Rebuilding my EV Motorcycle

[bennelson]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 1981 Kawasaki KZ440 motorcycle that has been converted to electric.

I never did a fantastic job on the wiring. (The original wiring harness was melted off, and since I didn't need anything related to the gas engine, I just rebuilt it with my own wires.) I want to rebuild the wire harness with it looking really nice.

I also need to replace the tires. (I already have the tires, got them on sale end of last summer.)

I need to clean up the rims, polish the chrome parts, the seat could use getting re-covered, definately needs some black touch-up paint on the frame.

In short, I really want to have the cycle LOOK GOOD when it's all done.

This is my first motorcycle, and I really haven't done much polishing and that sort of thing before.

I could use any and all general advice about cleaningin/polishing/painting that I can get.

I'm also considering replacing the headlamp with an HID. It's the classic, round sealed beam bulb. If anyone has done an HID upgrade for that style lamp, please let me know who your vendor was.

I'll start posting some photos of work as I do it, but so far, I have already removed the fairing and rear cargo boxes. I just got both the front and rear wheels off. (I borrowed a friend's cycle jack.)

All help appreciated!

-Ben

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by bennelson

definately needs some black touch-up paint on the frame.

An ordinary spray can for automotive use, and a clear coat will do.
It has proven more durable than the original Suzuki finish on my 1999 bike

[Red_Liner740]

HID's in anything but a projector are very annoying, second comes projectors meant for regular bulbs, followed by projected beam type reflector units and finally followed by sealed units that use the front glass to "direct" beams...

i would look into a projector retrofit into a sealed housing....

other than that, all my motorcycles are newer and have zero chrome on them, so i cant help you there.

[bennelson]

Here's some photos of what I did today, to give you a better sense of what I am working on.

Got off the fairing, rear cargo boxes, and both wheels. (Yipes! Those wires are outta control!)



Here's both the existing tires and rims.


Here's the new tires.


Here's a close-up to show the style of wheels, and the corrosion on them. The rims looks like aluminum, but I am not positive exactly what they are made of. I would like to get all that corrosion off. The outter edge and ridges of the rims are silver and the rest is painted black, but with quite a bit of texture.


Just another view of the wheels.


The seat has some cracking/tearing on it. I'd really like to get that taken care of to make it look nicer. You can also see that the rear springs are rusty. Can those be easily pulled off to get sandblasted and painted?


Here's the rear cargo cases. I love the chrome skulls. The eyes blink for turn signals. (LED too!) However, the cases do add some weight to the cycle. I think I would like to return the cycle to the more or less stock overall appearance, which would reduce weight. I now need to do whatever I can to reduce weight to maximize cruising range on the battery system. That means loosing the boxes. I originally got them from a friend of mine, so I think it's just time to return them.


Anyways, from the photos, you can see that the cycle needs some serious wire management (need to design a new wire harness from scratch!) I want to touch up the paint on the whole thing, repaint the gas tank, weld up a nice battery cage, and most importantly, figure out a way to get all four batteries in there in a configuration I really like. (I don't like the doubled-up batteries right in front of my knees.)

I'll keep posting photos and updates as I work on this, but like I said, this is my first motorcycle, so any cleaning/spit-and-polish/maintenance tips from the iron-butt riders is appreciated!

[jjackstone]

Ben,
Looking at the wheels I would guess that they have some sort of clear coat on the part that looks metallic. But then again I could be wrong. Either way you could probably use a grinder fine wire wheel or a dremel to start for removing the heavy stuff. I've used various grades of steel wool mixed with Mother's metal polish after that. By the end you would hope to be down to rubbing with just the Mothers and a towel or a buffer wheel. Once no more black comes off on the towel, that thing should be blinding shiny in the sun. If there is a clear coat on the wheel then it will probably need to be taken off. Same deal use something a little coarse(but not enough to gouge the metal) to begin with and work your way into finer polish material. And if there is clear coat removed you will want to wax the metal. Otherwise it tends to re-oxidize fairly quickly. Same thing can be done to polish up the shocks.
JJ

[Ryland]

Rust on chrome is tough, some people use tin foil rubbed in to the rough areas to make it blend in, but it will not make it go away, rust reformer and paint is a good idea but not as shinny silver, it is hard to go wrong with gloss black paint tho.
for the wheels I would say sand paper, start out with 100 grit, 220 grit, 400, 600, 800, 1,200 and then the Mothers mag wheel polish will give you a perfect shine.
you can mount your own tires, but they are a pain, motorcycle shops tend to charge $30 or more each if you didn't buy them from that shop, if you try to do it your self, a little smooth hand cleaner works great as a lube to make the tire slide on smoother.
For cleaning, WD-40 works great on rubber and plastic parts.
for wrapping your wiring harness try the silicon electrical tape, it only sticks to it's self and is better then the original wiring harness wrap.

[NeilBlanchard]

You can do your own tires -- you'll need some tire irons (2 or 3), and a way to break the bead away from the rim. If you have a wall where you can mount a cross bar (2x4) and have an 8 foot long 2x4 or 2x6, and then a short 2x4 to put the pressure on the old tire sidewall. Be sure to support the rim, so no pressure is put on the brake disk or the rim itself.

Soapy water works for levering on the new tires, and you'll need a good compressor to get the new tires to "catch" some pressure and to seat them evenly all the way around -- the soap will help lubricate them so they usually do.

You can do static balancing if you think they will be out of balance. Or maybe a local shop can do dynamic balancing?

Edit: It looks like your new tires are Cheng Shin? I wouldn't guess they are real sporty. You might fine they squirm on rough surfaces, and they may not handle wet or standing water well.

Be careful out there!

[Christ]

The texture on the wheel isn't the paint, it's the cast surface. They just clean it and shoot paint over it, then mill the flange and spokes and clear the whole wheel. That's how they get the high lighted effect of the spokes and flange. It makes the wheel look sharper, more defined, from a distance.

[bennelson]

Got to spend another hour or so today working on the project.

Mostly, I just got the batteries out and removed the "bolt-together" battery frame.





I guess a lot of this is all just to get me back into the mind-set of motorcycle design, so I can do it right this time.

When I mentioned to someone else today that I need to rebuild the wire harness, it came up to perhaps transfer the dimensions of the cycle down onto a sheet of plywood. Then run some screws or nails into the plywood and build the wire harness on there.

When finished, just take the whole thing off and zip-tie it to the motorcycle.
Vwalla! Finished wire harness.

[Christ]

If I build a harness, I use string and hard wire. Identify component locations, use string to map the route, and bread tie everything together with wire to stiffen it up.

Either that, or build the harness right on the vehicle. That takes a bit more thought, though.