Makeover: Better than expected.

The swingarm and other bits on my GSX600 were really rusty so I decided to
strip down the back end and do a makeover. I was quite prepared to do battle
with seized bolts and pivots. I also had Loz's number handy just in case
everything went as expected. To my great surprise everything came off
easily, nothing seized and the swingarm pivot bolts just slid out. I've
spent the day with a wire brush and Mr. Hammerite.



http://www.sportsbike.org/gsx600f/pictures/swingarm1.jpg

http://www.sportsbike.org/gsx600f/pictures/swingarm2.jpg

http://www.sportsbike.org/gsx600f/pictures/shock2s.jpg

 

Great job! Be sure to post pics post reassembly.

 

That was a nice job. What paint did you use on the swingarm, was it
hammerite as well?

 

Yes, I've used Hamerite before and it seems to last forever and doesn't look
too bad.

These are a before and after pictures of the swingarm/linkage/shock. All the
bearings were cleaned and re-packed with grease.

Before:
http://www.sportsbike.org/makeover/pics/shock1.jpg
After:
http://www.sportsbike.org/makeover/pics/shock3.jpg
http://www.sportsbike.org/makeover/pics/shock2.jpg

 

Molly wrote

The red black and silver, all hamerite?

Colour me Impressed.

 

Indeed they are sir.

Would that be pink then?

 

Molly wrote

Do they do it in pink as well?


I have always said that if I had the money I would turn up at the local
gathering of R1's[1] at High Beech on a pink bike and dressed head to
toe in pink.


[1] A happy hunting ground for the likes of BGN and wessie.

 

Hmmmm...<fx:looks at Trophy>...you're not looking for work are you?
Bloody nice job, I for one am impressed.

 

I always had you down as a black coat white shirt man.
http://tinyurl.com/2hw2pq

 

I'm not that good at it and really struggle if anything is heavy or if the
fasteners are really tight. If the swingarm was tight I would have left it
as it is or call someone with muscles.

 

Hamerite (hay-mer-ite [ursine: haymer-never-right]) occurs in many
colours - frequently black, rarely silver and occasionally in a deep
red flush; similar in many respects to Hematite. It is, of course,
the ore from which such useful minerals as nimbyismus and occasionally
deep-rooted fuckwitterite can be extracted, as can the piss on a
frequent basis.

Its origins are apparently variable and not enough is known to give a
conclusive answer, but it is generally accepted to be of Mancuvician
or pseudo-Celtiferic origin.

Hamerite is part of a complex solid solution oxyhydoxide system having
various degrees of extractable water, hydroxyl group, and vacancy
substitutions that affect the mineral's magnetic and crystal chemical
properties.

Hamerite is, in fact, the source of much of today's vacancy, a
property cherished by the current chav population. Hamerite is most
unusual in the properties attributed to its magnetic polarity in that
it appears to repel all but a very small number of other minerals.

Two other end-members are referred to as protohamerite and
hydrohamerite. Fortunately due to hamerite rarely successfully
getting its end away, protohamerite is unknown outside the laboratory
and is only theoretical at present. Hydrohamerite is very common and
the water is very easy to extract.

The best-known use of hamerite is in the heat-resistant and
drag-mimimising (due to ithe self-lubricating properties of its
ever-present wetness) coating applied to the nosecones of all
devastatingly quick cross-country missiles. These missiles, once
common around the byways, have in recent years sadly fallen into
disuse due to driveway seizures while idling and are now generally
consigned to sad and lonley existences in the backs of garages,
supported only by their substantial chicken strips.

 

Nice work, though.

Tight nuts are what high-heeled boots were made for - get the end of a
big breaker bar wedged in the instep - and jump on the bastard.

 

I tried that approach on the Corvette brake caliper mounting bolts.
When my shin eventually stopped bleeding, I resorted to using a scissor
jack betwixt breaker bar & chassis. Far more civilised.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

You need to hike the height of your heels, or perhaps get a bigger
better breaker bar. Spilling blood on the job, especially when
combined with a good bit of pain, often makes tight nuts seem less
relevant, somehow.

 

Not an option in that case due to lack of space. As it was I was laying
on my back trying to kick blind. I /almost/ got it right, but my foot
shot off sidewards launching my shin into one of the exhaust U-bolts.
Much ouchness.

I'm amazed that's the only 'vette related incident I've had so far,
give the fact that most of the bolts are so rusty you can barely see
any signs of a thread. I wasn't so lucky when trying to straighten out
the crunched front of SWMBO's son's CRX on Saturday. The combination of
ripped, jagged metal & broken glass meant my hands didn't stand a
chance.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

An anecdote concerning the more commonly occurring 'double-emmed'
surface treatment.

The Rotarini featured a home modified Morini frame which had to be
strengthened round the swingarm pivot area, as the power of the 250
Rotax was flexing things somewhat. An arc welder and a variety of bits
of scrap steel plate produced an attempt at strengthening braces. Being
more interested in function than appearance the results were roughly
ground clean of pigeon shit with a grinding wheel mounted on a drill
flexible shaft (no cheap angle grinders in those days). A liberal coat
of classic silver Hammerite was then applied.

On presenting it for examination at Brands prior to its next outing in a
Formula 50 club 250 single race the scrutineer took one look at it and
said, "Hammerite - the paint that hides a multitude of sins."
--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I love it when you talk dirty.

The story so far.

http://sportsbike.org/makeover/makeover.htm

 

That's what I do but in trainers usually.

 

You're one to talk! "Stripped, laid bare and covered with Hammerite".

Worse than Marmite and a Labrador.

 

Ah, the old scissor jack twist: sweet, nothing resists that sort of
force - although I have had to resort to using a crowbar in the eye of
the jack occasionally.

You clumsy ****. Kicking is not a good idea, the potential (as you
proved) for pain is too gret. Not to mention the chance of kicking
the bar off the socket, the socket off the nut or rounding the nut
off. I meant that you should keep a steady pressure on the bar with
one foot, stand up on it and then BOUNCE on it.

With a long enough bar and some wiggling, even behind the suspension
as you were, I've usually managed to get enough of the bar available
to exert some pressure. In extremis, jack the car up high, get the
bar on the nut and wedge the end of the bar on the floor - then let
the jack down gradually. The weight of the car squeezing a metre of
bar forces most fasteners to cry enough.

That's the place of rounded-off nuts and sheared-off bolts, that is.
Dremel and wire wheel/brush is the way forward, as is buying shares in
Plus-Gas and a blowtorch.

You're a fucking menace. An old pair of welder's gauntlets are the
answer here, or even SWMBO's gardening gloves if you can get your
manly mitts in 'em. Cor, the yoof of today. You'll be as scarred and
crippled as me when you get old.