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I'm pretty much done with my wing build now, so I thought I'd put a thread together here since I gained quite a bit of insight from reading everyone's posts and build threads. I actually documented this on a forum that I'm more of a regular on - Motorcycle Addicts. The link to the original build thread is there, but I'm putting this "condensed" one here, mostly for the descriptions and pics.

http://www.motorcycleaddicts.org/honda/ ... -glcr.html

I found my GL on the classifieds at work last year, and had no idea that the bike only had 3800 miles on it until I went to go have a look. It was in pretty decent shape, but I could tell it needed some TLC, and it looked like the perfect bike for a CR conversion. It was almost totally original and stock, but it did have a horrid looking double bucket seat on it. I posted in some seat threads on here and got excellent feedback, but more on the seat in a few posts. For now, here's the "just brought it home" pics...

I knew there would be a lot of work to do, but after reading several posts on here I ordered a few bits and pieces for the bike. I got the Dyna ignition, superbike bars, Randakk's carb kit, plus new plug caps and all other necessary maintenance stuff (and yes, new belts!!)

After disassembly and a thorough cleaning, I started to work on polishing the aluminum bits. As you'll see in the pics that follow, I cleaned up all the surface corrosion and polished the belt covers, cam covers, intakes, fork, and several other pieces along the way. I used a bead blaster to do the initial prep work, then wet sanded by hand until finally finishing off with Mother's polish.

Next on the list was the carbs. If you have ANY carb work needed on an early wing, the kit from Randakk makes it a LOT easier, and it's more cost effective than the OEM stuff. I ended up modifying my pilot air jets (solder filled, and drilled to a smaller size) and also drilling the pilots out to a 40. I think I'm going to go back to the stock size pilot jets because the bike seems to run fine, but it sucks a LOT of fuel now.

A little more blasting, sanding and polishing work on the intakes and cam covers, also added an oil pressure gauge.

Some front end work. New fork seals, and polishing of the tubes. I also took apart the brakes, and flushed and bled everything.

Nice work! Lookin good!! What kind of pipes are those (both headers and mufflers??)-I really like the looks of them, and the finish of the headers looks ceramic! Very sweet!

One more pic of the front end, and on to the seat. I also added a set of stainless front brake lines.

I searched all over for a seat that I liked, and almost bought a Corbin. I'm not a huge fan of Corbin seats though, and I know several people who have had problems with them, especially their customer service. I ended up tearing the covering off of the Purple Rain replica seat that was on the bike, blasted and painted the seat pan, and took a carving knife to the seat foam to get it roughly in the shape I wanted.

wingless1 wrote:Nice work! Lookin good!! What kind of pipes are those (both headers and mufflers??)-I really like the looks of them, and the finish of the headers looks ceramic! Very sweet!

The mufflers are Helix upswept, I found several other bikes on here using the same ones, and I really liked the way they look. The OEM manifolds were taken off and ceramic coated. The Helix pipes work ok, but they don't flow well at higher RPM unless you drill the crap out of the baffles.

A few more pics of the seat, with the completed result. After cutting the seat foam down, I took it to an upholstery shop in town, and they did an awesome job of smoothing out my hack job and recovering it.

As far as the paint goes, I had originally planned on painting the bike but after some cleanup the original paint was in way too good a condition so I just polished it up a bit. I removed the "tank" emblems, since one of them was missing a post and it would have scratched the side up. I think it actually looks better without them on, but I still have the small holes.

And now, the "almost done" pics

I honestly could have left the bike this way (I rode it for a while like this), but something about the angle of the rear fender bothered me, so I wanted to do something different.

So, just this morning I finished up mounting the rear fender that I bought off ebay and hacked up. The original fenders are way to clean to cut up, so I had to get another one. I think the bike is pretty much done now, but I still need to find a set of original 35 pilot jets, it runs a bit rich with the "modified" ones (drilled out to around a 40)

Very nice looking...great job on the clean up. I'd have to think twice about modifying such a great looking original. I can't believe how good the paint looks...usually the old red ones are faded or frosty looking.

Impressive build, like that you are saving the paint as I would have a hard time sanding that down as well. Same on the rear fender, nicer to cut down an average rusty one.

very nice bike. did you have the king/queen completely recovered or did you have the seat cover modified to fit?