trail blaster transformation!

[sicivicdude]

I traded a snapper lawnmower for an "ugly" blaster (<----according to the owner). I went to look at the blaster and rode it around the guys yard before shaking hands on the deal. It didn't run right, but it did run. It was painted forest green but most of the plastic was there (all except the hood) and in fair shape. It had 20" turf tamer (yes, lawn mower style) rear tires and nearly totally worn out front tires. It's packing an ANCIENT FMF exhaust system in fair shape only needing cleaning and a coating.

I only had $100 in the lawnmower so the deal wasn't too bad.

The before shots the guy sent me:

The first thing I did when I got it home was ride it around the year real quick and then take it to the "laboratory" for tinkering... I discovered a stripped TORS idle control so I put out a wanted thread for anyone who had any TORS delete parts (sticking with a stock carb on this one). Someone replied so I got the stuff.

When it arrived, I installed it and then had an EXTREME hanging rev problem and some vicious piston slap.... I reluctantly pulled the top end off to find THIS:

and a busted case... one area was a single crack and the other was two parallel cracks with the area between them pushed outwards.

The repairs:

I threw the cylinder that was on it on the shelf and picked up one of the spares to throw on it so I could run it sooner rather than later...

I purchased some nearly new Kenda Kutter XCR's on delta steel wheels and swapped on some decent stocky rims and tires for the front. I also wire wheeled the FMF headpipe and coated it in "aluminum" header paint (the 1,500 Deg kind). I painted the silencer pipe with the header paint and scrubbed the aluminum silencer body with steel wool to get it "brushed" looking.

I also began paint stripping the plastics off to get them down to bare plastics... WHAT A PAIN! Someone had put 4 layers of oddly colored paint on the front fenders, sparkle specks on the tank and plastic body filler on the rear plastics to fill in scratches! It took me 4 days to remove all of the crud off of the plastics. I just finished baking the front half of the plastics in the sun today (I let them "cure" painted for three days before handling them) The rear plastics are still only block painted (it took me more time to get the bondo off than anything else) but will be finished painted tomorrow and then begin their "baking in".

Also, the front drums are painted blue because I haven't tinkered with them yet. I purchased norman420 spindles and warrior hubs from CARNZ last week but haven't decided on whether to install them or not. The front drums are working well (considering they're crappy front drum blaster brakes) and I think I'm going to run them (at least until the shoes wear out) so I'll probably be pulling the front wheels off, masking the drums off, and painting them silver to match the frame... Just not quite completed yet.

I would have waited for completed pictures but I was too excited about the half completed pictures to wait!

 

[Surfrjag]

very nice work bro!! what you use to smooth out the case surfaces where they meet?

 

[sicivicdude]

I was VERY careful not to get too much of the brazing rod bonded to the mating areas. Once I had the heat down, I used a sanding drum to knock any high spots down and then lapped the case halves carefully to remove the final bit of material. The picture of the repaired area was actually taken before the lapping (actually before the sanding drum too) so it looks kinda gnarly... by the time it was all done, you couldn't tell there was a repair area there from the sealing surfaces.

 

[cole454]

Great transformation.

 

[bonesZ33]

where you located in NC?.. and whered u find that sweet deal!!

 

[sicivicdude]

Thanks man!

This is a really quick turn-around-time clean up (I've only had it for three weeks) and it's ended up getting a mostly new motor, new wheels and tires, and a paint job.

I've also gone back mostly stock (in case anyone was wondering if the guy who can't leave ANYTHING stock has lost his marbles) because the plan is for my wife to practice using a hand clutch and separate brakes before possibly trying to trade this blasty to someone for a medium sized motorcycle for her to ride. She's always been enchanted by the thought of riding her own motorcycle so perhaps I can find someone who will trade this fine piece of equipment for a Kawasaki vulcan 500 or perhaps a older virago 500-700cc, or maybe even a honda rebel 450. I feel that a 250 is too small for her to get the feel of her eventual goal of a honda shadow 750 aero (yuck! I hate the swoopy fenders but she LOVES them) and could possibly endanger her as they're horribly underpowered and neither one of us are really small people... I think someone who doesn't want their rebel 450 might trade straight up for a nice looking blaster. Once she's rode the rebel 450 (or whatever we might end up with) and has proven herself worthy of owning something I would actually CARE about her dropping and scratching up, we can see about selling the medium sized MC and buying a aero.

 

[sicivicdude]

where you located in NC?.. and whered u find that sweet deal!!

I live north of Raleigh. I work in RTP.

I put a post on craigslist asking about buying blaster parts or old rundown blasters people would take a little money for. A guy called me and told me he had an "ugly" blaster but that it ran and he only wanted his money back out of it he put into it (a few hundred dollars). I asked him if he might be interested in a trade for a riding lawnmower and it just so happened he was terribly interested in trading for a riding lawnmower (he has like 2 acres and previously only a pushmower!)

I had acquired the riding lawn mower from my brother in law for CHEAP ($75) because the transmission "had locked up or something" and he went out and bought a new lawnmower. I already have a snapper lawnmower I currently mow my lawn with so I tore into it (snappers are SOOOOOO simple and they still make them brand new and nearly every single part on them is interchangeable and still manufactured) and found a bad bearing in the primary chain case which had come apart and jammed the chain. I took the chain case apart and cleaned all of the metal out including freeing the chain and ordered all new bearings (both sides even though only one side failed) and reassembled. It ran good and cut like a champ... but I only had $100 in it so I offered it up on trade and the guy accepted.

 

[bonesZ33]

nice man.. im from raleigh i useto work at phantasm motorsports, i jsut moved to concord/charlotte area.. but i got some good freinds in the area.. you got any got places to ride?..

 

[sicivicdude]

Just some local trails and stuff. Nothing too heavy but we have permission from the land owner to tread (as long as it's lightly) and that's all that matters to me. No cops getting called!

We (a bunch of my buddies and I) make a bi-yearly pilgrimage to Busco Beach in Goldsboro, NC.

The next meet is in September for the BF/E2S drag races. There will be a LOT of member from BF there, some from as far away as Canada

 

[2smoker85]

out of curiousity is that a bbk on it in in the 2nd pic? looks like it, nice transformation man, looks good.

 

[sicivicdude]

I thought the same thing when I initially looked at those pictures.

It is not a big block kit on it though, the phone he used to take the pictures distorted the colors to make it look silver. It was just a regular cylinder with a broken piston in it... now it is a shelf ornament I will eventually figure out what size bore it needs and get it done so it's ready to roll.

 

[JonS]

turned out great man. how did you prep and paint the plastics? they look very good.

 

[sicivicdude]

The front plastics are grey (the plastic that is) and they had 5 layers of paint on them. They had grey primer, oxide primer, white paint, blue paint (with sparkles it looked kinda like bass boat paint), and finally dark green. About four treatings with paint stripper took about 95% of that off (the grey primer was particularly hateful) and then some light sanding with 220 grit and finally with 400 (wasn't TOO worried about how well it looked when it turned out only that it's one color)

The hood was fresh blue plastic (thanks) and took the fusion paint well.

The tank cover was blue plastic with two coats, the blue sparkly paint and the green. Paint stripper took that right off with a coat or two.

The back plastics and I nearly had a knock down drag out fight on our hands... Someone has apparently VERY roughly sanded the plastic and decided the best way to "fix it" was the put plastic body putty on it and then five layers of paint. It has grey primer, oxide primer, white, blue with sparkles, and the green. The underside of the back plastics had a single layer of the blue sparkly paint and nothing else. The sparkly paint with nothing else proved particularly difficult to remove with paint stripper so I took most of that off with paint stripper and then knocked down what was left with the 220 (it's going to be covered in dirt and stuff anyway!). The top side with the plastic filler and five layers of paint was a nightmare. I spent the last three afternoons outside removing 95% of that crap... stripper gets sponded up and dried out before it take much of the plastic filler off so I ended up treating a BUNCH of times and wiping the crud off to get a fresh layer up MANY times before I started to see blue plastic again...

I sanded it down with the 200 to clean up most of the scratches and then layed a blocking layer of paint down to see anything that needed a bunch of work last night. I did a little before I ran out of daylight last night. Once I've got a handful of problems I need to solve fixed, I'll put the rear plastics on and take more pics... Should be a few days however, I let the fusion paint bake on the plastics for three days before I mess with to let it harden...

Honestly, the picture do the paint job a lot of justice, It was a 100 yarder when I picked it up, it's a 3 yarder now. It looks GOOD from 10 feet away. Up close it's not QUITE as pretty but good enough for a trail bike!

 

[JonS]

holy hell. well, you did a great job on them man.

 

[xKroniK13x]

Great job! Can't beat that for the price!

 

[blasterfreek30]

nice job bro, brought another blasty back from the dead

 

[Antec1200X]

that does look cool
think im going to do it right this winter.start from the frame up

 

[slickerthanyou]

So jealous of you guys with multiple blasties!! Looking good SI! You have to be one of the busiest guys I know!

 

[sicivicdude]

So jealous of you guys with multiple blasties!! Looking good SI! You have to be one of the busiest guys I know!

Thanks! I'm not so busy as good at multitasking...

 

[sickOne]

great work dude...I:I it looks 100 times better already