"For the side cases/metal- I will bake them."

That is where I am now.
I am assuming 200deg for an hour or so?


Yep- that is what I do-...

Does the DT400 have the "Yamaha" tall slide cap? That's usually the difference. You can usually swap the flat cap for the tall cap... but then you could have cable slack issues and could need a custom cable.

If you run a short slide with the tall cap, there could be a danger of pulling the slide up too high and pulling the needle too far out of the needle jet... worst case the needle could possibly come up out of the needle jet and jam the slide wide open. EEEK

A fix to use the short slide could be to install a tubular spacer in the tall cap? (I'd want to rivet or bolt the spacer in place)

Thanks Mark for this feedback- some extremely great points. likey

Going to do some more work on this to see what I can find out there.

Also note the slides guide height(tapered groove in the side of the slide for the Idle screw),even if the needle doesn't come all the way out it may go above the guide and spin resulting in the same condition that Mark pointed out.WFO on a Colorado switchback is not something I would care to experience!

Wow man, just went through the entire thread, unreal. Wish I had even one tenth of your knowledge for my RT3 project that I've just embarked upon! Sorry to hijack it all the way back to this point, but I've got my engine apart at the moment... (Managed to get the cases pretty clean, definitely took a lot longer than expected and still looks nowhere close to what you've done. Hadn't considered painting the cases, but after looking at yours I might consider it now.) More to the point though, I'm onto the cylinder and head now, and just wondering what kind of process you used to clean yours before painting? That's probably a dumb question but I've never really done any of this stuff before and man, all those fins make for a million little surfaces. At the moment my bottle of solvent and rags, q-tips, pipe cleaners, etc is making (slow) progress but still doesn't look anywhere close to something that would be ready to paint. Didn't want to pressure wash or it anything because I figured keeping water away from it is probably a good move, but like I said I'm kind of making it up as I go along... Would be really cool to figure out how to get it this clean and paint it up like yours, it looks incredible.

Thanks Poppinwheelies for the nice comments.

When I clean things for the first time- I start with powdered Tide detergent and hot water.

Get some nice small brushes and just start working all areas- the Tide will really start breaking the grease and grim up pretty good.

I have also used gas or diesel fuel to clean as well. The old faded paint does make for a good base coat and the new paint will adhere real nice once the surface grime is off.

Then the real detail comes in by exposing the side fin edges!

Thank you, that's much appreciated (man, this site is awesome). I was avoiding that route because I was told by a local mechanic not to use any water due to it's potential for causing rust, but damn, your stuff sure doesn't look rusty! I suppose drying it really well afterwards is critical, maybe with an air compressor?

Yep- drying everything with a compressor Immediately is important.

I then take a little WD-40 when I am done to rub down all of the bare metal areas/ inside the cylinder, Head etc...

A great story and a fantastic looking bike!
The videos had me grinning like mad when you were popping lil wheelies out of every junction!

Thanks man-

She does have a trigger front end that flies up when you crack the throttle.

Took the bike on a 70 mile ride yesterday some single track as well- ran like a champ!