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San Diego 98 vfr800 restoration


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14 hours ago, Loftust said:

The wheels look superb - good choice!

 

The exhaust gasket is semi-flexible and can break easily if something moderately weighty is placed upon it, which it looks like yours has. Is it the rear downpipe gasket that you need? I've got a spare that I could mail over to you, although your dealer should be able to supply one as well.

 

I'd say the pegs and heelsets etc will look good powdercoated, even if it's not the OEM finish. I've had my yoke coated in a satin black - there's a couple of photos in my thread on the 6th gen page if you want to see what it looks like. There's a good RWB thread in the 6th gen section too that shows what a crackled black finish looks like.


I bought an ebay kit which most likely explains why it was so "brittle". Thanks for the offer but my new gasket came in and it's another step up in quality thankfully. Really appreciate the helping hand there! Saw your pictures. Satin is a nice finish. 
 

10 hours ago, Terry said:

Once you've used LED's, the standard halogen lights look very orange and feeble. I love LED. 


Seems like it's settled. :D 

3dcycle!!! that's some gorgeous work! Was wondering what that textured finish was called. Didn't know that it was a powder coat. Your work looks amazing and bike is stunning! Thank you and Loft, I think I have an idea what color scheme I want (with what I'm able to play with) . Will really try to get something going this weekend and definitely will get some real work start this week. I contract for work and I have a week off and my neighbor said I have his garage to use while he's gone. Good guy! I just got a drill bit buffing kit in the mail so I'm going to either sand and buff or sand and clear all the lights and signals in the next couple days. Cheers for the help and encouragement! 
 

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Hey guys. So with a combination of some rain and an ongoing couple weeks worth of the stomach flu, finally got the last pieces off the bike. Use a dead blow and screw driver to shimmy out the top nut to get the lower triple tree out. No scoring of any kind so that's good news. Took a dremel and some more chiseling to get the bearing out. Rust...... rust on the tree, rust on the stay and rust on the battery box are the ones I have to work on. 

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Side project time was to see how the buffing and clearing would go with the side markers. I don't have pictures but this one was landed upon so there some good scratches. Hit it with some 400 grit, then 800, then 1200 and finally some 2000. Buffed it with meguires rubbing compound, a la a kit I bought for 9 bucks on amazon, and got a decent shine. Next was some dupli color adhesion promoter and rustoleum plastic clear gloss. Turned out great! 

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Thought about sand blasting these guys but said screw it. Costs are going up too much. Citri Stripped these guys, 3 hours a piece 2 times before the paint/powder coat lifted. Jellied these suckers for a minute as well. 

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Etch primed all the rusted parts. Sanded, buffed and cleared the head lights. Waiting till I can wet sand and buff. Also painted the side view mirror stocks. It's a little detail but these things were so rough. Was using real low grit to get them smooth again. Such much better. 

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The other turn signal I cleared got a little screwy. Started seeing spider webs in the clear so waited for it to dry. See those grooves? Those guys started showing up right before I started trying to strip the clear with citri strip. The strip didn't work so I had to wheel grind through to confirm if they were still clear coat or on the actual plastic. Seems like the surface melted or had a reaction with the Rustoleum clear coat. Called their tech support and the clear is plastic safe and they're just as puzzled. They offered to start a claim so great service on their end. 

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Thanks man and same here! Honestly, as long as all that works stays fresh in the mind haha. 
 

TODAY/TOMORROW/NEXT WEEK: Got the stay and lower tree painted black. Rustoleum pro black looks sooooooo good. Called their tech support asking when is a good time to buff the headlight and their other enamel paints. The tech said to wait SEVEN days. Caution: When using Rustoleum, make sure you have weeks for it to dry and harden. Any who, will work on the extra side view mirror pieces, fix and re paint the dash and paint the battery box tomorrow. It's going to rain again so waiting a week for all these parts to dry wont be an issue. Next week, I'll try to re attach the rear subframe and exhaust pan. Attention can go back to working on the bike itself again. A big worry is re wrapping the wire harness. Don't know how much needs attention but at least a good couple of feet worth.

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TONIGHT: Going to talk to 'my guy' tonight about where the hell my fairings are and what the hell is going on about my powder coat pieces. He's telling me that all the pieces he fibbed on (all of them), color wise, he's going to have to charge me again on, plus the only silver he has isn't going to match 100%. He's one of those guys that are so nice it's hard to know what's genuine or not and he's so vague about everything that I still don't know the status of my exhaust. Well, I'm not throwing out my innards anymore so this is going to have to stop. Regardless of who does the job, thinking about using two colors to PC. The front foot rests/front pegs/front foot levers will be frame silver. So the attention from the frame matches straight down.The forks, upper tree, handle bars and rear foot rests and pegs will be satin black (or gloss, I don't know yet) to make the gold wheels pop.... .  Either way, not excited for this talk.



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Here is a rough idea of the scheme I'm talking about. Laugh away at the Microsoft paint work if you want haha. If this is your bike, it looks great! 


FORESEEABLE FUTURE: Once those forks are back from PC, put them back on so I can scoot the bike back close enough to a power outlet. Have new oem value front/rear sprockets and chain. Don't have a chain breaker of any kind but do have a dremel and a will to find a way. Still need to find how and when the deep cleaning of the bike is going to commence. I have a dremel and drills for polishing and buffing tools but no hose or room for the deep cleaning step I need to do. 

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If your foot pegs are off, you won't need to break the chain at all. Just move the eccentric adjuster all the way loose and it will come off. Or remove the front sprocket first and it will be even easier. I don't remember if you said they are off for powder coating. If not, and if you have big enough sockets to take the right side nut off the swing arm pivot bolt, you can move the left foot peg bracket out enough to pass the chain out.

You can get a local shop to rivet link the chain together and then you can install it that way.

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Thanks for that. Never did the chain before but do have the tool for it. Almost everything is off for powder coating so that's how it'll be done. Secretly, I'm thinking aloud to you guys just for something like this. ;) 

Talked to 'my guy' last night. Things are going to get done. I don't know why my fairings have taken 2 months but have been told that the rhino liner (for the back) will be finished in a week or two.  Was trying to make sure he wasn't screwing me on the PC pricing so came in the conversation having quotes from 3 other shops. His was still cheapest by far. Good  
 

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I had painted my 07 919 a custom gunmetal with painted sinful cinnamon (pearl red) Honda wing and racing strip down the center, and it got damaged I could not stomach repainting myself so I had a guy do it for me, the strip was crooked and he put the wings on backwards. I got to pay for him to fix it again, hot hues paint is not cheap either. I hate painters around here. they would rather do insurance jobs on cars where nobody looks close at shit. orange peel to just shotty work. that's why I do all my own finishes, if it sucks its cuz I suck. lol 

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On 2/17/2017 at 9:50 AM, 3dcycle said:

I had painted my 07 919 a custom gunmetal with painted sinful cinnamon (pearl red) Honda wing and racing strip down the center, and it got damaged I could not stomach repainting myself so I had a guy do it for me, the strip was crooked and he put the wings on backwards. I got to pay for him to fix it again, hot hues paint is not cheap either. I hate painters around here. they would rather do insurance jobs on cars where nobody looks close at shit. orange peel to just shotty work. that's why I do all my own finishes, if it sucks its cuz I suck. lol 


See that aint right. If they  screw up, it's on them! Call it an occupational hazard. Speaking of that, my paint guy is  giving me my parts on sunday... but he hasn't shot the clear till this week. WEAK! I finally got my exhaust sand blasted and will be getting that on monday. Will be interesting to see how it looks with the dry lube. Picture like a darker and smoother exhaust wrap. Tres chic

So pardon with the delay. Right when I was about to work on the bike, my work told me to get on a plane to Nacogdoches TX again! Have been there for the past week and a half? I dunno because time goes by so quick on the road. I ended up receiving my powder coated parts. They 'over sprayed' the sand material on the inside of the forks and left it pretty rough. Dropped them off to my shop to so smoothen both forks out along side with pressing the lower steering head bearing for good measure. Well, the shop ended up finishing up the forks and putting in seals without letting me know. Well, thats some more $$ but after all this stress coming from my interactions with the paint guy, all is well.  

What I Did TODAY: Attached the rear subframe back on. Put the upper head bearing and out races in and put the lower and upper yokes in. Thanks for all of you guys providing some much info on this board. Put the outer races in the freezer and it was just the trick. Afterwards, the shocks and forks went in. I had two first shove the shocks, upside down, from the top so the powder coat would give way. They finally dropped in.  If any of you are getting your stuff PC'd, make sure those guys are given the heads up on the little details like that. Had initial problems getting some bolts in as well. Then I took the chain off by taking off the front sprocket. OMG there was so much dirt and muck that definitely looked like something I've seen in the bottom, or near, a toilet. After getting bad looks from the neighbors, I took just as much time cleaning the asphalt with degreaser as I did cleaning the bike.


Powder Coated Parts:
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Is that gap suppose to be there?
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A little of that work today:
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Shiny subframe. Don't worry, calipers and all the other stuff isn't hanging anymore. What I didn't get a picture of was the shocks installed. Did a little wd-40 cleaning and tooth brush. This stuff works. Make sure you clean with a degreaser and then with some water afterwards. I had to use spray bottles that had needle spray patterns to really get any penetration ;) 

Then:
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This was after the first cleaning. Sprocket was kind of stuck. Tapped it, with my 25mm wrench, from behind with some love and it came out with no problem. Makes sense after all that crud.

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This was the gunk of the initial scraping and first cleansing. 

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No wonder when I'd clean my chain, it would never stay clean after the 1st ride. Will give all of this another go another day. 


Short Term: My shop kept one of my spacers for my front wheel. I don't know why I gave it to them in the first place. If the shop doesn't have it, then it's lost and I'm ordering a new one. Once the wheels are back on I can start lugging the bike back and forth when I have the little garage time that is available.  

Question: The cover over the front sprocket doesn't want to close all the way anymore. I see that there's a foot long pin that goes across the bike and it seems like it doesn't want to sit "flush" in its position. From the block of the frame to the cover, I have several mm gap at the moment. Any ideas? 

 

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35 minutes ago, dozyproductions said:


See that aint right. If they  screw up, it's on them! Call it an occupational hazard. Speaking of that, my paint guy is  giving me my parts on sunday... but he hasn't shot the clear till this week. WEAK! I finally got my exhaust sand blasted and will be getting that on monday. Will be interesting to see how it looks with the dry lube. Picture like a darker and smoother exhaust wrap. Tres chic

So pardon with the delay. Right when I was about to work on the bike, my work told me to get on a plane to Nacogdoches TX again! Have been there for the past week and a half? I dunno because time goes by so quick on the road. I ended up receiving my powder coated parts. They 'over sprayed' the sand material on the inside of the forks and left it pretty rough. Dropped them off to my shop to so smoothen both forks out along side with pressing the lower steering head bearing for good measure. Well, the shop ended up finishing up the forks and putting in seals without letting me know. Well, thats some more $$ but after all this stress coming from my interactions with the paint guy, all is well.  

What I Did TODAY: Attached the rear subframe back on. Put the upper head bearing and out races in and put the lower and upper yokes in. Thanks for all of you guys providing some much info on this board. Put the outer races in the freezer and it was just the trick. Afterwards, the shocks and forks went in. I had two first shove the shocks, upside down, from the top so the powder coat would give way. They finally dropped in.  If any of you are getting your stuff PC'd, make sure those guys are given the heads up on the little details like that. Had initial problems getting some bolts in as well. Then I took the chain off by taking off the front sprocket. OMG there was so much dirt and muck that definitely looked like something I've seen in the bottom, or near, a toilet. After getting bad looks from the neighbors, I took just as much time cleaning the asphalt with degreaser as I did cleaning the bike.


Powder Coated Parts:
2rhy6hw.jpg
352ozme.jpg
illkdl.jpg
o0uwzs.jpg
Is that gap suppose to be there?
wvpqtz.jpg


A little of that work today:
6f1htd.jpg

4vqx52.jpg
rm1p46.jpg
Shiny subframe. Don't worry, calipers and all the other stuff isn't hanging anymore. What I didn't get a picture of was the shocks installed. Did a little wd-40 cleaning and tooth brush. This stuff works. Make sure you clean with a degreaser and then with some water afterwards. I had to use spray bottles that had needle spray patterns to really get any penetration ;) 

Then:
24cbb0h.jpg
zmpzm.jpg
This was after the first cleaning. Sprocket was kind of stuck. Tapped it, with my 25mm wrench, from behind with some love and it came out with no problem. Makes sense after all that crud.

10fs787.jpg
This was the gunk of the initial scraping and first cleansing. 

29as7z8.jpg
2af0j2s.jpg
No wonder when I'd clean my chain, it would never stay clean after the 1st ride. Will give all of this another go another day. 


Short Term: My shop kept one of my spacers for my front wheel. I don't know why I gave it to them in the first place. If the shop doesn't have it, then it's lost and I'm ordering a new one. Once the wheels are back on I can start lugging the bike back and forth when I have the little garage time that is available.  

Question: The cover over the front sprocket doesn't want to close all the way anymore. I see that there's a foot long pin that goes across the bike and it seems like it doesn't want to sit "flush" in its position. From the block of the frame to the cover, I have several mm gap at the moment. Any ideas? 

 

I think you will find that your clutch slave cylinder has extended a little while the sprocket cover was dismounted. Suggest you polish up the clutch pushrod, apply some grease and push it gently home, then fit the countershaft cover and sneak it into place by gently tightening the bolts evenly. That will push the slave piston back into its bore, same as you'd do with brake pistons. 

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make sure the speed sensor lines up with the bolt holding the sprocket on. maybe rotate the wheel slightly

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3d makes a very wise suggestion here. If you don't line that sensor coupling up with the sprocket nut, the coupling gets damaged and your speedo will stop working eventually.

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5 hours ago, Terry said:

3d makes a very wise suggestion here. If you don't line that sensor coupling up with the sprocket nut, the coupling gets damaged and your speedo will stop working eventually.

And get a new one the next time you order any Honda parts. It's plastic and does wear out:

 

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Mine is pretty worn. During assembly there are bound to be extra parts that I'll need to order so this will be on that list. Thank god it's <$6 and not >$40! Don't know if you guys have this problem or not but San Diego only has 3rd party dealerships and no actual honda moto dealerships. Honda auto dealers/shops don't even let you order moto parts from them. Is this just an SD thing? Shipping is faster then partzilla, at the 3rd party, but the mark up is always way more. 

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Ran in to a hitch. Seems my worthless painter is mostly done. Actually it looks pretty good beyond my fuel tank. I unknowingly bought two right side tank stickers thinking it was a L & R side because in the fine print, the left side sticker no longer exists. Can anyone attest to buying the amazon/ebay stickers ( 3m vinyl rated at "7 years")? As long as the clear coat is doing the UV protecting, should it be okay??.... 

TODAY: Got a wire brush and tried to clean the front and rear brake calipers, rear swing arm and as much of the engine block as I could. Steps were 1) WD-40 and let sit for a second. 2) wire brush with enthusiasm. 3) spray with diluted Shout cleaner. 4) scrub some more. 5) spray with water bottle. 6) Have a bucket catching all the bike spit. 7) Repeat. Really awkward when you're cursing this hard in a community parking lot. Also put on the yoke and both tires. I figured that the shocks are going to sit at about 46mm from top tree to top of the cap. 

Changed all the hose clamps with SS ones. 
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Does anyone know a great way to deep matte polish the stator cover? I used the wire brush and then metal polish on it for a little while and this is how it looks now... which is a lot better than what it looked before. 
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Calipers look like 28 year olds comparing to their 70 year old former selves. These are chinese rotors and actually had to sand some of the rust off in the inner portion. They seem entincing guys but unless you like grinding rust, spend the extra money. Just showing a little bit of how it was done getting the wheel on.
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Here's out it sits now
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For Tomorrow: Will start putting on some of those powder coated parts back on and finally start using that wireloom tape. Will continue to clean. 

Question: Just to repeat. Where can I get some tank stickers that will hold up and which ones would you prefer? How would you beautify that stator cover a little better? 

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It's definitely looking more like a bike! I really like the fork legs and the wheels - it's a good combination.

 

I bought a full set of decals/stickers off eBay - I have no reason to believe they'll be any less resilient than the ones Honda provide, especially if they're lacquered.

 

I powdercoated my stater cover, but suggest you probably don't want to be doing the same given that you're in the reassembly phase. Unless you've got a machine polisher, you're probably not going to be able to get it look any better; you could spray in situ, although I perhaps wouldn't. 

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On 3/16/2017 at 6:34 AM, Loftust said:

It's definitely looking more like a bike! I really like the fork legs and the wheels - it's a good combination.

 

I bought a full set of decals/stickers off eBay - I have no reason to believe they'll be any less resilient than the ones Honda provide, especially if they're lacquered.

 

I powdercoated my stater cover, but suggest you probably don't want to be doing the same given that you're in the reassembly phase. Unless you've got a machine polisher, you're probably not going to be able to get it look any better; you could spray in situ, although I perhaps wouldn't. 

I'm kind of got my theme from my friend's ducati, and extra points from the ladies saying it looked like one already haha. So your stator cover must look great! I have wire wheels... know of anything a bit softer? lol

On 3/16/2017 at 11:04 AM, hellindustries said:

maaaaan... you're making me want to get my wheels coated gold...

Do it!

Today: Put the finishing touches on the exhaust by spraying the last of the dry lube on the tubes and then polishing a bit of the cans. Walked all the stuff over to the bike, 50 yards from the house, to realize that I threw away the old cruddy exhaust nuts without buying replacements. Also put in the pivot "bolt" and battery box. Lastly, scrubbed down the last of what I want from the front block and repaired some of the wiring harness. 


Here's that exhaust. It's sprayed with dry lubricant that's also used by mopar guys. $12 a can (after shipping) and its rust/heat resistant and will definitely last years if you're good to it. The down side is, it's really easy to be bad to it. Unless I haven't given it enough time to dry properly, it's very easy to scratch. Very easy to reapply though.

Before:
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After!:
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Here's a little bit of that wire harness work. Some parts must of been exposed closer to heat because the tape was crispy and the glue was runny. There were some other spots where either I didn't put any wrap around new wires or the old wires just had minimal wrapping. Seemed like the old stuff is electrical tape. The new stuff is wire harness wrap. The difference is that the new stuff doesn't have any adhesive but is still able to stick to itself. 

Before:
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After!:
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Tomorrow: Got to buy nuts for the exhaust. If I can get those fracking 8 nuts, the exhaust is going in. Also, will start either plastic welding or epoxy gluing one mounting point of the back of the instrument panel. I was shown that a soldering iron and a zip tie can go a long way, depending on the plastic. 

Afterword: The closer I'm getting to completing this, the more I'm realizing that I should of taken more and better pictures and labeled my nuts/bolts baggies a bit better as well. It feels like constructing a really vague 3d puzzle. Example: completely forgot how to re assemble the right side foot stay and heat shield alongside the rear exhaust area. There's bits and pieces from my pictures and the manual kind of fills in some gaps but the point still holds. 

Hellindustries: Gold Wheels :) 
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That exhaust looks fantastic - definitely one of the best painted finishes I've seen. 

 

My stator cover does look good :wink: I don't have a photo of it at the moment however.

 

You can get soft wire wheels, or semi-abrasive pads, which may help if you want to improve the finish, although it will be hidden behind the fairing.

 

You're in the same boat that I was with bolts - I had separated them into different parts of the bike, but then gave them all to someone for vapour blasting. The illustrated parts catalogs online (lings etc) are a godsend, and really helped me to identify which bolts go where. Understanding the different types of bolt heads helps too.

 

Good job on the wrapping btw - very neat :smile:

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On 3/18/2017 at 7:41 AM, Loftust said:

That exhaust looks fantastic - definitely one of the best painted finishes I've seen. 

 

My stator cover does look good :wink: I don't have a photo of it at the moment however.

 

You can get soft wire wheels, or semi-abrasive pads, which may help if you want to improve the finish, although it will be hidden behind the fairing.

 

You're in the same boat that I was with bolts - I had separated them into different parts of the bike, but then gave them all to someone for vapour blasting. The illustrated parts catalogs online (lings etc) are a godsend, and really helped me to identify which bolts go where. Understanding the different types of bolt heads helps too.

 

Good job on the wrapping btw - very neat :smile:


If you have a picture of your stator cover I'd love to see it!... Lings eh? Stateside I'm using partzilla and cyclemax. Thanks for reminding me about those part diagram sites to use as reference. Was starting to get too many steps ahead of myself. 
 

On 3/18/2017 at 10:20 AM, hellindustries said:

Fiiiiiiiiiine.... Is there a paint code or something?

Re-coating time is getting near.


I asked my guy to get as close to ducati or sti gold as he could get. I think most of the PC shops should have something that'll fit the bill to your liking! You could honestly probably go with a tight lighter and less satiny finish than mine haha. I won't be enjoying wiping the dust off of these wheels before every ride :( 


Today: Ended up buying used exhaust nuts from a low mileage vfr. $6 shipped for good condition exhaust nuts! My favorite nuts right after almonds! 

Question: So I'm starting to learn that a box that had some of my parts was moved and "lost" by a room mate. I no longer have my handlebar bolts (any my heatshield stay and etc) and it seems like going to the hardware to find new ones is harder than it seems atm. I looked up 98 vfr800 heli bars on their site and it seems like their current offering only has a single tightening contact instead of dual. Can anyone confirm that I do indeed have heli bars? Cheers. 

xp8nza.jpg

 

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I looked up 98 vfr800 heli bars on their site and they don't look like mine. Can anyone confirm that I do indeed have heli bars? 

xp8nza.jpg

 


Looks like Helibars to me. My right bar had Helibar stamped around base clamp, but that might not be so with older Helibar product. Should be easy to order up bolts or match them locally.


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Thanks mate. These are blank, which might be due to the PC job. All four holes aren't accepting anything consistently, which could also be due to the PC job. Before screwing anything up, that might require tapping the threads, just want some sort of extra confirmation. Trust me, we opened up a lot of bags at home depot. ;D  Sent Heli an email all the same. 

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