Topic: Senior project for high school - 78 CB750K

[Restoration Fan]

Looking really good!

I usually use wire wheel to strip paint from steel, unlike sandpaper it does very little to the metal and it goes fast  - knotted wire wheel on a grinder that is.

That's our plan on the smaller items, but that frame is a little big to hold up in the air and move around to grind with a bench grinder. 

We actually bought a package of various sized wire wheels from Harbor Freight that fit in a drill chuck and used those to get the majority of the paint off the frame.  I agree with you though that the wire wheels work a bit better than the sandpaper but we still felt like we needed to go back over the frame and wet sand everything lightly as the final prep stage before paint.

[70CB750]

There are many ways to skin the cat i use angle grinder, it spins about 11000 and works well.

[madmtnmotors]

Here's the results of "lapping" the head over glass on the "elbow mill":

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=100352.msg1615472#msg1615472

[Restoration Fan]

Here's the results of "lapping" the head over glass on the "elbow mill":

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=100352.msg1615472#msg1615472

Very cool!  I had never seen this method before but it seems like it would be one of the safest methods to ensure that you don't gouge into the soft metal like it's possible to do with razor blades or the other methods I've found.

[Restoration Fan]

We've been doing lots of sanding, polishing and generally just cleaning up more parts to get ready for paint.  Trying to take advantage of the warm weather to get the painted pieces done.

I don't know how many of you know about a product called Metal Rescue, but I stumbled across an advertisement for it back in August when we first bought the bike.  I found a Home Depot that carried it not too far away and bought a gallon of it ($25) to see if it would help remove the rust on some of these things.  Well, I finally decided to try it out yesterday on the shocks that came on the bike.  WOW.  I'm impressed.  This stuff is non-caustic so you can get it on your hands without it burning them.  It can be dumped out and it doesn't hurt the environment and it also doesn't affect rubber or plastic negatively so you don't have to remove all those bits from the piece.  All you have to do is let it soak.  Take it out and clean it off every couple of hours and put it back in to soak. 

Before & after photos of the shocks below.  This is with absolutely zero polishing or sanding.....only soaked and rubbed clean.  (Well, in truth, I did go through about 3 or 4 shop towels as I wiped the grunge off every time I would remove it from soaking.)

If anyone is interested, I included a photo of the Metal Rescue gallon jug.  I bought mine at Home Depot but not all of them carry it.  You can go to http://www.metalrescue.com and look up the list of distributors near you if you are interested.  Oh yeah...the stuff can be run through a strainer to clean out the dirt that accumulates in it and reused over and over.  If you get a chance, watch their video on that site where they soak an old, rusty Tonka truck and see how it looks before and after.  I'm sold on it.  Gonna be buying another couple of gallons to see if it will take the rust off these spokes on the rims.

Also including a photo of the top of the triple tree that's almost ready for painting.

[grcamna2]

Good morn., 
I'm interested in that 'metal rescue' now  myself ! were you able to soak the rear shocks in those tubs w/ no ill affects to the rest of the shocks ? and did that product remove the paint from your top triple ? How long did it take to get'em that nice ? Thanks, looking good 

[Restoration Fan]

Good morn., 
I'm interested in that 'metal rescue' now  myself ! were you able to soak the rear shocks in those tubs w/ no ill affects to the rest of the shocks ? and did that product remove the paint from your top triple ? How long did it take to get'em that nice ? Thanks, looking good 

No, I didn't use the Metal Rescue on the triple tree.  It's purely for rust removal, not paint removal.  Those, we used a wire wheel on, after applying aircraft stripper.

As far as the shocks, it worked like a charm on them.  The rubber bushings inside the top hole (is that the cleavis?) are completely intact with no ill effect to them.  They claim as such on their site and commercials but I was skeptical until I saw it myself.

As far as timing, they tell you that the time involved is different, depending on the amount of rust.  I put the shocks in at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  After 2 hours, I took them out and cleaned them off.  Did the same every 2 hours until 10:30 last night.  Then I put them in overnight to soak one more time.  When I got up this morning, I went and removed them from the solution and dried them off with a shop towel.  Then I took the photos.

On that video I mentioned, I think they ended up leaving that Tonka truck in the solution for a total of about 2 days to get rid of all of the rust.  You have to stop and strain out the solution when it gets really dirty but other than that, it's pretty much a fire and forget product. 

Here's the video link.  I saw they have put up a lot more testimonial videos on their site, so I went and looked this one up to make it easier for you guys.  This is the video that convinced me to go buy the product & try it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAI5SF3NBqg

[Restoration Fan]

The 4 nuts on the rear wheel all have a small tab on the nut, which make it such that a socket doesn't want to seat on the nut properly to try & turn the nut to remove it.  Are we supposed to pop that tab up or something in order to remove that nut?

[toytuff]

I have not been following this thread but let me know if you are in need of anything. Don't have much left from my 77 K7 build but always glad to help. Especially with a School Project such as this. 

I do have a pair of stock rear shocks and some nice "F" handlebars that look good on a K model. Have some K model handlebars also.

Just drop me a PM. Give me a few days to reply as I am not lurking here much as of late. If you are "good" on parts I'll save them for someone else in need.

tt

[toytuff]

The 4 nuts on the rear wheel all have a small tab on the nut, which make it such that a socket doesn't want to seat on the nut properly to try & turn the nut to remove it.  Are we supposed to pop that tab up or something in order to remove that nut?

Bend it down with punch.

tt

[Stoli]

Those are safety locking tabs to keep those nuts from loosening while riding. If you bend them back carefully you can reuse them although I doubt new ones cost a whole lot.

[toytuff]

WASHER A7, TONGUED
 94108-17000

NLA.

Might find some but yes, easy does it.

tt

[flybox1]

no need to completely bend them flat to get the nut off. 
flat will surely crack the tab off.  just enough to get a spanner on it.

[Restoration Fan]

no need to completely bend them flat to get the nut off. 
flat will surely crack the tab off.  just enough to get a spanner on it.

Thank you all for the advice.  We were able to get them to bend down and got the nuts off. 
Just finished with Logan painting triple tree top and bottom, center stand, and kickstand.  They're drying in the garage as I type.

Now we just have to work on getting the tires off the rims so we can see about getting the spokes either cleaned up or replaced.  The good news is that I had thought I would have to replace the tires but now I'm not sure.  They're Bridgestone Spitfires front and back and both are so lightly used that they still have the little rubber things sticking up (I apologize but we've always called those rubber tits....someone please provide me the proper name so I can avoid being a sexist  ).

[Rocky2010]

Great project wish I had a project at school like that, I may have enjoyed school much better and wouldn't have taken so many days off :-)

[calj737]

Check their production date (tires). Despite their apparent lack of wear, 5 years old and they're likely not suitable for safe riding.

Tire irons are readily had online or drop them by a shop quickly to have dismount them for you (should be quite cheap).

[Restoration Fan]

Check their production date (tires). Despite their apparent lack of wear, 5 years old and they're likely not suitable for safe riding.

Good call.  I just went and learned how to tell when a tire was manufactured and apparently both of these tires were manufactured very early in 2001.  So 13/14 year old tires.  I should be good to go, right? 

[calj737]

You are good to go; straight to a tire shop! Cmon now, Dad, part of the resto is learning to operate safely 

Small details like those are hard to think of when you're neck deep to a giraffe in a total rebuild. Bet you keep looking at bins of parts thinking, "Sure hope I remeber where that went..." Been there. Done that.

[grcamna2]

Check their production date (tires). Despite their apparent lack of wear, 5 years old and they're likely not suitable for safe riding.

Good call.  I just went and learned how to tell when a tire was manufactured and apparently both of these tires were manufactured very early in 2001.  So 13/14 year old tires.  I should be good to go, right? 

maybe you could run down the rear tire w/ extended Dyno runs when you get the bike fully assembled/running and then fine tune her. 

[70CB750]

WASHER A7, TONGUED
 94108-17000

NLA.

Might find some but yes, easy does it.

tt

Or you can use nylocks, that's a clean solution.

[Restoration Fan]

You are good to go; straight to a tire shop! Cmon now, Dad, part of the resto is learning to operate safely 

Small details like those are hard to think of when you're neck deep to a giraffe in a total rebuild. Bet you keep looking at bins of parts thinking, "Sure hope I remeber where that went..." Been there. Done that.

LOL.  Yeah that was my lame attempt at humor there.

All advice you guys give is welcomed and I assure you that the safety advice will be heeded.  As my dad always told me, "Good rubber is always important...no matter what you're doing."  And it's a wise son who listens to his father's advice. 

And you're dead right about the parts.  I actually have two 8'x6' bookshelves that are stacked full of sorted and bagged parts right now.  The ONLY way I would undertake such a project with Logan is with the help of my buddy, Mike, who's serving as Logan's project coordinator and you guys on this message board.

[Restoration Fan]

WASHER A7, TONGUED
 94108-17000

NLA.

Might find some but yes, easy does it.

tt

Or you can use nylocks, that's a clean solution.

That's a good suggestion as well.  Thank you.

We were able to get them off without breaking the tabs and I checked eBay and there were 4 or 5 on there...ranging from a few bucks to $25....but there were some available.

[Restoration Fan]

Question:  I saw in maduncle's thread where he mentions that he may end up losing the center stand once he fits a muffler onto his 4-into-1's.  Since I'm likely going to be putting those 4-1 pipes shown earlier in the thread onto this bike, where is the usual conflict point between the muffler and the center stand?  Is it that the pipe on some of them just ends up being routed underneath enough that it is in the way of the stand as it comes down?  Because I would think that any hangers needed to hold the pipe could be adjusted and moved to another place to accommodate if they were the problem.

[calj737]

You're exactly right about where the conflict occurs. The 4:1 headers route the single pipe beneath and inside the frame rails along the oil pan on the right. When doing so, the center stand won't rotate forward without prying the pipe away.

The other often point of conflict is the oil filter housing is covered by the headers requiring the header to removed or at least loosened to remove it. MotoGP Werks makes a spring attached header for quick removal to resolve this conflict.

Not all 750 headers have this problem though.

And I got your humor. Never a doubt in my mind that you were taking the full course of care with your son  and your Dad's advice is spot on!

[AintNoEasyWay]

Looks like you guys are learning a lot. I'm joinin' in!