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"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti) 01/05/2017 at 00:03 • Filed to: None

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I’ve been putting In some work on the ‘73 CL450 lately. I sanded and added a little color to the tank and have a bunch of parts on order. I’m going to clean up the lines on the paint then put some faded junkyard Honda emblems on. My wife is an artist but I suck at painting stuff. She won’t touch my auto projects, but I think it turned out well for an amateur. I think I’m going to clean up the lines with some black or white pinstriping.

E92M3 > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 00:23

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Why not just sand it again, and use some vinyl to cut those shapes out of? They sell sheets of vinyl at Michaels for $2.

DipodomysDeserti > E92M3 01/05/2017 at 00:40

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The tape gave me better lines than vinyl would have on a curved surface. Although it looks smooth in the pic, the tank finish is not even. I’m going for a wabi sabi type motif as the frame is pretty worn with various spots of surface rust. The bike only has 9k miles on it, but the exterior definitely looks forty years old. It’s gonna be a bit of a rat bike, so I don’t want anything to look too clean.

Pickup_man > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 09:08

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I like it, can’t wait to see the finished bike.

E92M3 > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 09:54

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Yeah, would be tricky to get perfect lines on a curved surface.

DipodomysDeserti > E92M3 01/05/2017 at 10:48

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I think I can convince my wife to outline it for me which will clean it up.

DipodomysDeserti > Pickup_man 01/05/2017 at 10:49

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Thanks. I don’t know if it will ever be “finished”.

Pickup_man > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 11:34

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I’ve got one of those too.

My first bike, an ‘82 XJ750, currently it’s torn apart because I wanted to change the handle bars, but that quickly turned into eliminating those side panels, making a new battery box, relocating all of the electrics, and completely rewiring the entire bike. The ironic part is that now that I’ve figured out how to eliminate the huge clunky bar controls, I’m going to leave those bars on. Eventually there will be a complete tear down, clean up, color change, and hopefully a fork swap. Like you said, I don’t think it’ll ever be “finished”.

DipodomysDeserti > Pickup_man 01/05/2017 at 12:01

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That’s pretty much exactly what I did last weekend on mine. I picked up a set of drag bars, then though it would be a perfect time to eliminate all my bar controls. The parts won’t arrive until next week, so I figured I might as well pull the tank and experiment with some paint.

I rewired most of the bike when I first got it and converted it to run on capacitors. It took a while to tune everything correctly, as I’m running pod filters, a shorty exhaust, and capacitors on a forty year-old bike that is known to be finicky. I thought I had screwed myself, but eventually figured it out and ended up riding it all summer. I figured now was a good time to deal with all the cosmetic issues.

Pickup_man > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 12:18

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Mine had a big computer box on it that monitored basically everything, oil, kickstand, gas, lights, everything. It made the dash on the bike huge and I hated it, so initially I just extended the wires and stuffed it behind the battery box, but once I got it apart I really wanted to eliminate it completely. I’ve got pods and open exhaust on mine too, and it was a pain to tune, apparently with CV carbs and Yamaha’s YICS not a lot of people can get these XJ’s running well on pods but mine seems to run pretty good.

I’ve got an XS750 too that’s on the back burner at the moment, I would love to convert that one to capacitors, gotta do some more research on that before I do though.

DipodomysDeserti > Pickup_man 01/05/2017 at 12:39

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I was able to wrap pretty much all my wiring to the frame right up underneath my seat. I’ll probably install the headlight switch and ignition switch under there too. The whole middle of my bike is open now. Here’s my capacitor setup. It’s four 10k uF caps wired in parallel. I first tried it with two but it wasn’t powerful enough. She usually starts with just 2-3 kicks.

My bike is still a little wonky when the throttle is slightly cracked, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do about with the setup I have. At half and full tilt she purs. I’m running the biggest jets I could find, and my A/F ratio is right where I like it. My points are pretty worn which could be the issue, but Honda wants like $50 for a new set, so I’ll probably just install an electronic ignition.

Pickup_man > DipodomysDeserti 01/05/2017 at 12:58

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Most of my stuff is tucked into various places to try to hide it the best I can, the main kill switch and starter button will be under the tank. The only exposed switches I’ll have will be three toggles on a very small side panel for high/low, left blinker, and right blinker.