2000 900ie rebuild.......... a year in the life of a mechanical retard.

[pitbull]

In April of 09 I picked up this crashed 2000 900ie as a rebuild project for my GF............ mostly cosmetic.......should be a relatively quick and cheap fixer upper.

[pitbull]

 My girl got took the MSF course 4 years ago and the only bike she had ever ridden was my 01 900 as we didn't have a second bike. When it came time to buy her a bike she wasn't interested in anything other than a monster. She didn't care if it was a 620, 750 or 900, but used monsters of almost any year and displacement, up here in Canuckistan, still go for over $5000, so when this crashed one came up for $2000, I figured I'd have a look. On a cold rainy spring day I stopped by the vintage motorcycle shop in which this bike sat, stuffed between a bunch of other wrecks. The guy swore the engine ran strong when it came in and the frame and forks were straight. I looked at it as well as I could, but I should have dragged the damn thing out into the light and taken the time to look it over fully. However, I was eager and wanted to do something manly for my girl and build her a motorcycle.


I offered the guy $1500 and without a second's hesitation he jumped at it and we were loading the thing into my truck in the pouring rain, 2 minutes later. On the hour long drive home I was mentally tallying up the cost of refurbishing the bike. Paint and body work, used rims, bits and pieces here and there off this place, fleabay and extras I had in the garage and I could have this thing up and running by mid summer for $3000 total.

[pitbull]

I got home, unloaded the bike and started pulling things off. As soon as I pulled the beer tray off, I realized the frame was tweaked significantly. As I began to really look things over, I realized everything was shot..........everything. There were very few salvageable pieces. The forks were straight, but leaking, the tank was leaking and punched pretty good, but fixable, the frame was tweaked but fixable, the wiring harness was fine, one footpeg bracket was ok, the shock was fine, and most everything else was garbage.

Thank goodness the engine was in great shape

until:


 

[uglyducky]

killin me with the suspense man.  post faster!!!!

[pitbull]

I'm not sure if it's visible in any of my pics, but the rear engine mount was also cracked badly and the bolt bent. This the one that I find most embarrasing as it was easily visible if I had of taken 3 seconds to look.

[pitbull]

killin me with the suspense man.  post faster!!!!

I'm doing my best, but my mechanical retardation is only slightly better than my modern, technical device retardation

[pitbull]

By now the reality had set in....................this was not going to be a 'replace a few thing, paint the tank, spit and polish and put on the road in a month' deal.

I began to feel overwhelmed, I think I may have had a anxiety attack, I'm sure I wet my pants and I know I lay in a ball on the garage floor and sucked my thumb for some time. My GF stepped through the garage door and asked me what I was doing and if I could fix it. As I wiped the tears from my eyes (blaming the leaking gas fumes) and pulled myself out of the fetal position, extracted the thumb from my mouth and threw my pants under the work bench, I heard the words come out of my mouth, but I'm still unsure of where they came from.......... yeah baby.....everythings cool......no worries.

by the next day I had the bike to this point, but still no plan.


oh yeah, the swingarm was badly bent, although the rear brake caliper and rotor were good as were one of the front calipers and rotors.

[mookieo2]

 

[pitbull]

I did have some spare items including a swingarm I had purchased a few years earlier for cheap with the intention of pc'ing it for my 01 900. I also had a pair of cut and cored stock cans from my 01 that I had replaed with a micron exhaust I had bought off fleabay cheap. The rim in the picture was from a local dealership. I phoned the service dept. on a whim and asked the mechanic if they happened to have any used rims for sale. He replied that they did not, but he had a front rim he would be willing to sell. For $100 it was mine............good deal.

[He Man]

Did you look over the bike before you buying it?

ask questions about how it crashed or any major known defects? or did u just show up, buy a bike and bounce?

[pitbull]

Here's one more pic of tearing things down:




I don't have much more in the way of before pics.

I also didn't have much room to work. We live in a smallish condo in which the previous owner had done a really nice job of turning 2/3 of the garage into a home office. While it's a great space, it only leaves me with 1/3 of a garage with which to work on and store two bikes. This was the main reason it took a full year to rebuild the bike. With both bikes in the garage and the door closed, I can't even get to the second bike without climbing over the 1st. With no heat and no room, I didn't touch the bike between November and mid March. With a fairly early spring, however, I was able to get back at it around the middle of March.

So....... I spent most of the summer of 09 collecting parts off the 'parts for sale' section here and fleabay. I spent many of days perusing the Tech section searching for information. I also posted a number of questions and am eternally grateful to the helpfull advice extended to me by a number of knowledgable members and mods here. I would have been in a tough spot without it.

[pitbull]

Did you look over the bike before you buying it?

ask questions about how it crashed or any major known defects? or did u just show up, buy a bike and bounce?

yeah........the latter







actually I did ask a few questions and all the guy knew was that it had low sided on the right side and stopped when it hit a curb. That looked to be consistant with the damage, although, as I mentioned in the first post, I did a horrible job of looking it over

[pitbull]

   Along with collecting parts I had the engine welded. A good friend of mine builds beautiful cobras......not kit car cobras, but 500 hp, take to the track, race car cobras. He sent me to his welder who fixed up the engine for $100. I was pleased as punch with that.

 I was going to take the frame to get straightend when I ran into a local bike restoration guy. He told me not to straighten the frame without the engine in it, or it would never fit right. I'm not sure if that was the right advice, but it worked out perfectly. I had the frame, footpeg hangers, swingarm, and handlebar clamps sandblasted and pc'd for $300, through a friend who builds wire display wracks. He sent my stuff in with one of his orders, which took a month to come back, but I was in no hurry.

Everything else I picked up here or on fleabay.

[Speeddog]

Carry on, I'm lovin' it. 

[pitbull]

By the time the snow began to fly I had most of the parts. I did do a few things over the winter, like putting together the gauges that I picked up in bits and peices.......a housing here, a speedo there, a tach some place else.

I also took my tank and front fender to a highly recommended body place. I received a quote of $1200 for repair and paint. I said "thank you very much, but that's a little beyond my budget" and put the stuff back in my truck and drove home. A friend of mine braised the the hinge area of the tank for me and I did the body work myself with a little advice from ducpainter. I also attempted to do the paint myself which i thought looked ok. A friend of mine introduced me to a little old Italian guy who has a great reputation locally as a top notch body and paint guy, who's prices noone else can touch. I thought I might just get him to clearcoat the tank, but when he looked at it he spoke 4 simple words, in his heavy Italian accent, "Thatsa notta verddy goood"

He then told me he would "maka lika factorry" for $300 for the tank and fender .....cash.  I'm a cheap guy, but that seemed like a more than fair offer.
A week later I showed up at Frank's Autobody with a $30 bottle of Italian wine and recieved a beautiful tank and fender and great big hug from Frank.