Liz Miles - MilesSpeed.com

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Gauge Set Upgrade

When I got the bike it had this custom gauge setup which worked fine (tach and h20 temp gauge only, no light) Thanks to E-bay I found a new gauge set in perfect condition and it all works!

K&N Air Cleaner

The bike's stock massive air box and filter just wasn't going to cut it anymore. The only obvious upgrade was to K&N's kit. Its about the nicest thing on the bike now!

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Tahoe

Fixing it up...

Sanding

First step was to remove all the stickers that were on the bike and sand down the chips and scratches with 220 grit sandpaper. For some of the deeper injuries 100 grit can be used but make sure you remove all of the course scratches with 220.

Priming

This is one of the most important steps. Since I sanded the plastic the primer can stick really well. My first pieces only got one coat of primer but I found 2 or 3 improves the way the orange came out with no need for a second coat of color. Any primer that specifies metal or plastic will work. I like the sand-able primers because they are higher build and fill in imperfections. I used Painter's Touch white primer.

Painting

Anyone could have guessed I was going to paint this thing orange. What can I say, everything looks good in orange. All of the pieces were done with one coat with exception to the tank. I saw some wrinkling on the second coat so I didn't want to risk doing 2 coats on any other parts. I think it wrinkled because I did it the next day, not at flash time. I used Rustoleum orange.

Assembling

This was the most gratifying part of the project. Each piece got a ton of time working with fitment and getting the zip ties to lay nicely.

This is how it looked the day I brought it home. I thought it looked good but I had to make it my own.

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1992 Kawasaki Ninja EX500 Sold

After

Before