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4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:54 pm
by Edoc
I have been working hard to find either a T500, GT550 or GT750 for the last 6 months. I was hoping to give a try at my first restoration on just one bike. I got desperate and put in 2 bids on E-Bay using a bidding program. I was hoping to get at least one of the bikes. I won both bids, a 1971 T500 and a 1975 GT550.
Within a few days of bringing these bikes home I have had several calls from prior contacts about bikes now available. A friend had found #4 GT750s. They have been sitting in barn in northern IL for the last 30 years. This friend has restored prize winning autos including a couple in museums, but has had no motorcycle restoration experience. When we looked at the bikes, he was more excited then me feeling the bikes looked in good shape for their age. The dirt is so thick they all seem like gray blobs to me. Rats or mice have destroyed at least one of the seats. 3 of the 4 kick over. The frames and exhaust all seemed solid with at most moderate rust ( from what could be seen with a flash light and years of dirt). Only one had obvious damage on a tank. Despite no need for more suzukis, I bought the lot. I hope I haven't purchased 4 piles of unrestorable rust.
I am now the owner of 6, 2 stroke Suzukis all in need of restoration. I have no experience and little mechanical knowledge. Sounds very foolish... At the least my mistakes can entertain you. If I am really lucky I will learn alot and not loose to much cash in the process.
I will begin to transport the 4 GT750s this Thursday.
I will post some photos.
First question:
I have no idea how to restore them but know the first step is to get them very clean.
How do I do this without damaging them. I think a pressure washer and all that dirt would scratch paint, plastic and possibly damage electrical parts.
Thanks!
Tim
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:09 pm
by jabcb
Owning 6 two-stroke Suzukis foolish? No, at least not in this forum.
My message signature currently admits to having 7 two-stroke Suzukis, but I actually have more.
Other members have even more.
Good luck & have fun. And post pics.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:59 pm
by kettle kid
Edoc wrote:I have been working hard to find either a T500, GT550 or GT750 for the last 6 months. I was hoping to give a try at my first restoration on just one bike. I got desperate and put in 2 bids on E-Bay using a bidding program. I was hoping to get at least one of the bikes. I won both bids, a 1971 T500 and a 1975 GT550.
Within a few days of bringing these bikes home I have had several calls from prior contacts about bikes now available. A friend had found #4 GT750s. They have been sitting in barn in northern IL for the last 30 years. This friend has restored prize winning autos including a couple in museums, but has had no motorcycle restoration experience. When we looked at the bikes, he was more excited then me feeling the bikes looked in good shape for their age. The dirt is so thick they all seem like gray blobs to me. Rats or mice have destroyed at least one of the seats. 3 of the 4 kick over. The frames and exhaust all seemed solid with at most moderate rust ( from what could be seen with a flash light and years of dirt). Only one had obvious damage on a tank. Despite no need for more suzukis, I bought the lot. I hope I haven't purchased 4 piles of unrestorable rust.
I am now the owner of 6, 2 stroke Suzukis all in need of restoration. I have no experience and little mechanical knowledge. Sounds very foolish... At the least my mistakes can entertain you. If I am really lucky I will learn alot and not loose to much cash in the process.
I will begin to transport the 4 GT750s this Thursday.
I will post some photos.
First question:
I have no idea how to restore them but know the first step is to get them very clean.
How do I do this without damaging them. I think a pressure washer and all that dirt would scratch paint, plastic and possibly damage electrical parts.
Thanks!
Tim
Hi Tim.. First get yourself ( if you don' t have already? ) a compressor, and a mask and blow the dust off first, as not to get it wet until you know, what's under the dust? Stickers, badges?
Or pick. The best one you want to keep, and sell the rest dust and all, as a barn find is hard to come by these day's. Then you will have some money to restore the bast one... You will get lots of help on here, as help is only a few clicks away.
I would love to see them in the flesh, but as I'm across the pond in the uk, not possible . But you could post some photo's on here when you get the time. Good luck and keep us posted...... Brown.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 4:15 pm
by titan performance
Brilliant !
You lucky man....I dream of such finds, but fear that the UK has none.
+1 on those pictures when you can.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:16 am
by Scorch
Best first post ever!
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:36 am
by tz375
I'm in Northern Illinois. If you need a hand this afternoon or Thursday to assess the damage, let me know ASAP.
I wouldn't worry too much about water damage to the electrics. There are no electronics to speak of but you do not want the gauges full of water. I would use a bucket of warm soapy water and a sponge to hand wash them. Soak them first to loosen the dirt and don't apply much pressure. Slow and gentle is the way to go.
As someone mentioned, I'd probably pick the best of the bunch to start on and clean that first and when you are happy that it's pretty clean, move on to number 2. Rinse and repeat - in this case literally.
That won't make them spotless, but it will make it easier to see what you have and to assess the prospects more objectively.
Restoring a bike is simple. Some of us have been doing it for years.
I would treat one bike as the resto and the others as rolling spares stores. Don't take any more off the others until you need that part or you will end up with acres of parts to clean and store. Bikes take much less space as one lump than as many.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:25 pm
by Edoc
Thanks for all the help, encouragement and kind words.
My excitement is growing. Tomorrow we begin to pick up the bikes.
I will do my best to post a few photos, but they will be very late in the day
Hopefully many more photos over the weekend.
tz375,
I kept getting cut off by security programs at work when I tried to PM you.
I have e-mailed you (not sure it went through)
Please e-mail me with you telephone number if we haven't made contact yet
Tim
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:22 pm
by Edoc
Photos
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:25 pm
by Edoc
Bike #3 and #4
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:52 pm
by RING_DING
What a mess, but what a find! Incredible. Gotta love that backrest/box/pannier combo on the red bike. Fun times ahead!
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:09 pm
by pearljam724
You have a ton of serious cleaning ahead of you. I don't know your intentions. But to bring back one of them to a good cosmetic and running condition is going to cost between 4 and 5 thousand. Minimum. That's including salvaging quite a few parts. A lot of the parts I see are beyond saving. Unless you simply intend for them to be functional. One bike is very time consuming, expensive. If done right and complete. I couldn't imagine taking on four. I just started mine about a month ago. Put at least 2 hours in a day and my projection is 2 years. But. don't let me discourage you. Good luck. Awesome find. Would you mind sharing what you payed for the four of them?
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:27 am
by Edoc
$3,400
I have no idea if that a was a fair price. I just paid what he asked
THANKS to Roger and his son Mike. They gave up their entire day and put in a lot of elbow grease into this project. Roger donated a huge shop with heat, warm water, floor drain and best of all his knowledge. Thanks!
Yes I figured about 2 years of work per bike and won't know if I will keep one or all 4. As long as it is fun, I will keep on going. I have woken at 4:00 the last few days and read the shop manual so maybe I will get this figured out.
1972: Pealing custom metallic paint. Velour custom seat. White Bates hard bags. Original seat seems to be unused and intact.
1974: (I am guessing year by VIN of 46010) Red. Wrap around hard bag, back rest ( does anyone know what the heck this is?). Still has mostly full gas tank after 20+ years (haven't opened). Doesn't kick over.
No title, but owner believes he misplaced or mixed it up with other sale. Maybe replacable.
1975: Gray. Black Fairing. Custom seat looks really good. Original seat seems to be unused and intact. Black Wind Jammer.
1977: Custom metallic paint. "Triple Chrome" tank. Black Bates hard bags. (This is the one we started to clean first since there were no stickers or anything I could see we could destroy with washing)
To bad some of the early customizing ruing the factory finish. The 2 with factory paint look the best.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 12:45 pm
by pearljam724
Awesome on the price. You can do it. It's an extremely easy thing to do labor wise. The hard part for you is going to be time. Even if you have a lot of it. The gray bike appears to be the one i'd keep. Good luck my friend. You have me wanting to stop at every farm. To ask, " do you have any old bikes in that barn? "
.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:40 pm
by tz375
That's a heck of a haul. What's confusing to me though is teh comination of parts.
For example the 74 has a red 76 A model tank on it so I assumed it was a 76 until I looked at the forks which were one year only parts. It may even be the original tank off that 77.
The gray tank is a 75M tank but it has what looks like a front left indicator from a 77B model
The chrome tank bike as a 77 front fender but what look like early model indicators, so there appears to have been some mixing and matching over the years.
Time to curl up in front of the fire with a glass of wine and Ian Sandy's guide to the common Buffalo on your ipad and check all the details on each bike, using the frame and engine numbers as the starting point. One point to keep in mind is that changes did not all take place on Job 1 of the new model year. Suzuki appear to have switched over parts as they were used up and at times that can add to the confusion.
Keep having fun. The journey has just begun.
Re: 4 GT750s Barn find by a newbie HELP!
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:30 pm
by Edoc
We checked all the VIN numbers on the frame to match them with titles. I then compared the VIN numbers to the GT750 guide at the start of this section of the forum and they match the years above
Now I need to check engine numbers and VINs again. I also have a big pile of keys to match to bikes, cases, fairings.
More photos after more cleaning tomorrow.
tz let me know when you want to come take a look. I need your help figuring these things out.
Tim