The body work is in good solid condition, except for rust in the tank.  I'll be using POR15 on it this weekend and painting everything next weekend.  I'll paint the blue area and black stripe and put a new Honda wing on it.  Its not period correct, but I'll shoot clear over the decals to protect them.

The side covers are in pretty good condition, but will stick out like a sore thumb once I paint the tank and fenders so they'll get new mat black paint and decals.

This stuff is going to get chromed on Friday.

Here's some details of the teardown.

This is how I started in the garage tonight the radio, a Dos Equis and pizza hut pizza.  You can see the top of the engine case under the carb is discolored--the carb was leaking a lot at some point.  I have a rebuilt kit and gasket set for the carb on order.

The wiring is pretty good, no reason to fix anything except the horn circuit which was cut off somewhere.  Everything else just needs a good cleaning and tape job.  I've found some heat shrink tape at Altex that really works well--much better than electrical tape as it doesn't come undone.  Its aout $10 a roll.

Its mainly just sandblasting, painting or cleaning.

Here you can see all the rust with the coil and ignition switch removed.

Now we're getting somewhere.

There is an oil leak somewhere around the countershaft sprocket.  It doesn't look like its the sprocket itself, but somewhere higher, maybe the neutral switch??

I've got two tires, an aluminum rear sprocket, steel front sprocket, chain, steering head bearings, seat lock, clutch cable, brake cables, speedometer cable, sundry gromets, rubber parts, seals, o-rings, screws, bolts, washers, and nuts on order.I'm trying to stay unde $2K total.  Hope it works.

Kathy goes to work about an hour before I get up and today she called me at 6:30:eek:  to bring her something from home.  I wasn't going to take the parts to be rechromed unti tomorrow, but since I was up so early I grabbed the chrome parts and dropped them off at Astro Bumper Exchange for rechroming.  $168 for the lot which is reasonable.  Chroming has gotten really expensive as the EPA has tightened up the environmental rules.

Handlebars, the rear turn signal and fender support, taillight mounting bracket, choke mounting bracket and a bail which aligns cables.

Nice looking bike, I like the red and black paint scheme.  The fender loop is off a XL250 model that didn't come with turn signals.  He gave me the original from this bike which had the square mounts for the turn signals.  Is that paint on the underside of the fenders as shiny as it looks in the picture?

I hope to have the engine out of the chassis this weekend so I can take the frame, swing arm and some other painted parts to have them sand blasted and primed.  Then I'll rub it down with 0000 seel wool and shoot it with some gloss black and then cover it with semigloss clear. It ought to look pretty close to the orginal paint.

I finished stripping it down to the frame this morning.

When I took the skid plate off, one of the motor mounts came out too.

Then the front and rear mount came out.  Easy, just 3 bolts.

And finally the lower mount at the rear of the engine.

Then I just tilted and lifted the engine out of the bike.  It only weighs about 100 lbs so I could just grab it by the head and yank.  The engine of the last bike I restoed, a 1983 CB1100F weighed about 250 lbs so I had to use a jack to get it out.

First I loosened the shocks and removed the brake arm.  Then I loosened the swing arm bolt nut, then put the nut on the end of the bolt and tapped it with a hammer to loosen it up. Then I removed the swing arm.

Then I removed the shocks.

Next I removed the front wheel, then I loosened the fork top nut and the hex bolt that goes up inside the lower fork leg. I did that before I relesed the triple tree clamps so the would be held tight which makes the job easier.

I should have removed the handbar clamps while the handlebars were on the bike because they kept spinning when I twisted the nut.  I came up with this solution.

Here's the frame ready for sand blasting.

There was rust in the petcock cup when I took it apart and I could see a little rust through the fuel opening so I decided to treat the tank.  I had heard some good things about POR15 so I thought I'd give it a try. 

I used a screw and piece of rubber I cut off the old tires to block off the petcock hole.

Its a three step process.  First, you apply something called Marine Clean which is alkaline and caustic to clean any old gas and varnish out of the tank.  It went in clear and came out looking like dark iced tea so I guess it did its job. The inside of the tank looked great too.  It used to have a brown cast to it and I thought it was rust, but I think it was old fuel varnish. 

The next step is Metal Ready which is acidic and not only neutralizes the alkaline Marine Clean, it attacks the rust chemically and is supposed to neutralize it.  You have to rotate the tank so it gets to all parts equally.  I left it in two hours per the directions rotating it occasionally.

I was going to use a heat gun to dry the inside of the tank, but it started getting hot to hold and I was worried I'd burn out the gun before the tank was truly and completely dry.  Then I got to thinking.  Katherine is in Austin with our Daughter this weekend and the tank is small enough to fit in the over.....

I figure a couple hours at 200 degrees and the water should be long gone.

The first thing I 'm going to put back together is the front end so I started on the triple tree today.  The bike came with two ball bearings, but it was definitely old school, a race, 18 ball individual ball bearings and a cup.  You were supposed to grease the bearings to hold them in the cup while you pulled everything together.  Probably not that big a deal, but I wanted to change to tapered roller bearings while I had it apart.  The problem was the lower bearing race.  On other bikes, I've actually had to unweld the stem from the lower triple tree and install the race and reweld the lower tree in place.  Its not a job for an amateur welder and I paid dearly to have it done.

After looking at this one carefully and measuring it with my wood working calipers--100ths of an inch, not 1000ths, I determined I should be able to just slip it off the stem.  I tried to gently pry it off to no effect so a quick trip to Bike Bandit and the seal and backup ring are still available.  Another quick trip to e-bay to make sure I could get another steering stem fairly cheap for plan B and out comes the hammer and punch.

It took quite a bit of force to get the bearings off the stem so I think I'll probably end up taking it to a machine shop to have the new bearing pressed on.

Once it warmed up to the recommended temp of 72 degrees I started sealing the tank.



It looks like silver paint and the directions say to stir it until its a uniform color. 



I was never able to get the black streaks completely out.  The bottom of the can was thick.



Once it was a consistent thickness I poured it into the tank and turned it over multiple times to coat the inside of the tank.  I opened the tape and looked inside once and it looked like it was gong on good.  A few more turns and I was ready to drain it out.  I'd say 7/8 th of what went in came back out.



It kept draining for a long time and I kept trying to get it out because the directions say pooling inside will cause problems later.  Here's what it looks like now--nice and shiney.  I can see in the tank and I don't see any pooling so I hope its good to go.

Getting the races out of the frame is usually a PIA because there is very little edge sticking out and you need a drift about 10" long if you don't have the factory tool.

Luckily these races had a lot of lip sticking out and I could use this as a drift.

A few hard taps and the race was out.

Had an expensive setback today.  I thought I'd give the forks a look since I had time waiting for the sand blasting to come back. You can see the problem in the pics below.

These areas were almost hidden by the dust seal when the forks were on the bike and now you can see the damage.  The fork tubes will have to be replaced so a call to Franks Forks is in order.  About $250 a set.  I'll also need to look inside to see if there are worn out parts causing this or if its just a result of the design and some hard riding.

More bad news here.

Some of the spokes on both rims are bent and I couldn't clean them up with steel wool and rubbing compound.  I don't want to put new spokes on a rim with stained, corroded spokes so it looks like I'll need to respoke front and back.  Another $200.  The rims are in pretty good shape otherwise, a few scratches from tire changes and such, but as long as the spokes are coming off, I might as well reshoot them.  I hope I can find some brushed aluminum paint.

I picked up the primed frame and misc parts last night.

I spent this morning polishing the parts with steel wool, the reprimed the frame and parts and polished with fine steel wool again.

Tomorrow I'll spray the frame and parts semi gloss black.

I also made a stand for the engine today so I can tear it down when I'm finished with the frame.

Once the frame is together, I'll be putting lots of NOS parts back on it.

This is a neat little vice I use to hold small parts I'm cleaning.

I intended to paint the frame and all the misc parts this morning, but I ran into a problem and only got the frame and a few other parts painted.

I don't have a paint booth so I do most of my painting outside.  I wouldn't paint something big outside, but modern paints dry quickly so there is little chance of something landing on it and spoiling the paint on something small like motorcycle parts.

Here are the other parts I was going to paint.  I started and I got some crackling on a couple parts so I decided to stop and clean them all before continuing.  I'll have to wait to next weekend to resume.

I picked up the rechromed pieces today. 

I'm going to have to make a second trip to Astro Plating--the clutch acutator shaft was originally chrome and its rusty and pitted so I'll have to get it replated.

I also reattached the vehicle ID plate to the steering head.  I punched out the original rivets and rerivited it.  The vin number is also stamped into the head on the other side.

I finished painting most of the black parts.  I'm sure I missed a bit here or there.  I had a problem with the clear.  The frame came out a little more glossy than I'd have liked and the other parts came out a little more matte, but they are probably closer to the original.  You can't buy matte clear, you mix a flattening agent in with the clear and I think there is a little bit of an art involved.

I've been doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that this weekend.

I ordered new rubber for the battery box.

I disassembled and cleaned the shocks.  They will need replaced, but I don't want to wait for new ones.

I didn't have a shock disasembly tool so I rigged this up.

They look pretty good and were okay on the road.  I think they are probably too tired for any dirt riding.

Here's the finished triple tree.

I'm waiting for a new seal to reinstall.  I ordered a set of tapered roller bearings, but they didn't fit so I'm just going to use the orignal ball bearings.

I cleaned up and repaired the wiring harness.

It was in pretty good shape except for some sheathing that had dried out.  I replaced it with heat shrink.

The inside of the taillight mount was flaky after the rechroming.  I cleaned it off the best I could with steel wool and a brass brush then sprayed it with silver to keep corrosion at bay.

Those white cable ties are original Honda factory parts.  Its a cool touch that adds so much to a project like this.

I mounted the swingarm and shocks and installed the electrics under the tanks this afternoon.

Here's what the new tailight looks like.

The fork tubes will be here Monday and spokes should be here the week after. Once the forks are done, I'll mount the lights. Then, All I'll need to do is replace the spokes in the wheels and I'll be ready to move on to the bodywork and then the engine.

I got a little garage time tonite.

The fork tubes and a bunch of new Honda parts came last night.  The first thing I did was drive the races into the steering head. I'm using the original ball bearings because the tapered roller bearings I ordered didn't fit.  They lasted this long in good condition so I guess they are okay.

Here is one of the races in the headstock.  I was worried about keeping all the bearings in the right place as I installed the steering stem, but it went on pretty easy.

Here's the bearing cup and ball bearings.  18 each top and bottom.

Here is the seal and washer that goes on first.  The first seal did its job as there was no rust in the steering head.

Halfway on. I drove it on with a drift tapping a little on each side.  It wasn't that bad a fit.

A little grease onto the race and the bearings are set into the grease.

The steering stem installed in the headstock.  The directions for tightening up the stem nut were different than I am used to. Usually, you torque it to some value, then back it off until one of those washers with tabs can be engaged.  The manual said to tighten the nut "all the way down" then back off until the triple tree turned both directions without binding.  I'm not sure what "all the way down" is but I tightened it pretty tight then backed off until it felt smooth.

The top yoke installed.

The new fork tubes from Franks Engineering and Maintenance.

Frank's is low tech.  No credit cards, just CODs with a money order or cashiers check.  Apparently this is an invoice!

The first thing I did was remove the nut from the end of the tube.  I have new nuts so I wasn't real careful.

dump all the oil out along with a short spring, a washer and a long spring..

New Parts!

The seal is held in by a circlip.  Save yourself a lot of trouble and get a good set of circilip pliers.

Usually I replace the circlips, but they are NLA from Honda and these look pretty good.

I couldn't get the hex bolt out of the bottom of the fork slider--it just spun around so I had to get out the big boy.  Once the hex bolt was out I could seperate the tube from the slider and take out the fork pipe and oil lock.  Both were in good shape.  I did replace the fork piston rings which are small fiber rings around the fork.  The fork was really gunked up.  I cleaned it out as best I could with turpentine, but I'll change the fork oil at close intervals a few times.

I used an old seal to drive the new seal into the slider.  I used a piece of pvc pipe as a seal driver.  You just have to find one that fits.  I think it was 1 1/2".

Then I did the next one--this one has blue paint on it from the gas tank.   I guess they didn't even remove it when they painted it.

Had to use air again.  The second fork had been apart because the springs, a long and short one, were reversed.  This is a low tech version of a progressive spring.  One is wound tighter than the other.  Anyway, they were reversed and the washer that goes between them was on top of both of them.  The second fork also had a lot more oil in it and it was plain motor oil and it wasn't as gunked up as the first one. 

The forks installed in the triple tree.  The triple tree bolts are NLA so I cleaned them up as best I could and used new washers and nuts.

I've been working on the front end of the bike this week.  I found NOS switch gear for both sides, but the right side turned out to be for a K1 model which is different than the K0.  The K0 incorporates the high/low beam switch into the on off switch so you can end up turning the lights off when you want to go from high to low beam.  The K1 puts the high/low beam on the left switch and the on/off swich on the right side. I'll have to look for the correct switch.  In the meantime I'll use the one that came on the bike even though the kill switch doesn't work.

The K1 switch.  Looks good huh?  I can't just paint it because its anodized.

The original switch--kinda faded.

The left switch.

The instruments.  The tripmeter doesn't work so I'll be looking for a replacement.  This one will do for now.

The lower front brake cable guide is new.  The upper is being rechromed as they are no longer available.  The inner rubber is new for both as are both throttle cables, the clutch cable, choke cable and front brake cable.  The tach cable and rear brake cable are no longer available from Honda, but I found a NOS tach cable on ebay. 

I've been sanding the bodywork too.  This fender isn't original to the bike--its from a XL250.  I hope to shoot it silver this weekend.

I think garage time is going to be a a premium as we get into the holidays.  I managed about an hour and a half this week and what a cluster it was.  I was kinda in a hurry because I didn't have much time.  I had installed the cables in to the levers last week and this week I was going to clean up the rims and brake drums so I could put the wheels on the bike.  Unfortunately, last week I mounted the cables from the front end of the bike and mixed up left and right.  I put the clutch cable in the brake lever and the brake cable in the clutch lever. That caused all kinds of problems.

A before and after shot of the drums.  The hubs were the same way and I was able to get them cleaned up.

I was going to change the brake shoes, but the fronts are NLA from Honda and I haven't been able to find any on e-bay or aftermarket.  Turned out they have a lot of life left anyway.

This is where it all went down hill.  I mounted the front wheel and grabbed the brake cable to attach it to the brake drum (I'm in front of the bike again so I'm consistently stupid at this point).  It mounted easily, but was waay too long.  Then I realized what I'd done and I'd have been alright if I'd just thought it all the way through.  Instead of switching the cables, I just grabbed the end of the opposite cable, and tried to attach it to the drum, but it just wouldn' go on.  I messed with it for a long time before I just gave up and went into the house. 

Today I looked at the pictures before I took the bike apart and realized the end of the cable I was trying to attach didn't look like the cable I took off the bike.  That's when the light went on!  Ten minutes and the brake cable was mounted and the brakes adjusted.

This is the old tire, I'm not going to put the new tire on until I get the rim relaced.

I don't think I'm going to try to steal garage time again.

I worked on the bodywork today.

The trim on the fenders turned out to be decals.  Somewhere in the past,someone painted over them. 

I used paint thinner to soften the decal glue, then scraped them off.  I still had to sand quite a bit to smooth them out.

the bottom of the tank was really rusty and I wanted to address that.  I sanded, but it was pretty pitted and still rusty.

I used a 5 percent solution of nitric acid and sanded again and rinsed with acid and sanded again until it looked pretty good.

There was no bondo in the tank, but one ding which I ground.

and filled.

Then I primed everything with a pretty thick coat.

Then I wet sanded with 320 grit and glazed the rough spots.

I'll prime again, then sand with 400. Then prime again and sand with 500 before I shoot the silver color.  I'll let that dry for 3 days or so then use 00000 steel wool on it and shoot the blue.  I'll let that dry for another 3 days and shoot the black pinstripe.  After a week I'll apply the decals and shoot the clear.  I could shoot all the colors at one time, but I don't want to get in a hurry and screw something up.  If I don't apply the second and third colors with a couple hours I have to wait for it to completely cure.

I spent an hour or so this morning filling small inperfections with glaze and that's when I noticed there is another dent in the tank.  Its a couple inches across and very shallow.  I decided to leave it because I didn't want to put that much bondo on it.  Its on the right side of the tank closer to the back than the front.  You can't really see it now, but when I put the clear on it'll be visible--sorta "that doesn't look right", but it won't stand out.

I never had to repaint the underside of a gas tank before and I was at a loss as how to do it.  I gues the best way would be some kind of mechanism that lets you turn it over, but that seems like a lot of effort for one tank.  In the end I decided to finish the outside of the tank entirely, then mask it off and shoot the underside later.

The fenders came out pretty good considering I chewed the plastic up trying to get those **** decals off.  It took a lot of wet sanding to get them smooth again.  The contrasting paint area on the fenders is very small so I think I'll get an airbrush to do them.

This paint is meant to have a clearcoat so its not really shiny until you shoot the clear.  I've been pretty lucky spraying outside--no leaves or bugs have messed anything up so I've had to redo it again.  You get a spec or two of dust, but I've never been able to avoid that in a paint booth either.