Two Connies to make one

Today I'm riding the 1994 Concours (aka Connie) for the fourth time since buying it earlier this year.  It's slowly getting restored, but last night I had to press it into service.  I still haven't tracked down the electrical gremlin on the 86 and my shop truck, the 1975 C-10 stepside started acting up.  The truck lost power going up hill under a heavy load, including almost stalling out while headed uphill on a freeway.

So last night I moved some parts back to the '94 I had moved to the '86 for troubleshooting, re-installed some fairing pieces and tried to fire the bike up.  At first it wasn't getting gas, as the carbs had sat since August.  Soon some fuel was flowing and after a minute or two of rough running the bike started idling.  I put the seat on, rolled it off the lift, got the safety gear and took it out for both a short test ride and a tank of fresh gas-in the '86s red tank!  So I'm running around in a partially "naked" (i.e. no mid and lower fairings-those are still being prepped for paint) Concours with mostly purple and silver bodywork but with a red tank.  But it runs safely and I'm on the road!

Ride safe!

ABS Plasitc bodywork repairs

My 1994 Kawasaki Concours has some damaged bodywork from previous owners having a small wreck and being laid down at low speed.  The side panels and the belly pan all had scrapes and damage on them although the paint is in pretty good shape.  Since I can't do bodywork and these are old bodywork made out of ABS plastic, I reached out to a friend of mine.  He had helped me repair a previous dent and looked forward to trying ABS work.

A few weeks ago we had a planning and evaluation get together.  We went to NAPA and looked at options, and the best one was getting fiberglass resin but not use any cloth.  Work got in the way for both of us, so we weren't able to get back to the project for too long.  So one night he experimented without me.  He laid a thin layer of the resin on the damaged areas and let it set up.  So yesterday I went over and we looked at the parts in the bright San Diego sun.  By "flowing" the resin across the panels the long scrapes were built up and the cracked areas were sealed together.  They aren't fuzed like ABS plastic welding would have done but they seem to be stiff enough.  He handed me a vibrating sander with 220 grit paper and I went to work on them.  I learned a good lesson after hand-sanding all my bikes previously!  I'm shopping for a sander soon!

We also cleaned up some areas with a dremel tool and checked the parts back and forth.  The usual rule of thumb applies-sand at least 1/3 more time than you think you needed to.  The resin worked really well for this project after the first sanding, so Larry mixed up a small patch of the leftover resin and activator.  We spread another thin coat on the low spots and set the parts out in the sun.  The next step will be to get the parts from Larry's and sand them with both 220 and 400 grit prior to filler priming.

I hate to say it, but Larry is going to make these parts look brand new-which means I'll be crying when they get the road scars I know this bike will!  It's stable mate is my 100K project bike and it's definitely picked up it's share of rock chips, scrapes and other "road trophies".

1986 Kawasaki Concours Electrical Gremlin Update

Back home from a week traveling for work and visiting family but not on the bike.  Connie battery dead-very little charge.  I think I either put this battery in when I bought the bike, or it was in it when I bought it in early 2010.  Since the bike sat for two years it's old but also been used.  I still haven't found the short or other reason the front headlight won't come on, so I'm going to start by pulling the battery off the 1994, putting it on trickle charge and then prepping to go through the front wiring harness and headlight circuit slowly and painstakingly with a multi-meter.

I have rarely done electrical work, and never this kind of trouble shooting.  Ugh.