The Suzuki is for sale-

As I alluded to in a previous post, I'm putting the Suzuki up for sale. I listed it on KSL tonight.

What's wrong with it? Not a thing! Its perfect really but its just not right for me. Its big and heavy, much heavier than my scooter obviously and its just really more motorcycle than I need. Mostly I commute to and from work and I run my local errands on two wheels whenever possible. I'd like to be able to get out on the highway when I want to go a little further but the fact is, I'm not going touring multiple states or going street racing late on Saturday nights. So its more motorcycle than I really need.

Commuting on the scooter is more pleasant than the Suzuki, just because of its lighter weight and storage capability. The automatic transmission on the scooter makes the stop and go riding much easier as well.

So, I put it up for sale. If I don't get some interest locally, I'll put it on Ebay in a few days. And then, if I sell it, I'll look for something to replace it that's more in keeping with my riding needs.

Suzuki pictures!

Ok, I've got it washed up and as shiny as it will ever be. So I broke out the camera and took so pictures to celebrate the event.











Not too shabby, heh?

The scooter got washed today as well and now the battery seems deader than roadkill. Maybe its time to go for a ride on the Suzuki...

ITS ALIVE!

I rode it! I rode it out, away from home and returned under its own power! What?

Oh.

The Suzuki, of course!

Tonight I finished changing the oil and filter, reset the throttle cable slack and put it all back together. Then there was nothing to do but take it out of the shop- I got help from the neighbor before I tipped it over this time, and rode it around to the front of the house.

Then, I suited up and went for a short shakedown ride in the neighborhood. It ran fine. It did run out of gas on the main side of the fuel tap but started right back up when I switched to reserve. Then I rode it down the hill to the service station and added 4 gallons of high test to the fumes that remained in the tank. Then I rode it home without any hysteria, flooding or misbehavior.

Tomorrow I think I'll get it to the inspection center and then to the DMV to pick up my license plates so I can take it for a real ride. I think I'm going to need some longer handlebars...

Weekend update-

The Suzuki's still not ready. Huge surprise there, I suppose. After asking for some expert advice over at GS Resources, I took the carburetors off the bike again, for the umpteenth time and this time I installed the correct sized main jets- 115s instead of the 132.5s that were installed and I fixed the float height, which had been set on the wrong part of the float and so were much too high.

After all that and reinstalling everything, it was running much better and not leaking fuel when it was shut off, so that's a minor success. The plugs still are showing that the engine is running rich but I'm (hopefully) going to leave that alone until I can get the carbs sychronized by someone with a tool I don't own.

But the charging system's not charging... Nada. So- I dug out the repair manual, again and turned to the electrical section. The first test called for the main fuse and ignition fuse to be removed and then running the bike and measuring voltage output... See any problem with that last sentence? I never figured it out. But I did accomplish the no-load stator output test and the bike passed just fine. Which leaves the regulator-rectifier and bad connections as the only remaing source of problems. And I've been over all the connections and double-checked the grounds that can be bad, leaving just that pesky regulator-rectifier. Which turns out to only cost $120 delivered... Hooray!

What else? We had Knock-Me-Naked margaritas and fajitas at Carol's house Friday night and I finally got to meet her hubby, Dave. That turned out to be a really pleasant evening and I hope I behaved myself well enough to get invited back.

I did a little hobby molding this weekend, creating a plaster mold of my P3AT handgun. First I made the molds from some mix-with-water stuff that turns rubbery and preserves the details of the original. From there, I mixed plaster of paris and poured it into the two mold halves. The next day I spent a couple hours trimming the two plaster halves and then sanding them thin and flat enough to mimic the thickness of the original gun. Why did I do all this? I'm hoping to trade my work for a little work from Crossbreed Holsters. I've been communicating with the proprietor there and he said he didn't have a P3AT to mold holsters around. I'll be shipping him my plaster pistol today to see if he can use it.

Last night I spent a pleasant hour at guitar practice at Vicki's house and she has hummingbirds at her feeders, which were just above us on the deck where we played. I need to get my feeders out tonight I guess.

And we went to see a movie but that will get its own post, later today hopefully. Now its time for me to generate some effort for my handlers on the job.

Hurrah! Motorcycle parts have arrived!

Good news from the Suzuki dealer this afternoon, the needle and seat sets that I ordered for the motorcycle's carburetors have arrived! The flasher for the turn signals arrived yesterday. Tonight, I get to put carburetors back together!

I'm feeling a little better now than since that last post.

[UPDATE- So I put in the new carburetor parts and the engine fired right up when I gave it a try. Except there is something still wrong. It was running waaay rich and after smoking up my shop badly, it loaded up and became flooded enough it wouldn't restart. I had fuel leaking out of the airbox when it was shut off. Hooverdamm! I'm wondering now if the floats might be so old that they are soaking up and sinking. They don't seem to be damaged or heavy but everything else looks really good so at this point I'm guessing.

The motorcycle? Not yet-

Well Loc and I recovered the stranded Suzuki on Thursday afternoon and got it safely home. We had borrowed a trailer but didn't need it as the beast cranked up and ran well enough to get home under its own power. It was running very poorly and a spark plug check showed all of them to be carboned up badly and one of them was wet.

So, I took the carburetors off- again. Of course to do that the gas tank and airbox has to be removed first. After a close inspection and a review of the service manual and the GS Resource forum, I decided that new needle and seat assemblies really were in order.

Those aren't cheap! This 500 dollar motorcycle is really getting expensive- those parts were another 120 bucks... Grr! Anyway, its another few days before those parts arrive and then I'll bet the bike is ready to go. At least I shouldn't have any further carburetor problems.

Turn signal flasher for an aged Suzuki?

Thirty-five bucks from Bike Bandit! What the hey? That's crazy money!

I already know that a normal, 3 connector automotive flasher doesn't work because I pulled a spare out of one of my many boxes of junk and tried it. I've looked inside the flasher, there's a typical coil and switching contacts and everything seems to be in place. I think it has just deteriorated until there's enough resistance to restrict the voltage flow and prevent the flasher from functioning.

But 35 bucks? Plus shipping? Good grief. I'll wait to call the local Suzuki store and see if they can get it for me for less money or less time before I order up one from Bike Bandit.

Its alive! No, wait, its not...

That's the Suzuki of course... Hooverdamm! Tonight I put the carburetors back together, after making a fast trip to the motorcycle store to buy a new main jet- to replace the one that twisted off as I tried to install it. Hmph! No matter, I put the carbs together, then put them back on the bike, then the air box, then the gas tank. After supper I bought 3 gallons of fresh gas and dumped it into the tank.

Cross your fingers to see if it runs...

[Make some engine cranking sounds here] Hmm, not starting. Give it a little shot of ether and hurray, its running! Let it warm up in the shop. Everything seems to be good, it idles, revs and sounds pretty good. The turn signal doesn't flash. I knew that but forgot to order one from the Suzuki store.

Anyway, I screw the temporary tag to the back of the bike. Let's get it out of the shop! I backed it out and prepared to take the bike out through the sidewalk and gate beside the house. There's 3 shallow steps going out and a kink in the sidewalk to negotiate. I do it all the time with the scooter and use a 2X8 as a ramp. But the ramp is too short for the bigger (and much heavier) bike and after 3 tries, I can't get out. So, I backed up, struggling with working backwards past the sidewalk kink.

Did I mention the hillside before the sidewalk? And the raised garden? No? Well, there's a hill right there too. And railroad ties that border the garden. I got it stuck. The exhaust pipe was against the railroad ties, I couldn't move backwards and I was on the downhill side of a heavy motorcycle...

I had to lay it down and I couldn't get it back up by myself. I had to get the neighbor, Roger to come and assist. And with his help we got it back on its wheels and down the hill. Now its flooded, dripping that $3 per gallon stuff I just bought into the yard.

I did get it cranked up, eventually and got it moved out of the backyard through the other gate and into the driveway. It seemed to start up and clear out pretty well and after a few minutes I decided it was time for a real road trip to test it out. I got the helmet and jacket and gloves, fitted up and headed up the street. It did pretty good for the first few neighborhood blocks so I decided to head down the road and really give it a try.

Except it got sick headed down the hill just 1/2 mile from home. I pulled into the Smith's parking lot to fuss with it. It would run, it wouldn't run. It sounded very flooded. Eventually I had to park it next to the building, lock it up and call the BSU to come and get me.

Hooverdamm!

I guess today I'll rope my buddy Loc into helping me go get Jim's trailer and rescuing the bike and getting it home. And then I can start over, figuring out what's wrong with it...

Suzuki update-

The good news- the long awaited carburetor pilots jets should finally be ready for pickup at the Suzuki dealer. Since they didn't arrive bfore the weekend, I've been waiting somewhat impatiently. The replacement windshield, hopefully with mounting brackets, from Bike Bandit should also be on my step awaiting my arrival at the palatial Wasted Electrons World Headquarters and guitar studio.

The bad news- the BSU has an optometrist appointment today at 4PM. Then there will be some kind of dinner obligation and after that I have to return Son Noah to Logan, a 90 mile round trip. All this meaning I won't get carburetors rebuilt or reinstalled tonight and the windshield probably won't get installed either.

And its going to be 70 degrees and sunny tomorrow! Hooverdamm I'm getting anxious to make this beast work!

Still waiting on Bike Bandit...

Well after two online chats with the service folks at BikeBandit.com, I still don't have my new windscreen, with hardware this time, in the mail enroute to the Wasted Electrons World Headquarters, Guitar Studio and Cycle Shop. I do have a backorder listed on my account history, that's been there 2 days already but no shipment. I also didn't receive the email shipping label that i had been promised for returning the first windshield.

That was after the first chat. Today, I thought I would try it again to see about the delay. And today on the chat, I got right on, no waiting and Stephen's sign on said he was a Customer Support supervisor! Woo Hoo! Well, they do have the windscreen in stock but they aren't going to send me one of those, because they can't verify the completeness of those packages. So they have ordered more, from the manufacturer and they are going to inspect those before sending out my new windscreen. Good grief, couldn't somebody just walk out to the warehouse, find the windscreen, verify that the brackets were in the package and take one and walk it down to the shipping department and request some expedited handling and shipping?

Apparently not. That's too complicated, their system's too automated and the parts too widespread between multiple warehouses. At least that's their story and they are sticking to it.

I did wrangle a promise of express shipping when they do get to my order and a 10% discount on my next order, should I choose to be a return customer... That's barely enough to satisfy me, and not enough to keep me from blogging about my disatisfaction...

So there it is.

My carburetor parts did not all arrive yesterday at Big Boys Toys- seems that the jets came from one warehouse and the plugs from another, but they might all be there by this afternoon. So now I'll be burning weekend guitar practice time to rebuild carbs.

Somewhere in here, I have to get started on my yard work too!

Disappointment from Bike Bandit

My eagerly awaited box from BikeBandit.com was waiting for me when I got home yesterday-hurray! Inside were the parts I ordered last week, the fuel petcock and the National Cycle wind shield. I've been getting really anxious to add this new windscreen to the bike as a graduation present from the winter's work in the shop.

Except there was no mounting hardware in the for the windshield in the box-boo! None. Nada. I double checked. I stirred the styrofoam packing peanuts around to make sure the parts weren't buried. Nope, they weren't included in the shipment! Hooverdamm! Ok, I'll contact Bike Bandit and get this fixed. Except you can't call them. They ignore take emails and encourage use of their Online Chat feature to chat with a Customer Service type person. Which isn't a bad method of doing business, really, except that their system won't put your request into a queue when all the CS types are busy. It kicks you off and tells you to try again later.

Which is what I did, repeatedly, until I got through to a real-live Customer Service person, Franco on the other end of one of those interweb tubes. Franco assured me that a) there was no chance of them locating the missing hardware and sending it to me and, b) he would order another windshield from the warehouse and personally inspect it before shipping it to me and, c) I would have an email with 1/2 hour with the shipping label for the item I have to return and the shipping details for the replacement.

Four hours later I still didn't get the email…

I am disgruntled. This is the first error on Bike Bandit's part since I began ordering from them in January. I'm sure it was a simple mistake by one low paid and over worked guy in the shipping department and he probably has found the parts and doesn't know what to do with them now, but I'm sure disappointed right now.

Tomorrow- the carb jets and parts should arrive at the Suzuki store. So I'll be able to pick those up and take the BSU to supper at one of her favorite places which is just a few blocks from the cycle store all in one trip.

Suzuki update-

Remember what I said about repeatedly cutting in half the distance to a final point?

My parts I ordered last week, the fuel petcock and the windshield, will be here tomorrow! That's the good news. The bad news is that the 4 carburetor pilot jets and plastic plugs that I ordered Friday won't arrive until Thursday, at the earliest.

I did remove the carbs from the bike and in removing each float bowl found a treasure trove of bits of orange silicone sealant, rust and crud. They were really horrible. I also discovered that the plastic plug that I found loose in the first float bowl did indeeed belong inside, but installed in a pipe blocking most of the access to the pilot jet.

And 2 of the pilot jets had to be drilled and EZ-outed, so I had to visit the Suzuki store and order more parts, 4 each pilot jets and 4 new rubber plugs.

While I'm waiting, I took the Dremel tool and polishing wheel to the aluminum carburetor tops and shined them up nicely. It may not run (yet) but at least its shiny...

Content note: In linking to Big Boys Toys website, I noted that a) their map hasn't been updated since they moved- at least 2 years ago, out to Harrisville, and b) even though the web site's front page shows a rider on a Victory motorcycle, there's no mention of them being a Victory dealer, which they are. I happen to really like looking at the entire Victory line up. I sure don't have the money for a big custom V-twin motorcycle but if I did, I would be shopping at the Victory showroom and nowhere else.

Suzuki looks better tonight!

Well I was going to leave the paint job the way it turned out from the spray cans even though the fuel tank wasn't nearly as shiny or smooth as I would have liked. I figured it was a "10 foot" paint job, meaning it looked pretty good from 10 feet away and maybe that was good enough. That was last week when I was trying to get it on the road by the weekend.

Well since that plan didn't work out and since I'm waiting over the weekend for the new fuel petcock that I need, (and a windscreen!), I decided to go ahead and hit the gas tank with some wet sanding and polishing. I did that tonight, sanding the tank with 1500 grit sandpaper and then using the orbital polisher and some rubbing compound. Surprise! This thing shines now! Wow, it really looks nice! I have to admit, I was afraid that I would screw the whole thing up, but it turned out beautiful.

I also applied the dual, red pinstripes on the fuel tank and the front fender. They came out just as nice as I had imagined. Tonight, the motorcycle really looks like a completed and stylish rig. I can't wait to get it out into the sunshine and to take some pictures of the finished job.

I did pull one carb float cover off tonight and found dirt, rust and an odd piece of plastic inside. The plastic looks like some kind of plug and I have no idea what it is or why it was in the float bowl. That carb seemed to be flooding when I had it running the other day, so I hope removing an extra piece from inside the float chamber fixes that problem.

Anyway, I got quite a bit of work done on the bike tonight and I am really optimistic about getting on the road very soon, shiny and running smoothly.

Mid-week updates-

Well- a couple updates are due on daily life from around the stately WE World Headquarters. First, the BSU hasn't yet left for Oregon. It seems that the entire Catholic priesthood of Portland ditches their vestments exactly 5 minutes after the last Easter Sunday service and escapes with their golf clubs to points out-of-town for a week's R&R. So the memorial service won't take place until Monday, next week. The spouse is now planning to depart on Friday and return Tuesday. In the mean time, she is just muddling through, waiting.

Next, I'm 1/2 way closer to being ready with the Suzuki. After fiddling about trying to make the vacuum operated fuel petcock function properly, last night I read on the GS Resources Forum that trying to fix a bad petcock using a rebuild kit (which I've done already) just doesn't work. The only solution is a replacement petcock- about 70 bucks worth of neccesary pieces that I now have to wait to arrive in the mail… Grr! I suppose while I wait I can have another try at making the fuel tank's paint shiny and smooth instead of dull and listless as it is right now. That means either wet sanding and buffing the clear coat or just buffing the clear coat- I'm not certain which, but both sound like a lot of trouble. I wasn't going to bother but now it appears I have some time while parts arrive.

I'm not missing any riding time this week so I'm not really grumbling as the weather has turned wet and cold. It was just 27 degrees on my way to work today! Yesterday it snowed and sleeted just a little bit, though nothing like what has been happening from Michigan to the east coast. I talked to Mom on Easter, there was 2" of fresh snow in her yard on easter morning!

I am continuing to improve from my surgery, with less tiredness and soreness. I'm also back to regular practice with my guitar and I'm planning to return to class on Thursday afternoon. Reading music notes on a page and translating them into finger locations and actions at the requisite processing speed remains a challenge but I am getting better. I keep reminding myself that I'm actually learning 2 new skills, reading music and guitar playing, which makes me feel like my efforts are actually having a positive affect.

I still owe everyone a movie review from last weekend but that will have to wait until this afternoon. Now- repeated efforts to avoid unemployment!

Monday morning grumblings

Its going to be an odd week, this one. Tomorrow the BSU will be leaving for a couple days in Oregon, leaving me to be a batchelor and pet food distributer at the Wasted Electrons World Headquarters. Buddies Kenny and Loc are both out of town so I can't go to lunch with my regular lunch partners or just hang out in the sunshine with them while I have an afternoon cigar break. The weather looks like it is going to be springtime unpredictable, cool, wet and gusty so the half-planned evening fishing trip with Mike isn't likely to happen this week either.

The Suzuki is getting closer to being ready but like the math experiment where you continue cutting a distance in half and half again and again, each time getting closer to the end but never reaching it; its not finished. I did buy a new battery for it and got it charged up, but its not re-installed. I did get the stock airbox installed but I can't get 2 of the rubber boots to seat exactly as they should. The fuel tank petcock, which I overhauled first when I began this project, leaks and never seemingly stops the fuel flow. The petcock is supposed to be vacuum controlled and close when no engine vaccum exists, but for some reason, that's not working. A replacement petcock is expensive and I can't figure out why the one I have isn't working properly to justify replacing it. I think that maybe if I preload a tiny spring with some equally tiny washers, inside the diaphram side, it might push the piston closed.

I've had to reinflate the front tire on the motorcycle twice over the winter so I'm probably going to have to take it for a bead breaking and rim clean up or other repair to keep the air trapped where it belongs. Maybe everything will come together by this weekend, since I missed this last weekend...

Where have I been? Where have you been?

Man, I take a few, unannounced days off from posting to this humble blog and the phone calls and letters come piling in to inquire about my health and well being. Compalaints are coming in as well about the lack of Suzuki posts here at Wasted Electrons. So, to keep my hundreds of readers, (ok, both of you) upto date, here's a recap of my whereabouts and activities since having my surgery last week.

First, I'm fine. Everything related to the surgery seems to be on the mend. I've finished one of the antibiotic prescriptions already and have 1 more day's worth of the 2nd antibiotic. I have been trying to keep a minimal activity level and while there's no heavy lifting involved in blogging, I've mostly been taking things easy. I came back to work lunchtime Monday and, so far, except for really not wanting to get up with that early wakeup alarm today, work is not too taxing on my still-healing system.

I was feeling puny on Sunday and so I spent the entire afternoon in my recliner watching 3 kinds of racing on the tv. As much as I like racing, I nearly never sit down to watch it, so when I do, you can figure I'm not feeling up to my regular activity. So, I watched racing. Some of it was even that roundy-round NASCAR banging but I must admit that I'm not a short track fan and tired of that soon enough to catch NHRA drag racing from Houston, which I enjoyed more. I've said it before, there seems to be no greater fury unleashed than a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car as it blasts off and even though tv doesn't begin to transmit the violence that those beasts display, I still like watching it.

I have been trying to finish the Suzuki's paint job and by this time I'm just about wishing I had followed Kenny's grey primer advice. I have worked much harder on this than I expected. Everything's painted and everything has been clearcoated. Thankfully, the red enamel pinstripes that are on the tail section did not seem to be affected by the lacquer clearcoat. I'm still unhappy with the gas tank though as I just can't seem to get a "wet" enough coat on the entire thing to make it slick and smooth. I don't really want to wet sand and buff it to get the results I want but I might have to go the full route just to have a nice final result. Otherwise, the motorcycle just needs a good cleanup to blow off the paint dust it has collected and one trip to the inspection place before receiving its new license plate. I hope to be riding on Saturday…

I took a bit of a break from my guitar practice while recovering as well. I thought beforehand that I would be using all my free time to improve my string bending skills but somehow, I was apathetic to that effort as much as blogging. Both efforts will be improving as I improve, I promise. I did spend some time last night playing the songs I've learned and getting my fingers retrained to work those frets. I can now play, nearly without error, Amazing Grace, When the Saints Go Marching In and Will the Circle be Unbroken. I'm no Larry Anderson but I am still having fun.

I made the last payment on my truck, just last night! I am looking forward to spending that monthly obligation on the rest of my bills and moving closer to being darn near debt-free. We are getting a substantial tax refund this year that is going to be applied to the same effort. I'm hoping a little bit of the excess that we will have presently falls off the table and into my "Buy A Gun" fund as I've agreed to split a thousand rounds of 223 ammo with Kenny and I don't have a gun to feed it into. And we want to go prairie dog shooting in a couple months, so I need a new rifle!

[CURRENT SITUATION UPDATE} There's a female AF Lieutenant that just fired up an Aprilla bullet bike outside my window. I don't know this Lt but I'm going to go check out her motorcycle real soon!

So things are going along pretty well. I helped Kye and his GF move into their new place before my surgery and they seem to be settling in well. Kye's cell phone pulled a disappearing act but maybe it has reappeared since I heard last. Son Noah is still struggling with all the complexities of adulthood on a college campus. I'm not certain who is winning that battle. Daughter-in-law Sara sent Easter pictures of the grandbabies and I'm waiting for the prints to arrive from the Sears online store. I sure miss spoiling grandson Astin. He's about due for his first tricycle and some laps in the driveway.

I've been to the movies a couple times while healing up and will be doing a separate movie review post in the upcoming hours, so stay tuned for those.

Weekend Update-

Its time to kick out the strippers and hangers-on and sweep out the detrius of the week long party because the spouse returns from Oregon tonight! Its been a tough visit for her because one of her sisters is quite ill with recurrent cancer and recent strokes. Most of her visit has been at the hospital and it hasn't been a fun trip.

In her absence I've helped Son Kye and his GF get moved out of the rented bedroom they were in and into a real apartment of their own. They are mighty pleased to be getting more privacy from a household of renters and into their own place. The new place is in an old part of a downtown neighborhood, so its quite different from the suburban area they were used to but they both seem to like it. There are eateries and convenience stores and a video rental store all on their block and a coffee shop next door called The Coffee Blog.

Friday afternoon they picked up the keys and I picked up a U-Haul trailer. We were able to move very nearly everything they owned in one trip using their two cars, the truck bed and back seat and the trailer. There were just some cleaning supplies that needed picking up after the cleanup gets completed this weekend.

Of course the electricity wasn't getting turned on until Monday, so unloading and carrying things in was a bit of a challenge... But we got 'er done and the trailer was dropped off the same night so I didn't have to make 2 trips into Salt Lake. Later today I'll be dropping off our spare microwave oven, which they need but won't be able to use until Monday- when the power comes on.

Yesterday I repainted the Suzuki's gas tank... Since I had put the enamel pinstrips on in the wrong order with the lacquer clear coat, I decided it had to be redone. Trying to wipe off the stripes wrecked the color coats too, so I essentially resanded and repainted the entire tank. If I can, between errands today, I'm going to get the white flashes repainted. And I added a white flash to the front fender that I think looks pretty neat.

As soon as I finish this post, I'm headed out. Noah's car is dead in Logan for a bad alternator and he's determined to find a job to pay for getting it replaced. Which is good because I don't see it as my obligation to buy parts for his car. I did fix his 'puter after all. But his and another snowboard are still stranded at Powder Mountain and he needs his laptop for the end of the school term. So I'm taking those things to him. Later I'll drop the microwave off with the other son on my way to the airport to pick up the beautiful spouse.

Now I'm starting to get irritated...

Another Suzuki paint job post, in case you want to skip it...

Last night, I put on the One Shot paint pinstripes. I cheated though, I didn't really stripe it freehand like a real striper though, I taped everything off and painted inside the lines.

And tonight, I intended to put clearcoat over everything. But before I did that, I decided that I should check to make certain the clearcoat wouldn't soften the 24 hour old pinstripe paint.

Which it of course, does. The clearcoat wrinkles the One Shot pinstripe paint in a second. Luckily for me, I discovered this on some of the leftover masking tape from last night...

So, I didn't put clearcoat on tonight. I'm going to see if tomorrow night I get the same bad reaction. If I do, I suspect I will have to remove the red stripes with thinner, clearcoat everything and then re-pinstripe everything after the clearcoat sits 2 days and I decide if it needs buffed out.

I really wasn't trying to get all fancy with this, I just wanted an attractive paint job. But I also can't bring myself to do a 2nd rate job on something that will make the bike look decent and presentable.

What a bundle of work! I also bought the license plates today and found out there is a safety inspection required and I have a 14 day temp tag to use to get the job done. So I guess I better get busy! Or busier...

Death by a thousand cuts-

Or- when did this motorcycle turn into a boat?

So far in the story of my Suzuki's paint job, I have applied all the color that I'm going to apply with rattle cans. The metallic grey is applied and the white stripes have been applied and tonight I will finalize the reflective clear to the white stripes. Everything has gone along pretty smoothly so far with minor exceptions. I did screw up the tail section with an ill-timed touch up that required some sanding and respraying to correct and there were a couple very small areas of white paint that snuck through my masking job onto the grey paint that had to be cleaned up with thinner.

I have stopped on my way home from work each night since last Friday to purchase more materials and I have to do it again tonight, hence the title to this post. I of course thought that this little painting effort would be far less than $50 but I'm over than by close to 50%. Today's trip will probably certainly push it over that mark. Yesterday I purchased the vinyl, dual pinstripe tape that I want to highlight the white portions of the paint job. But that vinyl won't curve the way I need it to, so there's a 6 buck roll of tape available for anybody that asks. Today I'm buying another roll of the blue plastic masking tape that is flexible enough to make my pinstripes and a can of One Shot pinstriping paint. I suppose I'll have to buy a real pinstriper's brush to get the job done right as well.

I'm going to mask off and then paint on the pinstripes I want since the tape stripes won't work. I layed it out last night using the tape I have and it seems like it might work really well. I just need one roll of narrower tape for the center gap. When that's all done, then I can apply some clearcoat to the entire job and call it finished. Except that I'll probably want to buff out the clearcoat to make sure everything turns out shiny.

And I still want to add a white stripe and cap to the front fender to match the rest ot the scheme...

I'm still waiting for Darin to call and say that the $75 worth of air box components and filter to complete my $20 airbox purchase have arrived and maybe I'll make it to the DMV for license plates before the week is over.

Or not.

[UPDATE] The 1/2 pint of One Shot was $13.55 and the squirrel hair Mack's sword striping brush was $9.00. Ouch!

Suzuki paint update

Well I've been slaving away in the shop pretty diligently over the weekend and tonight getting the motorcycle painted. So far its looking really good. Admittedly its not as fancy a paint job as Tam's last Suzuki but it is coming along nicely. Everything is metallic grey and the white trim is on the gas tank and tail section. I haven't decided if I'll put any white on the front fender just yet.

I did make on boo-boo tonight that required part of the tail section to be repainted and I'll finish that tomorrow night. I'll also be figuring out how to add some red pinstripes to the white sections and then finishing up with the reflective paint over the white and then a clearcoat over everything.

And then I'll put it back together and buy some license plates!

I've also got unlimited hours in the evening to work on it since I put the BSU on an airplane to Oregon and her sister's for the week!