I am new to Suzuki Bandits but not to bikes in boxes. I like puzzles and I love bikes and so combining the two is a kind of kinetic sculpture building exercise. My daughter found a 2001 Bandit 600 for cheap ($250) that had been wrecked and then dismantled. The previous owner had the idea of making a street fighter and used a rattle can to paint the frame, and everything else flat black. This covered up what was once a really lovely red frame. The front end plastics are all gone as the result of the wreck but the rear tail piece and tank have been treated to a lime green paint job that was applied with a brush. Pretty it aint.
When I bought the bike from my daughter it came in several pieces and multiple boxes. I have since managed to install the engine and get the wiring harness back in place and everything is back in, more or less, its original position. I have reworked the rearsets that came with the bike. They were in pieces and I didn't even know what they were for a while. They are not great but they will work for now. I drained the oil and found that the crankcase was full of a mixture of oil and gas. I have refilled the crankcase with fresh oil but will drain, refill and change the filter after the first start up. The right side engine cover was leaking. The previous owner had used something like Yamabond to try and seal it without a gasket. I removed the goop and fitted a fresh gasket. I have cleaned and installed the carbs along with installing the battery. I rolled the bike outside and tried the starter.
It works! The engine spins and I sprayed a bit of carb cleaner down each carb and the beast farted and popped meaning that I have my plug leads reversed. I switched them round but never got the bike to fire and thankfully so. The oil cooler was cracked and dribbling oil. If the bike had started, even briefly, it would have made an unbelievable mess. I am waiting on my ebay purchased oil cooler before further progress can be made.
This is how it looks now. The picture does not do it justice. You can't see the brush strokes in the paint nor can you see the huge blobs of un-smoothed body filler on the tank.
Somehow I am going to have to figure out how to fit some aftermarket lights and design some type of bracket to hold the original instruments. I will also need a muffler. I am not sure what is going on with that. The pipe that came with the bike takes a bolt on can but the OEM mufflers seem to take a slip on mount. It's just another mystery to be solved.