Meanwhile, 4 months later back at the ranch I finally wrap up work on the Stone project I purchased back in November. Back then I knew the bike was a kind of mess and an odd bird. It was a 2003 Stone with a hydro engine, recall done, dual plate clutch, but with 2002 bubble engine paint and 2002 paint scheme. I felt good, maybe too good, about the internals which made me think the rest of the work would be cake. I didn’t know just how much of a mess it was otherwise until I got into it. The fellow I purchased it from was a nice guy who inherited the bike from his father but it had a very great amount of neglect. Had straight pipes, forward controls, and Mud Dauber nests all over the bike and even on the inside of the turn signal housing, paint was the black tank, grey stripe but it had suffered many scrapes, marks, and long days in the Sun. It was a running project but had been horribly neglected and nothing seemed right on it, at least in comparison to the 4 other Calis I’d owned. I drove it about 4 miles before the whole thing scared me, I bought it anyhow
, brought it home, and parked it up to start work. A lot of the stuff is just standard stuff guys have done in the past. Thank you greatly to this board and especially Ralph Glorioso as I’d have been ridiculously hard pressed to complete the project without all the help I’ve gotten here. Giant thanks too to Mike who made some fantastic and trick peg plate lowers/mounts for me. I’m not very intuitive mechanically, at least nearly as much Glorioso, Croucher, and others on here. I probably “only” have about 8-10
different threads here seeking advice on different portions I was working upon then. And almost always I got that advice so thanks everyone. There are still a few minor things to wrap up like a new brake pedal, better routing for the brake lines and the throttle lines (ran them in front of the fork
and only realized after the fact). A few other small items but mostly done. It looks absolutely gorgeous. From 10 feet away
Up close you’ll still see the engine bubble paint, corrosion on small parts, etc. that maybe I’ll eventually address.
Mechanical changes
- Added another Brembo rotor and caliper up front and added new 15mm master cylinder and new tacky red
brake lines. Also then installed new pads all around.
- Breather ball was stuck and whole system totally gummed up with nasty bits of corrosion and junk. I flushed the whole frame breather system and I replaced the ball and all rubber lines which all were some degree of dry rot. I also replaced air filter and cleaned airbox which had the aforementioned Daubers inside.
- Replaced all fuel lines which also had a lot of dry rotting and even leaks.
- After removing the dry rotted tires, I steel brushed the interior of the rims as they were covered with a lot of corrosion
- After cleaning up rims I then converted both to tubeless, mounted and balanced the new tires on them myself.
- While rims were off I serviced and modified the rear cush drive.
- Installed Hyperpro progressive springs in the front forks and new oil.
- Replaced both steering bearings top and bottom as both were in shabby shape and front end not steering correctly.
- Replaced all fluids, strapping down the oil filter, and installing a new pan seal.
- Replaced spark plugs and head temp sensor.
- Rear turn signal stalks were both dry rotted and breaking. Replaced the whole rear setup with much better condition OEM models I sourced inadvertently from John Croucher
While replacing I also installed all LED bulbs in the OEM rear brake and turn signals. I also did something to reinforce the rear turn signal stalks but it’s been so long ago I forgot what I did!
- Replaced both front turn signals with LED units.
- Replaced front headlight bulb with LED.
- Replaced all dash bulbs with LED
- Took apart ODO and replaced interior bulbs that were out. I also replaced these with LED units but a little concerned about the heat there. Guess we’ll see.
- New battery installed.
- New rear mirrors installed (old ones were cracked and corroded.
- Original steering damper was shot and I can’t honestly say I’ve ever really felt like I needed one so I merely removed it and didn’t replace.
Cosmetic surgery.
The tank, side covers, and fenders were in rough shape. Initially, I was only going to paint the tank and the side covers but as I got into it, having the tank and side covers looking new and the fenders still kinda old didn’t jive. And too, when I finally took a look under both fenders they were covered in corrosion/surface rust.
I stripped all parts, sanded appropriately, prepped, and painted with Duplicolor perfect Match Cardinal Red for Louisville
and Medium Metallic Silver on fenders and side covers. I had to do the tank twice because my first effort failed at installing vinyl pin striping. I eventually decided just to tape off and just paint the pin stripes. Covered it all in that amazingly awesome, incredibly toxic 2k clear.
And that’s about all I can think of right now but I’ve probably forgotten some things.
Only have about 15 miles on the finished project and it might all start flying apart anytime knowing my work
but in those 15 miles it is performing vastly better than when I got it and now more in line with the Calis I previously owned.
