Hey guys,
This is the second build of my second SOHC bike, my 1971 cb500. The other build thread is in here somewhere if you have any questions about the first rebuild.
A year ago, 4 days after I sold my 350f, I bought this for $300 from craigslist. It had 9k miles and was in non-running, pretty crappy condition.
BEFORE:THEN:I did a cheap/somewhat fast rebuild the first time just so I could get out on the road:
THE (RE)REBUILDI used a very minor head gasket leak as an excuse to take the 3 months of summer to do an equally cheap, but more thorough and thoughtful re-rebuild. I am currently in my last year of law school so I am as poor as poor students come. My summer internship was of the unpaid variety, so I couldn’t afford to do things in a manner which some deem to be the “right” way (i.e. replace instead of polish/rebuild, powder coat instead of paint). But elbow grease is mostly free, and I think I ended up with a good result. My goal was a clean, mild café-style daily rider which retains a general quasi-period-correct look (nothing too modern).
I opted for the instant gratification, start-to-“finish” build thread in lieu of the day to day updates style, so after I list modifications, there will be a lot of pictures. I'm almost certain I'll forget some stuff, but for everyone's information, here goes:
FRAME-Tab welded to center stand to limit travel
-Frame/center stand/swingarm/top and bottom triple trees were stripped and painted with black Rustoleum appliance epoxy
-All other frame bits (footpegs, battery box, etc etc) were given a similar appliance epoxy paint treatment
TANK/PAINT-“Honda” tank emblems shaved, dents fixed
-Painted tank and side covers with Rustoleum appliance epoxy, allowed to cure
-Tank/covers wet sanded up to 2000 and cleared with SprayMax 2k two part rattle can clear
-Walmart chrome door trim added to tank’s edges ($8 for 18 FEET)
-NOS Honda CA72 wing emblems applied to tank with outdoor double-sided tape
ENGINE-Head pulled, cleaned, full gasket set installed (except base gasket)
-Polished the normal covers (tappet, breather, left/right side, etc)
-Painted the rest of the engine (Duplicolor ‘aluminum silver’)
CARBS-Basic carb clean/rebuild/bench sync
-Light polish on tops and bowls
-Factory “velocity stacks” pulled from the airbox and used by themselves because I’m lazy and want it to be easy to pull and re-install the carbs (spare me a lecture on the evils of open stacks, I am aware of their disadvantages)
-#115 main jets from dime city cycles
ELECTRICAL-Replaced inline-type with fuse-type main fuse holder
-60s/70s Sportster taillight
-I mucked up my headlight bucket pretty bad, so I replaced the stock unit with a smaller 55w light made for off road trucks (from Harbor Freight), generic toggle switch used for headlight and mounted out of sight on the back of the new bucket.
-As a result of changing the headlight assembly, there was no room inside for all the wiring, so I hid it all under the tank.
-Replaced both the horn and starter buttons with cheap switches from Radioshack (no problems yet)
-Neutral/oil pressure idiot lights made from $2 Radioshack LEDs, and moved inside the tach.
SUSPENSION/BRAKES-Converted back to single disc setup for ease of bleeding and selling the parts to helped finance the rest of the build.
-New fork seals
-Fork lowers, brake pivot polished
-Caliper rebuilt/repainted
-Stock headlight ears eliminated, replaced with 10 dollar Emgo Ebay special headlight brackets
-Chrome plumbing pipe used to make covers for Rusty/nasty area on the upper forks between the trees after treating/painting affected area
-DIY fork gaiters from JCWhitney (trimmed down offroad truck shock covers)
-No name (possibly homemade?) clip-ons from ebay, refinished
-Shocks disassembled, chrome and aluminum polished, springs painted with (you guessed it) appliance epoxy
-New gold 530 chain (kinda splurged on this, but the aesthetics of the gold chain is one of the few things I was willing to pay more for)
PICTURES: After appliance paint:
Sanded (2000)
This clear is awesome:
Bit of orange peel, couple runs, but I’ll live and eventually get around to sanding out the imperfections and buffing:
Reassembled:
Still left to do: New grips, do something about those awful rusty exhaust header flanges. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and let me know what you guys think!
Thanks,
Davis