Topic: College build '78 cb550 cafe. Creating the Old

[bjbuchanan]

Gas tank would be tricky because would you do inner and outer or try to do just the outer along with the awkward size for something homebrewed.

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/discovery-hd-theater-vintage-caferacer-cafe-racer-tv-the-dime-city-brass-cafe-cb450-racer.html

Your plating reminds me of a subdued version of that bike^^^ Obviously you are doing copper plating so it would be but I think it would give the bike a clean aged look.

[Strangexj86]

yeah I basically decided against doing the gas tank. Too much copper. It'll be better to have just small accents.

That is a great looking bike! They have a little bit of steam punk style going on there, kind of.

The clean aged look is exactly what I am going for. Everytime I try and picture what the bike shoulk look like I'm always settling on this certain color of maroon/brown. Like a nice work out leather color. This boot was kind of the best example.



What do you guys think?

I'm a novice painter at best, but right off the bat I'm wondering if using different shades of primer and the amount of coats on diffrerent sections of the bike will make it possible to create that weathered look. Just a thought.

[nate85]

nice build your doing. cool to see some custom designed parts. good work for sure.

[Strangexj86]

nice build your doing. cool to see some custom designed parts. good work for sure.

thanks! I'm actually starting over on my rear sets. Going to make them out of 1-1/4" almunimum extruded round stock and 3/8" aluminum sheet metal. The steel i started with will rust and wear pretty bad so aluminum will be way better.

My build had to take a small back seat to my other project that needed to get finished. THis will be my dad's birthday present from me. What do you guys think? Its a pic of his E46 M3 in our driveway.

[Strangexj86]

Small Update: Pulled the electrical through my handlebars. The rights side was a little tricky but i managed to get it through. The left side was impossible with all of the turn signal wiring, sooooo, I decided against having turn signals.

All the wires were covered with heat shrink tubing.





I also did a little bit more copper plating. It's so much fun! but that hydrochloric acid is pretty intense. You HAVE to wear a mask, gloves, and safety goggles at all times. Super Toxic.

[chris mcshifty]

Turning out to be a nice build. Ready to see the end result

[Strangexj86]

little update: getting some of the wiring done. I really want that triangle section to be as clean as possible so i decided to burry the electrical in the frame. Lot of lengthening and soldering but it was worth it in the end.

Brake Side


 
Shifter side


one wire got a little tangled but i'll fix that later.

[laminaytrap]

This is gonna be a dirty build!

You gonna clear coat the copper or let it get nice and green?

I've done an m50 e30 swap before too, it's one of the snuggest swaps i've ever seen, and you are going to shoehorn a turbo in there too, mad props.

I hope you can find some nice leather to make your seat out of, and baseball stitch it like the boots.

Good luck with the wire tucking!

[Strangexj86]

thanks! I use this stuff called boeshield t-9 to coat everything. Its like a more intense wd-40, so that protects everythign from rust and corrosion.

Yeah man, those 24v swaps are a great project and they look mean in the e30 bay. Surprisingly the turbo fits nicely with a blunttech manifold, its  just all about the charge pipe routing. 

yeah, i'm scouring the thrift stores around here and haven't found much lately. Just keep looking i guess. But getting this wiring done is making me really anxious to get back on the bike.

[iron_worker]

The copper plated stuff is pretty unique. Definitely be careful with that acid though.

I do my own zinc plating but the chemicals are much more mild.

IW

[Strangexj86]

The copper plated stuff is pretty unique. Definitely be careful with that acid though.

I do my own zinc plating but the chemicals are much more mild.

IW

thanks. and I will. I didnt realize how intense the stuff was at first and did it inside. Bad idea. The fumes put a weird coating on the bike so i had to go back over a few spots with the oxide and boeshield.

[Strangexj86]

forgot to add the pics of the headlight bucket. fresh flat blck paint on the bucket and carrier's.

and some freshly painted forks that got a complete overhaul. New seals, rubber covers, yada yada yada.

Also installed some new all balls tapered steering bearings. They were a pain in the ass but well worth the time.

[laminaytrap]

How far down does that brace go?

[Strangexj86]

what brace?

[chris mcshifty]

How hard was it to install the bearings

[Strangexj86]

How hard was it to install the bearings

scale of 1-10 they were about a 4. They werent difficult per se, just a lot of crummy work. Removing the old bearings/race's was a bit tough, just had to use a big screw drive and hammer. Getting the old race off of the tripple column was the hardest part. That took a lot of pounting and hand slamming. Getting the new race's in was pretty nice. just had to slowly tap them in evenly using the big thick washer allballs give you. Oh and getting the new bearing on the tripple column took a crap ton of force. Had to put it in a steel tube and use gravity and a hammer to get it seated all the way down.

Like I said, nothing was that difficult to do, it just took a bunch of hammering and force to get everything installed correctly. Completely worth it though. The all balls tapered bearing is where its at. way better feel

[laminaytrap]

Oh thats the lower triple... I'm confused, is it just me or is there only an inch of travel in that picture

[iron_worker]

I'm not sure what's going on there either.

BTW, the fumes from that acid will cause anything in the vicinity to corrode as you found out. Potent sh!t.

IW

[Strangexj86]

Oh thats the lower triple... I'm confused, is it just me or is there only an inch of travel in that picture

ooohhh, haha. Now i know waht you guys are referring to. I dont have my fork springs in, so its sitting really low right now. Haha, that would not be good like that.

And yeah that was me being dumb. I've moved outside and created a little enclosed area for the stuff.

[laminaytrap]

Haha ok cool.

Thats what it looked like, but I wasn't sure if I missed you saying that earlier

[Strangexj86]

nope, you didn't. I've been extremely busy with mid-terms, ex-girlfriend drama, and wiring that I'm procrastinating the little things.

On another note. Picked up some foam blocks, spray adhesive, resin, fg matting, aircraft stripper and a bunch of new airbrushing toys yesterday. Getting pretty amped about spraying the tank. Found the leather I'm going to use for the seat yesterday too.

[laminaytrap]

Sweet, I'm held up for lack of impact gun right now, but hopefully I'll catch up to you soon. Do you do fsae down there, I know it's a pretty common trend among good builds of people our age

[Strangexj86]

Yeah we actually have a pretty big club for FSAE. I was a part of it for a bit but due to my school work load and obsession of building my bike I opted out of the club.

What do you need the impact gun for?

[Strangexj86]

little progress today

took apart my carbs again to paint them like the engine. I fully rebuilt them about a month ago but didnt even think about painting them so they got torn down again. Its nice though because I need to set the level of the interior float things.

decided to copper plate the little extremeties like the cable holder, random brackets and springs



cast aluminum carbs and flat black bracket.


Really happy with the final product. Glad I did it.

[laminaytrap]

Wow those carbs look awesome...

I need impact for exhaust bolts. They are so badly stuck. Tried hammer-allenkey-2ft bar but thats only good for 4 of the eight and I broke one already due to frustration. I think I can still nut it and weld it, but I dont want to have to do that 4-5 times. I just want to know what my cylinders look like so badly... I'm not used to working in a poorly equipped garage.