I bought the bike for $400 only because I could ride it home. As you can see, I probably paid too much for it. It was sorely abused. Everything that could be worn out was totally used up. Tires, brakes, clutch, chain, sprockets, you name it. All the bodywork was missing except for the front fender and (badly dented) gas tank. A friend found the fairing and tailpiece in a junkyard and sold them to me for $35. The fairing was badly cracked and had several holes in it. I fixed the fairing by channeling out the cracks and filling them and the holes with epoxy. I popped the worst dents out of the gas tank by wrapping several tie-downs around it, pressurized it with air to about 10 psi, and tapped around the perimeter of the dents with a ball peen hammer. What I couldn't pop out I filled with Bondo. After painting all the body parts with primer, I gave them to another friend who painted them with Harley Davidson Candy Ruby over a gold base for $80. An Auto Upholstery shop down here recovered the seat for $40.

After disassembling the rest of the bike to paint the frame, I found my work had only begun. One of the engine mount bolts was sheared clean off, and the exhaust cam journal had over .020" clearance, (about ten times too much). The transmission had ground up the clutch retainer wire spring (God knows how it got in there!), and the piston to cylinder clearance was well past a simple re-ring job. The oil pickup screen was blocked with clear silicone tub caulk that the previous owner used in a feckless attempt to seal the valve cover gasket. No wonder the connecting rod bearings were down to their base metal!

I found another engine, but it was junk. Fortunately, the transmission gears and cams were in good shape. It seems that when a hardened steel camshaft spins in an aluminum journal, the steel wears, not the aluminum, so my head was OK after all. I replaced all the bearings, the oil pump, and the clutch, then finished assembling the bottom end.

Rather than going one oversize on the stock pistons, I pulled the pistons off of a junked XJ600 SECA motor, as they are lighter and stronger. After boring the cylinders 1.5mm over, I found they worked perfectly. My 528cc stock Seca now displaces 557cc, and sings clean all the way to 11500 RPM.

Next, I jetted the stock BS28 Mikuni's by raising the jet needle 1mm, changed to 37.5 pilot jets and 115 main jets. I also drilled out the slide vents to 2.2mm. It still seems to be running a bit lean, though.

I replaced the igniter box with one from an old XJ750, as it has a slightly steeper advance curve that makes it all work real nice.

The front end is actually from an XJ400 that a co-worker traded me for Honda parts.

As a final touch, I mounted the horns on the frame (where they *should* be!), and filled their holes in the fairing with a pair of driving lights I got from Checker on sale for $20. I named it "Peace" because it reminds me of the Robot Assassin from the animated movie "Wizards", and also because that's how riding it makes me feel.

Since the photo was taken, I have replaced the stock exhaust with 4 into 1 Kerker headers which are now obtainable only through luck and lots of tromping through junkyards.

All totaled, I think I have about $850 into it.
                                                           Stu