Author Topic: 76 CB550 Cafe build (Read 94858 times)

tshrey · « **Reply #175 on:** April 08, 2018, 02:41:00 PM »

Spent the last two weeks doing nothing but adding layers of fiberglass and sanding them down. If I go a few years without doing any more glass work I will be very happy. Thought the tail hump would be the challenge, but it was the little lip in the front that sucked. Lots of work getting a small uniform gap between the lip and the tank. Ready for a skim coat of bondo now.

The smart move would be to prime the tail and leave the tank and tail alone until I'm done building everything but there is no way I'm restrained enough to do that. I have a feeling once I see the color coat on the bodywork I will have a lot more drive to get this thing done.

tshrey · « **Reply #176 on:** April 08, 2018, 07:17:29 PM »

What you see won't get upholstered. The base for the seat is HPDE (think plastic cutting board) that bolts onto the body work of the tail section. Foam over that base, alcantara and leather over that. The HPDE works well as a base because you can use uphostery staples in it.

I'm thinking I will use a thin piece of adhesive weatherstrip foam on the underside of that lip to be a little cushion between the fiberglass and the paint on the tank. Either way you're right, it is still a really tight fit. But if I've learned anything doing this it's that it is easier to sand stuff down than to build it up with resin and mat in a precise shape.

Camrector · « **Reply #177 on:** April 08, 2018, 08:08:53 PM »

How did your forks change color!!???

tshrey · « **Reply #178 on:** April 08, 2018, 09:07:46 PM »

You armchair builders don't miss anything

Didn't really want the gold, found a pair of 750 forks that were black and sold the gold ones for a profit.

tshrey · « **Reply #179 on:** April 15, 2018, 03:22:36 PM »

Bondo work is done. Mounted rubber between the body work and frame rails and installed nutserts into the wood that makes up the support under the seat and drilled some holes in the frame to mount the body/seat. Skimming the whole thing with glazing putty today to fill in all the scratches from the 60 grit paper I used.

Decided to add a 1/4" high lip all around the seat - that way the upholstery will flow out over that lip and you won't see any gap at all on the bottom of the seat. Going to send the body and seat pan to Mac's Upholstery in Seattle. Anyone ever use them? I've seen some of their work and they are as picky as I am. 1" of black leather around the sides of the seat stitched to black alcantara fabric with a diamond stitch using grey thread.

Got a little distracted yesterday since it was the first nice day in five months and got to go for a ride...

jtm_sea · « **Reply #180 on:** April 18, 2018, 02:31:14 PM »

Excellent thread, thanks for all the in-depth posts and photos.

riverfever · « **Reply #181 on:** April 20, 2018, 04:47:52 PM »

Very impressed and jealous of that seat. I'd really like to do this to mine.

bambuhiphop · « **Reply #182 on:** April 26, 2018, 11:49:59 AM »

Hey man! How's the flywheel machining going?

tshrey · « **Reply #183 on:** April 26, 2018, 12:18:01 PM »

Life keeps getting in my way. I have an all new compound slide and carbide cutting tools as well as the steel rod. Now I just need some time.

I cut out the stock cross brace under the seat and made my own and then ran out of gas. Blew a damn hole right in one of the frame rails before I realized what was going on so I need to repair that next. Finishing up the floor where my machining tools are today, so maybe this weekend I can get back at it.

Also working on the seat base, ordered a huge 1/2" thick cutting board to use. I can do it twice in case I botch the first.

bambuhiphop · « **Reply #184 on:** April 26, 2018, 12:40:23 PM »

Quote from: tshrey on April 26, 2018, 12:18:01 PM

Life keeps getting in my way. I have an all new compound slide and carbide cutting tools as well as the steel rod. Now I just need some time.

I cut out the stock cross brace under the seat and made my own and then ran out of gas. Blew a damn hole right in one of the frame rails before I realized what was going on so I need to repair that next. Finishing up the floor where my machining tools are today, so maybe this weekend I can get back at it.

Also working on the seat base, ordered a huge 1/2" thick cutting board to use. I can do it twice in case I botch the first.

Ah, pesky ole life. I know the feeling! haha

tshrey · « **Reply #185 on:** April 29, 2018, 05:39:52 PM »

It's exciting whenever I manage to get anything actually done on this bike. I welded in the cross braces I made, found that I am an abysmal TIG welder, swapped out my TIG nozzle to a gas lens that I got for Xmas and forgot about and discovered I'm actually just a below average TIG welder

Amazing what some good gas coverage gets you. I also cut and bent up an electronics tray for between the frame rails and then installed nutserts into the seat so that everything bolts together.

tshrey · « **Reply #186 on:** May 12, 2018, 01:28:30 PM »

Got a few hours all to myself today in the garage. Got the HPDE cut and mounted for the upholstery base. Still have to weld the two pieces together before sending it out to get done. Also remade the electronics tray out of aluminum instead of steel.

Also got some time to work on the lathe. Having never turned anything other than aluminum before I can tell you that steel simply sucks. Can't take big whacks out of it like aluminum so I had to turn down 1.25" rod to .7125" to fit through the hole in the CBR600 flywheel and then cut the taper. Next step will be to mount that thinner section (which you can't see in this pic) back into the lathe, ream the center hole and then cut the internal taper. To go from 1.25" rod to the piece in this picture took me about 90 minutes.

tshrey · « **Reply #187 on:** May 12, 2018, 05:19:21 PM »

But the 'big end' of the taper needs to be 1.2".

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

flatlander · « **Reply #188 on:** May 13, 2018, 05:07:10 AM »

if it's of any consolation: it does look good! and once you have the bike running with it you won't remember or regret those 90mins anyway.

aaguilar3 · « **Reply #189 on:** May 13, 2018, 10:27:28 AM »

Neat build

Flanker08 · « **Reply #190 on:** May 13, 2018, 06:48:57 PM »

Awesome project! I'm starting a similar endeavor... thanks for the pictures and informative posts!

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #191 on:** May 13, 2018, 09:20:16 PM »

Quote from: calj737 on May 13, 2018, 03:12:43 AM

Quote from: tshrey on May 12, 2018, 05:19:21 PM
But the 'big end' of the taper needs to be 1.2".
Pardon me, misread that.

If you think turning steel sucks (especially compared to AL) then try a piece of Ti in your lathe.

RAFster122s · « **Reply #192 on:** May 19, 2018, 10:05:52 PM »

The thoughts of a nice charging system with excess capacity is very attractive, so...sounds like it might be a good idea to crank out several of those taper adapters while you are setup. So, where do I send the money?

David

RAFster122s · « **Reply #193 on:** May 19, 2018, 10:13:46 PM »

Will you need to go by the upholstery person's place with the bike and seat mounted to show them current clearance so they can tell you how much space they need for the nose if you are having leather or vinyl wrap around that front part?
I would rather have an 1/8" gap there than a part that rubbed under certain conditions if the tank deflects with you rounding a corner with a knee against the side of the tank. Paintwork is just too expensive and rubbing parts, even leather or vinyl will cut through a clear and color coat before you realize it. Especially if it has not hardened up completely.
A gap that is even won't look bad.

Are you going to shoot a urethane clear over your paintwork or go with a 2k urethane on the whole thing?

I don't recall if you previously talked about the final color scheme in your head for the bike?

tshrey · « **Reply #194 on:** May 19, 2018, 10:39:42 PM »

I'm sending them the entire tail section so that they can get the seat upholstered correctly to the tail. The upholstered part will be foam and leather/alcantara over the blue base in the pics above. When that comes back the tail and the tank get painted the same Red Velvet from a 2017 Jeep (there is a pic of the color somewhere above). The clearance between the tank and the nose of the tail comes from me and how I've mounted the tail, there will be about 1/8" and there will be a layer of foam rubber between the parts.

The clear will be a 2 part epoxy urethane.

I've made very little progress on the adapter simply because I've been working on my lathe/mill for the last several days. Removed and cleaned most of the parts to remove old gummed up oil, blast and powdercoat a bunch of things that just had crappy paint on them from the factory and reset all my backlashes. I also picked up a DRO and got that mounted so I can be very reproducible. Once I make the first one and verify everything works I will consider making more; while I hate charging people money for stuff that I make I won't have a choice on this because each taper spacer will take a couple hours of time to cut.

tshrey · « **Reply #195 on:** May 22, 2018, 07:46:24 AM »

Little update, Mike has the head now for some stage 2 loving. I might actually get the engine assembled this year.

I filled in some more little dings in the frame that I made when grinding off various unnecessary tabs with weld last night. I think I'm actually ready to send the frame and swingarm off to get powdercoated.

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #196 on:** May 22, 2018, 08:34:43 AM »

As I recall, you went with a 592cc kit and upped the compression. Which cam are you going to use? 126-20, 650 or something else?

tshrey · « **Reply #197 on:** May 23, 2018, 07:51:24 AM »

Stock cam. I've been looking for a 650 one but have come up empty.

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #198 on:** May 23, 2018, 08:59:44 AM »

Quote from: tshrey on May 23, 2018, 07:51:24 AM

Stock cam. I've been looking for a 650 one but have come up empty.

With the upgrades to the head and higher compression pistons, it makes sense to upgrade the cam. The 650 cam is a very sensible choice, since you will not need to upgrade the rockers (as you would if you go with a hard-weld cam). They are harder to find but out there. Check the for sale board here. I'll PM you with another source.

Godffery · « **Reply #199 on:** May 23, 2018, 09:17:28 PM »

Quote from: SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan on May 23, 2018, 08:59:44 AM

Quote from: tshrey on May 23, 2018, 07:51:24 AM
Stock cam. I've been looking for a 650 one but have come up empty.
With the upgrades to the head and higher compression pistons, it makes sense to upgrade the cam. The 650 cam is a very sensible choice, since you will not need to upgrade the rockers (as you would if you go with a hard-weld cam). They are harder to find but out there. Check the for sale board here. I'll PM you with another source.

I may have one available for you.

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Author Topic: 76 CB550 Cafe build (Read 94858 times)