Watch me transform the gixxer!

[TurboMedic]

Ok, first off welcome to my progress thread. Some of you may be interested, some of you may not give a shit, others yet may sit back and think "why?". I've always failed at documenting everything I've done to my other vehicles, so for once, just this once, I am going to stick with updating this thread as my bike turns from a "gently used" Gixxer, to a pseudo one-off appearance!

I'll hopefully post tear down and progress pics as I go, don't feel obligated to respond in any way shape or form to this thread. If you have criticism , please make it constructive and don't be mad if I don't accept it! Questions are accepted, and discussion pertaining to this buildup will remain, all irrelevant info I will ask to be removed. I hope this is informative for someone on some level. Thanks for looking and ENJOY!

For reference, here is the bike as it sits now. Its an 00 750 with 50% 01 600 plastics and 25% 02 750 tail! Hence my desire to start over:




Here are the current list of parts and mods to be done:

• Smoked DB windscreen
• Straight upper fairing stay bracket
• Blue and White LEDS in cluster
• Carbon look RAM air tubes
• Chop the Hindle monster down to size
• Total respray of all painted parts
• Telefonica replica kit
• *possibly* get rims powdercoated, need to see after paint..

Here are some of my parts and paint awaiting install!

Paint; 2 stage base coat/clear coat system, with flex agent. Colour: Black Magic Pearl (VW origin)....total cost? Less than the decals! All decals will be UNDER the clear coat


Cluster and LED's (part way finished, waiting for more White LEDs in the mail. Blue LCD panel, white tach, and red under the redline


Dark smoke DB windscreen, it doesn't look see-thru, but it is


Carbon tubes, OEM but my current ones are black and fibreglass so its a step up


This kit, posted in another thread by me, but worth another look. Should look good with this black (thanks eclipse for the suggestion)...total cost? $270....ouchers...should be here in a week

[RawB8figure]

Are you going to color the rims and all the other silver parts. It would be nice to see that all black with those green decals..

[TurboMedic]

Not all the silver parts, thats far to intensive to do. The rims, I'm deciding on black or the yellow on the decals. Not sure yet. I'll decide that after I paint and reassemble.

[TurboMedic]

A little peek at what came in today! Can you believe 4 days from ITALY?? Wow....And the yellow just does not translate onto photo, its electric! I love it....a whole big bag of great looking decals

[dj_rice]

I'm not too familiar with bikes and such but why so many decals?Is it a popular thing to do with bikes?And I aint flaming I am curious to know...

[TurboMedic]

Well, Suzuki made their own Telefonica replica in '02 on the 600's, and an Alstare replica for a few years (also on the 600's). This is simply a replica kit of the actual GSV-R 600 (the GP bikes had V engines in them instead of I4's which are designated by the X in the name) used in 2002. While it isn't common, they are out there. Everyone strips stuff off the bike, I'm going with unique because its different. Not for everyone, but truly what custom job is?

[Sharpie]

Looking good, keep us updated...

[TurboMedic]

Cluster is done and back in place, will put a pic in this post when it gets dark enough to see the illumination!

Here is the pic! I love it!!!! Again, its white up the tach, red at the top, and blue for the LCD



And this was the stock colour:

[TurboMedic]

Back on it again....Decided to swap out the hard parts now, as they won't be needing to be touched hen I pull plastics to repaint, which should hopefully be soon.....I could strip the decals too, just need to commit the time to do it.... So this was the DB windscreen install, the new fairing stay bracket, and the carbon air tubes.......This also allowed me to clean up the wiring routing inside the nose! Plus the new air tubes have the mounting location for the fusebox (the old tubes were aftermarket....crap!)... All in all I'm super happy with how this went, all took less than an hour, and I took my time! At least everything lines up now, that old fairing bracket was a little off in the straight department! At least I can get some cash selling them as stunt parts on ebay, thats all they're good for.....

Onto the pics.......Never took a before shot, just look up above for that.....enjoy!

[CivicDXR]

Wow, thats gonna look crazy... props on undertaking a huge project... i think it'll look great...

I took pics of my buddys 600M a few years ago, I will find better pics if it'll help you, just let me know... here was his thread here...

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.p...ght=telefonica

[snowboard]

wow i think that the telefonica decals and ish will look sick on black.

Great idea man, cant wait too see how it turns out!

[TurboMedic]

Alright, its been slow, but dammit mother nature isn't cooperating with me at all. All I ask is some warm ambient temps, plus me not being tempted by riding the damn thing! Anyhow, some of you may recall the factory Gel seat I purchased was the wrong one. Up on ebay it went, and I was messaged by a guy from the states who had a brand new Sargent seat he ordered, and the company would not take back. Coincidentally he had an 04 1K, so we were able to do a straight swap. In the ed I still lost some cash on the deal, so I was bummed, but hey, I have a brand new seat! It came in today, so I threw it on to see what it would look like, and sit on it (haven't ridden on it yet).....

First impressions? Sargent builds a nice seat......fit is tight (very tight, almost 2mm short on the mounting holes, but it worked because its flexible to an extent), finish is very good looking....Overall build quality is great, with metal mounting harware. It does feel more firm than the stocker, but sits roughly the same height. It isn't a gel seat, its "atomic foam" whatever the fuck that means, hopefully it breaks in (although some people swear firmer=more comfort on long trips?). Looks wise, I dunno, its small like the stocker, but still looks a little saddleish to me, wish it didn't have that piping....Have to see it with the whole cover off the bike to get the full effect (no pics of it mounted yet, those will come in later updates)...If its comfy, I'll keep it for the trips, if its not, well, ebay again *sigh*....Anyhow, here are some comparo pics, so you can see the differences in the seat pan and contours! FYI, this seat sells for around $270 on the sargent website.....not sure its worth that, but whatever!

[5hift]

The bike is starting to look good. Thats a huge upgrade on the speedo I think. Makes me want to do something like that as well.

I noticed you have the Canadian Tire Stand. How do you like it? I bought it but was too paranoid to put my bike in a cheap Cdn Tire stand so I returned it.

[TurboMedic]

Whew, slowest transformation ever.......Thanks to mother nature and my job finally coming to an agreement, I got a little bit done today. I took off a bunch of decals, in prep for some sanding and a couple repairs on my left side lower fairing.....Also picked up the kitty hair and light filler for some scratches.....Here are some pics....

Lesson learned: decal removal wheel + drill on high speed = bad for plastic bodywork.....No pics to evidence this, just remember that.
It wasn't necessary to use the drill/wheel except on the GSXR logo cause it was a chrome decal, and they don't like peeling at all.....For the coloured decals danielle's new hairdryer worked wonders! I left the suzuki on there for now because one of my drill batteries shit the bed, and I didn't want it to look too empty (Its 10 minutes to take those letters off...) . I also realized that suzuki black is actually black with blue metal flake in it, looks nice....

[TurboMedic]

And just like that all my images are gonzo.....I hope my PAID webspace brings it back NOW......I'm moving on to flickr now....

Aside from that, I'm on vacation now, and working on the bike in bits and pieces.....Here are a few!

First off, completed removal of decals on side fairings. Oddly enough, they are almost identical in colour to what I am painting them...never realized that before....Also, there are photos showing the damage to the left fairing that needs to be repaired....right this minute I am fibreglassing that big ass crack with kitty hair! Also, there is an image of my right fairing where my midpipe passes through, literally.....Modification coming up there aswell.....










Next up, proper flushmount signals, get rid of these ugly things.....I'm thinking watsen flushmounts....ebay here I come!



I also started sanding....



Get a die grinder for proper surface prep for structural type fillers like kitty hair, gives it more to grab onto! Also, being the backside of the panel, I can use alot of surface area to ensure strength, and less surface area on the frontside so it doesn't get that "fixed" look when its completed!

I'll add more pics from today as I get them....

[TurboMedic]

Ok....so I see my old photos still aren't up....shitty....Anyhow, got a bunch of work done today! I want it done by the end of the week, I see no problem with that as of yet.....Was hoping to get farther today, but as you sand you find little imperfections and you fix them....all of them....

Small amounts of fiberglass work add alot of structure to small cracks. I also filled the holes from the old signal lights, as the new ones I have coming fit right into the factory hole!







Then after you've sanded it all down you use plastic filler to fill any pinholes, sanding marks, etc. You use quite rough sandpaper with fiberglass, 80-120 grit, so the filler fills those in well, as you sand the filler with 180 to start, and then 320 to feather the edges, and then 400 by hand and finish with 600 (I do this as a personal thing, not needed but I like to be sure its not going to show through, especially when shooting metallics..)... I forgot to take after pics on the panel when its all sanded and finished, I'll try to on wednesday or so....here was the before pic with the filler on it...



I sanded the tank and filled a couple very small dents I didn't even know where there. I used the pinstrip wheel again on the decals, and even though they were under the clear, the wheel and the drill took them right off no problems.....Saved alot of hassle....Of importance though, when doing the tank, there will be edges where the decals were, and where the colour line is, so you want to sand and feather them all down to ensure its smooth and you don't see the outline when you repaint!! Sorry for the poor photos, you can't see the different layers of paint after sanding in them...






Just another step in the road....the whole bike is stripped now, and the panels are all sanded....I suck at remembering to take photos....I will later though



Onse of the coolest parts, I made my exhaust cutout today aswell, it looks swell and fits even better!! It looks very unfinished in this photo....But I haven't cleaned up the edge yet...






I also took time to straighten out the exhaust pipe, I'll order a new sleeve for it soon, 16" this time and cut down the internals....

[TurboMedic]

Here we go again....another day, another bunch of work. I got the sanding finished, and aswell the primer. I shot the solo cowl in colour to see how well it covered, the paint is great!

The bike when it was pulled out of the garage this AM





The parts in between bouts of wet sanding (no edges done in these pics, they were done before priming though.... Wet sanding is the way to go for anyone trying to sand automotive stuff....keeps the paper clean, and also really bites harder! Smoother finish, less sanding marks aswell. You can see some of the work done to the left fairing













After all the sanding the priming starts. This is just standard grey epoxy primer single coat stuff. Unfortunately I had to paint them all one by one due to hanging space, but it worked out ok because it sets up fast.

first the tail section



Then the tank



The right fairing



The exhaust cutout again....the fairing is hanging loose so it doesn't look like it lines up aswell, but it does when its snug



The nose piece....This part sucked, had to do inside and out much better than the sides because you can see it all....and the paint gun spins this when you're spraying and you can't hang on!



And lastly the left fairing




Here is a small swatch of colour I sprayed when I painted the solo cowl...tomorrow the rest is done...can't see it too well because it didn't focus but you get the point...



till tomorrow

[TurboMedic]

Alright y'all.....Here it is....FINAL update....Bike is done, and this post will cover colour basecoat, decals, clear and final reveal.....You know what that means, haters, get your hate engines started.......heehee....Oh and to answer a question above, I have about 60-70 hours of labour plus a running cost of $550 into this.....pretty cheap!



So first off, after the primer, I shot colour coats. The colour was Black Magic Pearl, a VW colour used on anniversary GTI's. Its a black with gold and silver flake in it that shows well in the sun. Why black? I dunno, it was different than blue, less boring than grey, and I wasn't going with pink!

Basecoats are always dull in finish, as the photos show....I used alot of colour, way more than I needed....I shot a whole pint of base (thats 2 pints reduced!!). The colour laid down nice, the paint is good stuff as far as I'm concerned, and I used to shoot R-M which is top of the line!

Here is the base coat, and the panels hung on the bike in just base....You can see here how that exhaust cutout fits nice!!! This actually looks cool










Next step was decals.....This too about 4 hours to complete!!!! They were a bitch to say the least, and getting things lined up, deciding where to put things, I didn't get a road map with these decals so I used photos of the 2002 MotoGP bike as a reference!!

My sister helped a bit, she used to decal buses so I figured she'd know what she was doing!







Slowly coming together!! I was doing it alone at this point



The tank part looks crooked, but thats the tank angles playing with your eyes....It was lined up with a string line to ensure the same angle as the side panel






Now, onto clear coat.....I did this immediately after graphics, on thursday night. I had to in order to ride it to Three Hills on saturday (clear coat needs 16 hours of setup time at 21 degrees......Plus I have flex agent in it so be safe!).

First up is a shot of the solo cowl cleared in the sunset so you can see how glassy it is...Pretty sweet eh? The clear was AMAZING to shoot....





ANd here is the colour, sortof up close.





AAAANNNNNDDDDD.......the final reveal!!! This is BEFORE I polished it when I got home, so its a little dull in this photo from overspray......I think it looks killer! ..Let me know what you think!



Thanks for following this buildup all!

[5hift]

wow that is coming along nicely

how much time have you put into it so far?

[Dj_Stylz]

Nice the bike looks awsome