Cafe build

[tonupNW]

Well I picked up picked up a 1980 xs400 special the other day for 60 bucks, couldnt pass it up. Gonna do it up cafe style with modern touches here and there. Im sure I'' be turning to quite a few of you for help along the way as this is my first yamaha. The bike is rough as its been sitting outside in the NW, not much rust, mostly just moss and full of leaves pine, needles and what not. I tore into it today, got it down to a roller and tore into the motor. Motor is gonna need some work, looks like someone was in there at one time and didnt know really what they were doing. So its gonna get cleaned up, full reseal, Fix the shift shaft (missing e-clip letting the shaft move in and off the shift forks) and mabye some magic on the head while im in there. Here are some pics of when I picked it up and when I tore into it today. Also those are not the bars im gonna run, that is just a piece of pipe to move it around. I couldnt stand looking at those beach combers that were on there

 

[new kid on the brat]

nice!! way to jump in there and get s#*t done!!! looks like you know what you're doing!

 

[hammerlo]

60 bucks!!! damn i wish i could buy motorcycle for 10 gallons of gasoline, anyway, love Cafe Racers, i`ll follow your work

 

[cafedan]

great start man! ill be following as well.

 

[tonupNW]

Thanks guys. Im gonna strip it down the rest of the way today or tomorrow and this weekend have the frame and swinger blasted and have the cases walnut shelled to shine them up a little.

 

[XSrocker]

Hey! I am going to be following this as well. I am looking into putting some modern touches on mine as well.

 

[drewpy]

this is gonna be good, keep us up to date man

 

[tonupNW]

Any ideas or tips on splitting the case? Ive been beating on them with a rubber mallet and it wont budge. I may try to heat it up to see if that will soften up whatever the hell the used to glue it together.

 

[drewpy]

you have missed screws!

 

[tonupNW]

Found the problem. There was one more bolt that had grime and crud all packed around it and missed it originally. All good now.

 

[tonupNW]

Well worked on the bike a little today. Because I'm anal retentive and a perfectionist, I started grinding down all the casting marks on the cases, rocker cover, pretty much anything that had casting marks, bumps, eyesores, got smoothed out. Bad part is I started polishing. Now I'm gonna have to polish everything lol. Here is a few pics of the rocker cover in rough form. Still need to do about another hour or 2 of smoothing it the way I want and then the polishing begins. I think in the end its all gonna pay off.

 

[bcware]

Good luck holding back; look what happened to Drewpy's tracker; it's turning into a show bike! I want to do some cleaning myself, but at the same time there is plenty of time in the winter to polish and restore to high standards.

 

[tonupNW]

Well I broke down... I ordered a buffer/polisher and lots of compound. Time to get dirty

 

[tonupNW]

Here is a sneak peak of what im gonna use for an exhaust. Let me know what you all think

 

[bcware]

It would look out of place with the baby seat, but should look great once you've converted to cafe You really can't go wrong with a small muffler. Are you going to run 2 to 1 headers?

 

[tonupNW]

Im gonna build a set of stainless equal length 2-1 into the shorty muffler.

 

[hardtailed77]

Lovin the exhaust man! It will surely look killer on a cafe style bike! I feel your pain on the polishing....I've got about 4 months worth of mine, just here and there. It SUCKS!!!!

 

[dO-bOy]

please tell me you're keeping the seat...

 

[tonupNW]

Haha I may keep it, but there is no way in hell its going on the bike again. It rubs the hell out of the tank because its so big.

 

[tonupNW]

Well Im debating on tires right now. I really like the Bridgestone Battlax's, but want to know how well a 130/90/16 will fit. If it does, then this will seal the deal on my tires