Author Topic: Noblehops makes a 400F pretty for his wife (Read 102890 times)

NobleHops · « **Reply #75 on:** January 03, 2014, 04:14:15 PM »

...

Then once that had cured a bit, onto the silver. I used the VHT high temp paints, same as I used on the CBX but with the addition of the primer this time. Here you can see after the first coat how toothy the finish is on the side covers.

Did I mention how much I love this engine stand for this work? The ability to rotate it and move it into the light is so excellent.

Let it dry for an hour or two and then knocked down the tooth with 1200-grit sandpaper, much better. One final top coat:

...and done.

The sharp-eyed among you will note that I painted the tappet covers, which was probably not the right idea. I will remove those when I am assembling it and blast and polish them as they will not stand up to being wrenched-upon for long. There are also two chrome bolts on each side of the valve cover that I now wished I had masked, but I think the paint will come off those heads pretty easily too. I will bring it down to my local powdercoat guy and he will bake the engine and parts in his oven for an hour at 200 degrees as specified and that should make the paint about as durable as it was when Honda did it back in 1977.

But wait, there's more!

NobleHops · « **Reply #76 on:** January 03, 2014, 04:18:11 PM »

With the engine paint done, it was now time to finish getting the chassis broken down, and get a couple more things ready to go to powdercoat along with the engine. So last night I took this:

...and got it down to this:

I bought the baking sheets online for short dough (hehe). I bag and photo and sort the stuff on the trays by area or assembly - all the front end stuff on one tray, all the rear end on another, etc. Then it's not so daunting to work on in the middle of the project for me.

I'll send out everything I can't do myself early on, then set to refurbishing and reassembling what's left while stuff gets worked on, or as they come back. Mulling over the idea of sending out all my fasteners for zinc plating at the moment. I have a lot of new and replacement stuff but it's relatively short money to do and gives me a lot of good OEM spares, and some stuff like axles and brake stays and spacers and whatnot would look a lot better for a lot longer if I did.

continued...

denizen224 · « **Reply #77 on:** January 03, 2014, 07:02:25 PM »

Nice job old man, as usual. Subscribed!

NobleHops · « **Reply #78 on:** January 03, 2014, 07:08:33 PM »

Mr. Bill!

This is definitely a place for you :-). Love the sig. "Others" hehe.

denizen224 · « **Reply #79 on:** January 03, 2014, 07:32:27 PM »

As you can tell by the SOHC/4 number, I've been around this group for a while. I just never found a reason to formally register in the forum before. That, or it's been so long that I don't remember my login name.

I can fully understand your .sig as well!

NobleHops · « **Reply #80 on:** January 04, 2014, 08:33:08 AM »

OK, so with the wheels apart it was time to extract the remaining bushings from the cush drive and clean them up in preparation for relacing them to new rims. This is what we were starting with:

I brought them down to a very cool local machinist and he was unruffled about the challenge. He first tried burning them out with a cutting torch, but the metal would not burn, so resorted to destructive means, I don't know exactly which. I told him not to go nuts trying to prevent scratches in the bore given their duty, and they did indeed have very small nicks but easy to file smooth, and shouldn't affect anything.

Dressed the surfaces with a fine file to smooth out the nicks...

Took a fast pass at the heavy oxidixation with some 320 grit to see what I was up against with the corrosion.

Pretty bad, I punted immediately and went for the power tools.

NobleHops · « **Reply #81 on:** January 04, 2014, 08:44:28 AM »

Started out with a heavy paint stripping wheel on the corded drill. Too stiff and too abrasive, it lined the surface pretty heavily altough it was handy for getting that thick ugly yellow paint off the flat surface.

Switched to an abrasive nylon rotary cup brush, which was great for following the contours, and pretty effective at cutting the crud, but inneffective for the grooves in the center of the hub

Switched up to a 3" brass-coated fine steel wire wheel, which made short work of the remainder, very fast and effective. Used the Dremel with mini brass wheels to get the tiny corners and crevices. Looking good.

The surface is a little wavy looking on account of the different abrasives and techniques, so today we will fire up the polisher and take it the last 10% to done in preparation for a shot of clearcoat and then lacing the wheels.

cheftuskey121 · « **Reply #82 on:** January 04, 2014, 09:57:21 AM »

holy cow. looks great so far. love mini projects in projects. always something to be done, and so satisfying when you see the old picture to compare the "new" to.

NobleHops · « **Reply #83 on:** January 04, 2014, 11:24:53 AM »

Quote from: cheftuskey121 on January 04, 2014, 09:57:21 AM

holy cow. looks great so far. love mini projects in projects. always something to be done, and so satisfying when you see the old picture to compare the "new" to.

Thanks man!

Apexxn · « **Reply #84 on:** January 09, 2014, 10:51:19 AM »

What color does it say on the can that you painted the engine with?

How close to factory do you think it is. Looks good in the pics but wanted your in person feedback to color match.

NobleHops · « **Reply #85 on:** January 09, 2014, 12:29:58 PM »

This is the stuff:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CPIMVW/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item

"VHT SP127 Engine Enamel Universal Aluminum Can - 11 oz."

I picked up the recommendation to use this color here somewhere and it does look great. Sorry I can't vouch for how close it is to original when done though. The finish was so tired and a little yellowed on mine I really can't say. I am however debating sanding it off from the edges of the cylinder fins. Something doesn't look quite "correct" about it, can't quite say what. It could be just that none of the contrasting stuff is installed and so it looks a little monochromatic. I think it's possible that Honda treated the cylinder a little differently than the cases or something as far as the finish though. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable then me might wander by and chime in.

N.

Apexxn · « **Reply #86 on:** January 09, 2014, 12:43:33 PM »

I only painted the valve cover, side covers and case, not the cylinder or head on my 400.

I have a nice condition '75 CB125s and it looks like the side covers and the case/cylinder/head are different shades of silver. The side covers are for sure paint but I don't know if the case/cylinder/head is paint or some type of coating.

NobleHops · « **Reply #87 on:** January 09, 2014, 12:59:42 PM »

Man, I wish there was an aqua blaster near here. I just saw something this morning about an outfit that opened up in LA. I've given idle thought to buying that gear and setting up to do that work as a next career.

Not them, but typical of the results I have seen in pics:

Aqua Blasting / Vapour Blasting at www.aquablastcenter.com

Apexxn · « **Reply #88 on:** January 09, 2014, 01:05:21 PM »

Yea vapor blasting comes out well. I do a lot of RD's and those cases are bare from the factory and look like hell now 40 years later. I get good results from various types of media blasting I do at home but not as nice as vapor. One of the cases they showed in that video you posted is an RD case.

NobleHops · « **Reply #89 on:** January 09, 2014, 01:08:25 PM »

Quote from: Apexxn on January 09, 2014, 01:05:21 PM

Yea vapor blasting comes out well. I do a lot of RD's and those cases are bare from the factory and look like hell now 40 years later. I get good results from various types of media blasting I do at home but not as nice as vapor. One of the cases they showed in that video you posted is an RD case.

Did you say "RDs?" I very nearly bought an 86 RZ350 Kenny Roberts Special yesterday that popped up on CL nearby for 2K. Was sold immediately. Instant collectible! Mind sharing a link or something? I'd love to see your work. Got arrested and thrown in jail the last time I rode an RD - we have "a connection" you might say :-).

Apexxn · « **Reply #90 on:** January 09, 2014, 01:22:37 PM »

That's funny there was a Kenny Roberts for sale down in San Diego a few weeks ago and it sold within a couple of days for $2700. I called to look at it and he said a guy was on his way already who bought it for the asking price.

Arrested?

Oh you must have been doing some fun stuff. lol

I'm working on a full custom right now that isn't complete but here is a pic of the last one I finished about a year ago.

I'll leave this post up for a few days and then delete so it doesn't mess up your thread.

NobleHops · « **Reply #91 on:** January 09, 2014, 01:31:13 PM »

Whoa - cool. Delete that and I'll be annoyed at you. That bike is fantastic! I see a trophy...

NobleHops · « **Reply #92 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:15:53 PM »

OK for extra fun I turned my attention to the fork. The "rebuilt fork", I should say. That's got some old yellowing clearcoat on it too and needs refinishing, and one of them was obviously leaking at the seal. I grabbed the other for starters, and pushed up the dust seal:

Yeah, they're both leaking. And so with this renewed sense of the quality of the work the DPO did on the bike, I took them both apart, and cleaned them within an inch of their lives, inside and out.

It smells like he used straight ATF, which is not a bad thing necessarily except that it smells like chemical death and it was pretty inky for new oil. It's obvious the internals were not cleaned particularly well. They are now :-)

Had a medium pain in the ass getting the fork seals out, and so heated up the fork legs with my MAPP torch, sprayed a little WD40 around the edge of teh seals, heated the seals and as soon as I heard popping noises, out they came with a little persuasion:

Victory!

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #93 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:23:55 PM »

Took a good close look at the fork tubes and there were numerous rust zits and signs of wear and pits along the seal area. They were never going to seal, for long, and so off to David Silver Spares for a pair of repro tubes for $110 a pop. Better than I expected actually.

Measured the springs and they were about 5 cm shorter than the wear limit in the manual, and likely undersprung anyway, and so made the decision to go with the Racetech springs, spacer and gold valves. This old fork is gonna be all that it can be.

Pondering the condition of these fork legs and the hubs I did a little poking around and then found a guy in New Mexico that does vapour blasting (minus the attitude of the guy up in Oregon), and so packed it all up and sent it to him. Two days later he sent me photos and a tracking number and said my stuff was on its way. So far the guy is fantastic, will post pics of the parts and his info once it returns and let you know what I think, but I am very optimistic.

NobleHops · « **Reply #94 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:30:56 PM »

OK, on to the starter. I had no idea of its condition but I was curious to get into one anyway and freshen it up, and I thought I'd replace the o-ring and brushes, and lube it, so I cracked into it.

Crusty carbon-ey stuff in the cap by the brushes.

Brushes themselves were fine, barely 20% worn.

Commutator (copper bit at left) a bit grimy...

Seal at the end totally failed, weird white powdery junk everywhere

NobleHops · « **Reply #95 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:48:10 PM »

...Got the starter all cleaned up inside, cleaned the commutator and the magnets, all the contacts...

Ordered a rebuild kit for the princely sum of $18 or something, replaced the sealing o-rings on the body, the oring on the splined shaft, and the failed, seal. Lubed the shafts and bushings, put it back together. Made the executive decision to not fuss with the bushings on either end, they looked fine and the new ones fit no closer to the shafts than the old and they would have been a minor pain to extract. These things see momentary use. Cleaned and greased and free of gritty junk I think this thing will now likely outlive me.

Hooked up a 12v battery, grounded it to the starter body momentarily to test it. Fire in the hole!

Works perfectly. Totally refreshed for $18.

Next!

NobleHops · « **Reply #96 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:56:54 PM »

On to the swingarm. The DPO told me it had bronze bushings in it, a huge upgrade over the nylon bushings Honda (incredibly) used back then. I hadn't really looked too closely at it, but thought I ought to check it out.

No. It does not. And the crappy stock bushings are missing their shoulders and the pivot bolt is so loose and dry it makes 'clack clack' sounds when you wiggle it to and fro. We happen to have a set of those laying around, so it's "Off with its head!".

The assembly is a bit of a sandwich, a steel sleeve runs inside between the two bushings, and the pivot bolt runs through the steel sleeve. So first we have to get the steel sleeve out of there, without mushrooming its edges any more than we can help, as it's all a very snug fit. I used my handy dandy Motion Pro brass-tipped drift, chosen for its relative softness compared to steel. Catch the edge of the sleeve, hold it tight, give it a couple of taps with the persuader and out it comes.

On to the bushings, same technique. Catch the edge with the brass drift, tap it on opposite sides and drive it out.

DPO removed these, had it powdercoated, and then reinstalled these, 90% dry:

Clean clean clean with mineral spirits and then a drain and rinse, then cleaned again with dilute Simple Green, rinsed, then dried.

Greased it all up, installed the bronze bushings, then the sleeve...

Note: keep your fat finger out of the pinch zone on that last fateful tap...

Pack the dust seals with grease...

and done.

NobleHops · « **Reply #97 on:** January 21, 2014, 07:08:15 PM »

OK so then it was time to sort some parts and tidy up and make some space and then after a bit of that we were left with this:

...and that could only mean one thing, I had reached that magic moment when the thing was going to start getting reassembled. There's still several sub-assemblies with a bunch of non-trivial work to go, but re-lacing the wheels and rebuilding the fork are up next and as soon as those are complete they can go onto the frame and we can make it into a rolling chassis, which is always a big boost.

So the first candidate was the centerstand, so I could get it upright on jack stands. Cleaned up the pivot and lubed it all up inside and out, and dug out a new cotter pin and spring.

Doof!

Wrapped some pipe insulation on the frame and put it on jackstands, strapped it down.

That's what I'm talkin' about.

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #98 on:** January 21, 2014, 07:18:38 PM »

OK side project. Being a little space-constrained I had no good solution for a parts sink. So I made a teeny one for small parts.

A clean gallon paint can from Home Depot, a gallon of odorless mineral spirits, and the basket out of my can of Berryman's Carb dip.

Works great!

I formerly used the Berryman's but I can feel my liver shrinking up as soon as I get a whiff of that stuff, and I don't want to use it unless I absolutely have to.

OK, back to the bike.

NobleHops · « **Reply #99 on:** January 21, 2014, 07:30:01 PM »

Thought I would install the steering head including new bearings, with all parts on hand. Didn't quite go as planned.

Handy dandy Park Tools race extractor would not catch the inner race. Has never failed me before!

Mr. Drift was up for the job though, and with a couple of whacks that was that.

Inspection of the powercoated stem and top bridge shows powder on bearing surfaces - bummer.

Won't fit like this!

Dremel off what I can, and very carefulluy scrape off the rest. Good to go.

News:

Author Topic: Noblehops makes a 400F pretty for his wife (Read 102890 times)