Topic: Terry's new new redneck K0 "Special"..........

[RAFster122s]

While it may appear dry, I believe thst they are still curing or outgassing. If you can sniff them and smell chemical they definitely aren't cured. Could take a month to fully harden...

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, understood, but assuming it’s the same product (it was) and assuming I waited the specified time before re-coating (I did) assuming the weather was fine and warm with very low humidity (it was) and further assuming that after painting cars and motorbikes for the last 40(+) years, I’d have a clue (I think I do) I’m still baffled. No biggie, I’ve repainted the badges, and won’t be clear coating them this time.

[RAFster122s]

The clear coats have become problematic the past several years. Krylon was and may still be hyper sensitive to bubbling and causing problems even with all their products being used. So, might just be finicky clear coats. Maybe do another set, for future build and let them cure for a month, or at least two weeks. Then apply the clear coat. Dusting on the first three coats until you build a thin layer then you can start building up layers of clear.  Often it is the solvent level in a clear attacking the underlying layers. I never trust recoat times for clear coats, additional color coats I am OK with following the directions. Base coats/primers to color and color to clear I will wait before doing the next step. But, that is just me from doing non- auto/motorcycle projects and flying model aircraft paint work.

It would be nice if manufacturers would tell us when they tweak the formulas or solvent bases in paint lines.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I think I'll just skip the clear coat David, genuine K0 tank badges are about as rare as genuine K0 tanks, so the ones I repainted a couple of days ago will do me fine.

Yesterday I attacked the front end. I like to use ATF for fork oil, and conveniently my son brought home a litre of expensive full synthetic ATF which was useless for his car, so I stole it for my bike's forks.

K0 Wednesday 25 Nov 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The Factory manual says 220-240 ml of ATF in each fork leg, so I settled on an even 250.

K0 Wednesday 25 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Along with all the parts I bought from the guy in Queensland there was a "single cut" front fender which is pretty straight, but needs re-chroming, so like the manky rear wheel I'll get that done as time goes by. DaveZ in Las Vegas sold me a nice K1 front fender last year, so I elected to use that for the time being. It was missing the bottom fender stay and the speedo cable grommet, but once again after a rat around in my garage, I found the necessary parts.

I decided to install the speedo cable to determine the angle of the speedo drive gearbox when I reinstalled the wheel, so ratted thru another tub and found a good used speedo and tach cable, so gave them a good lube of WD40, and installed them both. I reinstalled the wheel after mounting the fender and brake caliper arm, and was gonna install the new oil filter, but the only good housing I could find had remnants of black paint over remnants of silver paint over remnants of oil and grease, so I stripped the paint off chemically, and will install the filter etc today after escaping from the salt mine.

K0 Wednesday 25 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[bear]

Bloody Hell.
I've had my new toy in the shed for three weeks and haven't laid a scanner on it yet.
I feel a little "resto shamed"

[Terry in Australia]

Don’t be Brian, you know I suffer from mental illness, not to mention alcohol and drug addiction, so most of my bike building is done “under the influence”. Normal people can function way more slowly and methodically, but I just wanna ride my bike!

[jaytee-nz]

I'm currently building a K2/K3/K4 "bitsa" from literally a pile of parts. Your work and speed is amazing Terry and the paint job looks great. I was thinking of painting mine myself (Candy red too) to save the already over-spent budget and although I have some spraying experience I've never applied candy paint.
Got any specific advice or tips e.g. do you overlap by 50% with candy or is it different to that ?
Cheers - JT

[strynboen]

i use to mix some hydralik oil..in the(thin) ATF oil to get somethilng like sae 10-12 thikness..to kompensate for veared aut forklegs..it give a nice adjusting..and some flushing,,bu trying 3-4 times dont hurt anything..have run for 5 years..so think it holds longer..then cleaner the oil is from start

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, Yep, I like mixing my fork oils too Lars, when I was big and fat (330 pounds) I used engine oil in my forks, but that's too harsh for me now, so the ATF will be fine and I like the "seal swelling" effect that hopefully will keep my fork seals soft for years to come. ATF is a wonderfiul product, many years ago I bought a reconditioned Ford single rail gearbox to go behind the 302 V8 in my Fairmont, and the rebuilder said he'd give me a 5 year guarantee if I used ATF rather  than gearbox oil, and that car stayed in the family for at least 10 years with no gearbox issues, including when I sold it to my young brother in law who enjoyed doing burnouts whenever he could. The benefit of ATF as far as the rebuilder was concerned, was that the much thinner oil could get into all the synchro's much better than heavy gearbox oil.

JT, if you can buy the same paint that I did, it's a perfect match for the Honda Candy Ruby Red, and it sprays really well too. Be aware though, I've had to buy 3 kits @ $118 (AUD) to just do the tank, airbox and headlight plus an extra can of red (@$55) so you'll be up for a few hundred to do it yourself. Candy is a "Translucent color over silver base" (same as the original Honda system) so after filling, priming, rubbing back smooth you lay on a good thick coat of the silver base, let it dry (don't rub it back or you'll bugger it) then hit it with the red.

It comes out very thinly, so you need to build up layers. Normal horizontal over-lapping as used with non-candy paints can cause streaks, so you need to go nuts and do horizontals, verticals, 45 degree angles, whatever you can do to stop one section looking obviously darker than others, whilst avoiding runs, sags, etc. Once the color looks uniform, hit it with the clear, trying for several "wet" coats, rather than misting on dry coats, which will require rubbing back with 1000(+) grit to smooth out, what you want is a nice wet look that requires no rubbing or buffing. Alternatively, spray the candy, then take it to a paint shop and ask them to just hit it with 2K clearcoat and bake it. If you're applying decals, put plenty of clear over the candy, then lightly rub it back with 800-1000 grit (wet, of course) wash it, apply the decals, and when it's perfectly dry, more clearcoat. You want as much clearcoat  as you can to completely seal the decals, just keep spraying until you can't spray no more. All going well, your tank and sidecovers will look like Christmas decorations.

I've been painting cars and bikes for many years, so a lot of this stuff is intuitive for me, but will require some trial and error (and maybe a fail or two, I failed a lot in the early days) but once you get a really good result, you'll be happy.

[Terry in Australia]

Well it's been a few days, and as hard as I've been toiling on the old beast, I'm still not happy that I haven't progressed as quickly as I'd have liked. Oh well, I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

So last post I'd installed the front fender and oiled up the forks. Working back towards the rear of the bike, it was time to break out some new parts. I'd ratted thru all my old exhaust spigots, and most of them were rusty and rotten, so I'd sold my soul to Yamiya for some genuine OEM ones, and new screws.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I used some Wurth silicon exhaust sealant and new exhaust gaskets, and screwed them on. I must admit, they did look nice.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Moving down, I installed a new oil filter with a new OEM spring and washer that I found in a tub of parts, it really is amazing what I've found in various tubs for this build.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I could have bought more repro parts, but I really didn't want to build a repro K0. I've seen a couple of bikes where the builder has just bought new repro everything and that's fine, but I wanted to use as much of the 50 year old parts that I have, so I disassembled the seat latch mechanism, ignition switch bracket and stop light switch bracket, and dunked them into the container of phosphoric acid for a day or two, and they came out rust free.

K0 Wednesday 25 Nov 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

A quick coat of Rustoleum, and they looked as good as new. (or at least, slightly used) I had a new OEM ignition switch in a tub, the repro ones aren't that great, so I was happy to install a new one.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 d by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then I found more new stuff, like this new horn. I've never bought a new horn before, so I'm quite taken with the shiny chrome, most of the horns I've put on other bikes were aftermarket, because the OEM ones I had were buggared. I did find a new wire clip for the tacho cable, but not until today when I was looking for something else, but it's on now.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 f by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Ok, so moving further back, I installed a shiny new OEM rear fender. Once again, I've never popped for a new rear fender, I can usually save an old one with a few dings and some surface rust, but the one that came with the K0 was beyond repair. It cost way more than I wanted to pay, but what the hell, it was shiny and new.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 g by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Surprisingly, the OEM plastic inner fender was in really good condition, so I gave it a cleanup and a wiped down with a rag soaked in WD40, and it looked fine. I installed them both, and found a good used tail light, in my tubs of parts.

K0 Thursday 26 Nov 2020 i by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, that was Thursday. Friday came and went with a blur of bike building. The rear wheel on it now isn't the K0 wheel, I'll need to strip it, get the hub vapor blasted and re-spoke the rim, so I've used a K1 wheel from my next Honda build (once I finish a couple of Kawasakis) for the time being. I've used the K0 sprocket carrier and brake plate, so I needed to replace the rear sprocket. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just old and corroded like everything else on the bike when I got it, but I had a shiny new one, and a new DID chain.

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was actually a bit pissed off that the chain was only just long enough, as it was advertised for a CB750 and came with 18/48 sprockets, but in the end with the axle all the way forward, I still had a good inch of slack in the centre of the bottom run, so it'll work fine. An extra couple of links would have been nicer though.

I cleaned up the OEM "Shorty" chain guard and installed that too. I didn't have the correct length bolt for the rear mount, so just used a cross head screw, but I'll replace it next time I go to the nut and bolt shop.

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The old Vesrah (Made in Japan) brake shoes had plenty of meat on them, so I hooked up the brake rod, installed the brake lever, gave the wheel a spin, hit the brake lever, and...... nothing. Fcuk. OK, I could have wound that adjusting nut all the way in, and the brakes may have worked, but it wouldn't have looked good at the roadworthy inspection, so I pulled the axle, dropped the wheel enough to remove the brake plate, and replaced the shoes with new ones. Actually, it was a good thing, as the pivots were all pretty stiff, so I smeared a little copper grease on them while I was at it.

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also painted my rear blinker brackets, after de-rusting them.

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I think I also painted my battery box after realising that it's different from the K1 battery box I was gonna use. It'd been chromed (why would you chrome your battery box?) but I gave it a thick coat of etch primer before hitting it with the Rustoleum, so it should stay black. Anyway, that was Friday.

Yesterday I did another 100 mile ride on the mighty F2, then when I came home I installed them, the battery box, and the tool tray.

K0 F2 Friday 27 Nov 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

F2 K0 Saturday 28 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also cleaned the oil lines in my ultrasonic cleaner, flushed the oil tank (nothing yukky came out) replaced all the rubbers with new ones and installed the oil tank. I was getting excited, so I filled the oil tank with Penrite 15W-50 motorcycle oil.

F2 K0 Saturday 28 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bolted on a kick starter pedal and gave it a few kicks to get the oil circulating, and I have to say, with the CB77 high comp pistons, it's got a ton of compression, which is probably a good thing. I also cleaned and painted the footpeg brackets (the OEM footpeg rubbers were still perfect after 50 years, not even any rash from sliding down the road) and installed some shiny new springs, washers and cotter pins, and called it a day.

F2 K0 Saturday 28 Nov 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Today the weather was terrible. Rained on and off for most of the day, so I had to work in very cramped conditions, which pissed me off. I cheered myself up by opening up packets of new parts. Once again, I've never bought new exhaust clamps before, but I used the last of my half decent ones on the Swamp Rat last year, so ponied up the dough for new OEM clamps, and they do look nice.

F2 K0 Sunday 29 Nov 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd bought a new Delkevic pipe for it a few weeks ago, and once again, was impressed with the quality of these pipes, I have 4 now, and am happy with the price, you can pay a lot more for repro 4 into 4's, but I just couldn't see the point, this bike is gonna be a rider, not a show bike so I just can't see the point in forking out thousands of bucks for what are just repros anyway. I installed it using more clear silicon exhaust sealant. Delkevic are thoughtful enough to include a tube with every pipe, but I haven't opened one yet, as the Wurth stuff I've been using for years works fine.

F2 K0 Sunday 29 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

One other good thing with Delkevic is that they throw in a ton of stickers, which I usually plaster all over my beer fridge or tool boxes, but today I used one to cover a hole someone had drilled in the panel behind the battery box.

F2 K0 Sunday 29 Nov 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

F2 K0 Sunday 29 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then fcuked around for maybe an hour trying to get the carbs on to some repro (not Yamiya) rubber insulators. These things are just sh1t, and I wish I'd remembered that I had the same problem with another set I bought from a different Ebay seller 3 years ago when I built the K2 bitsa, that I also found in a tub today. Fcuk it, I jumped on Ebay and bought a set of OEM insulators from a local seller along with some other parts I need, and hopefully they'll arrive this week.

That's OK, I still need to install the blinkers, headlight, regulator, rectifier, fuse box, blinker can, new wiring harness, coils etc, and drill a set of new handlebars for the switches, and run the cables through the bars. That should be fun, not..........



   

 

 

[andy750]

The non-OEM rubber insulators have never worked for me either. Now its only OEM, so much easier. Making some impressive progress Terry, good luck!

[WhyNot2]

wow, nice going........love reading thru your builds.

Finally got mine to fire up and actually idle........pops some out the exhaust while idling, and on throttling.

None the less, it fired up and ran after a 3 year fumbling.

[MauiK3]

You are a BIKE FACTORY!!
This will be a nice bike!!

[754]

I thought something on the horn looked a bit off... it may be OEM Honda, but not identical to the old ones.. honda is slipping a bit....

[Terry in Australia]

I thought something on the horn looked a bit off... it may be OEM Honda, but not identical to the old ones.. honda is slipping a bit....

Really Frank? Here's a pic of the original K0 horn side by side with the new one, same part number on both, and apart from 50 years of rust and dirt, identical, as far as I can see?

K0 Monday 30 Nov 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Terry in Australia]

But back to reality. Thanks guys, yep it's going well. Tonight I had to go to my weekly physio session, then did some shopping (was pissed off to see so many folks walking around inside the mall with no masks on, the idiots) then to the home brew shop to pick up a bag of bottle tops for my newest batch.

I came home and rebuilt the K0 MC (forgot to take any pics, sorry) then used the MC to pump the piston out of the caliper.

K0 Monday 30 Nov 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It looked a bit crappy inside, the piston is rusty, but I have a new one, so I threw the caliper assy into the ultrasonic cleaner, and it's looking much better. Tomorrow I'll give the seal slot a good clean, install new parts, and it'll be good to install on the bike with the new "Metal Gear" pads that arrived today.

K0 Monday 30 Nov 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I have to bottle my latest batch of ginger beer tomorrow as the wife wants me to get rid of my "Bottle Tree" so she can put up the Christmas Tree. Personally, I think a bit of tasteful decorating and some soft lighting, and the bottle tree would suffice this year, but there you go, you just can't please those women....

K0 Monday 23 Nov 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[754]

All righty, look at the part under your thumb,  then this pic.........looks like one is plasma cut , the other made by  die..
 See the difference ?

[Terry in Australia]

Oh right, I was looking at the horn, not the bracket. Oh well, that's easy, if I could be bothered, I'd swap them out, but can't really see much point.........

[PeWe]

If you open the ignition cover you'll might see 2 points!
If pointless, the ride it self will be a good point!

[Terry in Australia]

No points on this baby Per, I installed a new Kokusan ignition and have Dyna 3 Ohm coils with 8mm leads to go in. Points would have worked fine, but I like to just “set and forget”, and the fat blue spark along with the high comp CB77 pistons should make it run sweet on 98 RON fuel.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I have to bottle my latest batch of ginger beer tomorrow as the wife wants me to get rid of my "Bottle Tree" so she can put up the Christmas Tree. Personally, I think a bit of tasteful decorating and some soft lighting, and the bottle tree would suffice this year, but there you go, you just can't please those women....

K0 Monday 23 Nov 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I agree, Terry.  Some cool LED lights in those empty bottles and POOF you've got a Christmas tree!!

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, thanks mate, over here a "Poof" is a slang term for a gay man (not that there's anything wrong with that.......) but yep, I agree, colored lights inside those beer bottles would have been lovely. Oh well......

Following on from that edict from "She who must be obeyed", I'm bottling 29 litres of ginger beer (if I don't soon, I'll have Spotty repossessing my K7 and CL90 for non-payment of garage space) today, so no bike work after signing off from the ol' virtual salt mine. I wanted to do the front brake, so after pulling the caliper parts out of the ultrasonic cleaner last night, I dried it off and cleaned out any remaining corrosion, especially in the seal channel.

The old piston was beyond repair, with the hard chrome peeling.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Years ago, I bought several alloy anodised pistons from an old English racer living in Spain. This was my last one.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Only problem with them is that the domed brake pad "hat" that allows the pad to run parallel with the disc is too big for the hole machined in the alloy piston.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So I wrapped the new piston in tape and chucked it in the lathe, and bored it out a mm or so.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And Viola! A stringed instrument!

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I now had everything to assemble the caliper on a bracket that I found in a tub. I used new bolts with a little copper grease, and wiped a very thin layer around the perimeter of the pad's backing plate while I was at it, even though it wasn't a tight fit with the new "Metal gear" organic pads.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bolted the K0 caliper on. Can you see the difference between a K0 and later caliper? There is a subtle difference.

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then I hooked up the brake line and bled the brakes, and all was good. Only a small job, but one less job to worry about, and one small step for mankind, er, I mean, towards completion of what has probably been my quickest build in some time, I'm getting excited!

K0 Tuesday 1 Dec 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

That looks good Terry;I like the special caliper piston.Have you ever purchased one of those non-metal 'phenolic' pistons from member here 'godferry' ?

[Terry in Australia]

G’day Bill, yep, I think I was his first customer? From memory they were modified car caliper pistons? I think I used them on a twin disc setup, and they worked fine.

[Terry in Australia]

Well I did have a bit of daylight after I finished bottling my latest batch of Ginger Beer last night, so I wandered out to the garage to decide what needed doing next. I know, wiring! I pulled out the repro wiring harness and the small one from the Alternator. One thing I hate (apart from wiring itself, me and electronics don't get on) is crappy old wiring with broken wires, corroded terminals etc, so when building a bike, even if I have an old harness, I'll buy a good quality repro harness, just to save me some tears.....

K0 Tuesday evening 1 Dec 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I connected up the small harness including the neutral switch terminal and just laid the harness roughly along the frame, so I could connect up all the electrical gubbins before using some old Honda cable ties to tie it to the frame. I've connected the single fuse box for the purpose of connecting everything, but like my K2 Bitsa, I'll wire in a modern fuse box with a circuit breaker, which is much more convenient out on the road than the old glass fuse older with the tiny glass fuses that I can't buy at a gas station anywhere.

K0 Tuesday evening 1 Dec 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'll install the headlight and blinkers today, and see if I can find a stop/tail light globe somewhere in the garage, then tie up the harness. I need to drill and grind out the holes in the handlebars for the new switchblocks, which (after some prompting) the Ebay seller is sending via Express Post today. (I only paid for everything last week.....) The inlet rubber insulators are coming too, so I might even get the carbs on this weekend. Oooher, I might even be able to fire it up! Okay, Okay, I better not count my chickens, but it's getting close!

K0 Tuesday evening 1 Dec 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Tuesday evening 1 Dec 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr