My 1985 naked / cafe brick build thread

[NickAndHisBrick]

Cross posted from the "home forum" so ill just leave everything as quotes

Got tossed the keys to this bike a little over a week ago and its going from almost full dress to naked by the time its done

Intended Mod list:
Strip all fairings and install round headlight
One up seat w/ custom rear fairing
aluminum trim panels over the battery / ecu area
Modified handle bars more in line w/ the euro bars
Lowered 3/4" (more if i can manage)
relocated ignition switch (airbox ?)
Custom saddle bag mounts for when i actually have to haul something
Maybe custom rear sets and a muffler swap

Required repairs:
gauge cluster lens replacement
misc engine seals (mostly oil pan)
rebuild or replace front forks
new rear shock
full prevent. maint. chassis & drive line lube
replace clutch cable
oil throttle cable
repair / replace gear indicator switch.

Final color: maybe the original grape, maybe titanium, no idea yet.

10 min after it arrived @ the shop


the next day (only spent a little while messing w/ it)



and heres some of my inspiration:

Yea, the B&W picture the tail is like a wasps ass up in the air, the back and gold checkered bike owner was to pussy to cut his frame, but the orange bike the tail works w/ the tank recesses

Ive got an idea for the tail, just have to make some JY runs till i find the panels I need. should flow well w/ the tank design.

Apparently the front forks are a known problem and using parts off the later R series is an upgrade. (I'm working off my shit memory at this point so dont quote me) But I'm def not afraid to rebuild some bike struts.

had a few spare minutes today, pulled off the remainder of the fairings. Horns are still on the HL bracket (need to disassemble some wiring to get the bracket off)

No Disassemble ... wait ... nevermind.

Started digging into the bike deeper last week. Should have a headlight coming at some point. Been calling around trying to find the pieces i need for the rear fairing. Have to fix a coolant leak, a bad cooling fan, and possibly some bad intake boots.

Need to make some pieces so i can lower the gauge cluster way down also


ignition has a mile of extra wire, so Im moving it to the side of the bike w/ a custom bracket



sleeping w/ the enemies

so i had the tank off for like a week. both for the sake of pulling the front light wiring and running the clutch cable. you wouldnt beleive how many people thought i had ruined the bike or that id never get it back together.

so today i put the clutch cable in it and put the tank back on. made it do this again:

Bars before:



bars after welding / grinding / finish sanding & before primer



Took a leap, cut down the exhaust to display the single sided swing arm, and because i want to experiment w/ the exhaust note. The stock muffler also has a Heavy coat of rust transfer from the old heat shield AND has mild steel mounts welded on for said shield. It would never be pretty again anyways ...

I have a love / hate relationship w/ the current exhaust note.

I plan on welding the original muffler cap back on in a shunken form, along w/ some of the removed baffeling ... we will see how that works out.

[NickAndHisBrick]

My 1985 naked / cake brick build thread

ok ... no longer building a cake .... switching it to a cafe build. lol

[NickAndHisBrick]

Parked out back of the shop for the day

[argent brick]

I don't know why, but I love it when a brick is painted orange.

[NickAndHisBrick]

That orange brick looks amazing, and i originally wanted to do mine yellow, but now i think im going for BMW Lemans Blue.

Also in the news. Lost my job today so the bike no longer has a home, its gonna wind up parked in the driveway at the house but my welder and tools will wind up in storage, making it shit to work on the bike for a while.

[argent brick]

Bummer. Sorry to hear about your job loss.

I have considered painting mine yellow also, but I would have to change my name LOL. BMW did paint some of the K bikes yellow, but I have heard that it was only here in the US. Not a very good looking shade of yellow if you ask me. Not bright enough. The attachment is a nice bright yellow, close to what I wanted.

The blue is a different story. They have some really killer shades of blue.

[Unstoppable_Brick]

I also think orange is an oustanding color.  So I've attached a photo of my orange brick.

Keep posting your progress.  :2thumbup:  I'm eager to see your end result!

[argent brick]

Who did the paint and what color orange did you use?

[Unstoppable_Brick]

Who did the paint and what color orange did you use?

It was budget rattle can job.  3 cans of Valspar satin La Fonda Copper. It was about $15.  I did it on a budget until the winter roads are too bad to ride on.  Then it' ll get professionally painted Atomic Orange.  It's a newer corvette burnt orange metallic color.

[argent brick]

Atomic orange, a fitting name for paint on a brick. Ford has a paint called "screaming yellow" that I have considered for my bike.
A close friend paints cars for a living and he told me that he would paint my last bike just for the cost of the paint. About 65 bucks.
The other day, one of his coworkers ran up behind him and jumped on Jim's back, crushing some of his disc. Looks like Jim will never work as a painter again. To the best of my knowledge, his coworker still has a job. If I was his employer, I would be considering giving him the boot.

[Unstoppable_Brick]

Atomic orange, a fitting name for paint on a brick. Ford has a paint called "screaming yellow" that I have considered for my bike.
A close friend paints cars for a living and he told me that he would paint my last bike just for the cost of the paint. About 65 bucks.
The other day, one of his coworkers ran up behind him and jumped on Jim's back, crushing some of his disc. Looks like Jim will never work as a painter again. To the best of my knowledge, his coworker still has a job. If I was his employer, I would be considering giving him the boot.

I also thought it was an interesting name for a awesome color.
I'm sorry to hear that about your friend!  That's a terrible thing.  I hope I can getaway without paying too much for my pro spray job.

[NickAndHisBrick]

Today the K-bike was retrieved from my old work and dropped off at my fathers place. I also took the opportunity to retrieve my welder and plasma cutter from my former bosses home garage where they WERE being used on another friends project ... its a long story but after getting fired, I decided I wouldn't be stopping by the house anymore just to slave away on someone elses project

So now for the first time in like a decade all my tools AND my project vehicle are in the same place AND i have 24 hour access.

Sorry but i forgot to take a pic of the bike stuffed into the back of the Chevy van. There wasn't much space left over in there fter i collected all my stuff.

[NickAndHisBrick]

With all my new found free time, ive been catching up on life in general, but the other day i arrived at the shop early and decided to pull the BMW out of its hole and go get some supplies.

2 packs of assorted small wire brushes
4 cans of brake clean
1 big spray bottle of Purple power
1 bottle of reasonable acidic wheel cleaner

started to scrub off all the oil dirt and corrosion. Ill prob wind up having to soda blast stuff for the final cleanup before paint, unless i find that a wire wheel on the drill does a good enough job.

Compare the below pic to the pic in the first post after the city bag removal.

currently looks like this:

[NickAndHisBrick]

The brick has been moved to the new shop and ive started working on it again seeing as i now have enough room to lay on the floor w/o kneeling against a wall in the process.

So I picked up a 8" brass wire wheel, installed it on my 4 1/2" grinder and started pullin stuff apart. I later picked up a few more smaller cup wheels to aid in my cleaning.

Tins will be blue w/ narrow white racing stripes, frame will be black, all the aluminium bits will be either gunmetal or the blue / white scheme

Top of trans


Timing cover (notice original finish by the sensor cover)



rear rotor


the Muffler (what a mess)


parts storage


Shinny swing arm


filter box area (thats not a shadow that makes the center of the block look so dark)


On its cart

[orforester]

I love the labor of love in polishing, it is tought, keep the faith.  I also love the Road Glide parked in your garage as well.  My two live together in perfect harmony in my garage. 

[NickAndHisBrick]

This bike is beyond the point of being polishable, at least at my skill level. I tried ONCE on cast alum and hated myself for it.

this alum  will wind up cleaned, primed and painted, as its pretty well corroded and beat up from years of not being washed

[NickAndHisBrick]

vac lines are shot, crank breather hose is shot, one of the lower throttle body boots is cracking along w/ 2 of the uppers .... so i kinda took more stuff off:





cleaning up other bits when ever i get tired of kneeling by the bike. The black on the bat tray is corrosion not grease.



starter ready for a rinse and a coat of paint. I cleaned it inside too.

[frankenduck]

[NickAndHisBrick]

The spatulas are currently visiting the bike .... i cant even explain why these are awesome ... they just are



BMW takes the back seat while i watch my coworker fix the dump truck. I had to work St Pats Day, so he had to listen to my abuse while fixing the dump



cleaning the final drive for paint





Horrible pic, but the shaft if cleaned off in the 12 oclock to 3 oclock section leaving the wear pattern visable. Still looks 100% servicable in person ...



final drive in primer



swing arm and starter drying in front of the halogen "heat light" (should get an actual heat light though...)



rear rotor masked and primed



rear rotor w/ its coat of satin black black



swingarm under florescent lights in the storage office



final shot of the final drive. looks darker then the swingarm but its not

[NickAndHisBrick]

this is the color thats used on the swing arm. Duplicolor Graphite wheel paint.

[NickAndHisBrick]

the baggie department is growing. Lots of other bolts are treaded back into their original positions too.



getting rid of the forging line on the wheels. the wheels will be BMW Blue along w/ the bodywork, crank cover, cam cover and some misc bits.

[Niemand]

getting rid of the forging line on the wheels.

I've often wondered if those could be safely ground off to allow the use of 90 degree valve stems.

Have you considered doing the outside edges of the spokes in a highlight color?  I saw pictures of that somewhere once and it looked better than expected.

 

[NickAndHisBrick]

The ridge down the center of the wheels isnt structural, its there because the two halves of the mold never lined up perfectly, and the ridge gave the factory an easy way to trim the flashing w/o making the misalignment noticeable. The problem w/ removing the ridge is, like i said, the 2 sides of the wheel dont line up perfect, so it requires a good amount of finesse to get everything looking smooth

I have considered adding white to the wheels somehow, but im not sure how exactly. The bike will have white stripes down the fenders / tank so it would be nice to tie that in somehow.

[NickAndHisBrick]

pulled a few more bits off the K, cleaned it more





Pushed it outside, gave the parking lot the rainbow river treatment



pushed it back inside, pulled more stuff off. cleaned it more. started priming

[NickAndHisBrick]

Primed fork legs


Painted block


pulled teh frame off, painted it and the folk legs


Painted the trans case

Starting reassembly.


Cleaning up the muffler. 2 heat sheild mounts were poorly repaired and need to be patched w/ stainless wire. Final step will be to sandblast the muffler and pipes to hid all the surface inperfections.



cleaning the TB's