I guess I'll get this started, first off I want to thank Raffi and Steve-o for nominating me for BOTM. In the few months since I've had the bike finished I've racked up 960 miles. The bike gets compliments and questions everywhere I go. Sitting at red lights or stopping for gas I'm always telling people all about the bike.
Quick Rundown of the Build:
Engine:
Replaced several gaskets, seals and pucks
NOS Stator Cover
Original style points cover
Painted case
Polished covers
Stainless hardware
Rebuilt carburetors
Original 4-4 Exhaust
Body:
Replaced tank
Frankenstuff side covers
Did all body work and paint on tank and covers myself
Reproduction gas cap/latch
NOS Tank badges
Reproduction side cover badges
Replaced front and rear fenders
Replaced grab rail
Custom-ish Seat
Suspension:
ALL Balls tapered steering stem bearings/races
CB550 Fork Swap
Replaced forks seals/boots
Rebuilt Forks
Replaced fork oil
CB550 fork ears
CB500 K0 Reflectors
Polished fork lowers
Replaced/Rebuilt Rear shocks
Controls:
Cleaned and reassembled hand controls
Painted controls
CB400F Handlebars
Mini "2.5 Speedo/Tach
Bar end Mirrors
Electrical:
Daytona Electronic Ignition
Dyna 5 OHM coils
Dyna Spark Plug Leads
NGK Spark Plug caps
H4 Headlight
Wireing harness retaped
All connections cleaned
Wheels/Brakes:
Replaced wheels
All Balls wheel bearing
Shinko 712 Tires
Goddfrey speedo drive
New 15.8mm Master Cylinder
Braided steel brake lines
Dual Disk Conversion
Rebuilt brake calipers
Goddfrey phenolic pistons
Drilled and champhered Disks
New brakes front and back
Polished rear drum
Misc:
Replaced Front/back sprockets
Replaced Chain
Replaced Clutch Lifter Rod
Replaced Clutch Adjuster
Replaced Horn
Replaced just about every piece of chrome
New headlight bucket
New OEM Clutch Cables
Motion Pro Throttle/Tach/Speedo Cables
Sealed AGM Battery
(apologies in advance for going a little picture heavy)
I don't have many before pictures of this bike, i started tearing into it pretty quickly, but it was bad.
When I picked up the bike It was not in running condition and I really can't say the last time it was on the road. It had gone through at least two owners who had never seen it run and was last titled in 2000.
The bike had no key, no battery, the carbs were off and partially disassembled. It was a mess and a total gamble buying it.
My first task was to get this thing to fire up. So I started out cleaning the carbs. I've been riding and wrenching for a few years but I had never fully disassembled carbs so this was a fun learning experience. The bike came with a nice carb kit with new brass and o-rings but I wanted to use all the original jets I could so I cleaned them all out starting with a pine-sol dip and followed by a healthy dose of carb cleaner and compressed air.
I finished the carbs off with polishing up the lids and bowls and reassembling them.
I mounted the carbs back up, rigged a fuel line, and fired it up. It ran. So I knew I wasn't wasting my time.
I started taking the bike apart now and seeing what was still good on it. The answer was, not much. Every piece of chrome was pitted with rust, the tank had a Kreem liner that was falling apart and it for some reason was filled with rocks. (My only guess on this is that they were put in to shake up and break up the crap but they were left there to solidify to the bottom of the tank.)
I stripped down the bike, pulled the engine, used an angle grinder to remove rust, primed it and painted it with SprayMax2k paint.
The motor I took off all the covers and polished them all up, primed and painted the engine with duplicolor high heat paint, replaced all the gaskets and seals I could and reassembled.
I got a donor tank that wasn't in too bad of shape (or filled with rocks) and stripped the paint, did some body work to fix a few small dings and dents, primed, painted and cleared it. The whole process took about a month itself.
The bike had no sidecovers when I got it so I got some from Frankenstuff and painted them up as well. Primer and paint were just duplicolor with a high gloss SprayMax2k clearcoat. It's a 2 part gas resistant clear that I've used on a couple other bikes.
The wheels like everything else were rusted out so I found a set on craigslist that I cleaned up and, replaced the bearings and put on some new tires.
And to make a long story short (too late) I scoured the forums/ebay/craigslist for replacement parts and built up the bike little by little.
Made some upgrades where I could
and just kept on reassembling...
I'm sure I missed some stuff but that's the gist of it. 14 months of coming home from work and going straight to the garage to get a couple hours of work done. Spending weekends polishing and painting. It's all worth it and this bike now has a new lease on life. I love doing this. It's by no means perfect but this is what you can do with a few tools and a little know how.
I want to thank everyone that contributes to this forum, you're a wealth of knowledge. I can't wait to start tearing into my next bike, a '74 CB750. Special thanks to my dad for letting me pick his brain, use a lot of his tools, and helping me whenever I needed a hand.
Hope you enjoyed following along and thank you again for the nomination
Best of luck to Kevin and his beautiful CB550 cafe.
Thanks,
-Tom
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