[FlipFlop]

Yeah yeah yeah should not have deleted my account. Formerly Aphrodite.

I lived in Denver Colorado, Lived in Saint Louis Missouri, and now live in Hartford City, Indiana. I in the past have owned 7 Ninja 500r's. I have owned a total of 16 different bikes over the last 31 years. I own a 2009 Ninja EX500r now. I am rebuilding it and it has a rebuilt title. I have looked up a few specs and they always seem to come back to this site. Since they kept coming here I figured I should just sign up again and be here.

I honestly get aggravated with stuff that is common sense repairs of people that are new and don't do any research on what they are doing, They tend to ask a question and you never know if they are ever going to come back and even say if they fixed it, or completely trashed it trying.

The first and third ex500 I got I trashed them not understanding the carbs and electrical. I was a spoiled brat that paid everyone to do everything and did not learn anything until I learned to start listening. I removed air-boxes and tried air pods and jump started off pick-up truck batteries pushing 1000 cca batteries.

Thank you FOG for your Fogbones and Rearset will post pictures of those set ups later. USPS took their time getting them to me but, I celebrated at about 8 pm putting them on and love the new look they give the bike. I know the rod for the shifter is different, although I did not use it, I like the extra space I get with the rear set moving away from it. Highest of quality as always. Is truly higher quality that the stock parts that get mounted to them!

Anyway, here I am again.

 

[yorkie]

hi welcome back. I still come across the odd video you did on the tube. ps what happened to the Blackbird.

 

[FlipFlop]

I actual had two at one point a 1997 and a 2000 sold them both since I got to the point I was driving so so much all I was doing was tripping over them. I hated selling the 2000. It was mint mint mint. I spent more time polishing it and doing maintenance. Since them I have stopped driving a semi and hung up the keys to stay home to be in my home bed every day.

 

[FlipFlop]

BTW: I ran into that video the other day Youtube stripped the sound off of it for some reason.

 

[K-woppa]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to seeing another set of polished ex-500 wheels.

 

[bpe]

 

[FlipFlop]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to seeing another set of polished ex-500 wheels.

This time just doing the lips of the bikes and a spare set I bought.

 

[ducatiman]

Lawdy lawdy long time. Welcome back!

 

[ghostt]

Looks like there's another ghost of EX500 past

 

[K-woppa]

Looks like there's another ghost of EX500 past

It's a Christmas miracle!

 

[FlipFlop]

Are there other that came back? I know the new sale of the site then them changing the format made my head explode. -BK

 

[FlipFlop]

This is where I am at as of today with polishing the Front wheel that is a spare that will get the new tire and main wheel will be gloss black with polished lips. This tire on it now is from 2001. I is hard as a rock and hard to believe the seller literally thought it was a good tire LOL He dropped the price 30.00 USD after I had him check the date code.

 

[K-woppa]

That's how I did mine, polished lips with centers done with Duplicolor charcoal wheel paint. It's a good look and not too bad to maintain. I also added some brushed texture to the lips. IIRC I used green scotch brite for that.

 

[ghostt]

While I've been gone, I've picked up a 84 Goldwing Aspencade, currently @ducatiman is doing the carbs for. Also I added another ninja 07 EX500 to the collection, which I built from spares.
Here's a teaser photo of both.

 

[FlipFlop]

I missed tinkering with these, and can see why Fog loved running these, so easy to do the work.

While I've been gone, I've picked up a 84 Goldwing Aspencade, currently @ducatiman is doing the carbs for. Also I added another ninja 07 EX500 to the collection, which I built from spares.
Here's a teaser photo of both.



View attachment 53086

This is stage where the bike is at now too

 

[FlipFlop]

Could not sleep in, so dis-mounted the old funky tire and cleaned it up and painted the part I wanted black.

 

[ducatiman]

good job!

 

[Moto-Kafe]

Flip.........do you mind sharing the entire process from start to finish on stripping the lips to final repainting (and a clearcoat??)......materials, chem's, etc. I really like the look of that!!
mark in B'ham

 

[FlipFlop]

Flip.........do you mind sharing the entire process from start to finish on stripping the lips to final repainting (and a clearcoat??)......materials, chem's, etc. I really like the look of that!!
mark in B'ham

I used a heavy rust stripper wheel on an electric drill to remove the paint, you will want to only follow the circumference of the wheel, if you go any other direction you will gouge it. Keep moving in long controlled movements. Once paint is removed from the wheel where you want to polish it you will need to sand it to removed any scratches you made with the rust remover wheel. 800, 100, 1500 (or scotch bright), then metal polish is what I do to bring on the shine. The painted part I used basically acetone to remove greases and oil then I used Duplicator Gloss black, about 3 coats. I did not use clear at all, and will not use clear anywhere or even on the polished part. When I clean my wheels I just polish them.

When installing new tires you will inevitably scratch the wheel, take 1500 grip paper or scotch bright rub out the scratch and then polish to blend.

When I paint these wheels they are spares, so I painted after the first layer of sanding and will install the tires and then finish sanding and then polishing. My reasoning is 2 things, #1 not as hard to handle when there is rubber on them and #2 those scratches I mentioned earlier I will work those out in the process of finishing the wheels.

I have seen people use Aircraft remover; I have personally used water and sand paper to remove the paint and spent hours and a gained blisters. The rust stripper wheels are very very aggressive and will literally have all the paint off the lips in just a matter of about an hour. Because of the sharp lines and ridges near the spokes of the wheels you can be very precise very easily with it. The key is keep it moving. I still plan on doing the black stock wheels on the bike currently and will set up my gopro and record or have my wife record doing that if people are really interested. It is super fast way of removing the paint. Lovinpolish in Colorado uses a dremel attachment and it might be less aggressive and in many ways easier to control.

 

[boog]

Hello @FlipFlop and welcome back from Virginia. Great pictures, love to follow along on restorations and rebuilds.