My 87 BIGRED Resto is Finished. PICS!!!

[85_250SX]

Harlan Lysne's address is as follows.

hjlysne@charter.net

Tell him Clay sent you. He has all the SX decals and many other bikes.

Just e-mailed him, and told him how Clay sent me and he can send the bill to Clay.

[patblkwell]

Looks damn good...you must prefer the original metal tank more than the plastic one. Looks great.

[ClayW]

Yeah the plastic is junk. Looks like crap after a while and decals dont stick. I can make a crummy looking metal tank look like new money. As long as it doesnt have any rust holes that are beyond help. Dents are a breeze to make dissappear. Takes some time, but I can make them go away. Did I mention that I re-do them for people.

[vartiak15]

clay for the dents do you just bondo them up?

[ClayW]

Yeah, I use this kind that the auto/body supply shop sells that is more of a fiberglass base, and it doesnt hold moisture like bondo. Regular bondo can hold moisture until it gets painted. If you wet sand the bondo, it will get some moisture in it. This kind doesnt do it near as bad.

[83185s]

that looks really nice clay!! great job on that it was well worth it..how does it run with that cobra?

[ClayW]

It runs great. It pulls the front end off the ground a easier with it on there. Other than that, I cant tell any other differences. I didnt have to modify the carb jets or anything. Even with the UNI filter on it.

[MTS]

hey clay...how do you find best to get dents outa tanks..i got a big round shallow dent in my 90 tank and also a dent in the front left from the forks and it bent the sucker in pretty good any suggestions? also theres this stuff its kinda like bonda works the same only its more like jb weld its a metel body filler that dont hold mostiuer and is supposd to work great

[ClayW]

Well on dents, it all depends on where they are at, and can you get to the back side. If you can, I push them out as far as possible. You have to be careful though, you can puncture the tank pretty easily. Once you get that done, I push on the dent I pulled to see if its going to jump back in due to metal fatigue. If it does, I pooch it back out then go thru this process. I wash the tank inside out thoroughly with hot dish soap and water to get the gas all out. Then I take a butane torch, and heat the spot up where the dent is. You can tell when it gets hot enough, it starts to discolor the metal. Then I take a wet rag and wipe it across it then pause, then do it again, again, and again. This retempers the metal. The dent wont pooch back in anymore. Then I rough it up real good and start filling the dent. If you cant get to the back side, I just fill them in. At times I might actually have to make the dent bigger to make it come out right. Sometimes the center of the dent is pushed in, but the edege is actually pushed out a bit. You dont wont high spots. So I make the dent bigger, then fill it.

[Pistonhead]

Clay awesome job on that restoration, beautiful trike, that would spend at least 3 months in my dining room looking like that!

[MTS]

hmm...well the dent in the front of the tank off centers the lip so where the U in the tank is to go around the frame the left part of it is bet out wards slightly...i wonder if i could drill some small holes in the dent and then use them thingers body shops use to pull it out then braze the hole and filler er in....or beat the hell out of the lip till its stright then filler up...lol

[ClayW]

Yeah, that would work. I just dont have one of those to use, or a brazing set up. I poor boy it, and it always comes out good.

[atcmatt]

Well Clay all i can say is WOW!

That is heaps nice mate and you should be damned proud of your work. I only wish mine will come out nearly as nice as that. Im expecting the chassis and all that to come out nice (minus fenders ) but the engine that will be going into it temporarily will look ****! I just need alot of time and money to have this baby perfecto!

Sometimes i wish i lived in the states. Parts availability is so much better.

While were on the bigred restoration subject here is my 250es that i have started to reassemble.

Why am i so obsessed with detail Look at each individual bolt. My whole trike has been redone in this way.

ATCMATT = perfectionist

Matt

[ClayW]

Looks good Matt. Thanks for the compliments.

[jeswinehart]

wow ,,, what can i say ,,, wow ! i ain't never seen a brand new bigred till now.


and if your 350x turns out anything close to the big red ,,,, well you will just hafta bring BOTH to haspin.



nice work clay ,,,, john