Topic: 1976 CB500/550 Project "Squirrel"

[riverfever]

I don't know. I keep going back and forth. I have thought about keeping the headlight bucket black and painting the tank and side covers a creamy gray and then doing gloss black on the knee dents and using an all white honda wing emblem on the tank. But then I've also thought about doing the stock candy blue color on the tank and side covers, again gloss black on the knee dents and headlight bucket (maybe candy blue on the headlight bucket) and then using the honda emblem that is newer and has a bit of gold in it. I kinda like the idea of using the stock color. Open to suggestions.

[calj737]

Candy blue on tank with gloss black dents and headlight sounds pretty sexy. I'd trim the dents with a thin white border to separate the colors. It can be done with painters tape under the clear, or you can shoot white as your first coat, tape it off, then shoot blue and black, pull tape, then clear all of it.

Candy/metallic tends to be in the clear coat layer. Factory tanks had flake base colors covered in pearl clears, but the blacks did not have clear coat over them. Tricky to paint for a new painter, so you may end up with pearl clear over whole tank, which will still look fantastic.

I wouldn't get wrapped around the axle over the logo.

A pic of my paint scheme as a reference. Only in daylight can you see the metallic as clear is satin finish.

[calj737]

As a reference, here is a sunburst orange (or whatever the factory is called). Notice the difference in the orange and black coats. This tank has been wet sanded and buffed, polished and waxed. The pic doesn't do the paint justice. I did this for a forum user as well as knocking some dents out. It also has the decals/stripes taped. Notice the damage to it?thats the downside with taped stripes. Damage=no easy repair if they are under the clear coat.

[riverfever]

The gray on your bike looks incredible but the aluminum triple trees and filler cap are really nice. I also thought about that orange color too. I'd really like a metal flake blue with gloss black. My wife is telling me that we should pay someone to shoot it and the side covers that way. I'd sure like to paint it myself but I also don't want to be disappointed. The tank really could make or break the bike.

[calj737]

As I said, try it for yourself and do the diligent work. If, at the end you're wicked disappointed, then another painter can strip it and re-shoot it. It's just paint... The only cost to you is the actual paint to re-paint it twice.

Or, just practice on some spare metal. Grab some sheets of thin steel or aluminum, 12"x12" and practice your technique and paint schemes.not really tough to do. You can also play around with different colors, schemes, stripes, whatever.

If you get completely stumped and frustrated, send it out. I'll get it painted and back to you pretty darn cheap (probably less than $200) with shipping. It's not much work and I'll be painting up another tank and seat for my wife's Suzuki over the Xmas holidays.

[riverfever]

I got a little bit of work done on the tank before Thanksgiving dinner was ready. I started off by priming the tank.


Next I started sanding. And sanding. Here you see all the work I have in front of me. No shortage of high spots. I'm learning as I go here and one lesson I learned was that I used way too much primer to paint the tank. It is clogging up the paper.


Then I started applying a very thin layer of filler trying to fill in the low spots.


I pretty much quit for the night. Tomorrow I will use the DA to knock the high ridges down and then switch to hand sanding to even things out.

Big thanks for all of the help/guidance fellas.

[calj737]

Buy or make a long sanding block, say about 6-8 inches from some firm, but flexible plastic. Use that as you sand the primer/filler stages. Also, use 220-400 grit when sanding at this stage and don't bear down. Let the paper do the work.

The block will help you from digging in and creating ridges in your work. Also, try to sand across the lengths of the tank to avoid putting in "lanes". Using a DA is a good idea too.

Looks good, only about 4 more days of prep and you'll be ready to paint! ;-)

[riverfever]

More from today's 6 hour work session.

[riverfever]

One more.



The leading edge of the knee dents has become much more gradual with the body work nearing completion. I'm still not sure if all the areas I've been messing with are completely flat though.

[riverfever]

I pulled another long day today and I think I may be at the point where it may be good enough. It's not perfect but I'm also not a body man. I have a whole new respect for people that can do flawless body work. It's a lot of work. Here's the tank as of an hour ago.





This is the bike after I removed the rear tail light and plate. Next up will be to bob the fender right about where it is here and then install a smaller light and then relocate the plate.

[calj737]

Looks pretty good. Must be very satisfying to get that result on your first go round.

[riverfever]

It is. Thank you for the advice you gave. There are still some issues with it. It's not perfect. I really was going to try painting it myself. Little background on me...I have raced bicycles for 20 year until recently when an accident caused a nerve to be pinched at C5 making riding bicycles too painful for me. For the last 6 years I have done self-supported endurance races like the Colorado Trail Race. I was hoping to do Tour Divide next and had already talked to a custom frame builder but that's done now. Now...I ride a fully rigid single speed. Things would probably be different if I rode full suspension but I just can't do it. So tonight I talked to that same frame builder. He does his own paint. He's been following the progress on facebook. He's going to paint the frame and side covers. Now I gotta go back and address a few of the issues.

This is the color blue I'm thinking of.

[rb550four]

Nice job on the tank, it must feel good to have that behind you.
The heavy metallic sky blue is different, and should look sharp when it's finished. Did you mean that you are having the frame,tank and side covers painted that color or just the tank and the side covers? Just wondering.
  Do your plans include a stock seat or a cafe seat? I mean now that you are familiar with the idea of body work, making your own cafe seat wouldn't be out of the question, there have been plenty of threads on this subject that could guide you through it. I like it either way, but for riders comfort I usually run a stock or heavily  padded seat but that's just me.
  Will you leave the headlight bucket black or plan to paint that too?
I see the tail light is still gone, have you chosen a different tail light yet? Have you decided on no blinkers at all or some nice little cafe style blinkers just to keep things a little safer?
  Always questions... I'm interested.

[riverfever]

Big thank to you (RB) and to Mcwilliams as well for all of your help along the way. The tank was way harder than I thought it would be. Not sure if I'd do it again. I would really like to paint the frame gloss black but that's not in the plans right now. For now I just want the tank and side covers done in the blue metal flake. Headlight bucket will also stay gloss black. As for the seat, my wife will be riding on the back once she gets over the fear (we did one ride up the street but I never got out of first and she screamed a lot). We won't be doing anything long because it is my first bike but we thought it would be cool to ride it the mile through town to get a coffee once in a while. I do have a seat cover on the way from David Silver Spares and that should make things look a little nicer. I took the tail light off last night to start looking at how I was going to bob the fender. The only one I've really seen that I like is from Dime City and it's more of a bullet shape but it's about the only one I've seen that can pivot instead of simply bolting on. I also started looking at the license plate a bit last night. My plan for now is to fab up a simple bracket and weld it to a plate that I'll bend to match the curve of the rear hub. The plate will get mounted down there.

Still so much that I would like to do though and that list includes 2.5" gauges to clean up that area a bit, new condensers and points (and maybe coils and wires as well). I don't plan on running turn signals but I do need to figure out a way to get a horn working and a high beam switch figured out. I will be taking a motorcycle safety course this spring so I have a better idea of how to ride and then I just wanna ride it and see if motorcycles are something that I like and take it slowly from there.

I think I'm about 2 grand in right now but I really feel like this was the right way for me to go (despite lots of people telling me it was stupid to buy a 40 year old bike as a first bike). I know the bike pretty well and have had a blast learning along the way. I figure I could have probably spent 3 grand on a bike in slightly better shape but then I wouldn't have the knowledge (of the carbs, master cylinder, brake caliper or other stuff I dealt with along the way) that I have gained. I also didn't go drop 8 grand on a bike only to find out that I don't like motorcycles. Having someone paint the tank and side covers will make it harder for me to come out of this even if I decide this isn't for me but I still think I'm going to do it.

Funny story...I almost came to tears the other night. I have had Shingles for about 2 weeks now and am in a lot of pain. I really pushed hard on the tank these last several days because the really cold weather is right around the corner and I wanted to have the tank at a point where I could let it be until spring when I could deal with paint. 2 nights ago, I went to move the motorcycle and as I rolled it off the center stand, it started to tip to the right (away from me). My muscles were so tired that I just couldn't save it. It fell over on it's side and I stood there in horror thinking about the dent that was likely in the right side of the tank (originally the good side) now because of my clumsiness. I just stood there for a few minutes. Then I went around and picked it up. The bike had landed on a box and not hit the floor directly. The right side bar end mirror was broken but nothing happened to the tank. Dodged a real bullet there. So add a new mirror to that list above. 

[calj737]

Chris - big congrats on the outcome! Wicked sorry to hear about your shingles. Have you looked into acupuncture to help with it? My father and 2 other friends heeded my advice on that and they found significant relief from the pain pretty quickly...

Regarding your license plate bracket, I've got one that mounts to the shock bolt on the bottom and has an integrated light. Bought it through Carpy and am not going to use it. You're welcome to it.

I'd encourage you to run indicators. Safest, smartest thing you can do. And buy LEDs. Much brighter. Hard enough to be seen and they can really help.

PM me for the license plate bracket.

[riverfever]

I haven't looked into acupuncture but I need to because you're probably the third person to mention it.

I'll take your advice on the indicators too and put that on my list of things to do in order to get the bike road worthy by spring. Something small and low key from Dime City would be nice.

And I PM'ed you about that bracket. Thank you. 

[riverfever]

Had snow days the last 2 days so I got to work on the bike a little bit. I put more filler on the tank because I kept finding little areas I didn't like when doing the fine sanding. I'm done now. I continue to find spots that I'm not excited about but I gotta let it go. They are minor. Today I worked on the rear fender. I bobbed it 4".



This is where I want the plate to be. I'll probably end up making something here at the house out of aluminum and then get steel and weld it up at work.

[riverfever]

OK so I don't know much about the motor that came with this bike. I still have not checked compression. I know that information is valuable and will get it soon. I keep thinking that with it being such an old bike (and relatively unknown on the inside) that it might be a good idea to go through it but I don't know that I want to do that to a 500 motor. I'd rather get a 550 and install that (and maybe go all out and do a big bore kit then). Even if I find a motor locally, I'm still in the same unknown situation though. I know this is a stupid question but, how hard is it to rebuild a motor? What kind of cost am I looking at? Is there anyone on here that rebuilds motors that I could work with if I felt it was too much for me to tackle? I know there are some brackets that I would need to get to install the motor but how hard would it be to find everything else involved (I'm guessing the trans would come with the motor, I think I can use the existing carbs and maybe the exhaust)? I'm just getting excited about riding this bike in the spring and am trying to plan what I would do next fall/winter if I like it enough to keep it and stick with it (assuming this motor makes it through the summer). Sorry...I know that's a lot of questions. 

[rb550four]

It seems like everyone here can rebuild a 500/550 for the most part, there is nothing that is relatively unknown.

If you want to upgrade from 500 why stop at 550 ? Why not go 650? Way more power, fits right in the frame........... wiring is a little different.....pipes.....
Rebuild  cost on any motor depends on condition usually  around a grand some less ,some more.
What are these brackets that you speak of?

[riverfever]

I thought I had read somewhere that there were some different motor mounts from 500 to 550?

[calj737]

The rear upper bracket on the clutch side is different. Maybe the spacers too depending on the years of the frame and motor. It's not a big deal.

Get your motor running or do a bit of an exam on the ground. If you need to rebuild it, punch it to 536 and tune it well. Probably won't notice a difference between the 536 and stock 550.

[rb550four]

Spacers are all the same . Only difference between the brackets are the 500 clutch cable goes into the case and has a flat upper rear mount, where as, the 550 cable is mounted on the right side upper rear mount which has a tang that the cable is mounted through. Other than that the 500   550 is a direct transplant.
  The 650 is a direct fit engine wise, only a little more difficult and expensive if you don't have a complete donor 650. Wiring
harness,air box and battery placement  is not a direct fit , headers do not interchange, but 650 fits on the 500/550 frame.....
  What is wrong with the running 500 engine in it now anyways?

[riverfever]

As far as I know...there isn't anything wrong with it at all. I guess I'm just thinking that this is more complex than a car motor. Meaning...if I went to go look at a car, I'd know what I was doing more when looking at it ya know? Thinking worst case scenario here. Guess I should just cross that bridge if/when I get to it huh?

[rb550four]

It's winter, we all tend to overthink things when it's winter. Do you suppose you are having these urges, the engine switching urge , because you haven't consistent spark in #2? And could it also be an anxiety about a carb sync, compounded by the Pamco ignition deficiency?
  You may find that getting these issues under control first may relieve some anxiety both mechanically and financially .
 To switch into a new plan with an unknown engine is sure to test your problem solving techniques further, plus, you may find that you will again be trying to solve these very issues that you have neglected to solve with this engine.
  Just saying.

[riverfever]

No...you're absolutely right. Thank you.