Interceptor 500 Low Budget Project

I'm really impressed with how the paint job went. I tried my hand at some spot painting and the results came out alright, but I would not have been happy if I had done the entire bike. How did you go about painting the bike, and what company paint did you go with?

 

Looks good!

...and nice to see a fellow Canadian :-D


2 Questions:

1- The first picture of the bike the Forks look different....are the modified?

2- Do you have a spare 86 Petcock?

 

Degreased with simply green and lots of wire brushing, sanded, wire brushed, sanded some more, degreased some more and then painted. I used a regular metal primer, doing several light coats until I had a consistent colour everwhere. Did a really gentle sand of any light roughness. Waited a day and then top coated with a high durability / high gloss rust paint with several light coats about 10 minutes apart, waited until that was dry to the touch and then did the same with a can of high gloss clear coat. It was all off the shelf hardware store paint.

 

1 - they are bolt on "protectors" for lack of a better word. I have not seen them before but I like them because they cover up the small diameter fork legs, making the front end look a little meatier.

2 - Ya, but it is on my good tank! I do have an '84 and I believe an '85 spare.

3 - I checked on the other parts you were looking for: my extra fork legs don't have the top caps and I don't have any extra cowel screws. I do have a new clutch lever, but I am going to keep it. Let me know if you are looking for something else.

 

Those fork protectors are neat!

I didn't ask for any of those things....I did ask for an 86 Petcock ;-)

 

That was me that asked for those things I'm still subscribed to this thread, so message received. Wanna sell the Gemini pipes?? I'll even give you my stock ones...

 

Lol! Too many Canadians!

I am going to hold onto the pipes at least until I get everything together and try things out. I will let you know.

 

You do not have to replace that frame.
Just take the junk out of the way and sand all the parts in the bent area to clean shiny metal.
A good TIG welding person can fix that no problem. Just measure that tubing and get a small piece then have it welded.
That is the great thing about steel frames. They are easily repairable.
Let the welder make the sleeve and fit it up. Make sure you get a welder that also knows motorcycles.
And it should be TIG welded. Only MIG weld if you are forced to. But make sure it is a welder that knows how.

Now I see that you did replace the frame.
I HOPE you did not throw away that other frame!!
Let me know.

 

I considered that option, but it wouldn't have been much cheaper than the second parts bike. I needed several parts of of it anyway, such as brake rotors and pads, so this was the best choice for the money. Yes, I kept the damaged frame, for now.

 

So are you putting those frame sliders back on?

 

No way! Although they offer a unique look, I don't want to risk what happened to the last guy.

 

He had to have had a pretty bad spill to have bent the frame like that.

I would have liked those frame sliders the time I dropped my bike.

 

Update: The bike is coming together well. I am taking my time to select the best components for each part and am cleaning up each. I re-wrapped most of the wiring harness. This is my first time installing wiring and it is really time consuming to get all of the routing right, even with my before pictures and the manual. There are also a few odd things to figure out, such as the three-wire rear turn signals instead of two shown in the wiring diagram.

Question - I noticed that another 1986 part found its way on the bike, the CDI boxes. I looked them up and they are a different part number than 1984-1985. Does anyone know what the difference is or if there is risk in continuing to use them. They generated good spark before. I do have a few of the '84-'85 CDI units, but they are not in as good shape and they are untested. Thoughts?

 

Any thoughts on the CDI units?

 

Update: I have much of the bike back together, minus the motor. You can see that I am still in the process of repairing the fairing.



I got my heads back. The best parts from the four heads were assembled into two decent heads. The valves were lapped and everything looks good.



I have painted the motor side covers with a high gloss engine paint since they were pretty scratched up. I sanded out the scrapes and now they look new. I will post pics later.

Next steps: I had copper head gaskets made by Copper Gaskets Unlimited, but I never checked the fitting until this week. One of them was off a bit. I am getting a new one done matched with the one I took off the bike. So, I have a few weeks to kill. I am going to do the following with the time:

- Remove the footrest mounts, side rails and rear grab bar to prep and paint. I was going to come back to do this later because I wanted to get going. Now I have time.
- Continue finishing the fairing and prime, sand, paint, clear coat.

 

It runs!!!

I finally got it all back together last night and it started up within about a minute! What a relief. After so much work I was really unsure if it would start.

I took it for a little spin up the street. It was pretty late so I had to keep it quiet. It ran smooth and clean, although I did not get past 3rd gear. I am really suprised that it ran so well considering I did not sync the carbs yet. I aligned the buterfly valves in the carbs using the tiny holes in the carb body, as Squirelman suggested in another thread, and it seems to have gotten it really close.

I have a few more bugs to work out:

- Horn isn't working
- I cheaped out on a few gaskets here and there and I am paying the price because the chrome coolent pipe between the cylinders is leaking. I replaces the cap gaskets at each end of the pipe, but not the pipe rings themselves. I should have known better!
- Need to double check all bolts
- Need to get a better bleed of the front brakes, still mushy (any tips?)

Later, I will post more info on the project and problems that I came across as well as pictures.

I figure that I have put at least 100 hours into this thing and it is a really good feeling to have success!

 

Good deal on all the progress!

Regarding the head gaskets. What year heads do you have and what gasket set did you order from Copper Gaskets Unlimited (do they offer a set - specific to each model year)? Which gasket was off the front or rear? Thx!

 

If you still have rubber brake hoses and you can feel any part of them swell when you squeeze the lever then it's time for an upgrade to SS lines. How's the bite and power of the brakes?

 

I had them do a front and rear. One did not align properly so I sent it back to him along with one of my old gaskets. He reprogrammed and recut the gasket and it fit very well. My bike is an 84/85 hybrid with some 86 here and there. The motor is 84/85 so the gaskets are likely from that year. I don't know if they changed for 86. The only thing that I noticed was that the sample I sent him had one of the inner coolent ports blocked.
The gasket for the other head had all ports open. I can post a picture of the gasket I sent him if you like.

 

Bite and power seem good, but the lever gets to the grip too soon. Two finger braking is not a option because I need the full lever stroke.