clutch is going to develop my grip!

When fitting the headlamp unit the shell took a few knocks and chips. I'll be more careful in future, but for now I touched in the chips and carefully sanded back, then with some impromptu masked off gave the area a quick dusting of satin black. The shell isn't as round as I'd like, but I'll live with it until a more perfect one turns up.
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philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

Let me out!
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philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

Here's an old shot of the tank filler neck showing the blistering, and also showing why it happened.
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The paintwork is actually pretty good, my camera and quite a bit of dust here makes it look awful, but its not.
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The issue was it had been resprayed and the paint went too far up the neck, and overlapped onto the top in places. This allows fumes to creep under the paint and cause the blistering you can see. To stop this in its tracks I have carefully stripped the paint off all of the neck down to the base, then masked off a 5mm circle around the neck on the tanks and painted black POR15 epoxy around the base. When I unmask the tank from painting the underside I will repeat with another ring of epoxy overlapping and going about 5mm up the neck. The remainder will remain bare metal, polished, to prevent further ingress of fumes.

Nothing can be done for the blistering unfortunately, short of a complete respray, but the rest of the paint is too good for that to be needed just yet. The damage is hidden under the tank flap. People will be too distracted by the 70s glitter show when the flap is up so I think I'll get away with it!
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I have new fuel tap ready to fit, in correct for B black finish, but with some added Astrax bling. Pic to follow once fitted.
philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

Need to get my finger out and finish the last few jobs now, booking in for MoT on 16th, and insured the bike from the 16th. Just waiting on a spacer so I can refit the back wheel, rivet up the chain, bolt the exhausts on, fit a number plate, fill her up, and go.
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yeadon_m
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Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:10 am
Location: Canterbury Kent

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by yeadon_m »

Phil,
Have you had the motor running since the rebuild, or will this be the maiden run?
Good luck, you've done a very detailed job, so fingers crossed for your start up.
Cheers,
Mike
philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

No, engine not fired up yet. I hit a disaster tonight actually. I'd fitted the chain, put the sprocket covers on, fitted the gear lever and for whatever reason decided to check that the gearchange worked OK. It doesn't. It did, I'm sure it did, but it doesn't now. It only goes into 1st. I can't change up into 2nd at all. I can't recall when I last checked all the gears, but when the engine was fully assembled on the stand It was going through all the gears OK. I'm sure of that.

I did accidentally remove the neutral detent when I drained the oil to fix a slight weep on the starter motor cover gasket the other day. I popped it back, there was no gear lever fitted at the time so the selectors shouldn't have moved at all. Should they?

It feels like the lever isn't moving far enough to change up, but it comes to a solid halt. I'm going to have to start stripping her down to find out what has gone wrong, so I am gutted. So close, now it looks like I might end up stripping the engine right back down to fix the gearchange. This is going to be one busy weekend coming up. I'll start by stripping down the clutch side I guess.

Damn.
philshort7390
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:39 pm

Re: Unintended GT750B restoration

Post by philshort7390 »

I was hoping to show the bike here http://www.rugbytowncentre.co.uk/events/bikefest-2017 on the 21st. I hope I can get it sorted in time.
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