454 LTD Bobber project

[joshabungay]

FINISHED!!! so... I bought an 85 454 LTD for $1000.00
First bike and I bought it before I even had my bike permit lol, pretty much right away I was on the internet looking at modifications for it and came across some cool looking bobber conversions. So i got my license and spent all last summer "2013" cruising on my new bike, then the cold weather came and it was time to put it away that's when I really started to think about the possibility's. mind you I had absolutely no experience moding cars or bikes but thought I would give it a go lol

[joshabungay]

so the first thing I did was look for a new seat. found out that a seat from a "Suzuki LS650" would fit without too much hassle found one on ebay for a good price.


I also picked up a set of shocks form the LS650 as well to lower it a bit. I put them on right away to see how low it was going to be.


next I bought a universal steel fender from J&P cycles part #(711-287)


Time to start striping down the back end of her.


the blue tape is to help me remember where all the wires go.




Now to try and figure out how to put the new fender on. I ended up cutting off the cross member that held the old inner fender on.




cut the fender so it would sit flush on the battery box and drilled 2 holes in the fender so it could bolt on the the back of the battery box




so now I needed to attach the top of the fender so I moved on the seat for now. cut some metal to extend the existing tabs on the bottom of the seat.




For the front of the seat I had to stack a few nuts and washers with a piece of metal across the top for the plastic tab on the seat to fit under.


The seat wouldn't slide ahead as far as I wanted it to so I trimmed the tab down a bit.




Seat is on.


Now back to the fender. I decided to go with a C shaped bracket attached using the same holes that I used for the seat. I drilled 2 more holes through the top of the fender and through the C bracket to bolt them together I also put 2 rubber washers between the two so there wouldn't be to much chafing.




All together.

[joshabungay]

So while I was doing all this with my bike I realized how much rust was on the frame, Time to strip is down completely lol
Surprisingly it only took one night for me and my brother to take it all apart.


Engine out.






Rust on the frame.




Got my frame back from pant, I sent it out to get sandblasted and powder coated. looks AWESOME




Now I only have to put it back together


Cleaned up the engine and got it back in.


The wife was ticked I was spending so much time in the garage so I said "why don't you come down with us?" lol


And this is what it looks like as of April 20th 2014


Got my fender back from paint. PS I thought the fender looked a little to long so I cut about 3 or 4 inches off it.

[eaglerider]

Lookin good!

[joshabungay]

Thanks ;D

Any suggestions, comments or questions from anyone would be appreciated.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using proboards

[mrcrowley13]

very nice build up! Funny some times how things snow ball from one little project to rebuild ay? LOL lookin good so far...

[joshabungay]

I was able to get back at it again last weekend and got it pretty well back together. I also picked up some lights for her from "JP Cycles"




Now I have to wire my lights. this is with the indicator lights on.


And this is with the break light on.


That's it for now. All I have left to do is hide some wires and tension the belt. maybe next weekend lol

[joshabungay]

Finished!!! I got her out for a couple of small rides last weekend she runs perfect. i think I'm going to pick up a small tool bag for just behind the seat to cover up the gap between the fender and the seat and to cover up the long pieces of the frame i never cut off.

[Blaine]

Looks great.....Nice job!!

[joshabungay]

Thanks. ;D

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using proboards

[eaglerider]

Agreed...good job!

[mikestorm78]

She looks fantastic. Great work

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

[joshabungay]

I went out today and bought a small tool bag for the back like I had talked about.

[mge1]

I might have missed it but what mufflers are those by any chance?  Thanks.

[joshabungay]

Not sure they were on it when I bought her. Sorry

[platypus]

That looks incredible!
I too bought a 454 prior to getting my endorsement. Will be my first bike once I bring it back from the dead. Seeing what you've done with yours is inspiring.

[joshabungay]

Thanks. Everything I did with my bike is thanks to this site, theres so much info on here and everyone is awesome.

[dolinda454]

Hello

I'm Dolinda from Holland and just bought 3 days ago exactly the same bike......my first comment, just finished my membership.....I had a Kawasaki EL 250, but after a year and 5000 miles i wanted a stronger one.... Love him, but i'm 1.59 cm ( dutch mesure) drove 200 miles back ...wenn i bought him ....He has some little things, the brake good be better, one lamp with tape.....but so happy....... hope i can put a picture with my first comment.......greetings from Holland........

[charles]

Looks awesome! How much did it cost to sandblast and powder coat the frame?

[mo5bey]

Nice work Josh, the bike looks great. Makes me want to mount a seat like that.

[joshabungay]

Jul 18, 2014 13:59:13 GMT -6 charles said:

Looks awesome! How much did it cost to sandblast and powder coat the frame?

$300. I thought that was a fair price.

[pitrage]

Honestly I am just commenting on this because I love that rear fender and just spent 2 hours looking for this post after remembering you had put the part number for the fender you used on the thread... Yeah your bike looks good enough where I searched for it for 2 hours. Im building a rat rod racer and feel the rear fender is perfect for what I want except mine will be slightly rusted and colored with a torch before being clear coated only

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using proboards

[tstang429]

Love the look of this.

[joe454]

Very nice man. Where did you stash the wire harness?

[divot]

looks cool

really like that rear fender

[joshabungay]

Updated photo of her, she's still going strong.

photos.app.goo.gl/EN8VFVMtsaeG3qfF6