Buffet Racer: Propav8r's '78 GL1000

[propav8r]

Hi all, after a few months of looking and lurking, I finally picked up a Goldwing of my very own.

I found it on craiglist yesterday afternoon, drove down to Atlanta to pick it up, and dragged it home on the trailer.

The good:
It runs
It was $280

The bad.
It needs everything
It was $280

I got it in the shop yesterday, and it quickly became apparent that the whole bike needed to come apart. From the terrible paint job to the scary wiring, the frozen rear brakes, and the painted forks, this bike nees a lot of TLC.

This is my first bike. I've got a long history of working on cars, so I'm pretty handy with a wrench and a wire stripper. I know it looks bad now, but compared to what I'm used to working on, this has been cake so far.

I'm almost done stripping it now, just need to pull the engine tomorrow and disassemble the head tube/forks. Then, I can blast the frame clean and depending on price, either paint or powdercoat it.

Anyway, on to the pics.

[Buli]

Look like nice project. Waiting to see more pics.

[TNTbefree]

For $250, you got a steal. Welcome to the club. When you get to redoing the carbs, you may want to check out Randakks http://randakks.com/products/gl1000-combo-offer If you are not a carb kind of guy, you may want to look into pistol pete http://www.oldwings.com/services.html

All I can say about that paint job is, Wow... Don't forget to fill out your profile. Good luck. Have fun

[Old Fogey]

From the looks of your shop, you are well used to working on stuff. These old Wings are fairly straightforward to work on, but they have their little foibles ready to catch out the unwary. Check out Shop Talk on here and my Tech Tips (the banner below) before you get too far into it.

[propav8r]

Thanks y'all. The carbs are the big question mark. My experience with carbs is very limited...I'm very much a child of the EFI era. I did find Pistol Pete via Randakk's site, but I have yet to decide if I'll try the rebuild myself or send them out. As an added bonus, Pistol Pete is somewhat local to me.

[roncar]

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder (or beauty is skin deep, but ugly is to the bone!)

I'm not a fan of frames other than black (goes with anything ) but I've seen some examples where the rest of the bike was done right and looks nice. This is not the case here. IMHO too much gold haphazardly thrown around. But to each his own.

So far as carbs, depends on if you want the learning experience of working on carbs, or just want them to be right and work (and the depth of your pockets.) I am by no means a carb guru, but there is a satisfaction in, eventually, making something work that didn't before. Whichever way you go (DIY or send them out) no one will criticize you on your decision. We will however, help/advise whenever we can and/or cheer you on through your rebuild. Don't be embarrassed on any mistakes you make along the way. We have all (well most of us anyway) been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

[propav8r]

Well that was easy.



Only real casualty so far is the upper bearing in the head tube. That'll be fixed with the good used set of forks I'm picking up tomorrow.

[MegaDan]

What's your de-goldinizing plans? Old fashioned sand and re-spray or going to have it blasted clean?

[propav8r]

A friend has a big blaster setup. I'd shoot myself if I had to sand this.

I'm gonna blast it, and depending on price, either powdercoat or spray it gloss black.

[propav8r]

Found a little bit of damage on the bottom crossbar where the center stand resides. Looks like someone whacked something pretty good with the center stand at some point and kinked/cracked the tube. I reckon I'll just buzz it clean and weld it up. Might throw in a reinforcement gusset or two while I'm at it.

[ericheath]

I posted on the Facebook page. The other consideration here is that your center stand is now bent, probably too far forward. Easier to but on the stand but difficult to back it off the stand. Thus has happened to quite a few bikes. If you are going to weld it up, I would try and get it back in line as best you can. Tough now that it's all apart.

[propav8r]

Yeah, it was a pain to get up on the stand, but I also didn't have a side rail to grab onto or anything.

Doesn't look too bent. I'll probably try to tweak it back, and if I can't, just weld it and forget about it.

[propav8r]

Hey, the starter isn't dead like the seller said! I hotwired it to the battery and it spins over just fine.

My guess is a faulty solenoid or some other issue in the wiring harness. The harness needs major help.

[propav8r]

Should be making some progress on the bike today. It's all loaded up and on it's way to a friend's shop after work for blasting.

I'm also reasonably certain that I have a blown or leaky headgasket on the right hand side. I noticed in the rear exhaust pipe on that side, there was moisture and gunk, and when I first took the radiator cap off, there was oily residue in there. The coolant was nice and clean though, no milkshake mixing, but it was low and the reservoir was dry.

I scored a TON of parts yesterday from the Goldwing parts fs Facebook page...wiring harness, brake stuff, clutch lever, instrument cluster, etc. Basically everything I need to get the bike running and looking good again. The only thing I'm missing is the battery cover. If anyone has one of those, please let me know.

[salukispeed]

The frame looks rusted thru. If so you should look very closely at the rest. They do rot thru and the side frame where the kick stand is often issue too.