1976 Yamaha XS500 Cafe' Motorcycle Project

I purchased a 1976 Yamaha XS500 in May, 2010 from a guy who was getting deployed. The bike ran last year, but had stopped running and was kind of a work in progress. All the "skins" were painted Flat black, the bike was not running, and the frame and other components were in dire need of cleaning and touch-up paint. The previous owner had purchased a second engine and a number of extra parts. The bike was complete but pretty "tired". The battery held a charge and the fluids all looked good, but it wouldn't turn over.Of course, I was too excited when I got the bike and forgot to take a picture before I started tearing it down. My plan is to keep this entire project UNDER $1000 (I'll post a total tally when the bike is all done). I don't plan on completely taking everything off the bike, just enough to see what I have and to thoroughly, clean it and touch it up. After getting it running of course. I plan on having the tank, rear finder, battery covers and the centers of the wheels painted at Chanhassen Maaco, ordering new tires, exhaust pipes, K&N Style Air filters, new clutch and brake levers, a different rear tail lamp and turn signal kit, re-upholstering the seat, changing out the gauge covers, and painting the frame and other "tired" parts on the bike.

After taking off the tank, battery covers, front fender, seat, etc. I started cleaning a few pieces to see what I had.

Here's a BEFORE picture of the front wheel:

And here's after about 2 hours of sanding and polishing:

Next, I took apart the switches on the handle bars to try and diagnose why the starter motor would not engage. What we found is that the starter button had come apart inside and the little lead ball that made contact with the ground to start the bike had come loose. We took the switch apart, cleaned all the contacts, and re-sottere'd everything. I painted the switch covers in flat black and put it all back together... and Bam - starter motor worked! What a relief. Then I ran out, got some carb cleaner and filled the tank with a little fresh gas. The previous owner had rebuilt the fuel petcocks and they seemed to work perfectly. I charged the battery fully and then gave it a whirl. She fired up pretty quick actually, I had to adjust the idle a bit (I imagine I'll have a few more adjustments after the air filters are back on the bike).

Here's a video of her running for the first time:

Now that I got her running, my plan is to start going through it, cleaning, painting, and reconditioning from the front, back. I took apart the dash, painted the headlight bucket, and installed the chrome gauge covers (got them as extra parts from the previous owner)

Here's some pictures of the cleaned up gauge cluster:

I was a bit anxious to see what was under the awful-looking large plastic cover supporting the rear tail lamp and license plate bracket, so I took it off to see what was underneath. I think I'll leave the cover off and do something with this solid metal fender in back....
Please check back - more to come as I continue to "frame-on" restore this bike.