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My entire suspension has been replaced with adjustable arms, and all of the bushings have been changed to either solid aluminum or spherical bearings. This makes the car very rigid, but all comfort is completely gone. It is very good for the race track, but definitely not so good for a daily driven street car. The only factory rubber bushings that were unchanged on my suspension were the 4 large rear subframe bushings.

This job is a little bit of a hassle to do. I've had the parts in my garage for almost 1 year and have not wanted to do the work, but this weekend I finally decided to start it. The problem is you must completely remove the rear subframe, all of the suspension, rear pumpkin, axles, brakes, etc, so that you can press out the factory bushings and press in the new solid aluminum bushings. Not difficult work, but very time consuming.

I first removed the entire rear subframe with all parts still installed. I then removed all of the parts from the subframe and pressed out the factory bushings.




Here is a the new solid bushing compared to the original rubber bushing.


Once all the old bushings were out, I carefully pressed in the new solid bushings. This is a little awkward since the subframe is so large and oddly shaped.

All bushings pressed in!


Rear bushing


Front bushing


Tomorrow I will reinstall all the parts back onto the car!

My father purchased this motorcycle brand new in 1990 and rode it a lot. Unfortunately he injured his back a few years ago, and wasn't able to ride or maintain it, so it just sat. I rented a trailer a couple of weeks ago and picked it up so I could restore it. He wants to try to ride it again, but we'll see.

First thing was to remove all of the parts so I could access the engine. The bike sat so long that all of the hoses were rotten and falling apart. All of the chrome was oxidized and rusty... lots of work ahead!




When I drained the gas tank large chunks of rust came pouring out with the old gas. I inspected the inside of the tanks and they were in very bad shape. They have a tank liner that you pour into tanks that coats the inside and prevents leaks from rust, but I decided it would be better to purchase new tanks.


I used some chrome polish and 0000 extra fine steel wool and slowly started to clean all of the chrome. The front is the most time consuming because of all the springs.


Here are the new tanks being test fit. I pressure tested them to check for leaks and they were good. These are "Fat Bob" tanks and hold 6 gallons total.


More of the chrome polished. I also had to remove the primary cover and retap the drain plug because the old plug was stripped and seized in the hole.


After cleaning all the old flaking paint off the engine, I sprayed it with some high heat engine paint.


The carb gaskets and rubber hoses were all brittle and falling apart, so I rebuilt it.



Everything is going back on the bike, it should be ready to start up soon!

Today I worked on removing unused wiring. I decided to move the fuse panel that is located by the driver's feet to the center of the car. It is very difficult to access and is in the way since I have a roll cage, so moving it to the center will help. It looks like a big mess, I still must untangle all of the wires. The good news is that the car starts and runs with no problems!

Today I finally concentrated on cleaning up the wiring. I removed all of the wiring for the heater/ac and radio so far, but since I must follow every wire back to it's source and depin them from the harness, it is a very slow job! I am about halfway finished, and the good news is the car still starts without any new problems or codes.

Another thing you might notice from the picture is that my instrument cluster had to be moved closer to the driver. Once I welded in the front dash bar, the mounting points for the cluster were blocked. I had to modify the mounting bracket and move the cluster about 2 inches closer to the driver. I also removed the cluster outer cover. I may be replacing the cluster with a RacePak digital combination gauge very soon.

I also completed the rear wing chassis mount and trunk lid modification. I removed the trunk lid hinges, latch and also cut out all of the trunk lid inner structure. It is now just a shell. I then welded plates to the trunk floor on the frame and made a structure from tube to mount the rear wing to. This will allow full the down force created by the rear wing to press the rear of the car down, and not lose any force through the body panels. The wing was previously mounted to the trunk lid, which is not very effective.



The trunk lid no longer uses the hinges or latch, and now comes completely off and is secured with 4 Aerocatch hood pins. I will be adding a welded in rear strut tower bar that is tied into my rollcage. Once that is completed, I will also add bracing from the rear wing mount to the rear strut tower bar, which should make everything much more solid and unified.

This weekend I removed the rear window so I could weld some of the x-brace that I could not access. Now that the rear window is removed, I will use it as a template and replace the glass with Lexan. It should save a little weight.

I also started fabricating the chassis mount for the rear wing. I welded plates to the trunk frame rails to reinforce the structure. The trunk are has been cut up to allow for bracing. I also removed all of the inner trunk structure, the hinges, struts and latch. The trunk skin will be held on by Aerocatch hood pins and be completely removable once finished.