Project Thundercat

First topic message reminder :

evening everyone...

i figure this is the right area for a photo heavy project thread?? sorry im new to this forum and im learning as i go!

so i bought yet another thundercat a couple of months ago and it was in a pretty sorry state, so i decided to take if off the road and get it back to its former glory, perhaps dare i say it even a little better!

when i bought it the bike was covered in terrible blue paint and looked like it had spent a few weeks being dragged along the road by a digger, since the weather is shocking this summer i decided to get the bike in pieces straight away and make a start!

anyway, this is how it looked when i got it...:







as you can see, not great... and to make it worse the terrible decals were lacquered in so couldnt just be peeled off! :(

so i set about stripping the bike down and a couple of weeks later the wheels were done, powdercoated in gloss white, put them back in and took the bike to work to make a start on the panels!

much better than the polished rim rubbish they were before!



bike now at work with its wheels in, whoever painted the bike previously also painted the centres of the discs, so i had to repaint those, went for gold and they look smart now



cleaning is currently in progress while its all undressed!

mrfrance wrote:horrible job doing the callipers, don't recommend it to anyone :(

no me either!! if i wasnt changing the brake lines then i dont think i would have bothered, but seemed like a good time to tackle it while the break lines were off and they were gonna need bleeding anyway...

hopefully the brakes will be worth the effort when its all back together...

Wow you even did it out of choice! lol

Mine were seized, I only actually had one piston working out of all 8 in the front

...I don't think they are working properly even now as some of the seals crippled on the way in. I just gave up by then

Good luck

i want to be available to do things like that :(

TomCom wrote:i want to be available to do things like that :(

hands on is the best way to learn!! grab a spanner and get your hands dirty!!

all of my paintwork is now finished...

next week some stickers and some lacquer then the panels will be finished!! yay!!

here's a sneak peak.... excuse the poor quality and lack of light it was getting late and iphone flash sucks!









i also found some time to swap the back disc for a sexy new one, and replaced the pads and cleaned up the pistons a little...

Very nice! Quite liking the colour scheme, is that a thunderace colour scheme?

Really looking forward to seeing the finished product

mrfrance wrote:Very nice! Quite liking the colour scheme, is that a thunderace colour scheme?

nope, that is loosely based on the 2012 ben spies M1 bike... only i swapped the blue for red... im quiet surprised how well the design worked, when its got the graphics on below the white blocks and on the belly pan it will look pretty good i think!...

well its been a busy few days again... non stop work and not much time for my own project! :( panels are still awaiting some sexy decals but thats no big deal so they're not far of finished now... some black bits have been lacquered and they look lovely!

i sent a few bits and bobs to the powdercoaters to refresh them a little and im very pleased with how they came back... take a look...











hopefully this weekend ill get around to ordering some braided lines and new lovely red coolant hoses! then its not far off being ready to build!

Looking v nice jayster.
Can't work out if I'm allergic to white wheels or if they are allergic to me.
Happy cleaning

Keep the pics coming

Cheers
Rosco

Looking good kidder

hey everyone...

its been a while again, sooo busy at the minute but i have found time to do a little work on the cat... heres a few updated pics...

first, i unpacked the pretend carbon mirrors and decided they looked naff.... so i masked them up and had them tinted, they look much better now, ill get a finished picture when they've been lacquered a little bit!



finally got chance to fit the braided lines and refit the callipers, the lines look loads better and the difference in the feel of the lever is unreal! seemed to take forever to bleed them but finally got there and they really are better than new now after the calliper rebuild and new HH pads! plus it all had a damn good clean...

then i got all of my decals printed, decided to keep it simple rather than plaster it in stickers and make it into a terrible race replica! so i went for carbon printed vinyl for the speedblock shadow and some yam's on the belly, still have some others to apply on the top fairing and tank but almost done and ready to be lacquered now! it will all be done by the end of next week as i have some time to rebuild it!!





i also found an old link pipe lying around so i chopped it down a little and made myself a loud-ass slash cut! not entirely sure how it will sound yet as i dont have a fuel tank on at the min... but im sure it will sound terrible and a real exhaust will find its way back on at some point! :S

things have progressed a little further since i last updated.... the bike is almost finished now, im just working on fitting all the parts back on.

i dropped the oil out and fitted the sexy chrome k&n filter



i cut down the rear guard a lot with a hot knife and got rid of the standard indicator holes so i bought this replacment, looks fantastic!



a subtle upgrade... :S



then after a good clean up of the rear sub frame i fitted the two tail pannels back on... im really liking it and am just about to head off to get the tank and top fairing attached

Wow! You've done a good job there man, it's gorgeous

Cheers!

I have a few more pics to upload when I get myself to a pc...

Managed to get the top fairing on and the mirrors wired up, they look fantastic! Also got the hid headlight all plumbed in an the wiring tucked away...

the bike really looks awesome so far, cant wait to see pics of the finished product :-)
One question, on the left hand side of the bike, down on the swing arm, are there dents or black marks on it ? will you be spraying them or are they supposed to be there or am i seeing things ?

Am really jealous of you having the patience to do it...well done :-)

No your not seeing things, there is a black mark there, it's where some genius decided to stick a datatag sticker! It will be cleaned off at some point but everytime I think about cleaning it someone has used all the chemicals and I'm not so bothered that I want to go get more just to get the gunk off!

Ill fix it at some point though!

I can't wait to see it finished either...

am really pleased it is just a sticker mark, would have been a bugger if it were dents

so heres a few more pics of todays progress....





the mirrors have led indicators in them, they look pretty trick, the pictures dont really do them justice, they were light coloured carbon but looked aweful so they were tinted and lacquered and now look great!!

looking sexy!

doing a great job!! paintjob looks fantastic, you got me thinking about doing something with mine now!!

kustommaid wrote:doing a great job!! paintjob looks fantastic, you got me thinking about doing something with mine now!!

well if you dont use it through winter then now's the time

i found when looking at the bike the powdercoated rear sets and rear footpegs make a huge difference, they make it look a lot cleaner and more modern... definitely the best £30 ive spent....

Daym!

This is one sexy looking bike, can't wait to see the finished article.
I'm lovin the colour scheme and the subtle gold bar ends...

I'm slowly but surely attempting to get hands-on with my bike and learn as much as i can but dont think I would ever get to a stage where I could do a full rebuild like this...

More pics please

you want to do another one?

TomCom wrote:you want to do another one?

im not sure im ready to move on just yet!! :p

anyway, ive had a little time over the past week so ive managed to get a fair bit done!

stand by to be bombarded with poor quality iphone pictures...









theres just a few bits left to finish it off, the keen amongst you might notice the lack of mudguard.... there was a clearance issue after a repair so its being 'fettled' ready for installation...
also i need to fit the infills and and 'v' piece, so just a couple of simple things left to do...

also i didnt like the micron can it came with, so i fitted a scorpian titanium one, then i decided i didnt like that so i dug out an old carbon one that was lying around at work.... it sounds absolutely lovely and in my opinion looks a lot better than the titanium one, especially with the carbon mirrors and deccals.

old one below, new one currently fitted is pictured above.

What are you doing with the old can ??