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***I apologize, some of the pics are really big, please give it a minute to load entirely!*** Well, I couldn't hold back from posting any longer once I had the powdercoated parts in my hand. Now I can't help but let you guys in on the rest of the story! So here it is, from the very beginning(yes, it's a saga!) :P This poor old bike that currently sits (mostly) in boxes was bought new in 1983 in New Hampshire, and was ridden on the street and then on one track day at NHIS(Loudon). The owner went down because of a visor tear-off that was thrown on the track, and after that, the guy put 'her' in a corner of a barn. That was in 1984, after accumulating only 2,997 miles. Many years later(about 15!), said original owner sold the bike(to avoid giving it up during a divorce), to his neighbor, who is an ex-co-worker of mine. About 2 years after that, I bought my 700, and when I rode it to work for the first time, this guy started going nuts over how nice it was, and told me the story I just told you. Except he added that he was not sure if he wanted to keep it, because of the expense of a new clutch master cylinder... Sooo... it became mine for the lovely sum of $300. I had all kinds of ideas at the time, but no garage, tools, or mechanical/working knowledge to speak of back then, so it sat around for a couple years, and I started disassembling it when I got my garage. Along the way, I came down with a terrible case of MBD(multiple bike disorder) and the bike took a back seat to "more important things" like my F4i and VTEC vfr, and since then have decided to restore it. Here are the Polaroids that I saw before picking the bike up: The tank was pretty banged up, so I got a better one from Chev, and the frame was a little tweaked at the rear, which I've fixed. There were also two spots on the frame where water had gotten in(the guy I bought it from kept it outside for one winter), when the water froze, it expanded the tubes. I heated them up and hammered them flat, then ground them to make them nice. The motor ran 5 years ago from a beer bottle full of gas, and when I drained the fluids to pull the motor a while back, everything was clean. Finally getting back into the project, I got the bike stripped down completely. Riding other bikes and life in general kept me away from it again until early this year, when I started fitting bodywork to it (going to adapt VF1000F side panels), and I noticed something was wrong here. Rough idea of the 1kF panels: I knew the rear section had been repaired, but didn't realize it was this far off until I actually tried to bolt the tail on. It was pretty twisted! I took measurements on this frame and my good one, and determined that the damage was isolated at the very end of the frame, so, I decided it was time to "say hello to my little friend"! :salesman: A little zip here, and a little zag there - and viola! No more damage!(depending on how you look at it) I also took the liberty of chopping off the square-shaped rear rail mounts while I was at it, I thought that would be a nice touch to clean up the bike, and being they only hold the helmet lock and huge stock signals anyway(2 things I will NOT be using), in the trash they went! Thanks you Mr. Portable Bandsaw, hehe. And yes, I cut up a good frame for the sake of having a numbers-matching bike that wasn't a true restoration anyway... :joystick: Call me crazy or keep reading! Next up: weld it back together! Hiho, off to work I go, on a cold Saturday morning. Still saving up for my own TIG welder... with the bike habit, it's not going so well. After some creative grinding: Which leads us to... powdercoat! Frame, swingarm, and VF1000R upper triple were done in Satin Black: I'm upgrading to CBR F2 wheels, and had them coated in mirror white. I have another clean rear wheel that's black and had the lips polished, I'll throw that on later and see how it looks in there. Much more to come!!

Pic of the new LEDs lighting the gauges! Sorry about the cell pic, best we could do at the time. It was plugged into a friends' bike as a check, works great! They are bright enough to see in the daytime!

Damn Seb! Between you and BusyLittleShop, you guys could produce your own line of bikes. I'm all for the RWB combo. My only problem with putting in those kinds of hours in a project like that is that I would have to build a vault to keep it in. I wouldn't even trust myself to ride the thing around the block. Your garage makes my little Craftsman tool box on the counter in my garage look like a little girls finger nail kit.

Suggestion: clearcoat the bare aluminum suspension linkage. The stuff for auto wheels in a spraybomb would work a treat! I used this brand on my Ranger wheels and it's great: http://www.duplicolor.com/products/wheel.html HWP103 Clear

Hey Seb, I'm getting my 83 VF750F today. I guess you could be of a big help to me. Right now, it's just a project. The guy is asking $300 for it. Here's a pic. Look at the sacrilege I can't wait to strip it down to the bone. Here in BC, the bike will be available for "Collector Plate" which means dirt cheap insurance, but it has to be in mint condition and if modified, the modifications had to be available at the time of production. Viva la 1st Gen!

Here's some shots of the motor. It's going to get a scrubbing and a nice new coat of gloss black paint. I'm also going to be polishing the valve covers, stator cover, and the bare circle on the clutch cover. Not the parts that are on there now, I have spares that are close to perfect. It's quite possible that this is only the second oil filter ever installed... Only 2,997 miles on this lump, and it shows! Nice clean cams, only showing a teensy bit of wear: I decided to install VF1000R forks on the bike, and a member here hooked me up! I have them all torn down at the moment also, they need a very thorough cleaning! They are getting RaceTech gold valve emulators, which requires removal of the TRAC anti-dive system, and Sonic springs. I'll also be welding shut the holes that line up with the air crossover under the upper triple. This will let me toss the crossover part and allow me to play with the height of the tubes in the forks. Lots of grease and grime removal, then a coat of black paint! I can't really call this fluid, but this is the oily/goopy/grungy/yuck stuff that came out of the forks... :beer: Another neat item on the mod list - I was inspired by this pic I found on the web to go on a hunt for a clear automotive head light to use(some of you may remember the post), well, I found out it's the same unit used in early '90s Chevy S-10s, H60something or other. I bought a pair, and member Chickenofthesea(Matt) and I split the cost. We might upgrade to HID together later this year! Enjoy. More posting when I can.