Foam, Foam on the Range or How I Came to Love Wireframe.

Well, it has been over a year since I have posted last. What can I say, time slips by.

Anyways, I started the body using foam insulation board glued together to carve the body from.

Front fender with driving lamps.

                                                                          Foam pour

                                                                  Carving the sides

 

This is as far as I got with the foam. I did not like the lines and I discovered that I am not a carver.

I scrapped this idea and worked on several others before going with

 a wire frame body covered in stretched spandex.

 I have built a wire frame for the body. This will be covered with spandex and glassed.

This was a stretch test.

Another view.

 

Resin impregnated cloth. It will deform slightly until backed with glass cloth. 

Being held in a wire frame causes no deformities.

Updates should be posted more often now.

Goldwing GL1200 SEI Factory Assembly Error

Well, reassembly is going at a slow and steady pace. Each part is cleaned and polished or painted before it is reasembled. Then there is parts replacement and waiting for delivery. I snapped the fuel line between the tank and fuel pump. The hose is made from a material called Unavailablium. I had to order some .5" ID hose. The wall of this hose is twice as thick as the OEM  hose and none of the bends are molded in.

Small parts found in the nooks and crannies of the engine. I would be surprised if I had not found anything.

When I removed the body work, I noticed a network of green wires that looked factory installed but out of place.

Red Arrows point to added ground wires.

  

I became curious and traced these wires back to a spice in a connector. I moved the large bundle of wires on the front left side and noticed this....

 

When the bike was assembled, a worker missed attaching the ground terminal to the frame. Rather than trace down the problem, the Honda factory chose to run a wire patch to carry the ground.

The arrows show the ground terminal and the frame bolt where it should be attached.



This is not OEM

 This is a filter from a automobile carburetor. It is located on the intake side of the fuel pump. 

The filter was 1/2 filled with "stuff".
I had cleaned it out before I thought to take a picture. 

Modern vehicles have the fuel filter placed after the fuel pump. 
This seems counter intuitive and I have replaced this filter where I found it.  

Honda GL12000 SE-i Stator

In 1986 Honda installed a more robust 500 watt stator in the SE-i. Unfortunately, Honda used the same crappy plug harness and the stator still drops a leg and fries itself.

 New and Fried.

Simple to install. I stopped by my local garage and the mechanic loosen the screws for me.

Ready to install.

Ready to paint. I used Krylon Metallic Shimmer #2338 Nickel Shimmer.

It's all uphill from here.

GL1200 Clutch Slave Cylinder Rebuild

Time to pull the rear cover off to replace the stator and fix any other problems to be found.

Well, this looks wonderful. Lets see what's under the Clutch Slave Cylinder cover.

Brown Sugar?

Slave cylinder, rusted solid.  It may be time to order a $20 rebuild kit?

Apart at last. 

I soaked it in Marvel Mystery Oil and it took some pounding to force the piston out.

Polished up and with the new kit. The pitting is above the area that the seals cover. The piston moves freely now.

GL1200 SE-i Engine Removal

Engine Removal

There are videos on YouTube and lots written on the web about removing GL1200 engines but when it comes to the 1986 SE-i, they just don't quiet match up with the other engines.

SE-i Fuel Pump.

The Right foot peg is removed and the fuel pump is freed.

Just about ready to drop. Still searching for wiring to unhook.

These couplers are located on the right side in front of the coolant overflow. Unplug #1 PBR Sensor and #2 Oil Pressure Sensor. #3 TW Sensor, unplug and remove female couple from post. These three wires are worked down till they sit on top of the engine.

I turned the removal into a one man job by unbolting the 4 nuts on the drive shaft and pulling that out. This allows the engine to basically be pulled straight out.

It went pull, drop, pull, raise, pull, drop, pry, drop and pull it out.

Goldwing Fuel Tank Electrolysis

 Rusty Fuel Tank

Removing the fuel tank is unlike any other motorcycle I have worked on. Normally, it's unhook the fuel line and undo 1 or 2 bolts and lift.

 The Goldwing requires EVERYTHING to be removed from the rear of the bike. 

 This is the tank, buried in the middle of the bike.

  This is the space left after the tank was removed.

The tank after the first water rinse.

 Electrolysis set up. There are plenty of how-to articles on the web.

 Rust smoothy anyone?

After 16 hours of being zapped.

The screen is still partially clogged.

After 8 hours of soaking in distilled white vinegar. The screen is now clean. Most all of the rust is gone.

A wash with OSPHO, a rust inhibitor. I will let this dry for a day in the sun and rinse it with OSPHO one more time to ensure full coverage. A couple of days drying I will add a mix of gas and Marvel Mystery Oil for the final wash.

Update: The Ospho did not have enough rust to adherer to and formed a flaky coating that took much time to clean out.

1986 Honda Aspencade 1200GL SE-i

1986 Honda Goldwing Aspencade GL1200 SEI

SE-i, Special Edition-injected.

Retail price in 1986 was $10,598. 

That is $22,171 in 2013 dollars.

Dry weight, 770 Pounds.

Produced for one year only with an estimated 5,000 produced, the SE-i has computerized fuel injection, 500 watt Stator, auto leveling  suspension and a sophisticated trip computer. The fuel injection transformed the GL1200 into a real animal which made the carburetor models seem sluggish in comparison. The exhaust tips are turned down surrounding the new  rear fender splash guard, the Panasonic Type 3 audio system has Dolby3 noise reduction and a slightly improved seat. The Pearl White and Beige two tone paint was only available on this model. 

 

Body off

The Plan

By striping the bike of the parts I will not need and recycling them on ebay, I have now recouped the initial cost of the bike

Next is repair. The stator is fried due to the infamous GL1200 connector. This involves pulling the engine to install a new stator. 

New fork seals. The fork oil is visible on the floor in the picture.  

The tank has rust and it has to come out. 

Plus what other problems I may encounter. 

Design and fabricate the new body. For it's age, the GL1200 is still a good  looking ride much like C4 Corvettes of that era. But the body styling is dated and a mechanically refreshed machine with a new body style is in order.