Page 1 of 1

Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:45 am
by txtriathlete
Bought a 82 Interstate the other day. The plan was to lightly customize it to make a bagger, but now that I'm looking at it in the shop I'm feeling a little guilty about chopping it up. This is one of the nicest one I've had out of 4 or 5 previous old wings. The bike has 45,000 miles and was parked in a shop about 10 years ago due to "carb problems". So been stored indoors for the past decade (last registered in 09).

Paint and plastic is all in very good condition, no broken tabs or anything. A couple of cracks (less than 1") on the corners of one of the bag lids and the top box, but other than that it's clean. Frame is not scratched or rusted - just a small amount of surface rust on the side stand and center stand. I was going to strip it and powdercoat it but it really just needs a light touch up. Exhaust is perfect.

Engine spins nicely (not frozen) although I haven't tried to start it with 10 year old fuel in the carbs. Of course EVERYTHING has to be gone through - its been sitting for 10 years. Tank is full of rust (duh) so right now I'm in the process of dismantling the rear of the bike to get the tank out. I pulled the carbs just to see and they aren't really that bad, some varnish as expected but not horrible.

So, do I save it as a "survivor" or continue on with the customizing plan? If I go the bagger route I'm going to end up cutting quite a bit of the plastic and metal as well as new paint and powdercoat over the chrome - a path of no return to original.

I didn't take a pic of the bike when I got it but here it is in the shop semi-disassembled.

Image

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:52 am
by Rat
Put the 'trunk/topbox' away for long trips and presto .... it's a Bagger ....

Gord crossy.gif

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:56 am
by txtriathlete
RAT wrote:Put the 'trunk/topbox' away for long trips and presto .... it's a Bagger ....

Gord crossy.gif
Yes, but...

Still would want to paint, etc. Also the box sits on a nasty rack that would end up sticking off the back, so the back end would not be very clean.

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 11:15 am
by 5speed
if it was a rare bike I would say restore it but 82 interstates aren't rare..yet.

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 1:25 pm
by rcmatt007
unfortunately to keep the side bags you are sort of stuck with the rack.... but I tend to agree with Gord (and paint the things that need to be painted)

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 1:44 pm
by txtriathlete
rcmatt007 wrote:unfortunately to keep the side bags you are sort of stuck with the rack.... but I tend to agree with Gord (and paint the things that need to be painted)
I'm looking at the bags and rack right now. I think there is a way to cut the rack and still have solid mounting points on the bike and bags, but I also want to lower the bags an inch or so and maybe an inch or two back so I will probably come up with custom mounts that somewhat mirror the stock mounts, but lower.

I have a lead on another 1100 that might work for a full customization, so this one might end up going back to original after all. I love how these multiply in my garage...

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 4:44 pm
by Jonesz
There are some pics of a bagger build that Sagebrush did on this site at:
https://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic ... &start=105

Have a look and read the build notes.

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:56 pm
by skydog
Wanna buy another?
local?As in R.C. local.
80 Standard .

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 9:14 pm
by txtriathlete
skydog wrote:Wanna buy another?
local?As in R.C. local.
80 Standard .
Always willing to look. You can email me or PM me and we can find a time to get together.

Re: Restore or Customize?

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:09 pm
by Whiskerfish
It depends on what you plan to do with the bike in the long term. If you are going to keep it then customize it for yourself. If it will be sold in a couple or few years then restore. Restoration 95% of the time has a higher resale value. Very few people that have interest in these bikes will buy one already customized. They want to do it for themselves. IMHO