What are we coming back to? An odd sort of question, I know.
A friend of mine posted on facebook a picture of a Military person coming back from someplace overseas, and his dog had jumped in his arms. My response to that post were these few words:
"You can be stationed on the worlds biggest hell hole in the USA but coming back there (after a deployment) is ALWAYS special...."
At that moment, that small Air Force Base in SC was my touchstone. I damn near kissed the asphalt at the bottom of the steps of that aircraft! I knew that "return home" feeling twice in my life.
At this current moment, I wondered, where or what is my touchstone now? What keeps me being me? What is it that the rest of my life spins around on a daily basis?
Hmmmm. Its a very deep thought for me but I must say the answer to that question is many things......and all those things provide a piece of the puzzle of what keeps me being me.
Randi. First and foremost, she keeps me grounded in a million different ways. It's an odd mix that sticks us together. A very strong lady with a quiet way (unless you over charge her at a sale at walmart, then she is not so quiet...). I'm thankful for her continued involvement in my life.
Sophie. That dog has touched something in me that I like. She has changed me. I'm a nicer person because of her. If you aren't touched by those big brown eyes, there is something wrong with you.
Dylan. The smallest dog in the house but a brave watch dog in his mind. Sometimes I need to remember, no matter what the size, he who has the biggest heart, reaps the biggest rewards. I might not need protecting but it is good to know that he likes us enough to try and protect us....
Work. I don't talk about my work much. Some days its very rewarding, others, I feel like I'm playing catch up to my co-workers. I'm greatly bothered by this fact. Tomorrow is another day and another chance to shine. Today was not perfect but tomorrow has the chance to be.
I would guess the real answer is..."A small white house, on a small street, in a small part of South Carolina and all the stuff it contains".....
J.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
A Friend needs help 6/7/2012
I have a good friend who is in need of help.
Varda Epstein, writer, mother of 12 and baker of all things (The baked goods she post pictures of on her facebook page look YUMMY) has a need for LOTS of dental work and stands a good chance of losing her teeth. More information can be had by going to her "Tooth Fairies for Varda" facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/ToothFairiesForVarda
Varda also writes a blog, full of interesting things, that can be found at http://www.judeanrose.blogspot.com/
I wish I had a $1,000,000 to send to her to help with her problems....sad to say I can't do that. I wish I was rich rather than so damn good looking!
Well, you do what you can when you can and this is what I can do.
Thank you for reading!
J.
Varda Epstein, writer, mother of 12 and baker of all things (The baked goods she post pictures of on her facebook page look YUMMY) has a need for LOTS of dental work and stands a good chance of losing her teeth. More information can be had by going to her "Tooth Fairies for Varda" facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/ToothFairiesForVarda
Varda also writes a blog, full of interesting things, that can be found at http://www.judeanrose.blogspot.com/
I wish I had a $1,000,000 to send to her to help with her problems....sad to say I can't do that. I wish I was rich rather than so damn good looking!
Well, you do what you can when you can and this is what I can do.
Thank you for reading!
J.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thoughts after my ZL600 rebuild 6/5/2012
I am a member of a Kawasaki ZL forum (http://www.zl-oa.com) that deals with all models of ZL or Eliminator series motorcycle. The forum is full of knowledgeable people who are willing to give advice when needed. The help I received from that forum was invaluable!
After doing my own rebuild, I wrote a post on the forum of things I would do different now that I had finished all of that work. I think it is fitting to post it here....just cuz.
********************************************
Now that the deed is, for the most part, done, I've had a day or two to think about what I would do different or what advice I would give others thinking of doing the same thing.....Here they are, in no certain order:
1. Download the manuals and read them. You can't go wrong reading the manual. I learned a lot.
2. Before you take a wrench to said motorcycle, take a BUNCH of photographs......In 4 or 5 months when you are putting the cables back on, you will LOVE those photos. I had to go hunt photos from memory cards to see where a cable or two went.
3. Buy zip lock bags. The gallon size is a good size.
4. I can't speak for the 900 or 1000 but the best parts manual I found for the 600 is marked as a 1990 ZL750. It has all the screw sizes so you can tell the right hand control screws from the left hand control screws...(the right screws are 40mm long and the left screws are 45mm long and if used on the right control you will leave nasty screw bumps in the plastic....don't ask me how I know) If you can't find a parts manual, http://www.kawasaki.com has the same information online.
5. Lowes or Home Depot have a good selection of metric bolts, nuts and Allen head screws. I was at my local Lowes a lot in the last 4 months.
6. Orange Glo multipurpose cleaner does a good job of getting the 27 years of road grime off of plastic parts. Don't use it on those labels that you just can't get any more....it might clean the label a bit too good and clean the writing off the label
7. Mothers Back to Black works very well on those not so black parts that should be black...
8. I purchased used headers because my old ones had lived a hard life. (The first owner put road rash down both mufflers and bent the right side header in so far that the engine case put a hole in the header and he wore down the bottom screw on the kick stand switch so badly that half the screw head was missing) Putting on headers that were not bent or tweaked was a JOY. They darn near fell on by themselves. I must admit that putting all new exhaust gaskets on my headers/mufflers wasn't easy to watch. I had to spread the clamp section of the header/mufflers and watching part of that gasket peal away was hard to watch when I put the headers/mufflers on. All I could see was the money hitting the floor in those little slivers of exhaust gasket. ACK! The good news is that the exhaust sounds better than it ever has. It was money well spent!
9. I would have LOVED to buy all new parts...but....at some point the budget came into play. If it dealt with a reliability issue, I tried to get new parts. (I give MCM/Baccus alot of credit, he found NOS hoses I thought I would NEVER see new for a 27 year old motorcycle).
10. Speaking of budgets..... Some new parts on your old motorcycle will make your old parts that looked "ok" before look REALLY bad next to a new or refinished part. You might not want to, but you will spend more money than you expected to. The powder coating cost about $210 for a frame, tank and swingarm in black and most of the aluminum parts in silver metallic. I would be willing to bet I have another $150 to $200 in new parts/nuts, bolts, and screws. Invest in a tap and die set if you are powder coating your parts. It will leave a bit of coating in the threaded holes that could break a bolt. A quick tap of the screw hole before putting a screw/bolt in it will save you heartache later on!
11. I had been doing some restoring or updating from the day I got my ZL600 running in May, 2009. The seat was already done and the rear shocks, the tires, the carbs and the running of the engine were things I didn't have to mess with this time around.
12. The best thing I purchased before this rebuild was a box of odd nuts and bolts off of ebay for $10 almost two years ago. The best 10 bucks I've ever spent. That box of bolts saved my backsides more than once and kept me from spending even more money than I did.
13. Don't throw ANYTHING you take off your bike away until you are VERY sure you can replace it or repair it. The ZL600 has only been made 4 years in the past 27 years. Some things just aren't available any longer.....(ZL600 sidepod decals for example) (I think of how hard it would be to restore a ZL1000!)
14. Don't forget to say "THANK YOU" to your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend.....Remember, it is your motorcycle hobby, not theirs. My wife dealt with my wrenching after work and then falling in bed and being asleep before my head hit the pillow. She told me I snored VERY loudly on those nights when I was most tired. Thank you Randi, you are truly a blessing. I give my wife a lot of credit, whenever she heard me say "my golf words" she would come running to help. Dropping your restored frame in the middle of a concrete floor will make you cuss a bit!
15. I got to give back to the ZL-OA, which was important to me. This group of people has helped me a bunch since 2009. I think I wrote two tech articles for the ZL600 (Gas Cap tear down and a Junction Box tear down) I also tried to pass on information about aftermarket bearings that would work with the steering and swingarm. My lower steering bearing was in BAD shape. I had to cut it off and replace it.
16. Wide levers....worth every dime! They are very comfortable.
17. before and after photos are fun.....take a bunch of them.
Is my 1986 ZL600 now perfect? NO..not by a long shot. Is it better? You bet! in every way you can think of it is SOOO much better than the barn find that pulled up on the back of a trailer at my old house in 2005 or 2006. There are still a million little things to do and parts to adjust....but it runs once again!
BadBrad, Thank you for calling me and telling me about the ZL600 Crash Bars on Ebay. I LOVE THEM! They fit perfectly!
Thanks ZLMark, you run a good forum. I'm sorry I missed meeting you last year.
********************************
J.
After doing my own rebuild, I wrote a post on the forum of things I would do different now that I had finished all of that work. I think it is fitting to post it here....just cuz.
********************************************
Now that the deed is, for the most part, done, I've had a day or two to think about what I would do different or what advice I would give others thinking of doing the same thing.....Here they are, in no certain order:
1. Download the manuals and read them. You can't go wrong reading the manual. I learned a lot.
2. Before you take a wrench to said motorcycle, take a BUNCH of photographs......In 4 or 5 months when you are putting the cables back on, you will LOVE those photos. I had to go hunt photos from memory cards to see where a cable or two went.
3. Buy zip lock bags. The gallon size is a good size.
4. I can't speak for the 900 or 1000 but the best parts manual I found for the 600 is marked as a 1990 ZL750. It has all the screw sizes so you can tell the right hand control screws from the left hand control screws...(the right screws are 40mm long and the left screws are 45mm long and if used on the right control you will leave nasty screw bumps in the plastic....don't ask me how I know) If you can't find a parts manual, http://www.kawasaki.com has the same information online.
5. Lowes or Home Depot have a good selection of metric bolts, nuts and Allen head screws. I was at my local Lowes a lot in the last 4 months.
6. Orange Glo multipurpose cleaner does a good job of getting the 27 years of road grime off of plastic parts. Don't use it on those labels that you just can't get any more....it might clean the label a bit too good and clean the writing off the label
7. Mothers Back to Black works very well on those not so black parts that should be black...
8. I purchased used headers because my old ones had lived a hard life. (The first owner put road rash down both mufflers and bent the right side header in so far that the engine case put a hole in the header and he wore down the bottom screw on the kick stand switch so badly that half the screw head was missing) Putting on headers that were not bent or tweaked was a JOY. They darn near fell on by themselves. I must admit that putting all new exhaust gaskets on my headers/mufflers wasn't easy to watch. I had to spread the clamp section of the header/mufflers and watching part of that gasket peal away was hard to watch when I put the headers/mufflers on. All I could see was the money hitting the floor in those little slivers of exhaust gasket. ACK! The good news is that the exhaust sounds better than it ever has. It was money well spent!
9. I would have LOVED to buy all new parts...but....at some point the budget came into play. If it dealt with a reliability issue, I tried to get new parts. (I give MCM/Baccus alot of credit, he found NOS hoses I thought I would NEVER see new for a 27 year old motorcycle).
10. Speaking of budgets..... Some new parts on your old motorcycle will make your old parts that looked "ok" before look REALLY bad next to a new or refinished part. You might not want to, but you will spend more money than you expected to. The powder coating cost about $210 for a frame, tank and swingarm in black and most of the aluminum parts in silver metallic. I would be willing to bet I have another $150 to $200 in new parts/nuts, bolts, and screws. Invest in a tap and die set if you are powder coating your parts. It will leave a bit of coating in the threaded holes that could break a bolt. A quick tap of the screw hole before putting a screw/bolt in it will save you heartache later on!
11. I had been doing some restoring or updating from the day I got my ZL600 running in May, 2009. The seat was already done and the rear shocks, the tires, the carbs and the running of the engine were things I didn't have to mess with this time around.
12. The best thing I purchased before this rebuild was a box of odd nuts and bolts off of ebay for $10 almost two years ago. The best 10 bucks I've ever spent. That box of bolts saved my backsides more than once and kept me from spending even more money than I did.
13. Don't throw ANYTHING you take off your bike away until you are VERY sure you can replace it or repair it. The ZL600 has only been made 4 years in the past 27 years. Some things just aren't available any longer.....(ZL600 sidepod decals for example) (I think of how hard it would be to restore a ZL1000!)
14. Don't forget to say "THANK YOU" to your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend.....Remember, it is your motorcycle hobby, not theirs. My wife dealt with my wrenching after work and then falling in bed and being asleep before my head hit the pillow. She told me I snored VERY loudly on those nights when I was most tired. Thank you Randi, you are truly a blessing. I give my wife a lot of credit, whenever she heard me say "my golf words" she would come running to help. Dropping your restored frame in the middle of a concrete floor will make you cuss a bit!
15. I got to give back to the ZL-OA, which was important to me. This group of people has helped me a bunch since 2009. I think I wrote two tech articles for the ZL600 (Gas Cap tear down and a Junction Box tear down) I also tried to pass on information about aftermarket bearings that would work with the steering and swingarm. My lower steering bearing was in BAD shape. I had to cut it off and replace it.
16. Wide levers....worth every dime! They are very comfortable.
17. before and after photos are fun.....take a bunch of them.
 |
| Before picture |
 |
| After Picture |
Is my 1986 ZL600 now perfect? NO..not by a long shot. Is it better? You bet! in every way you can think of it is SOOO much better than the barn find that pulled up on the back of a trailer at my old house in 2005 or 2006. There are still a million little things to do and parts to adjust....but it runs once again!
BadBrad, Thank you for calling me and telling me about the ZL600 Crash Bars on Ebay. I LOVE THEM! They fit perfectly!
Thanks ZLMark, you run a good forum. I'm sorry I missed meeting you last year.
********************************
J.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Just something I always wanted to do....6/3/2012
From 12/16/2011 till 4/14/2012 I did something I've dreamed about doing for a darn long time, I restored my 1986 ZL600 Kawasaki Motorcycle. No, I haven't been dreaming since the age of 23 or 24 (my approximate age when the ZL600 was new) about restoring a ZL600. I have always wanted to start with a less than perfect "anything" and have it roll away from my hands in better shape than when I started. I once had a dream of repairing small appliances and owning my own business, but I now know that mass production of small appliances has made it impossible to make money on appliance repair. Repair cost will easily outstrip the price of a new like item.
I just like making ANYTHING run.....my lower back no longer enjoys it but my mind is in HEAVEN while repairing something. (every moment spent repairing something isn't bliss but getting there is half the battle/fun for me). The repair process makes me stretch my mind to figure out how to accomplish the task at hand with the items on hand or items that are in the local area. I hate ordering parts unless I just have to go that route and procure a new part!
I purchased my ZL600 from a person I worked with at Sumter County Government in 2005 or 2006. I WISH I had taken photos of it on the trailer as it rolled up in my yard. It was a sad sack looking piece of its former glory. All the turn signals have a rubber piece in the middle of them so you can bend them and they will snap back without breaking. (Unlike their 70's motorcycle cousins, which have a metal tube in the middle of the turn signals that will bend and stay bent if the motorcycle is dropped). The rubber of the turn signals had rotted away and the wires going to the light held the light to the rest of the motorcycle. The tires were the factory Dunlap's and they would hold air but were cracked REALLY badly and almost 20 years old. The wiring to the charging circuit had problems and it really looked very worn. The one thing that made me keep this motorcycle was the fact it was shaft drive. Shaft drive = NO CHAIN. Chain drive is simpler to work on but you have to ride the motorcycle in a manner that allows for the slack in the chain to be taken up at every gear shift. Shaft drive, for me, has made for a smoother ride all the way around.
I wish I could say that I started working to improve the 600 at that moment but it was not to be. I poked at it a time or two when Christopher would come home on leave. We did get it running and rode it up and down the street a few times. It wasn't a perfect but I could tell that a power house of an engine awaited me when it was finally repaired correctly.
It sat in my back yard until April 2009. A weekend day just like any other. Randi had gone outside to do a load of laundry. (our house, at the time, had its laundry connections in a shed built on the carport of our small ranch style house). Randi came in the bedroom, where I was watching TV and said from clenched teeth "There are two guys out here that want to talk to you....." and she walked off toward the carport. Ok, now I'm curious. Randi isn't shaken by much. I haven't seen her truly mad about anything except twice since we met and her being mad REALLY got my attention.
I walked outside on the carport and the two guys standing there almost didn't have one good tooth between them. They ask "What do you want for that motorcycle in your back yard?" I told them it wasn't for sale and they couldn't pay me the money I would want for it.... They thanked me and got back in their truck and left. I then found out they startled Randi as she walked out of the house with a load of clothes and THAT is what made her mad....it had nothing to do with the motorcycle at all. However, Randi being mad got me off my ass and I got to work, and in a month's time, I had the old Kawasaki running, titled and tagged for the first time since 1992.
The photo makes that old motorcycle look better than it was.
A running motorcycle was one thing, an improved motorcycle was quite another. The previous owner had given the old ZL a hard life. It had been parked with gas in the carburetors, the right hand header was bent into the engine case, the kick stand switch had the head of one of its attachment screws sheered half way off from being scraped along the asphalt. The exhaust mufflers had road rash down each of them. The rear brake pedal and the gear shift lever were both bent. In the weeks before being titled, I had to repair a charging system that had burnt the wiring harness in such a way as to make it hard to see how it went back together.
Ebay and M.I.D.S. motorcycle salvage in Sumter, SC were my friends. I repaired the wiring problem with parts from another motorcycle and black electric tape and purchased a voltage regulator and battery.
I started repairing things from the first moment after I got it running. I rode the wheels off of it for the rest of the summer of 2009! Life was good!
In 2010 we moved up the road toward Columbia SC and I didn't ride my ZL600 one inch during the summer of 2010! ACK! The spring of 2011 rolled around and I ask Randi if I could spend the money to repair a few things on the Kawasaki to get it running again. I had it titled and insured in all of 2010 and I wasn't missing another riding season to nagging problems!
Fast forward a few months and I did a search for a powder coater in the Columbia area. I found one that was on my way to work. The total frame and other parts being powder coated was going to cost about $210...HEY, even I can afford that! My mind was alight with thoughts of delight with finally getting to "do it right" by this motorcycle I love riding! I decided to wait until December 2011 to start the tear down because Christopher, Lindsey and #1 Granddaughter, Alisen were coming to SC for a visit in November 2011. I knew Christopher was looking to buy a motorcycle in the local area and we might get the chance to ride together a bit. I couldn't pass up the chance to log a few miles with my son!
November came and went. Randi took a trip to Minnesota for about two weeks, 9 - 18 December 2011. A perfect time to start the tear down of my ZL600 while she wasn't at home.
The tank went first. I had done a rust removal on the tank in fall of 2009 that removed the paint and decals from the tank and I had put a thin coat of gray primer on the tank to keep it from rusting. It took me a day or two to get the tank stripped to bare metal. I was lucky, it was a good strong tank with lots of thick metal left to restore!
WOW...what a difference! I will admit, when I picked up the tank after the powder coating, I cried. I got a lump in my throat and was a bit emotional for a few minutes. It was almost shocking the short transformation that had occurred with just a bit of gloss black coating!
However, A fuel tank does not a motorcycle make. I had much more work in front of me than I had behind me. Work, work, work, work......
The frame was stripped down to nothing and sent for it's beauty treatment......
You really don't realize how bad the frame is until you strip it down to nothing else. I hated to lose the two original ID tags on the right downpipe and the steering head but the frame really needed help with its rust problem.
I was lucky, I didn't have to rebuild an engine or get a seat repaired. Some weeks, the work went well and other weeks the coming spring got me down with sinus so bad that I grumbled about the sunny days that I didn't work toward getting the ZL back together. I had heard that the quicker you rebuilt the motorcycle, the more you would remember from the tear down. This was VERY true! I would forget how something went together and I would go looking for old photographs or parts manuals of ZL600's to see how things fit together. I learned a lot along the way
Putting the engine in was the hardest thing that had to be done after I got all the parts back. I was SUPER careful putting it back together. It took 3 times longer to get back together than it did to take it apart! The thought of scratching newly repaired parts gave me pause to take my time.
After I took the photograph on 4/8/2012, I walked back in the house and sobbed like a relived kid that had just acted in his first school play. Randi ask me why I was crying and about all I could get out of my mouth between sobs was "I did it, I really did it"....Randi was a bit confused and ask me " You must have thought you could do it or you wouldn't have started doing it, right?" ...well....NO...my life is a wake of unfinished projects......sad to say.
I can honestly say I'm very happy with how it turned out. It still needs things worked on right at this moment but I can go ride it at any time..... no one owns a 28 year old motorcycle that doesn't need Something done to it!
I'm not sure why it took me so long to write this ACK. It has been rolling around in my head for weeks...I just didn't slow down enough to take the time to write it.......
I just like making ANYTHING run.....my lower back no longer enjoys it but my mind is in HEAVEN while repairing something. (every moment spent repairing something isn't bliss but getting there is half the battle/fun for me). The repair process makes me stretch my mind to figure out how to accomplish the task at hand with the items on hand or items that are in the local area. I hate ordering parts unless I just have to go that route and procure a new part!
I purchased my ZL600 from a person I worked with at Sumter County Government in 2005 or 2006. I WISH I had taken photos of it on the trailer as it rolled up in my yard. It was a sad sack looking piece of its former glory. All the turn signals have a rubber piece in the middle of them so you can bend them and they will snap back without breaking. (Unlike their 70's motorcycle cousins, which have a metal tube in the middle of the turn signals that will bend and stay bent if the motorcycle is dropped). The rubber of the turn signals had rotted away and the wires going to the light held the light to the rest of the motorcycle. The tires were the factory Dunlap's and they would hold air but were cracked REALLY badly and almost 20 years old. The wiring to the charging circuit had problems and it really looked very worn. The one thing that made me keep this motorcycle was the fact it was shaft drive. Shaft drive = NO CHAIN. Chain drive is simpler to work on but you have to ride the motorcycle in a manner that allows for the slack in the chain to be taken up at every gear shift. Shaft drive, for me, has made for a smoother ride all the way around.
I wish I could say that I started working to improve the 600 at that moment but it was not to be. I poked at it a time or two when Christopher would come home on leave. We did get it running and rode it up and down the street a few times. It wasn't a perfect but I could tell that a power house of an engine awaited me when it was finally repaired correctly.
It sat in my back yard until April 2009. A weekend day just like any other. Randi had gone outside to do a load of laundry. (our house, at the time, had its laundry connections in a shed built on the carport of our small ranch style house). Randi came in the bedroom, where I was watching TV and said from clenched teeth "There are two guys out here that want to talk to you....." and she walked off toward the carport. Ok, now I'm curious. Randi isn't shaken by much. I haven't seen her truly mad about anything except twice since we met and her being mad REALLY got my attention.
I walked outside on the carport and the two guys standing there almost didn't have one good tooth between them. They ask "What do you want for that motorcycle in your back yard?" I told them it wasn't for sale and they couldn't pay me the money I would want for it.... They thanked me and got back in their truck and left. I then found out they startled Randi as she walked out of the house with a load of clothes and THAT is what made her mad....it had nothing to do with the motorcycle at all. However, Randi being mad got me off my ass and I got to work, and in a month's time, I had the old Kawasaki running, titled and tagged for the first time since 1992.
 | |
| The first photograph after being repaired 5/9/2009 |
The photo makes that old motorcycle look better than it was.
 |
| Bleached out plastic and nasty aluminum oxide 2009 with the new seat. |
 | ||
| 6/7/2009 old seat |
| |
| Rust, rust, rust! 12/2011 |
Ebay and M.I.D.S. motorcycle salvage in Sumter, SC were my friends. I repaired the wiring problem with parts from another motorcycle and black electric tape and purchased a voltage regulator and battery.
I started repairing things from the first moment after I got it running. I rode the wheels off of it for the rest of the summer of 2009! Life was good!
In 2010 we moved up the road toward Columbia SC and I didn't ride my ZL600 one inch during the summer of 2010! ACK! The spring of 2011 rolled around and I ask Randi if I could spend the money to repair a few things on the Kawasaki to get it running again. I had it titled and insured in all of 2010 and I wasn't missing another riding season to nagging problems!
 |
| One of the first rides of 2011. 5/7/2011 |
Fast forward a few months and I did a search for a powder coater in the Columbia area. I found one that was on my way to work. The total frame and other parts being powder coated was going to cost about $210...HEY, even I can afford that! My mind was alight with thoughts of delight with finally getting to "do it right" by this motorcycle I love riding! I decided to wait until December 2011 to start the tear down because Christopher, Lindsey and #1 Granddaughter, Alisen were coming to SC for a visit in November 2011. I knew Christopher was looking to buy a motorcycle in the local area and we might get the chance to ride together a bit. I couldn't pass up the chance to log a few miles with my son!
November came and went. Randi took a trip to Minnesota for about two weeks, 9 - 18 December 2011. A perfect time to start the tear down of my ZL600 while she wasn't at home.
The tank went first. I had done a rust removal on the tank in fall of 2009 that removed the paint and decals from the tank and I had put a thin coat of gray primer on the tank to keep it from rusting. It took me a day or two to get the tank stripped to bare metal. I was lucky, it was a good strong tank with lots of thick metal left to restore!
 |
| Stripped tank, 12/17/2011 |
 |
| Repaired Tank 12/27/2011 |
WOW...what a difference! I will admit, when I picked up the tank after the powder coating, I cried. I got a lump in my throat and was a bit emotional for a few minutes. It was almost shocking the short transformation that had occurred with just a bit of gloss black coating!
 |
| Hanging on the rack after repair 12/27/2011 |
However, A fuel tank does not a motorcycle make. I had much more work in front of me than I had behind me. Work, work, work, work......
The frame was stripped down to nothing and sent for it's beauty treatment......
 |
| Frame, Before 12/2011 |
You really don't realize how bad the frame is until you strip it down to nothing else. I hated to lose the two original ID tags on the right downpipe and the steering head but the frame really needed help with its rust problem.
 | |
| Frame, After 1/13/2012 |
I was lucky, I didn't have to rebuild an engine or get a seat repaired. Some weeks, the work went well and other weeks the coming spring got me down with sinus so bad that I grumbled about the sunny days that I didn't work toward getting the ZL back together. I had heard that the quicker you rebuilt the motorcycle, the more you would remember from the tear down. This was VERY true! I would forget how something went together and I would go looking for old photographs or parts manuals of ZL600's to see how things fit together. I learned a lot along the way
 |
| The Engine back in the frame. Thanks for the help Adam Twitty! |
|
| NO RUST!!! WHOO HOO! |
 | |
| getting there slowly |
 | |
| Ceramic Coated headers and Crash Bars 4/2012 |
 | |
| 4/8/2012. Almost finished. |
|
| Before 5/7/2011 |
 | ||
| After 4/14/2012 |
I can honestly say I'm very happy with how it turned out. It still needs things worked on right at this moment but I can go ride it at any time..... no one owns a 28 year old motorcycle that doesn't need Something done to it!
I'm not sure why it took me so long to write this ACK. It has been rolling around in my head for weeks...I just didn't slow down enough to take the time to write it.......
Sunday, May 13, 2012
A rerun fit for a memory 5/13/2012
The Daily ACK 26 July, 2011 Memories
by Johnny Massengill on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 9:24pm ·
For some reason I've been thinking about a time that happened before I started school. It was late 1968 or early 1969. My dad had just spent 18 months overseas on the Azores Island (Seems there is a tiny Air Force Base, Lajes Air Force Base, on that island and they decided they needed my dad more than I did....oh well http://maps.google.com/maps?q=azores+map&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xb467f1e11e43b05:0xe2911b674bce0c1d,Azores,+Portugal&gl=us&ei=6mEvTtm3A4bV0QH1seW0AQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ8gEwAA )
I remember my dad came home on leave during that 18 month hitch and he brought back an album of music that has stuck with me until this day.
Booker T and the MG's Greatest Hits. Stax Records.Booker T and the MG's music resonated with me even at an early age...plus the fact they also played the theme music to Clint Eastwood's movie, Hang 'em High. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATFmWmsF-iw )
That album is still at my parents house. Time didn't treat that piece of vinyl very well. It is scratched and skips on many of the songs if you could play it today, not to mention the fact not many of us have a honest to gosh turntable anymore.
Years have passed and one night I decided to search for that Booker T and the MG's album. Randi ask me what I was looking for and I told her. My wife can find ANYTHING on the Internet...and on Amazon.com she found it. ( http://www.amazon.com/Very-Best-Booker-T-Mgs/dp/B000QUCPWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311728883&sr=8-1 )
The CD player in my truck isn't worth the circuit board its made with. I can't get it to play a whole CD. I drove Randi's car to work the other day and in the holder on the sun visor there was that CD. I listened to that CD and really enjoyed the memories I had. There is only one song on that CD that I don't like and it's the only song that someone sings on that CD. Its called "Johnny, I love you"...and I just never got used to Booker T and the MG's with someone singing... it just ain't right, I tell you!...just saying...
Now you can hear a small clip of Booker T and the MG's music on a radio ad for John Boy and Billy and I'm sure not many people even know who plays that short piece of music but I know who did it....and I remember....
If you are interested in more information, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._%26_the_M.G.%27s
J.
My
Dad while he was in the military. The photo has suffered from the hands
of time....I wish I could find glasses like that today...
Friday, March 16, 2012
A rerun from 10/12/2011 Underware Bomber
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/10/12/michigan.underwear.bomber/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
ACK! Today at work I ask a co worker "What makes a man SO dedicated that he would put a bomb NEXT to" his man parts? The answer I got was what I was thinking...."I have NO IDEA!". Even when I was young, foolish and in the military, I wasn't dedicated enough to put a BOMB next to MY tender man parts......
IF that kind of dedication is what it will take to win the war on terror, I'm not sure we, as a country, have what it takes to win this war.
The above statements are a joke of sorts BUT you have to admit, it takes a very brave or very foolish person to even THINK about putting a bomb ANYPLACE on their person KNOWING that when it goes BOOM, you either have a bad burn Or you DIE. In this day and age of video games, you can die lots of times in a game and bounce right back. In real life it isn't so easy. DEATH is permanent. Military Snipers say "One Shot, One Kill" but as far as life is concerned it's "One Shot, One Life". This isn't a dress rehearsal we are in, this is the big stage we are on right now.
I know of NOTHING in my life I have ever been so dedicated too that would have made me consider making myself into a bomb. If Randi ask me tomorrow to strap a bomb on my midsection, I would have to walk away from her and call the cops.....
We live in a great country but we have had an all volunteer military force for 30 or so years. Seems more people are telling their kids NOT to join the military than ever before. It was good enough for Granddad but it isn't good enough for your son or daughter. I understand that problem. When my son, Christopher, told me "Dad, I've joined the Air Force" the first thing out of my mouth was "Boy, do you KNOW there is a war going on?" He did know there was a war going on and being raised around the military, like I was, he was a darn site more informed than most people that enlist in the military.
YES, the military will send you too college and will give you 30 days paid vacation a year (if your duty section has the manpower on hand to allow you to take the time for classes or vacation, you can do all of that but if they don't you can't! Something the recruiters won't tell young recruits) BUT when they say its time to get on the aircraft and GO halfway around the world.....you have to go. G.I. stands for "government issue" and they OWN you as long as you are on active duty. They can't ask you to do anything against the law....but war sometimes makes the legal part of life VERY fuzzy. If you do an action on one place on a map, it might be OK but if you cross the border to another country and do the very same action, that could then be considered against the law and in the fog of war, you sometimes lose track of just where you are at in this world...hmmmmm
We, as a country, are in war with a most dedicated adversary. They don't care if we are black or white, democrat or republican or if we love our families or not...
Something to think about.....
J.
ACK! Today at work I ask a co worker "What makes a man SO dedicated that he would put a bomb NEXT to" his man parts? The answer I got was what I was thinking...."I have NO IDEA!". Even when I was young, foolish and in the military, I wasn't dedicated enough to put a BOMB next to MY tender man parts......
IF that kind of dedication is what it will take to win the war on terror, I'm not sure we, as a country, have what it takes to win this war.
The above statements are a joke of sorts BUT you have to admit, it takes a very brave or very foolish person to even THINK about putting a bomb ANYPLACE on their person KNOWING that when it goes BOOM, you either have a bad burn Or you DIE. In this day and age of video games, you can die lots of times in a game and bounce right back. In real life it isn't so easy. DEATH is permanent. Military Snipers say "One Shot, One Kill" but as far as life is concerned it's "One Shot, One Life". This isn't a dress rehearsal we are in, this is the big stage we are on right now.
I know of NOTHING in my life I have ever been so dedicated too that would have made me consider making myself into a bomb. If Randi ask me tomorrow to strap a bomb on my midsection, I would have to walk away from her and call the cops.....
We live in a great country but we have had an all volunteer military force for 30 or so years. Seems more people are telling their kids NOT to join the military than ever before. It was good enough for Granddad but it isn't good enough for your son or daughter. I understand that problem. When my son, Christopher, told me "Dad, I've joined the Air Force" the first thing out of my mouth was "Boy, do you KNOW there is a war going on?" He did know there was a war going on and being raised around the military, like I was, he was a darn site more informed than most people that enlist in the military.
YES, the military will send you too college and will give you 30 days paid vacation a year (if your duty section has the manpower on hand to allow you to take the time for classes or vacation, you can do all of that but if they don't you can't! Something the recruiters won't tell young recruits) BUT when they say its time to get on the aircraft and GO halfway around the world.....you have to go. G.I. stands for "government issue" and they OWN you as long as you are on active duty. They can't ask you to do anything against the law....but war sometimes makes the legal part of life VERY fuzzy. If you do an action on one place on a map, it might be OK but if you cross the border to another country and do the very same action, that could then be considered against the law and in the fog of war, you sometimes lose track of just where you are at in this world...hmmmmm
We, as a country, are in war with a most dedicated adversary. They don't care if we are black or white, democrat or republican or if we love our families or not...
Something to think about.....
J.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
3/3/2012 Top 10 things they teach in waitress school
Tonight, Rand and I went out to eat at a local location of a nation restaurant chain. We ask that the appetizer be boxed up for the trip home. When the waitress came back with the boxed and bagged up appetizer, she ask me "Do you want to put that beside you?"....Well...she didn't ask me a question while my mouth was full but she did try to hand me a bag while my HANDS were full. Hmmmm Ok. I'll put down my fork and the salt shaker to pay attention to the bag you are handing me. I looked across the table at Randi and said "That would make a perfect ACK....the top 10 things they teach in Waitress School"
SOOOOOOO in honor of my afternoon lunch/dinner, without further delay:
The Top 10 things they teach in Waitress School.
10. Talk SO fast that slow moving southern people can't understand you.
9. Come and check on the table every five minutes so you can interrupt the conversation
8. Come and check on the table every 30 minutes so they run out of EVERYTHING before you come back
7. Act so very uninterested that you forget what the order is before you get it written down.
6. Act so VERY VERY cheerful that sugar drips off your every word.
5. No one drinks coffee anymore so ignore that empty coffee cup but refill the Diet Coke glass 3 times before you notice the empty coffee cup.
4. Mix up the tickets of your tables, no one will notice they have the wrong ticket.
3. Chew gum while taking the order, popping your gum very loudly the whole time.
2. Talk to your favorite customers VERY loudly about your dog getting "fixed" with such exact details such as the Dr. who did the work, the price for the "fixing" and the after "fixing" home bound rest routine and dressing changes, pus color and stitch care for the first two weeks......
1. Wait until everyone at the table has their mouth full and then run around to the table and ask in a VERY cheerful voice "Is everything OK here folks?" and then run away while all are choking to answer you.
For as much as this is tongue and cheek, ALL of these have happened to us at one point in time or another. When #2 on the list happened, we talked to the manager and gave her SUCH detail of the conversation her waitress was having with a customer that her mouth flopped open and she said "Are you serious?" Yes, we were VERY serious.....it did happen and it didn't make me want to wolf down my food with wild abandon and leave a large tip either! And to think, we walked into that place some months later and that same blabby waitress had been made assistant manager....ACK! As Mr. Sulu would say "Oh MY"
Ok, ACK among yourselves.
J.
SOOOOOOO in honor of my afternoon lunch/dinner, without further delay:
The Top 10 things they teach in Waitress School.
10. Talk SO fast that slow moving southern people can't understand you.
9. Come and check on the table every five minutes so you can interrupt the conversation
8. Come and check on the table every 30 minutes so they run out of EVERYTHING before you come back
7. Act so very uninterested that you forget what the order is before you get it written down.
6. Act so VERY VERY cheerful that sugar drips off your every word.
5. No one drinks coffee anymore so ignore that empty coffee cup but refill the Diet Coke glass 3 times before you notice the empty coffee cup.
4. Mix up the tickets of your tables, no one will notice they have the wrong ticket.
3. Chew gum while taking the order, popping your gum very loudly the whole time.
2. Talk to your favorite customers VERY loudly about your dog getting "fixed" with such exact details such as the Dr. who did the work, the price for the "fixing" and the after "fixing" home bound rest routine and dressing changes, pus color and stitch care for the first two weeks......
1. Wait until everyone at the table has their mouth full and then run around to the table and ask in a VERY cheerful voice "Is everything OK here folks?" and then run away while all are choking to answer you.
For as much as this is tongue and cheek, ALL of these have happened to us at one point in time or another. When #2 on the list happened, we talked to the manager and gave her SUCH detail of the conversation her waitress was having with a customer that her mouth flopped open and she said "Are you serious?" Yes, we were VERY serious.....it did happen and it didn't make me want to wolf down my food with wild abandon and leave a large tip either! And to think, we walked into that place some months later and that same blabby waitress had been made assistant manager....ACK! As Mr. Sulu would say "Oh MY"
Ok, ACK among yourselves.
J.
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