XZ550 Project - Soon to be vintage.

[chrisw]

Well, I thought I'd keep the forums cleaned up from my random posting. If its not ok to post this here (considering its not a 323) then I'll understand.

Here is by oldschool love, owned 3 years ago, sold just over 2 years ago, kept tabs and took her back home.

3 years off vintage, currently classic status. build number 0000629, frame and engine numbers match. you wont find one of these with the fairings being daily driven, they were a bit uncommon and expensive for the era.

Stats: 1982 Yamaha XZ550 "vision" to the euros and yanks.
Engine: State of the art (thus troublesome) to the age 550cc V-twin, water cooling, Yamaha's ingenious "YICS" intake system.

annoyances from owning it 3 years ago - twin port exhaust... its a V-twin, but each cylinder has twin exhaust pipes, one per port. added to that its a labrynth inside the bike. expensive and annoying exhaust job coming up.
VERY squat stroke to bore ratio (from memory its like a 3:2 bore to stroke) which means it revs effortlessly to its 11000 rpm redline, very smooth delivery and the torque curve is flatter than a french model.

Shaft drive (like a RWD car) very reliable and near maintainance free compared to a chain.

Frame - steel (mmm heavy n rustprone) cage with the engine slung underneath for centre of gravity reasons. awesome suspension set up, with the rear coil-over laying horizontal underneath the fueltank instead of vertical near the rear wheel (could be painful if it snapped :O )

Wheels - 19 inch front, 18 inch rear, tubeless enkei's

paint - Sh*t

Plans: Full strip and clean up, rebuilding most parts except the engine which will be sent off to my local bike guy to be given a strip, inspection and minor repairs and freshen up. Second hand parts are near impossible, and due to the matching numbers on it to the frame, its integral that this motor stays with it.

Feel free to comment and ask any questions you like, ive been with this fat slob of a bike for a long time so i know her better than my current missus. (shhh she doesnt know this girl came home yet )

Piccs





and my Hyosung - 710km on the clock now! needs a clean

[chrisw]

Thankfully I have the original Yamaha service manual (falling apart) and a Haynes workshop manual, so most parts, even the engine will be getting rebuilt and refreshed.

[chrisw]

Originally Posted by NaughtylilGT

well Chris.......now we all know why you are faggin' on the Asty! Seriously, I owned a Honda VF750 Belt-driven about 14 years ago. It was ready for rebuild back then I reckon that's a beauty Chris! GO FOR IT fellow biker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ROFL haha, the astina is still being worked on but slowly, has to be roadworthy for registration though.

Progress on the motorbike: stripped to bare metal and plastic, and primered / filled, ready for primer and paint.

with 1 eye (long story... work related) and 1 hour 20 mins, had the bike stripped and the engine in a makeshift engine stand. ready for dismantle and cleaning.

[chrisw]

succinct version of pics (read, much much less than my photo blog on the XZ550 forum im on)

[chrisw]

so far with progress, paint will be a wild metallic violet laid over a gunmetal basecoat.

frame will be black, wheels will be black with accents or polished lips.

engine will be polished.

[chrisw]

Oh snap! i wouldnt mind a VF750... they make awesome bobbers, and im looking for a bobber project in the near future :P

[chrisw]

shazam!

more of the frame stripped. Went to test some rust stripper. worked decently, lots of elbow grease to do here unless I get it blasted.

[70NYD]

why dont you strip it completly (wheels forks and all)
and get it powdercoated, they will have to blast it anyway and it should not be THAT much
looks so sweet btw i love it

[chrisw]

it will be stripped completely and I may get a quote on powdercoating. wheels and forks are still on at the moment so I can roll the frame around between prep-areas (limited space)

[chrisw]

Best explanation I can offer... is that I've injured my eye, and im suffering from the flu and have a quite high fever so I haven't really been thinking straight. In conclusion... ROOAAAWWWRRRR im a 'Stina!

[chrisw]

i should have 6 days off within a few days... so look forwards to me FINALLY laying the gunmetal basecoat and the wild violet over the top. also plan on getting the brushes out and starting to polish the engine right up.

will also be fully stripping that frame and getting it back to bare metal.

100 point restorations! good use of time

[chrisw]

Progress, I decided to go with the chemical route over sandblasting for the frame. Lots of paint stripper, wire brushes and rags. Its proceeding quite well, frame is coming up as a nice shiny brushed metal look. after the rust is dealt with and the rest of the paint stripped I'm not quite sure what I will do! the frame looks quite good as a shiny brushed, possibly polished metal look.

[chrisw]

Well, my 100 dollar venture with paint stripper, rust removers and all myriad of chemical "SURE FIXs" was a waste, my brain snapped and I realised... wait.. why didn't I use a wirebrush and a drill before.

So I did.. and wow... this is 1.5 hours work.
more stripping.



before


after

[chrisw]

more picture based updates

[scott b]

coming up a treat :O im amazed at how that swing arm came up, looks like new. very good job

[chrisw]

Work began again on the bike, since the car took up all of yesterday.

Got the filler sanded down on the tank, and a fresh coat of primer grey.
Ditto for the front guard and front fairing.

I tested out the "Wild violet metallic" paint, and gee, its actually quite amazing. Dark dark purple metallic. very nice.

I will finish up the front wheel and swingarm today so the bike is ready to reassemble to a rolling frame tomorrow.

pics to come.

[chrisw]

FINALLY I got into gear and laid some paint down. all of the parts have now been filled. I decided to work on the gas tank today and keep each paint job separate so I'm not rushed (a common mistake I make).

-Sanded the primer filler down to 600 grit, clean, dry, and white spirit.
-Sprayed 2 coats of grey primer. dry, sand, clean, dry, spirit.
-Sprayed 3 coats of the base colour, Gunmetal metallic.
-Sprayed 3 coats of top colour, Wild Violet metallic (not as metallic as the gunmetal)

result? I love it. its not as bright as the plain wild violet was when I test sprayed on white paper. its quite metallic, but very fine particles. really pops in the sun, but doesnt show in the shade.

The next step? its acrylic and metallic, so it needs to cure for a few days then a MINOR sand to remove imperfections, and then to be cleared. once its cleared x 2 or 3, ill let it cure again and then buff it to hell.

images you say? here they are. halfway through the drying process, so it should become nice and satin once dried (and it did) I also apoligise for the quality of the pictures. I haven't had any batteries for my good camera for a few months, so ive been using a crappy little one.

[chrisw]

Finally its starting to take place. Its now a rolling frame for easy of movement purposes, and so I can clean up the porch.

Still have to polish the forks and the wheel hubs more. oh and finish the paint on the tank.

The paint is SOOO much darker in real life. I think i need to get my other camera working. it looks so lavender in the pictures.

[derb]

cool as hell dude! you sure do nice work.

[chrisw]

Through the fantastic power of an Olympus borescope I have had a good long inspection of the combustion chambers of the XZ550 engine while its out of the bike. Saving a full strip down this is a great method of inspecting the guts of the beast and it only takes a few minutes.

my conclusions of the 42 000km old engine;

1. Its VERY clean, slight oil discoloration as expected but NO coking, NO buildup soot or carbon, its amazingly clean and smooth.

2. NO scoring or damage to the bores / pistons / heads / valves.

3. Everything just looks well.... amazing. the piston design suprised me, a very odd looking domed piston.

The engine basically looks just run in, not 42 000km old! im very impressed.