Wife and stepdaughter are away for a few days, a bunch of other obligations are taken care of -- at LAST I can start putting my air/fuel system back together. Cleaned the top of the block and the bottoms of the manifolds (having declined to spend $200 on new manifolds), used some red Permatex to get a good seal, cleaned up the insides of the throttle bodies with carb cleaner and Q-tips (don't know if that'll make any difference but it felt good), installed new vacuum hoses, installed the new "bushings," started to install my new fuel lines (including fancy insulation for the line from the FPR back to the tank....
The headache of the moment is that the hose clamps I got per Max's fiche are busting my butt -- they are to spec (p/n 17 12 1 461 500) but they sure act like they're too small for the job.
Tomorrow is another day! Really happy to have my hands back in the guts of my bike...
Oh, and a question. Should I attach the plenum to the throttle body assembly before or after I install the throttle body assembly on the manifolds? Any opinions or experience?