XS750 Restoration, part 8 -- Carbs are Done, Starting the Tank

This is a shot of the o-ring that had me stumped last time, along with the main jet upon which it fits, and the old o-ring, just to show why it was not exactly obvious that this was where the o-ring belonged. <shrug> Whatever. It fits, and the carbs are reassembled.

After I finished cleaning and rebuilding the last carb, I reassembled the carbs on the angle iron that ties them together, adjusted the butterfly valves so that they are more or less in synch, and reconnected the choke lever. Unfortunately, I cannot find the photos I took of the choke assembly when I first started to rebuild the carbs, but I think I reassembled it correctly.

I think...

Once I was satisfied with the carb assembly, I opened up the package containing the Goodridge braided steel fuel line I ordered to replace the old, ugly, plain rubber fuel line that was originally installed on the bike. Cutting the line into the appropriate sized pieces wasn't exactly trivial, at least with the tools I had at hand, but I was able to get it cut eventually, and installed it on the carbs as shown here. This is going to look sweet when it's reinstalled on the bike!

Then, I took a paint stripper disk to the fuel tank. The more I look at it, the less I dislike the blue and white paint that was already on the tank, but...yeah, it's still gotta go :)

I was at O'Reilly's auto the other day, picking up a set of turn signal bulbs for my wife's CB750A, when I found the paint I want to use on the tank. It's a Dupli-Color (tm, probably) two-part paint kit used to create a black-out effect on chrome or other polished metal. The more I thought about it, the more I thought a black-out chrome finish on the tank would look awesome against the black frame and engine already on the bike, so after work tonight, I got started stripping the old paint off the tank. I wonder how the black-out kit would work over "chrome" painted plastic side panels...? Well, I guess I should first paint the tank and make sure I even like that before I start stressing over painting the side panels.