1999 Ninja 250R "Vesper" - Project Log

[desrik]

I have been meaning to write this up for a while now but I have been a little preoccupied with the project itself. I recently bought a 1999 Ninja 250R for $1000. 6k on the dash with some crash damage. Looks like the PO went down on the left side and the bike slid down the road.

Here is a picture of the bike (the good side anyways...) when I bought it. Unfortunately, I can't find the picture of the other side of the bike.



Here is a picture of the front fairing. You can see that there is a big piece missing from around the drivers side mirror mount. If you look close you can also see the other cracks in various places. (Picture was taken after I had fixed all the other cracks with my trusty soldering iron. :P )



I decided to paint the bike using Rust-Oleum Spray-On Bed-Liner. So, after scraping off the stickers, cleaning up the sticky residue, sanding, and priming the tank, the side fairings, the front fender, the tail, and the grab bar, I proceeded to spray them down with the Rust-Oleum. Two coats on everything except the grab bar. That got three coats. I also sprayed the grille that covers the radiator and the one from the lower fairing flat white. I haven't painted the front or lower fairing yet due to them not being fully repaired. Honestly, I love the outcome.

Here is the tank after painting.



The side fairings.



Front fender, tail, and grilles.



Here is the bike with those pieces put back on.



As of right now I am working on fixing the front fairing so I can get that painted and put back on.

I plan on stripping the rims and painting them black with the lip red.
I also plan on painting some parts red and some parts white.

Red:

• Exaust hangers.
• Brake and clutch levers.
• Calipers.

White:

• Gas cap.
• Fairing bolts.
• Peg mounts.
• Bar ends.

I may think of more but you get the picture. Honest;y, I doubt there will be any bare metal or chrome on the bike at all.

Once the paint is done I want to light up the engine with white LEDs. I also want to put white mesh into the fairing vents with red LEDs behind them. Another thought I had, but am still not too sure about, is to put red LEDs up into the rear fender and wire them into the brake light. I'm not sure if it would look the way I'm thinking it would.

I will update this thread as I make progress on the bike. Any feedback, good or bad, would be well appreciated.

[quicklooker]

That looks awesome! What is the total expense so far? Was it easy keeping overspray contained?

[desrik]

Total expense is about $40. So far I have used 3 cans of the bed-liner at ~$10 a can. 4 cans of primer at $2 a can. I already had the plastic to stop the over spray when I painted the tank and the other parts were suspended from the roof of my car-port by some string while being painted. As for the fairing repair, I already had an old soldering iron to fix the cracks and for parts that needed a little "filling", I used the excess ABS I cut from the fender when I eliminated it. I'm figuring on about $30-$50 more on supplies to finish the paint the way I want it.

EDIT:: Also, the front fairing isn't painted yet. I have to finish building up the plastic around the mirror mount that got broken off when the PO low-sided it.

[quicklooker]

It looks seriously awesome. I've actually been thinking about doing this myself. For some reason the liner you have on there looks smoother than the liner I've seen other places. What is the texture?

People have warned me that bed liner can be really rough and could eat at clothing over time on the bike due to friction. They also say it's heavy, so I am interesting in knowing the riding properties of the bike after you're done.

The cost seems exceptionally reasonable. It would be cheaper for folks with fully intact fairings, of course.

Another thing I'd like to know is the durability of the liner itself under various conditions.

Sorry to make this sound so scientific, but it's very interesting!

[desrik]

Originally Posted by quicklooker

It looks seriously awesome. I've actually been thinking about doing this myself. For some reason the liner you have on there looks smoother than the liner I've seen other places. What is the texture?

People have warned me that bed liner can be really rough and could eat at clothing over time on the bike due to friction. They also say it's heavy, so I am interesting in knowing the riding properties of the bike after you're done.

The cost seems exceptionally reasonable. It would be cheaper for folks with fully intact fairings, of course.

Another thing I'd like to know is the durability of the liner itself under various conditions.

Sorry to make this sound so scientific, but it's very interesting!

The texture is quite smooth. The only way I can think of explaining it is that it kind of feels like some coarse sand paper after you have used it quite a lot.

I'm sure there is some increased friction on clothing, but I plan on making pads for the sides and top of the tank. Nothing thick. Just a thin pad to keep my legs off the paint and give me some extra grip on the tank.

As far as weight of the liner, I don't notice much of a difference. Could be because I only sprayed two layers of liner. It probably should have a few more coats, but then again, the liner covers very well.

Durability is quite good. About 3 days after painting I dropped the bike on it's side under my carport, which has a concrete floor. Not even a scuff on the paint. ( And it went down hard enough to curl the end of my brake lever, which I have come to like :P ) A few days ago I dropped a ratchet on the tail right behind the grab bar and it dug into the liner to the point that the old color was showing. I took a piece of cardboard and covered the light and sprayed some liner over the scratch and now you would never know it got scratched in the first place. In other words, if by chance the bike gets scratched, the liner is very good at blending in spot sprays.

[quicklooker]

Awesome info, thanks. I love the look and it seems to be very practical. I can't really see a whole lot of reason to go with stock unless you have to have colors.

[desrik]

Originally Posted by quicklooker

Awesome info, thanks. I love the look and it seems to be very practical. I can't really see a whole lot of reason to go with stock unless you have to have colors.

I don't think it allies to the brand of liner I used, but there are brands of liner that can be painted. So you could spray the liner for the texture and durability, then paint a color over the top of it. Was gonna do that on my grab bar, but my can of liner doesn't specify if it can be painted or not.

[alley]

awesome