Author Topic: 72 CB500 Restomod - *Update* Sold!  (Read 46599 times)

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Offline SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #300 on: September 23, 2018, 08:01:55 PM »
kinda like SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan's profile picture. I'm not going to disagree with you, that would look pretty cool
;D
1975 CB550K1 "Blue" Stockish Restomod (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=135005.0)
1975 CB550F1 frame/CB650 engine hybrid "The Hot Mess" (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,150220.0.html)
2008 Triumph Thruxton (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,190956.0.html)
2014 MV Agusta Brutale Dragster 800
2015 Yamaha FZ-09 (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,186861.0.html)

"There are some things nobody needs in this world, and a bright-red, hunch-back, warp-speed 900cc cafe racer is one of them — but I want one anyway, and on some days I actually believe I need one.... Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba." Hunter S. Thompson, Song of the Sausage Creature, Cycle World, March 1995.  (http://www.latexnet.org/~csmith/sausage.html and https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1995/3/1/song-of-the-sausage-creature)

Sold/Emeritus
1973 CB750K2 "Bionic Mongrel" (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=132734.0) - Sold
1977 CB750K7 "Nine Lives" Restomod (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=50490.0) - Sold
2005 RVT1000RR RC51-SP2 "El Diablo" - Sold
2016+ Triumph Thruxton 1200 R (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,170198.0.html) - Sold

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #301 on: October 09, 2018, 08:13:27 PM »
So, as predicted, I have been unable to stop fiddling. I've added some reducers to my pipes, which take it down from 2.5" to 2" pipe. I bolted in some circular plates with holes drilled to disrupt the exhaust flow. Added some 8" long chrome exhaust tips with a rolled end, and installed a baffle in each of those.

All of this, for a 6 decibel decrease in exhaust noise.

I'm idling at over 90 decibels, and anything over 4000 RPM pushes 105+/- decibels.

Part of me loves the F1 car sounds as I wind it out, but the other part of me has a strong desire not to be a dick to my neighbors.

I feel like I've done as much as I can with the slapdash custom exhaust mess that I'm running now.

A couple of questions for which I haven't been able to find adequate answers:

- These bikes aren't supposed to be this loud, right?

- What sort of exhaust system should I aim to buy to obtain a reasonable noise level?

Loving this bike. I grow more and more attached every time I get to ride it.

Offline calj737

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #302 on: October 10, 2018, 03:34:22 AM »
From the factory they were pretty quiet. Delkevic makes a decent quality stainless system that’s well baffled. Not as quiet as stock, but very polite in decibels.
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of it's victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #303 on: October 15, 2018, 02:32:33 PM »
My 500 has turned into a 250.

Seems to be only running on 2 & 3, based on exhaust pipe temps. Found some loose wires going to the coils, but they didn’t fix anything. Double checked fuel flow, seemed a little restricted on one side.

Ugh.

Found a melted connector going to my regulator/rectifier. It did not appear to be shorting yet, but I definitely need to fix it.

Offline calj737

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #304 on: October 15, 2018, 04:06:03 PM »
Swap your condensers from left to right. Does the problem follow the condenser?
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of it's victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

Offline Pan1cReaper

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #305 on: October 15, 2018, 06:28:38 PM »
From the factory they were pretty quiet. Delkevic makes a decent quality stainless system that’s well baffled. Not as quiet as stock, but very polite in decibels.

The Delkevic is awesome for the price. After a couple years it has turned a nice golden color on the head pipes and fades to the shiney stainless on the collector. Nice rumble at idle, and screams reasonably at WOT. I have tried it without the baffle. As much as I like the sound its obnoxiously loud.

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #306 on: October 18, 2018, 05:47:51 PM »
Rode to work yesterday, ran just fine in the morning, back to 2 cylinders for the ride home. I swapped some different plugs into it the night before, I guess they ran okay until they fouled.

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #307 on: October 24, 2018, 05:35:54 PM »
Finally got a few minutes to play with the bike this evening.

Swapped the coils, no change. Next suspect was the ignition timing, which I found to be a little off for 1-4.

Made the adjustment and it seems to be running like a champ again for the moment.

If I get an opportunity to ride soon I’ll report back with my findings

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #308 on: October 25, 2018, 02:32:21 PM »
Went out for a quick blast down the road and back this evening. Weather’s probably as good as it’s gonna get for a while. Bike runs great! I can let it rest for the winter without stressing over it now.

Offline Scramps

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71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #309 on: November 02, 2018, 04:58:28 PM »
Starting to put together a list of items to attend to over the winter. Several of the things that are on the bike now were rushed in the interest of getting the bike on the road as fast as possible.

The first thing is getting that tank painted. I've had a few people tell me that the primer gray look is cool, but no, it's gotta go. Still waiting on those replica side covers. I guess the company that makes them is another casualty of the Sino-American trade war. NOS ones are painfully expensive, and all the used ones I've found have either been in worse shape than what I've got, or unrealistically priced. The ones I have can probably be rehabilitated with some effort, we'll see.

Next is building a new wire harness. I had to cut and splice and solder and heat shrink this one an unnecessary amount of times with all the trial and error. I had to use a lot of scrap/salvaged wire in the interest of saving money, and I also used heavier gauge wire than necessary for a lot of the switched power and grounds, which in and of itself isn’t a problem, it’s just bulky and unattractive.

I’ve had a couple of my little baby plugs partially melt, probably due to bad crimps and arcing.



I’ve replaced the melted ones, but I want to redo the rest as well. Once I was done with the my current wiring setup, I got a fancy German-made crimping tool that does a far superior job than the needle nose pliers I was using before (ugh). That should help on the next go-round.



While I'm at it, I'll make up a new electrical box to go under the left side cover, I'm not thrilled with how the one I made before turned out.

Still angling for that Delkevic 4-1, haven't been able to set the funds aside yet.

I neglected to move the needle clips back to a leaner position the last time I had the carbs off, so that's another little thing.

There's probably about 10-12 more items that I'll fart around with over the next few months. I'll keep you posted
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 02:32:30 PM by Scramps »

Offline Gurp

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #310 on: November 04, 2018, 05:35:08 AM »
Wintertime blues.
Scramps i hope you have a heated work space my friend.
slow Progress 74 cb550.

Poor boy chop 73 CB500 chop

Future project 77 Cb750 Amen Savior

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #311 on: November 04, 2018, 02:38:12 PM »
I don’t actually have any sort of heating apparatus in my garage.

I may try to get my bike into the shop at work on a warm day and piddle with it on nights and weekends when I have time. That wasn’t an option for me last winter since I don’t have a trailer and I didn’t get the bike on the road until just a month or two ago.

We shall see how it plays out, I reckon

Offline Marissa

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #312 on: November 04, 2018, 06:36:45 PM »
Scramps,

There's a guy in New England who makes new side covers. I got referred to him by a CB750 builder and ordered a set of 550F covers for my bike (since they fit into the frame triangles, they don't hit the inside of my legs which is mega bonus for me since I'm pretty short.) I think my order only came to $88 for both which I believe is cheaper than the ones you can find on 4into1 or Dime City, the covers are also pretty strong and flexible. Let me know if you want me to grab the link to his site!

Best of luck on your winter to do list also.
1984 Nissan 300zx - sold
2016 Ford Fiesta ST - daily
1972 Honda CB500 - infinite work in progress

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Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #313 on: November 05, 2018, 05:43:56 PM »
That would be incredible! I think the ones on 4into1 are about that price, which is what I was expecting to pay anyway.

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #314 on: November 18, 2018, 07:38:53 PM »
I'd been holding out hope that we might get another warm enough day for riding, and today was the one. I made it to work and back, but the bike wasn't having it. 1 and 4 not firing properly, just spits and coughs. In any event, the time has come to start on my list.

I ordered the wiring harness supplies that I will need yesterday. Tonight after I got home I began the process of taking everything back off of the bike.

I moved my needle clips back up to the 2nd position from the top, and made some other little adjustments to the carbs that I had been putting off.

The tank is off and drained, ready for painting.

Electrical panel under the side cover, I think I might do something different for it.

Still contemplating. Plenty of cold days ahead.

Offline Scramps

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71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #315 on: November 20, 2018, 11:06:22 AM »


Made a couple modifications to the original bracket for the gauges, now it will accommodate my little baby gauges AND the ignition switch in the middle. Almost definitely has been done before but I felt pretty clever when I figured it out

Edit:  I may go back later and put my dummy lights on there, too. Clean up the dash a little

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #316 on: November 20, 2018, 05:21:47 PM »
WIP this evening

 

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #317 on: November 20, 2018, 06:02:38 PM »
Doesn’t look half bad with those little baby gauges


Offline calj737

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #318 on: November 21, 2018, 04:35:12 AM »
Just make sure those gauges are installed with rubber isolators. Vibration kills them promptly.
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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #319 on: November 21, 2018, 05:49:15 AM »
Yes! I’ve been having trouble sourcing some of the more specialized bits of hardware, though. Rubber isolation grommets, battery cable boots, a few other little odds and ends that I can’t think of right now. I’ve found listings for stuff on eBay and amazon and whatever, but everything’s either way too big, too small, or the listing doesn’t specify any dimensions.

Any recommendations?

Offline calj737

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #320 on: November 21, 2018, 06:53:37 AM »
Grommets you can get at the local Auto Parts store. Look in the Electrical aisle. They also often have rubberized P clamps for securing cables. If not there, Home Depot, Lowes etc have them too. Same aisle.

For the gauge isolators, re-drill the mounting hole slightly larger and use a grommet whose ID is equal to the bolt gauge. The grommet has a groove that you can fit onto the bracket with the grommet sandwiching the bracket. Keeps everything nicely snug. Slip the bolt back thru, tighten it down until "snug", not "crushed".

The battery cable boots, good luck on those. I just use a larger diameter piece of shrink wrap from the cable to the connector before the clamp. Coat the stud and interior with dielectric grease, then the clamped stud after install. Works well enough.
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of it's victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

Offline Scramps

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #321 on: November 21, 2018, 09:19:08 AM »
I like the little collets that Honda used for the grommets on the junction plate, I reckon those would be easy enough to reproduce with a bit of steel tubing of the appropriate diameter.

I’ll pick up some grommets and p-clamps later. I haven’t given up on the cable boots yet. I’ve got one good one left of the originals.

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #322 on: November 22, 2018, 05:12:32 AM »
This is what I want to do with my paint. The tank will have a white honda decal about where the original emblem resided, and the side covers will have the original 500 Four emblems on them.

I've agonized over this for a long time, but I feel pretty good about it. Here's hoping that it looks as nice in real life as it does in my brain.

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Offline calj737

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #323 on: November 22, 2018, 05:38:25 AM »
 :D
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of it's victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

Offline Can550

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Re: 71 CB500 Restomod
« Reply #324 on: November 22, 2018, 08:45:48 AM »
This is what I want to do with my paint. The tank will have a white honda decal about where the original emblem resided, and the side covers will have the original 500 Four emblems on them.

I've agonized over this for a long time, but I feel pretty good about it. Here's hoping that it looks as nice in real life as it does in my brain.

Sent from my SM-P580 using Tapatalk
oh I love this paint scheme.
I have been wanting to do this past by scheme on my 1975 cb550f but haven’t been able to decide if it will be right move. Would like to see how red and white will look?

Just to satisfy myself (for paint scheme) bought a 69 cb350 twin



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