mini project. gs125

[johnr]

back in the 80's when we were getting the kat and all the variants, back at the shallow end of the suzuki gene pool we had the gs125, but in japan, they had the gs incorporated in the katana range, basically, they painted it silver and called it a katana, corporate branding, much the same as the cb125 was styld to mimic the cb900 or 1100r hodna. but i digress....
we never got the kat styled gs125 in europe and so there are just pics of the japanese variant out on the www.
sue has a little gs that she uses for work and it been getting a bit worse for wear lately, primarily because it lives outside and gets used every day in all weathers. so, as it was due a tidy up, i figured why not give it a kat style makeover!!
so this is the basis of the project, its only a bit of fun, taking up the last weekend, in between work call outs, and should be hopefully done this weekend so i can get on with my own stuff.

[johnr]

so, this is along the lines of fossies similar thread further down this page and is little more than a cosmetic tart up.
off with the bodywork and first things first, a good clean up as well as popping a length of chain inside the emptied and scalded out tank and strap it onto the cement mixer, knocks off the rust and cleans the inside nicely

[johnr]

next up, everything gets stripped and flatted down, stickers off, down to primer and then etch primed, im using new sidepanels because thee old ones are cracked. the tailpiece is also broken so ive had a bit of repairing to do. then a couple of coats of etch primer to key it all and finally flatted back. tank took a lot more work involving a tin of paint stripper and a lot of sanding both on top and underneath. one of my bugbears is paint jobs that dont encompass the part, so tank is sprayed underneath as well as on top, sidepanels and mudguard aree painted inside and out, ive even laquered all the panels both inside and out. its just the right way to do it, otherwise, why bother?
anyhow, as i was saying....

[johnr]

so, two sidepanels, front mudguard, fairing, tailpiece, tank, all cleaned sanded, etched, then filler primer, rubbed back then 3 coats of acrylic nissan star silver, followed by stickers then three layers of petrol resistant lacquer. then masking off and black matt detailing on the fairing, mudguard and sidepanels.

[johnr]

and finally all fitted to the bike, nearly done now.

[johnr]

sealled the inside of the tank with por15 whilst it was all apart. and this is where it stands now, ive a new seat cover for it to fit this weekend too

[johnr]

and thats where we currently are, total cost of the refurb, including the paint, a pair of sidepanels and all the prep materials comes to about 50 quid, but chuck in a pair of funky piggy back shocks, a new seat cover, new brake pads and shoes, as well as an oil change and filter swap, im figuring that ive spent an additional 150 quid, so 200 quid all in, all done in my back yard with rattle cans and a sunny weekend!
whn the seat is done i will post the completed pic.

[johnr]

seat cover

[johnr]

Its always locked anyway. As for undesirable types, have you seen her husband!!!

[fossie]

Not trying to upsurp the post , but thought I resend this picture as the original thread of ours ...more kitten than Kat .....was in 2015 and the pictures are not there

So we now have 2kittens

We went with 650 look.

Looking good John .....can we say we finished a project