1991 GSXR750 Slingshot mini resto
Discussion
Don’t know if bike build threads are a thing but hopefully there will be some interest.
The story starts some 20 years ago when Fb was a 23 year old lad. Having had mainly retro Kawasaki’s like pretty much all the Z range, I stumbled across a bike buried deep in the back of a local garages workshop. It was a place that reconditioned CV shafts so you can imagine the state of anything that had laid unattended for some 5 years or so
. Under the 3” thick layer of grime I could see a half decent base of a GXSR750M . After a few chats with the owner a deal was done and a very paltry sum paid. My first sports bike was born. I stripped it down to a bare frame and cleaned up each and every single component one at a time, the end result 2 weeks later was an absolutely stunning bike..
Fast forward to recent months and with age and loss of my father last year with who I rode to many rallies with, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic and craving some of the things we once owned as lads. Started looking at ST182 Celica GTi’s in red, big bumper MK2 GTi golfs, Z1100 and Z1300 Kawasaki's and also the constant yearning for yet another 750M. The thing is it HAD to be another 1991 M in black/silver/gold colours. I don’t like the K or L and neither do I like the blue/white and red/white colours.
The search began by occasionally scanning ebay and face ache forums, a black 750M cropped up 18months ago and my phone lost signal in the dying seconds of an eBay bidding war, the result was me losing and it selling for £940odd .... gutted just didn’t sum it up. Then last month a bike cropped up on face ache, everything I wanted and a nice £1000 which was perfect. Spoke to seller and was trying to get him to commit for me to collect ASAP , next thing the rug was pulled out from under me, again. Fate seems to be playing its part . Then randomly the exact same bike drops back up for sale.. at an inflated cost naturally
I messaged the seller and a deal was done, unseen , untested , unbloody anything ! I wanted a project so I really didn’t care as long as it was legit and engine wasn’t shagged.
Today I hopped in the van and 500 miles later I’m home and unloaded. First impressions... what an absolute dog
. Many many things to sort and a long road ahead of me, hey I wanted a project didn’t I ?
Some (a lot) of pics below to show the whole nice from far, far from nice Slingshot that’s now going to consume me.
Meet my new friend Efé
Grotty chain, swing arm and half arsed polished wheel
Shocking looking shock
Rear shock reservoir
Rusty bent fairing infills
Broken headlight cowl and bent fairing support brackets
Grotty calipers, shocks and discs
Knackered down pipes and oily front cradle
Overspray and oil on engine cradle
Deep scratch on front cowl, few all over
Bent headlamp brackets
Paint damaged on tank
Grim rusty battery box and wiring
Rear brake setup rusty
So all the above is the far from nice stuff, and below and a couple of nice from far shots
So what’s the plan, well nothing less than a complete tear down, bolts replaced or replated. Bearings on wheels, headstock, swing arm etc as required. Brakes strips and rebuild, forks strip and rebuild. Sort rough running out as it runs on 3 cylinders and exhaust blowing like a b
d, Powder coat brackets etc, and finally I think I’m going to be in for a respray.
Could I have just bought a mint one, of course , but where the hell is the fun it that !! I’ve set myself a goal of being all done and sorted for my 45th birthday, a little present for myself. So 20 month time we should be good to go. This won’t be a concourse showroom OEM OTT build, more reviving some life back into a tired 28year old gal.
Cheers
Fb
The story starts some 20 years ago when Fb was a 23 year old lad. Having had mainly retro Kawasaki’s like pretty much all the Z range, I stumbled across a bike buried deep in the back of a local garages workshop. It was a place that reconditioned CV shafts so you can imagine the state of anything that had laid unattended for some 5 years or so
. Under the 3” thick layer of grime I could see a half decent base of a GXSR750M . After a few chats with the owner a deal was done and a very paltry sum paid. My first sports bike was born. I stripped it down to a bare frame and cleaned up each and every single component one at a time, the end result 2 weeks later was an absolutely stunning bike..Fast forward to recent months and with age and loss of my father last year with who I rode to many rallies with, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic and craving some of the things we once owned as lads. Started looking at ST182 Celica GTi’s in red, big bumper MK2 GTi golfs, Z1100 and Z1300 Kawasaki's and also the constant yearning for yet another 750M. The thing is it HAD to be another 1991 M in black/silver/gold colours. I don’t like the K or L and neither do I like the blue/white and red/white colours.
The search began by occasionally scanning ebay and face ache forums, a black 750M cropped up 18months ago and my phone lost signal in the dying seconds of an eBay bidding war, the result was me losing and it selling for £940odd .... gutted just didn’t sum it up. Then last month a bike cropped up on face ache, everything I wanted and a nice £1000 which was perfect. Spoke to seller and was trying to get him to commit for me to collect ASAP , next thing the rug was pulled out from under me, again. Fate seems to be playing its part . Then randomly the exact same bike drops back up for sale.. at an inflated cost naturally
I messaged the seller and a deal was done, unseen , untested , unbloody anything ! I wanted a project so I really didn’t care as long as it was legit and engine wasn’t shagged. Today I hopped in the van and 500 miles later I’m home and unloaded. First impressions... what an absolute dog
. Many many things to sort and a long road ahead of me, hey I wanted a project didn’t I ? Some (a lot) of pics below to show the whole nice from far, far from nice Slingshot that’s now going to consume me.
Meet my new friend Efé
Grotty chain, swing arm and half arsed polished wheel
Shocking looking shock
Rear shock reservoir
Rusty bent fairing infills
Broken headlight cowl and bent fairing support brackets
Grotty calipers, shocks and discs
Knackered down pipes and oily front cradle
Overspray and oil on engine cradle
Deep scratch on front cowl, few all over
Bent headlamp brackets
Paint damaged on tank
Grim rusty battery box and wiring
Rear brake setup rusty
So all the above is the far from nice stuff, and below and a couple of nice from far shots
So what’s the plan, well nothing less than a complete tear down, bolts replaced or replated. Bearings on wheels, headstock, swing arm etc as required. Brakes strips and rebuild, forks strip and rebuild. Sort rough running out as it runs on 3 cylinders and exhaust blowing like a b
d, Powder coat brackets etc, and finally I think I’m going to be in for a respray.Could I have just bought a mint one, of course , but where the hell is the fun it that !! I’ve set myself a goal of being all done and sorted for my 45th birthday, a little present for myself. So 20 month time we should be good to go. This won’t be a concourse showroom OEM OTT build, more reviving some life back into a tired 28year old gal.
Cheers
Fb
Edited by fastbikes76 on Saturday 1st June 18:53
Croutons said:
Fan bloody tastic! It will be great to see this put back together properly. I lusted after one of these back in the day, the owner noticing a wide-eyed kid staring at it, letting me sit on it, then screaming away on one wheel from the off!
Yeah it should come out half decent , nothing mega, but certainly a million miles from where it’s at now !SAS Tom said:
Very nice 
In 20 months or so I should be doing the same
No progress on Efé today but did knock up a work bench quick. I had a el cheapo ebay special before that was flimsy and the Standard 18mm mdf warped and oil soaked. I was looking at another decent bench this morning before the wife cropped up that I already had one. Some quick thinking later and I grabbed the cheapest B&Q kitchen counter they sold and cut it up to make new upper and lower shelf’s. This stiffened up the bench nicely and now I can begin the autopsy! Just added some catch rails to stop stray screws rolling away.
Progress to begin soon !
CousinDupree said:
Nice to see a bike thread on here, good luck with it!
Watch out for the disolving bolts when you try and get the exhaust manifold off. They can be a real pain.
Thanks !Watch out for the disolving bolts when you try and get the exhaust manifold off. They can be a real pain.
Yes I will probably be removing engine just so I can deep clean everything. As the exhaust is trash I may just cut headers off and then attend to bolts once engine is out. Naturally I have recently torn a tendon in my rotor cuff and am now awaiting surgery... great timing !
I used to run a mildly modified 1100 version of one of these at Elvington at the RWYB. Fairly vivid memories of it wheelspinning and wheelying at the same time off the line if you got a bit too excited with the launch technique! I had one run out of about 2 dozen where it all came together, iirc it hit 127 through the traps at the end of the quarter. Not bad in 1990.
My mate still has that bike, it sees the light of day once in a blue moon now! Looking forward to updates on yours.
My mate still has that bike, it sees the light of day once in a blue moon now! Looking forward to updates on yours.
After a pretty heavy evening around a mates new bar, I feel somewhat fragile today. Mr Efé had about 40min spent on it before I threw in the towel. At least it’s naked now and I can see what I’ve got to work with.
No major surprises apart from some special wiring in a bag ! Usual cracked fairing mountings and wrong bolts everywhere, but they again being 28 years old I could expect anything less .
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/Fb1mv6bC.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/ZWcNixha" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/ZWcNixha.jpg)
Next will be to fire it up again and see why No4 isn’t firing. It sounds like a huge vac leak , but could also be a burnt valve sucking back through the inlet ... compression test next !
Fb
No major surprises apart from some special wiring in a bag ! Usual cracked fairing mountings and wrong bolts everywhere, but they again being 28 years old I could expect anything less .
Next will be to fire it up again and see why No4 isn’t firing. It sounds like a huge vac leak , but could also be a burnt valve sucking back through the inlet ... compression test next !
Fb
Speed addicted said:
To be honest my GPZ was in a worse state.
It’s a good feeling gradually making things nice again!
Square section frames must have been in fashion for a while, the GPZ is the same.
Nice bike !It’s a good feeling gradually making things nice again!
Square section frames must have been in fashion for a while, the GPZ is the same.
The photos do make it look less rough than it is, maybe its just me though
First order is to get bike running on a little fuel tank and set up the carbs. Need to investigate the bad running before I dive in spending money on a bad egg. Annoyingly I go away for a week soon so that's less play time for me 
Thought it was best to make sure I got it running on all 4 properly . Hooked up the carb gauges and it was country miles out ! Adjusted the carbs and it purrs away like a kitten now
Next up will be a big degrease session before stripping any further. I always clean before disassembly as it makes it a little easier rather than getting everything grubby
Next up will be a big degrease session before stripping any further. I always clean before disassembly as it makes it a little easier rather than getting everything grubby
triple5 said:
Love a good build thread 
Thanks , I love build threads in general too. It’s great seeing what people with different skill levels can do. Took the bike outside and jet washed the hell out of it. Got a fair bit of grime off but still needs more cleaning. At least now I don’t look like a diesel mechanic every time I go near it !
Managed to remove all the back end today after work. As with everything else most bolts were wrong and a lot of the case threads are stripped so a lot of stuff it now nut & bolted . Ready to whack a BMW 1000RR rear shock on soon and can then chemically clean swing arm while it’s open. Need to check wheel and swing arm bearings while I’m there too.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/dvc2rbym.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/exwAXI5d" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/exwAXI5d.jpg)
Thankfully the wiring taped up in a bag turned out to be nothing sinister, they right hand switch gear was routed wrongly so it was rather exposed. I guess that was the solution to water ingress.
Speedo mounting bracket had fractured and the vibrations have worn a hole right through the speedometer
The pile of bits for powder coating is growing .. as is the list of bits that need replacing
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