30 minutes later . . .













IT is all looking just a tad bit better than when it went in for it's bath! Slipped back into it's mounting spot on the bike . . .





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So we need a tank to use to test out the motor, and the old tank is a bit leaky. What to do . . . Run what you Brung!



Hey - It matched the fenders and fit right on! A crappy tank, but clean inside with a good fuel tap. Actually fits perfectly without any mods or anything . . . Hmmm

Well, to make a long story shorter, I put a bit of premix in there, primed it, and gave it a few kicks. Seems to be a lot easier to kick than I have been led to believe a 360 should be. Double check everything. Looks like the spare spark plug is not even finger tight!

Ok. Back on the bike. Woahhhhh! It looks like the kickstand starts to go forward, and then I see that the mount has broken off the frame! Jeez. Well, another minor easy fix.

Ok. Brace yourself. Find TDC. Kick. Kick again. Kick again really hard.

The bike fired and ran! Smoked a bit, but not all that bad. Seems to rev nicely and even idles! I checked the gears and they all seem to work, but really couldn't ride it here in my backyard, so it would be coming apart for the build. Little did I know how long the next stages would take.

Oh yea - and the odd bit about the serial numbers on the bike? The motor in the bike is, in fact, a rebadged RT1. Nothing more exciting than that. It appears that a former owner was attempting to try and run the bike as a 250 or something. Hard to say, because the title paperwork had this number, and everything seemed fine. The bike matched the description the old geezer recalled when seeing the bike at his brothers house. Anyway, at this point the bike got a new working title, "The Cheater Bike". At least for now.

So back to the drawing board.

First, the kick stand problem. When starting up the bike I discovered the kick stand mount was separating from the rest of the frame. Common problem. Solution, out with the welder, clean up the spot, push it back into place and reweld. I also changed out the old stand to a late model ('78) version with the nice pad on the bottom. with a bit of work on the mount with a grinder, then carefully placing the angle to match the new one and voila!





This update also fixed the common problem with the older bikes of leaning over too far. Now the bike can sit on the lawn, or out in the woods and the concern of it falling over is significantly decreased. Looks good too. These are often available on E-bay and are not too expensive. (77-79 DT250-400).

I also repaired the broken rear exhaust pipe bracket. Then a quick coat of 1200 degree duplicolor and it is looking almost like new!





Obviously the shocks, like a lot of other pars on the bike, needed a bit of detailing. I also straightened the little bent heat guard piece. Now after I clean out the baffle it should work a bit better.




I got the tires changed out to the Dunlop D-606 knobbies, new tubes and rim strips and cleaned up the rims a bit. I can tell you that putting a rear D-606 on an Akront shouldered rim is WORK. If you do this, just be smart and pay the $20 to get it done by a shop. Your fingers will thank you. I am not sure my fingers will ever be the same. The front is a piece of cake.

I was also able to mock up the front/rear fenders on the project, so I can do all the mounting holes before I do the trim paint on them. The front is an Acerbis yellow Yamaha YZ fender (fairly modern style) while the rear is probably the only yellow UFO universal enduro fender that was ever imported. I was actually told that by UFO Corporate headquarters when I wanted to get a second one!

I also replaced the rear brake shoes, but am sourcing the fronts as the RT2MX brake shoes are an odd size. Still seemed to be available from Yamaha tho.

I was also going to replace the back sprocket and discovered the 44 tooth that I have does not fit. It turns out that both the front and rear wheel hubs are off of an MX and the carrier not only is not rubber cushioned, but is a different size than the enduros. And sprockets are even harder to find for it.

A few pics from my phone:

The back wheel cleaned up pretty well, even though it has been used hard and put away wet a few times. Gives it a nice "raced" look!





Yes I know the brake stay is not hooked up in the picture! The rear fender needed to be trimmed a bit on the front end so it mated up with the plastic black under-fender with the seam under the seat. I did a bit of trimming to get it right, and it is just mocked up for now. Final install will use better hardware.





You may have noticed that these fenders do not appear on the teaser pictures that started the thread. The reason is that this is a historical documentation of the build. As we move forward, you will see the various evolutionary design changes that were made as we went through the build. This is, unfortunately, a common issue I have. It can become expensive when you have purchased a lot of parts then change direction mid stream.

The overall look is deceptive, as I still have the DT400 tank on there until I get the DT1 tins painted. It does give you a feel for the new fender lines. This pic does not have the front Dunlop mounted up yet. It is more aggressive than the one the Metzler that is on there.


Next is the electrical work. It is a tad bit complicated, as it is being converted to a DT400 CDI setup. With lights . . . Lots of interesting details to come!

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So this may end up being re-posted in its own dedicated thread as it is important information. Some time ago, I had Deet restore some DT400 stators for me, and the result was an extra full ignition setup (Stator, flywheel and CDI) that needed a home. He had also done me a new wiring harness for this bike in stock form, so I had him make up a connector to make the conversion possible without cutting any wires. DEET takes his business seriously. This is what you find when you open the main box:





Then when you open each of those boxes . . .





You can see the conversion cable in the center. Here is a better view:





When DEET builds these, they are all new wire, fresh sheathing, proper either new or restored correct plugs. I will add a thread on this whole little project shortly.

For quite some time, DEET and I had been discussion this project in theoretical form. We had surmised that a DT400 stator "should" bolt up to an RT1 crank and fit within the case, as the RT/DT flywheels are physically larger. I can now tell you it does fit. It also appears that the crank indexing is the same, as well as the crank taper. Everything bolts up perfectly, and the pulsar even lines up as on the 400 using the standard stator mounting points.

After several hours of work, chasing down the connections, I finally got it all connected up, and though I had not started it, I had nice fat blue spark as the motor passes TDC! The cool thing was that with the adapter plug, everything was essentially plug and play. No wire cutting and the Repopped harness I had installed in the bike was untouched. Just plug the adapter between the harness and the CDI wiring and all is good!

The ignition is a complete DT400 setup. Stator, flywheel and CDI box. I do expect to need to do a bit of experimentation with timing, etc. The 400 setup has an advance built in, so I need to contend with that too. Should make the bike easy as butter to start though.

This bike is becoming a legend in my own mind. I have nearly everything I need to really start the build, but I keep changing slightly the direction I am taking it. Not sure exactly what parts will end up on it, but the ignition setup is for sure. The bike is to be street tagged, so lighting is a must.

A few shots of the install: This shows the stator plate installed in the RT1 case - note that I don't work in the "surgical cleanliness" that is present in some other author's workshops . . .





The stator fits perfectly, but getting the plugs through the little hole used on the early bikes required disassembly of the large plugs, but it all worked. Then, close to an hour making sure my wiring diagram was right, and connecting up the bridging connections, I couldn't wait any longer. I had spark right ? What's a guy to do!

I shot a tiny bit of starting fluid into the gaping hole where the carb mounts up to see if the timing was close enough to fire. On the second kick, the bike lit off and started to race just a bit (probably just a result of the fluid). I shut it right down to avoid any damage, and did the happy dance! Excited

Apparently, the eyeballing of the timing was close enough for Government work, so now I just needed to fab up a mounting system for the CDI unit, a battery box, the blinker module and a few other items that need to reside under the seat with some sort of air cleaner arrangement.

More when I get some time to post!

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I took inventory, and with the exception of a final decision on my air cleaner setup, i had virtually every part to get the bike back moving. The biggest holdup had been getting the tank finished.

As some of you may remember, I had the nasty original tank on this bike dipped at a company in Portland, Oregon called American Metal Cleaning to remove the paint and old Kreme liner. That, of course, revealed the pinholes in the bottom, which maybe explains the Kreme. A quick plug for these folks - They charged about $45 per fuel tank and what I got back was probably cleaner than what the original tank looked like before paint in Japan. Really, really nice.

So I went to my neighborhood radiator shop (the one that was not interested in dropping a fuel tank in their dip tank) and I got the pinholes all soldered up, and sealed the tank with a product that is called Redkote , but is now blue. Very highly recommended in the hot rod world. Then a bit of body filler, some other prep, and off to my buddy's shop with the painting setup!

The concept that was hiding in my brain and it translated into via my computer graphics program . . .





So next we needed to get the tank ready for paint. I had discovered after the dip that the tank itself had a TON of little imperfections, resulting in a fair amount of body filler. Nothing deep, just a lot of them. Probably due to its racing history.




I used some pro-body filler instead of the usual bondo. Worked very nicely. Ultimately, the final sanding was done using some fine sanding sponges from Harbor Freight - cheap and extremely effective.

So we put a couple of coats od DP-90 (a catalized epoxy primer) which you can only get if you have a connection to a professional body shop. They don't sell this stuff to the general public because it is NASTY. Fortunately my buddy's brother in law runs an auto dealer body shop, so we have an in. This stuff is a two stage catalyzed primer which will make the nose fall off your face without a respirator!

The next step was to paint the yellow base stripe. I don't have any pics as I was still loopy from the primer spraying, but basically you spray the yellow on wherever there needs to be a yellow stripe. It does not need to be perfect and you want to kind of feather the edges so it does not leave a ridge.

I decided after a lot of research, to make my life a lot easier, to use water-based auto paint from Auto-Air company . These are used mainly by pro airbrush painters for complex graphics. I had never tried an airbrush before, so Harbor Freight was once again my friend. Under $100 and I have a complete air brush setup complete with compressor! It actually works really quite nicely for a beginner.

The nice thing about these paints is they dry in about 2 minutes for recoating, are tapeable after 20 minutes and can be cleared over in about 30 minutes. Plus they won't kill you!

So after you lay down the yellow, you need to tape the stripe. I am sure this is not exact as an original, but it basically follows the original edging on the tank shape. then, you have to spray on the red backing.




What you see there is the slight yellow overspray, which if you look closely you will see the tape on and then covered with the red paint. Next, though not pictured, I used a semi-transparent mix of black to tone down the red around the edges so it was brighter next to the emblem and kind of fading to black where the yellow stripe will be. It also has the effect of aging the graphic.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the trans black layer. Oh well. Once you get that covered where you want it, you need to tape the starburst of the rising sun logo. I did this all freehand, so it is not as perfect as the original concept drawing. I am really happier, as the aging process makes the imperfections look more like they were done back in the 70's and weathered over the years.





This was probably the most time consuming part of the job. Once you have it taped, you simply spray everything that is not taped with the black color coat. About 3 coats to get it right. Then let it dry for about 1/2 an hour.

Mind you, I was doing some similar work on the oil tank, fork brace and headlight. Those pics will be revealed in the final assembly. Gotta have some surprises!

Once you have it all sprayed, and it drys sufficiently, you can remove the tape. You are beginning to get an idea of the look and feel of the finished product. I tossed on a cheapo badge to get an idea of what the final would look like, even without the clear I like it!





Taken with my phone so the quality is not the best. Then, after I let the Auto-Air water based paint dry for 24 hours (not necessary - supposedly you can clear coat it in about 30 minutes), I went back to the shop to shoot the clear coat.

I used PPG Omni Clear which uses a urethane catalyst to cure. If you use the auto air products they require this type of clear to make them durable. It also is required to get a good gloss to the paint. I don't know if the non-catalyzed fizzy can (such as Spraymax) clears would work as well, but worth checking into. The clear I used flashes (allowing for recoating) in about 10 minutes, and requires only two coats, though I went with three. The finished product looks for all intents and purposes to simply be soaking wet!

Pretty neat stuff. I let the clear coat dry overnight, so it is completely durable. There are a couple of small spots I may do some finish sanding on (1500 wetsand then polish) or I may even go nuts and add a few more coats to get that plastic dipped finish. Probably not. It is, after all, a dirt bike!

I test fit one of the Mike's XS repro badges to the tank to see how it would look on the bike, and even though I won't show the whole thing yet (more surprises to come!)

The neat thing about this method is that both of the spray guns I used came from Harbor Freight. Under $20 for each one. I can use them both for many projects to come so they are an investment in tools. The urethane base and clear will give this paint durability as well as gas/oil resistance which is always a concern on motorcycle gas tanks.

All in all, the clear materials cost about $40 (and I have enough to do several more projects) the color materials were about $50 (also leaving a lot of material for my next project) and an epoxy primer will be probably $20 for a small can and it can share the same catalyst. Not that unreasonable for a paint job that will be brighter than the rising sun . . .

Hopefully, I am going to get some time in the next few weeks to make some more progress on the bike as a whole. I am playing with my original fender idea which I don't like as well now that the tanks are done. I will do more documentation as we move along.

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When I first wrote up this build, I had a few folks in the cheap seats heckling me as I had for several years been beating the drum of the DT400 while they tried in vain to convert me to an RT or DT. My response, found in my archives seems to need republishing and is directed to the Enduro Doctor himself - DEET and Joe Gresh ! It went something like this:

How soon they forget. .

The Sleeper Project

Piston ports are my first love. The girl next door. Childhood sweetheart. Quaint comes to mind.

Seriously my aging grasshoppers - this bike will be more than either. A synthesis if you will of old and older. The heart of an RT1 guided by the electronic brain of the DT400. What's the point? There aren't any!

Merely a design concept bike which will raise a few eyebrows from the purists, yet keep all of the classic touches that makes all of these bikes so irresistable. The design keeps evolving and now the direction is being driven by forces I don't completely understand, but the voices are becomming irresistable.

All in good time Grasshopper . . . All in good time

I've admired that Suntank from afar for many months now, and I had no idea you did it yourself. Nice job!

Really enjoying the thread too. Don't tell me you didn't get an "A" in Creative Writing.

Thanks for the kudos! Yes - I did do the paint, and the rest of the bike, virtually in-house. The only thing I actually farmed out was the tank dip and sealing. It was worth the money in my book. Everything else happened in the garage here. I got an afternoon with no rain here today, wife and son were out doing some stuff for a couple of hours, so I rolled the bike out for some in-progress mock-up photos. AKA "Therapy" in my dictionary!

I was still working on my fender options, as the original idea kind of fell apart when the tanks turned out a bit better than I had imagined . I really liked the yellow plastic fenders when the tank was all nasty, but now that my painting experiment actually came out better than the vision, something different would need to be worked out.

I told you I was adding a few other little paint touches to the bike to keep the theme alive. . .





This one will be under the high mount fender, or possibly it may end up with a custom low mount that will ride just under the brace. Not decided yet. I was thinking grey fenders, but a lot darker than stock. Kind of a Darth Vader kind of grey . . .





A little on the headlight too. I may be changing out the ears as I have a better option, just trying to decide which project they will be going on. I like this angle of this next shot . . .





I learned about the low angle shots from a friend of mine who is an artist, vintage t-shirt designer and VMX standout. SIEGE , who hosts a killer vintage race bike show in Tukwila, Washington every year. I am hoping to commission a special buy T-shirt from him for the site. You can see a lot of his work HERE


Still a long way to go - a lot farther than it looks. I have not done a lot of detailing on the bike, as I am right now just getting everything to fit before a final paint. The rear fender is still in gestation, so no better shots right now. It is not the final edition.

Got to mount up a lot of electrical stuff, air cleaner, etc, etc. Plus I have to tune the bike with the new CDI and carb. The pipe is still in discussion too . . .

Mentioned in my last post are some of the custom electrics destined for the bike. As you read earlier on, I am installing a full DT400 electrical system, intertwined with the stock wiring harness with a few upgrades along the way. The bike was also missing all of the "guts" that normally reside under the seat, so the creation of a new battery tray and a place to mount the CDI was next on the list,

I started with some strap aluminum, a few scrap chunks of same, a harbor freight 4.5" grinder, and a vice. After an hour or so of measuring, fitting, remeasuring, refitting, etc, I ended up with this contraption.








Here it will begin to make sense:





And adding the other major component:





I really like these little gel batteries. You can get them online cheap and usually in local shops too. They fit perfectly in the space and don't care what angle they sit at. They never leak and seem to hold a charge quite well. Originally designed for power supplies for different electronic items, they are a perfect fit in certain little Honda mini bikes . . . You do need to make a blade terminal adapter to keep your original wiring plugs intact. This one had been sitting unhooked on my shelf in my unheated garage for about a year and it still had a decent charge! Plus it is actually more CCA than the stocker at 2/3 the size. It is padded with rubber on all sides, and then secured with a screw-down flap of aluminum.





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