One Hayabusa i have always wanted is an early 1999/2000 copper/silver colour one.
Not many come up for sale and are never the right bike for me for one reason or another.
And they normaly sell for about 1/3 more than the Black/Grey & Red/Grey ones of the same years.
So back in 2022 i brought a HPi clear main frame for a March 2000/W reg copper/silver Hayabusa with 14,095 miles at its last MOT in 2009 which cost me £360
I put the frame at the back of my garage with the plan of one day building it up into the bike i wanted.
My plan is to buy another 1999/2000 Hayabusa that has seen better days and use it as a parts bike to build mine.
For me what will take most of my time is the painting. So i thought i would get all the fairing panels and fuel tank together first and paint them ready for when i get another Busa to build my copper/silver one.
I already had the fuel tank, seat fairing and front fender from when i did my Black/Grey Hayabusa project.
So on the weekend i hit eBay with a plan to buy the rest of the fairings. £251.85 later i had all the panels brought.
I did not care what the panels looked like as long as they were no cracks or bits missing from them, and the biggest thing was they had to be in original paint as i never trust the prep work of others.
I thought i had done very well to get what i did for the price i paid. The worst panel is the right side fairing with some road rash (easy fix).
My total budget for this project is £4000, so i need to spend no more than £2750 on a donor bike that is running.
Your be susprised how quickly it can add up when fitting new service parts.
So yesterday i started working on the panels i had. The fender and seat fairing are both now ready for primer.
The fuel tank was taken back to bare metal with paint stripper and then sandblasted. The tank is now in etch primer ready for primer. I have 1ltr of both paint colours here already which cost me £75 per ltr each.
I learnt some years ago to always strip the fuel tank back to bare metal as your be susprised at the rust hiding under the paint. On this tank i know there was 3 areas where rust was. Once i had it stripped there were loads of rust spots hiding under the paint. This is why i always sandblast any metal parts i'm going to paint.
These bikes now being 25+ years old, getting new Decals is a job in itself.
But i have now found a company in europe that make them the same ways suzuki did for true OEM looks.
The only down side is the full set is nearly £300 with VAT added.
There is one thing that i'm going to do that suzuki did not do. I'm going to clear coat over the top of the decals.
It only takes a little knock to mark the decals. I have seen so many bikes that this has happend to.
The decals are printed onto the vinyl and not made up of layers of vinyl.
So just for info this is what bike i am hoping i will end up with in my garage at the end.
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