1974 TX650A Restoration Project

That is one of the nicest gauge restorations I have seen! I like that better than OEM.
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Fantastic solution on the gauge plate.......... Gauges look good/GREAT. Where did you get, or how did you replace the cup rubbers, between the cups and bracket.

Kinda pisses me off following this thread..........my bike would never look this good unless i bought a new one, and even then i don't think i would be able to park it next to this one when its finished............
 
Thanks fellas! Pumped for the kind words.

I like that better than OEM.
Thanks Bob, I do think it looks really cool, and I toyed w/ the idea of trying to match the body color, but I actually think black looks way better as it blends in with the rest of the bracket. And I love to sneak a tri-fork where I can :wink2:

Where did you get, or how did you replace the cup rubbers, between the cups and bracket.
Heya Skull, there's a thread on here somewhere (apologies to who I am forgetting) where someone made their own with what looks like pretty run-of-the-mill weatherstripping, but looked to be very effective. There are also replacements from HVCcycles, which I ended up just buying...I had enough projects and wasn't looking for more DIY work...They are "Yamaha RD250, RD350 Indicator Mount Damper Kit, HVC20086". Price wasn't bad ($15) which will do both gauges but w/ tax and shipping made it almost $30. I will say, after receiving them.....they literally look exactly like adhesive weatherstripping and I might actually try that first if I were doing it over again. The kind that has a "B" profile, although even a single "D" could do the trick, if that makes sense (talking about the cross section shape.....like this:
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Kinda pisses me off following this thread..........my bike would never look this good unless i bought a new one, and even then i don't think i would be able to park it next to this one when its finished............
Hahaha I can only take that as a complement, which I appreciate very much. Really enjoy sharing it with you guys.
 
Chassis/swing arm/electrical harness:

At this point, it's probably mid-February and it's time to start reassembling the chassis. One particular challenge I've got in this rebuild is that it is occurring in my basement. That's a New England, city basement in a 100 year old 2-family building. That means no bulkhead, heh. So I know anything I do needs to be able to get carried up a ~30" stairwell and out the door. Plan here was to try to get the rear end put back together and 'reverse-wheelbarrow' the dang thing up behind me holding the steering stem, or maybe with the trees. Was sort of playing this by ear as I reassembled....installing a part, giving it a test lift to see if I would kill my back, haha. Definitely was trying to do as much as I could without installing the motor

So, first thing first....pulled the original nylon (? some sort of fiber-impregnated plastic....not sure what they were using in 1974 for such things) bushings. This was actually before I sent it out for powder. This was much more of a tedious task than I'd care to admit. I tried the crosshatching technique, tried notching them. I wish I could tell you I found a trick. but the reality was that it went slowly and a chunk at a time until the end where they finally pulled out. Feel like this picture is very representative of how annoying this was.
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And here are the brass bushing seated. Here's another lesson learned the hard way.... Remove powder/paint BEFORE installing. :doh:
I froze the bushings, heated the swingarm w/ heat gun gently, started to drive them in and they hung up before realizing my mistake. And now there's no way I'm getting them out without damaging SOMETHING. Ugh. So, heat gun, deadblow, repeat. Slowly, gently. Ultimately, they seated pretty well, but I did have to file the faces down a bit to get the right fit back with the grease seals back in the frame. I also opted to do 5Twins' great mod of drilling additional grease holes in the pivot shaft (reference Yamadude's Bronze Swingarm thread :thumbsup:)

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My original shocks were beyond repair, so I opted for a set of Monza's from Mike's in black/chrome. Looking quite spiffy.
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So....with that, let's see what she looks like!
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A messy basement for sure....but a very tasty looking frame!

Probably worth noting here that while I replaced a ton of the rubber dampers on the bike, I tried to reuse where feasible, and I had pretty good luck with the wintergreen oil/rubbing alcohol soak for 'reenergizing' old rubber parts. Most notable improvement was on my carb mount boots....saved those from the scrap heap.
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Next was the battery box and mounts, all with fresh powder and SS hardware:
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Pic of the side w/ the starter relay and wiring harness.
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Coming together!
 
Looking really sharp there! I didn’t realize you have to slug all this stuff up a flight of stairs when you’re done, yikes! :yikes:.
You might want to consider replacing your glass fuse with a more durable modern mini blade type. Unless you’re trying to be historically accurate.
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Looking really sharp there! I didn’t realize you have to slug all this stuff up a flight of stairs when you’re done, yikes!

Thanks Bob! I actually got it up the stairs a couple weekends ago now once I had some confidence we weren't at risk for any more surprise frost or snow (New England!). It wasn’t exactly the most fun 10 minutes of my life getting it up, haha. Posts are almost catching up to real time now, think we'll be up to the present by the end of the week.

ou might want to consider replacing your glass fuse with a more durable modern mini blade type. Unless you’re trying to be historically accurate.
Great tip! I am NOT trying to be historically accurate for the sake of it (my CDI/PMA took me square out of that camp). Very funny you bring that up actually.....there's one in there! You may have thought the bullet connectors were fuses....but there's a blade fuse housing tucked along that rail, it's a little hard to see.
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I've got a pair of those shocks. I woulda' let you have 'em for shipping. :rolleyes: I go about 160 soaking wet. With 'em on the SG it was like riding a hardtail.

Oh, dang Jim, really? I hope it's not a bad call.....I'm only 5-7lb heavier than you, so may be in the same boat. To be honest, they were a little bit of an impulse buy, and far less researched than any other non-stock choice I made. There was a sale at Mike's so I picked them up for ~$65-$70 I believe. Will certainly keep an eye out (er, ass out?) as I put some miles on and report back.
 
Color (tank/side covers/headlight/fork ears):

Down to the million dollar question.....what to do about the paint. The paint was not in horrible shape when I got it. In fact, some of it could likely have been salvaged if properly prepped and re-cleared. That being said, I had 2 issues.....
1) As mentioned previously, this bike took a spill at some point. The tank had a crease and some dings in it, down to bare metal, the headlight and left fork-ear was a little misshapen and had some missing paint as well. So if I wanted this thing to look right, some sort of repair was in order, beyond just clear-coat. Some pics here:
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2) As I'm sure lots of folks here know....Yamaha factory paint schemes can be a bit elusive. Most colors only existed for a single model year.... and while information on the colors can be found if you look hard enough, good luck trying to replicate them. For example, the TX650A in the US came in "Cinnamon Brown".

First coat- Custom Silver B/C PNT-00000-00-82
Second coat- Cinnamon Brown Candy T/C PNT00000-00-N1
Final coat- Clear PNT-65000-04-00
(From <http://www.xs650.com/threads/74-tx650a-cinnamon-brown.39046/>)

Those aren't exactly universal paint codes. And even if I could get my hands on those exact colors, I've got 40+ years of patina and fade on this thing, and there are visible differences in the color even between the two side covers. So a touch-up was going to be a tall order, especially with a unique color like this and not to mention I HATE paint and I'm not good at it, so I was planning to outsource this.

I shopped the job around a little and got a range of prices from ~$1200 up to ~$1750, which would include trying to recreate the stock color. Let's say bids on the lower end didn't inspire a lot of confidence... My concern on the high side was not just the money (although I was a little surprised there)....there's an elephant in the room here, and maybe you guys have thought it yourselves.... This is my first bike! I've got like 30 hours of seat time. I will say I'm a good rider, but something felt a little foolhardy about having a show-quality resto paint job on a bike that I'm still, frankly, learning on. So.....where does that leave me....

So.....at this point, I had a good relationship with my local powder coating shop having done my chassis parts and rims, as well as having access to my buddy with the vinyl cutter. So I started thinking about powder coating as a solution. The dings in the tank could be repaired with high temp epoxy, used like a heatproof Bondo. I started looking for color options.
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I ultimately settled on a color called "Lazer Copper", which I think is in the spirit of the original. So off to the powder shop....

Similarly, I started taking a bunch of measurements of the graphics to send to my friend, to create the artwork.

You might ask why I didn't just buy some of the repro decals that are out there.... well, honestly, I think the ones Chris made for me are much better looking, but I also wanted to try a bit of an experiment. While there are a few criticisms of powder coating for body color, the most significant one to me is that you can't clear coat over the decals, because they can't stand the heat. I thought that if I could get the decals made in really high quality, high temp resistant vinyl (Oracal 751) then maaaaaaaybe, I could do my powder base coat, apply the decals, powder clear over them and I'd have the best of both worlds! Fast forward.....this didn't work haha. I wish I had done a little more R&D on it myself, but my powder guy tried it on a piece of scrap and said it wasn't working and just did the color/clear. Which I get, it's not his job to figure this out for me. But I think in the future I might experiment with this a little more, as I think there could be a really useful solution here and I'm not so convinced it couldn't be made to work.

Anyways....here are the decals I had made. Fantastic job Chris!
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And as for the powder coat.....I went with a color called "Lazer Copper". When I got the parts back, I was stunned.....it looked way better than I could have ever imagined. And very true to stock, which is exactly what I was hoping for.
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After I applied the decals (these are multi-layer....black first, then white, then in the case of the side covers, silver last). Takes a careful hand, but not too difficult. There's still a little flat spot where the dent was, but honestly I have no problem with that. And the best part is it cost $500, including the repair, plus the $125 I gave my buddy for all his help with the decals (and now I have a ready source for replacements ;-)
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So.....I love the way these came out. Time will tell how the vinyl will hold up...it is exterior grade and meant for industrial applications, but it will have some rubbing on it from my pants and the bike cover, so we'll see how it goes. Honestly, if I have to replace it on the tank every year it's only 20 minutes and I have a ready source for new ones. Curious to see if there are cheers or pitchforks from this group hahaha.
 
I think it looks great. For the price you paid I think you did very well! Probably a good decision considering your comment on being a new rider. It would make me seriously sick to have paid so much for a professional paint job and then had one little accident ruin all the hard work. That powder will be very robust and durable too.
 
Thanks guys!

A question comes to mind - With just the Lazer Copper applied is it possible to sand it all down with a very fine paper, apply the decals and follow with a 2K clear in a rattle can?
Paul, you know I thought of that very thing. I'm sure it is possible, but I didn't have the guts to try it and somehow muck it up. I think I'll see how this season goes and if the decals wear too badly, give that a go over the winter. I have one spare set of decals currently and can get more at the ready.

Not sure if it was clear, the parts have the Lazer Copper as a base, and then a powder clear over it, which I think helps with the depth and luster a lot.
 
Petcocks/Gas Cap/Assembled Tank:

May seem a little odd to have a post just about my petcocks, but mine were a bit of a doozy so thought I'd share in case useful to others. Last spring, before this resto, when I was trying to just get the bike road-worthy, I was having a lot of issues with my petcocks. I would open them up (these are non-vacuum, manual) and wouldn't see any fuel running through the hoses, even when the carbs were empty. I took them apart to examine, and maybe rebuild, and found a TON of garbage inside of them. What appeared to be almost like a minerally grainy substance. It was bananas. This picture kind of does it justice, but I couldn't believe how much junk was in there!
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Anyways, I cleaned them as best I could, and reassembled and all seemed relatively OK. Meaning they functioned. I swear they were leaking just a little, as I'd find a random wet spot on top of the carb, but I could not tell from where.
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Fast forward to this resto....I decide to pull them apart and vapor blast them, because well, why not? I'm feeling good....they're looking really spiffy.
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I examine the insides and I can't believe what I'm looking at; the insides of the petcocks were basically disintegrated. It looks like these things had been chewed by termites. I realized a lot of the junk I pulled out of them previously must have been some sort of corrosion and was actually some of the Al of the petcock in some form or another. If you look closely in the pictures, you can literally see where they are eaten through the entire body leaving a pinhole clear through (there's my leak!)
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So... I'm a little annoyed because I went through the trouble of breaking these things down, cleaning all the little pieces...I even got new SS hardware for them...and now it seems like I'm going to throw them away. Which while annoying, not the end of the world. The MORE annoying part, is that any aftermarket ones are not exactly cheap for a set of two (and I know I could go to one with a t-fitting....but even the block-off plates seemed pricey and I didn't necessarily feel like making my own) and to be honest, they all kind of look junky relative to the OEM ones. I decided that I would try to coat the insides with the high-temp epoxy I previously used in my instrument gauge build. Strangely enough, my first job out of school was as an engineer helping to specify epoxies for different applications, so I had some weirdly specific experience to do this (go figure). So the technical specs of this epoxy (Permatex 84333) has excellent resistance to petroleum and ethanol, and plus I would plan to do a heat cure which increases the crosslink density of the epoxy and thus the chemical resistance.
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So....after curing in the toaster oven and reassembling, I did a 48 hour wet test and things still seem to be hard as a rock. I'll probably look at this again later in the season, and worst case, I'll just need to suck it up and buy new ones, but it's a good solution for the time being.

I also rebuilt my gas cap using some of the replacement rubber bits from Sumo Rubber, and with the help of a really helpful pictorial thread http://www.xs650.com/threads/correct-gas-cap-gaskets-needed-for-1973-tx650.54076/page-2 (Thanks @willis !) I put my gas cap back together. Turns out the gas cap was missing one of interior seals, which explained why it leaked when sloshed around (I just thought that's how it was supposed to be :laugh:

So here are some pics of my finished tank, looking pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.
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Glad to hear someone else benefitted from my journey trying to rebuild these early caps. It took me a while and made a few mistakes along the way, but I have successfully rebuilt a couple now. I’m loving this thread. It’s right up there with Mailman’s XS2 resto thread. Only yours is on fast forward and we don’t have to wait so long to see all the progress. Well done!
 
Glad to hear someone else benefitted from my journey trying to rebuild these early caps.
Oh totally! It was invaluable, a lot of the parts manuals are a bit blurry and, IMO, unlike lots of other assemblies on these bikes, that gas cap is one where there are probably 2 or 3 ways to put it together incorrectly without any obvious indication you're doing so (until the dang thing leaks gas all over the place cause it doesn't seal worth a damn!). Thanks for the kind words as well, it's overdue but it's been a blast these past couple weeks sharing all this with you guys. Regret I didn't start posting earlier!

Any opinions on that vs the Permatex you used?
Good question Bob. I think the JB Weld "high temp" stuff might be appropriate. It can be tricky to compare across brands. When I was doing adhesive work ~15 years ago I worked for a small specialty adhesive company, and it was just for our own products....so I just knew their chemistries/fillers/etc. Short answer - you can imagine if an epoxy system is suitable for high temperatures, it's likely got good chemical resistance as well. In a more technical sense - this has to do w/ the specific cross-link density and chemistry of the system, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb. You might wonder why all epoxies aren't just 'high temp" then, if they're so strong/tough.... that's because these systems typically have two states that they exist in, depending on their temperature; a "glassy' state at lower temps and a "rubbery' state, that they transition to at a higher temperature (literally called the 'glass transition temperature', or Tg). This Tg is different for different materials....higher Tg adhesives are generally more impervious to chemical attack or more resistant to heat, but that also means that at moderate temps they may be more brittle or adhere with less strength. So lower Tg materials might be less resistant to chemicals but they may have higher reported 'lap shear' values, (those bond strength ratings you see listed) because they're less brittle/rigid. That make sense at all?

Whew.... got pretty nerdy there haha.

[Edit] - Oh so to close the loop then... for me the chemical resistance was paramount and I didn't really need much in the way of adhesive strength (stuff is just really plugging holes). But if it were a more critical structural application, I'd maybe look more closely. If I recall, standard JB Weld has OK but not great resistance to hydrocarbons or alcohols (not sure if I have that 100%). For a continuous contact application, I wanted to be extra safe!
 
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