[Tirebiter]

I bought a bone stock '95 TW with 784 miles on it in January. It was in pretty good shape but there was rust here and there that I wanted to clean up and some personalizing was in order. Besides, I'm getting to know TW much better by tearing it down & putting it back together. I've been scattering bits of my mods all over the place on the forum so I decided to make a thread where everything is in one place and maybe some people might find some of it interesting.



I'm just doing many of the generic mods that a lot of you guys have done. I want the end result to be basically a stock configuration with some personal twists here and there. I wasn't real fond of all of the stock colors but I plan to keep the general theme Yamaha used that year so most of the blue will stay and some of the graphics. Sue liked the orange seat but the guy with the money (me) decided to shitcan it.



Since I'm starting this thread after I've done a few things, I'll post a few pics of what has happened so far. I'll keep adding as I find time until I get up to date.



The usual 'before'� pic, as it was when I got it.

Getting started

Made a mudflap, ready to mount the Shinko 244, and opened the side cover to change the front sprocket to a 15T. I also switched out the Phillips head screw to stainless Allen head.

Took off the front end to inspect the forks, de-rust & paint the lower triple clamp, and switch to black boots. The swing arm had to come off too for cleanup and paint where battery acid had ate the paint off.

Forks looked good, for a bike that sat 18 years in an unheated Michigan shed. Thanks to the folks who posted the fork
'how to'� tech threads, the job was quite easy.

Changed from blue to black boots. Posts here taught me a trick to make Daystar boots fit better by cutting off the base of the stock boots to make a shim for a tight fit.



















I didn't really like the graphic on the cowl so.....










I put on some ebay stickers and clearcoated them with Fusion. I'm keeping the graphics on the tank and rear fender so I picked something that sort of matched.

 

[joeband]

so far so good, looking forward to see how she turns out.

 

[Tirebiter]

You can see I added the mandatory Jimbo shield, Tusk bars, and some Chinese handguards in this pic also.





Moving to the back of the bike, I thought a smaller tail light assembly would look good so I made a bracket from � ABS plastic.



Mocked up.









Cut and formed the ABS

Added gussets and mounted light.

Done

I shortened the stock turn signal stalks per a post by Hodakaguy

Made some quick mount seat bolts, copied from a design joe band posted.

 

[B-dub]

Nice work, the Tdub is looking good!

 

[Tirebiter]

I plan to take this bike to Bonneville this year for a pit bike so I'm painting about everything I take off the bike. That salt gets everywhere. I temporarily clear coated the frame just to add some protection. I didn't feel like stripping and painting it this year.



Swing arm, rear frame piece, exhaust and front fender bracket all got sandblasted and painted,

This is the color I'll be painting the whole frame when I get the ambition to strip it...probably next year. It's called black sapphire metallic. The paint was left over from a car project I did a couple years ago. I'm hoping it will go well with the Yamaha blue.

Exhaust painted with Rustoleum 2000degree exhaust paint. I painted the '08 exhaust silver color and the '95 black.

I didn't like the orange seat so I got a black ebay cover and added a layer of foam before recovering.

First I glued a layer of foam to the stock seat foam

Trimmed it

Then covered it.

It seems softer but I can't try it til the bike is back together.

 

[Tirebiter]

The rear wheel had quite a bit of rust on the edges so I painted it too. Yes, I masked my nipples

Actually I just masked the threads with little strips of masking tape. Excuse the condition of my fingers....hand lotion failed.

I hope that lets me service the wheel later on if necessary.



I let the air out and stuck these cardboard strips under the rim lip. The one on the brake drum is the shape they are cut. I use these a lot to touch up or paint trailer rims and such.

This touchup gun works great for small parts like these.

Rim is done.

Since I did the rim yesterday I guess this post puts me more or less up to date so it's back to work. I'm getting close to the fun part where I get to see how it looks put back together.

 

[old mad max]

Man you are cleaver and patient. Nice job dude. OMM.

 

[joedirt1970]

Since you have us all hooked, you now must proceed thru wind, rain, snow, without sleep, food, rest or showering. It looks great so far. Just remember that you have hundreds feening and now we all have to wait for the next pics. This is now now about you. It is now about us that are waiting, feenin for you to keep going.

 

[old mad max]

Since you have us all hooked, you now must proceed thru wind, rain, snow, without sleep, food, rest or showering. It looks great so far. Just remember that you have hundreds feening and now we all have to wait for the next pics. This is now now about you. It is now about us that are waiting, feenin for you to keep going.

X-2............. Can't wait to see the final project completed. OMM.

 

[deton8r]

Nice work! - this is very inspirational. Last week I picked up a '95 in the exact same color scheme with 76 (yes, 76 - not a typo) original miles. For the most part the one I picked up is cosmetically "new" but age, neglect and moisture took their toll on the right side of the swing arm by the shock mount, the rear brake rod, the rear hub and one spot on the rear rim. I picked up a perfect condition swing arm and a bearing kit on eBay and I'm still looking for a replacement wheel. I've already gone through the entire fuel system and the engine is tip top.



Waiting to be installed:

- New TW34 rear tire and tube

- New IRC GP-1 5.10 tire and tube

- New DID VX chain 428 x 122

- New Sunstar front and rear sprockets 14/50

- Amber color Jimbo Shield

- new swingarm and bearing kit

- Stainless hex bolt kit



Future Mods:

- TCI skid

- TCI Sequoia rack since I already own some Cortech bags that these were designed for.



Unfortunately I don't have a sandblaster and the skills and tools to professionally paint my parts like you do.



My search for a good condition rear wheel is not going well. I'm contemplating on building a rear wheel from scratch with all new OEM parts just to get it on the road. I'm picking up a bike stand this week. I may do a thread on my restoration and/or one on why building a wheel from scratch is a bad idea if I go this route

BTW, what's the paint brand/code for the silver you shot the wheel with? I was thinking of just going with the Eastwood Wheel Sparkle Silver and Clear Paint Kit that comes in rattle cans for mine.



Good job!

 

[Tirebiter]

BTW, what's the paint brand/code for the silver you shot the wheel with? I was thinking of just going with the Eastwood Wheel Sparkle Silver and Clear Paint Kit that comes in rattle cans for mine.



Good job!

Thanks. I'm retired so I've got time to dink with stuff but I'm basically just copying what others here have done. There is a lot of talent on this forum.



I painted the wheel with DuPont Urethane with hardener that I had left over from a car project. When I was done and put the wheel back on the bike the color was too gray looking for my liking. I was bummed but the paint I put on was a good base so I roughed it up with a scotch brite pad and repainted it with Duplicolor silver rattlecan wheel coating. I used their wheel clearcoat too. It's much more brilliant now. I should have used that in the first place. It's curing in front of a register in the living room right now. I'll put it on tomorrow and finally have the bike back on two wheels so I can sit on it to adjust the bars and controls.

Man, you just got a "new" 18 year old bike. 76 miles....amazing! Mine was showing rust in a lot of places too. That's why I'm painting everything, plus, like I said earlier, tearing it apart is a good way to get familiar with it. If your parts are just rusty, I'll bet you could find a local place to sandblast them for you, then rattle can them. Or sand them as good as you can and put some rust converter on them, then paint.



Looking forward to watching your restoration. We like pics

 

[r80rt]

Great work, you'll have a good looking personalized bike when you are done.....if it's possible to be finished with one that is

 

[vuldub]

It's curing in front of a register in the living room right now.

Haha. We are all alike on this forum....

 

[joedirt1970]

All that time...so can we expect a rear disc too?

 

[Tirebiter]

All that time...so can we expect a rear disc too?

If you only knew how many other projects are laying around saying "Do me next....Do me..." After you retire you'd think there would be more time to do stuff. There would be if I'd quit taking on more "stuff". Small part of the list......building a camping/bike trailer, turning the basement into living space, building a '61 long roof cruiser, adding on to the cabin, garden, maintaining all the crap I've accumulated......and so on...



I don't think engineering a rear disc will be added to that list

Doing my taxes today

 

[Point37]

awesome job Tirebiter!!!...keep up the good work!!

 

[frog13]

WOW.....folks ARE talented on this forum!.

 

[Tirebiter]

Since spring got here I've been busy with spring non bike things and haven't done much except make some copycat doodads that others here have posted about.



I mounted tool tubes on both bikes with strap brackets similar to some recent posts but I didn't use the bolt on the back frame. I just bent the back bracket more than 90 degrees to bolt it between the frame tubes.

I put Gorilla tape on the back side of the bracket and a fender washer to protect the paint.

When I tightened everything down it deformed the bracket and washer to make a nice fit.

Some pics of the tube mounted.

Made an emergency jack out of threaded rod. I wanted it to fit in a tool tube so it's two piece. That black stuff is the vinyl dip made for tool handles. After that cured I slipped some shrink tubing on the threads to keep things in the tool tube from getting banged up.

 

[Tirebiter]

Cool,it works!

While I was dipping I coated the seat bolts and a set of tool tube brackets.

Since the seat bolts don't lock on I put a loose tie and some string on them in case they come off. Don't want to lose them.

Like others have done I welded a big flat washer onto the kick stand pad to give it more contact area.

And here's a mud guard for the front of the swing arm area I made from a piece of ABS sheet. If anyone makes something like this make sure you leave clearance above the chain guard to allow for swing arm movement.

 

[r80rt]

Excellent work all around! The two piece jack is sweet, and you'll love the big foot print on your kick stand too. I think I'll copy those seat bolts if you don't mind.