I was looking for another restoration project when I found this bike that had been in storage. It was 1999. I had the foresight this time around to take a couple before pictures.

First thing I needed to do was find some pictures or something to ID the bike. I was lucky to find someone who had the original brochure. At the time I was only able to copy it but I have since bought one of my own.

I took the bike apart the month I bought it with good intention, but then got distracted. A few years later I took the motor out to my Dad's place and we tore it all down. I brought it back in boxes and asked a local wrench to reassemble the lower unit for me. I thought it might be something we'd be able to do ourselves, but we were getting mixed readings from the micrometer. It may have been our state of mind at 2:00 AM. We had fun though.

A few years after, I moved the project to a friend's place and offered to pay him to complete the restoration for lack of time and his need for money. It stayed there a couple years while I built a house and had our first child. In 2005 I got it back the way I left it. Nobody has time for this crap. Now I'm settled with a work-at-home job and the timing's perfect.

I started to separate, clean and look over the parts. What a mess... Every piece was caked with a mixture of rust, oil and road dirt. Some parts were painted with black spray paint while they were still mounted. I keep saying that when I do this again I am going to take the bike to a do-it-yourself car wash, soak it with an industrial strength solvent and hose the whole thing down with the high pressure wash.

The wheels, seat, fenders, head lamp, shocks, exhaust, bars and grab rail were not re-usable in my eyes. My last project was a 1971 Trophy which I restored, repaired and rode for ten years or more. That bike had some rusty parts I never replaced, bad fork seals and a few other parts missing. When I was putting it together I either didn't have the money or the patients. When I had time to mess with it later I just wanted to ride. Still, the bike looked good to other people and took good care of me for all those years. Thinking back I can honestly say it took a good beating without leaving me stranded but once and if it had been a Kawasaki I'd probably have some skin grafts by now. In any case I wanted to do it right this time.

Some dude bought the original rims off me on eBay. Nice fellow. He mentioned that he was interested in rebuilding an old Ducati, so I took him down the road to a place where I'd seen one for sale years before. By some stroke of luck the owner called the number we left on a note and the happy fellow called days later thanking me. My good deed for the year...

The brake calipers cleaned up alright on the wire wheel, but all the hoses and lines were like clogged arteries.

I actually torqued all the head bolts to spec. I never used one of these clicking torque wrenches with any success before. Reading the instructions really does help in some cases.

I always thought the high shouldered alloys looked cool so I bought some from Baxter's shortly after I got the bike. It was like what, 7 years? when I called them back to ask if they would lace them? Turns out I had the wrong rear rim and to their credit, they traded it out for the right one.

I thought I did a pretty good job stripping the frame parts and priming them. I used a total loss sand blaster in the driveway to strip the frame and larger parts. I did a few in the blast cabinet I bought used just for this project and a hand held grinder fitted with a cup style wire brush for some parts.

Both master cylinders needed to be replaces. They are like $100 EACH! but they look nice now...

I stripped and primed all the parts by hand and took them to a local auto-body shop for paint. They used a urethane and clear coat. I don't know... My spray painted parts look just as good and don't scratch as easy. Whatever. Most of it is covered anyway.

So reassembly starts. My cousin stopped by just in time to help slide the forks up into the triple trees.

You need the bars on to move it around.

Finally the motor was going back in the frame. I can't imagine how people can do that back brake with the motor in but it's done. What a bastard. No pictures of that. I would have been happy with a drum brake hub in the rear if I hadn't already got the wheels back. @#$%^&*

Around the time I polished the air box and mounted it I thought I was half way done. HARDY HAR HAR!

That is my 2004 Bonneville in the back. That is how I was able to live while I waited for this restoration to be complete. It will be interesting to see how they compare. I'll let you know later.

The original Euro style tank is in pretty good shape, but I wanted to go for a sleeker look. I had a 3.5 gallon and 2.5 gallon tank from other bikes, so I decided to start out with the 2.5 gallon US tank.

I shipped the carburetors to my Dad who did an excellent job cleaning them up and rebuilding them. Here is the bike with 1 1/2" pipes, carbs, clutch cable, battery and coil brackets mounted.

Then there was light. I stared at the bike for a week or more like this. I was trying to avoid putting that big fat clunky back fender on. I finally gave in and now I've done the rear light and inner side covers too. I searched the Web for some acceptable alternative rear fender but there's just nothing. I guess it's OK. Sure is cool looking with the fenders off though.

Finally complete.