Author Topic: 1975 cb550 cafe racer-FINISHED w/ video! (Read 30979 times)

d3buttz · « **on:** January 18, 2009, 01:00:56 PM »

Ive been a sohc member for 3 months now, but ive beeen working on it for alot longer. Here are a few chronological pictures to show where i started to now and my current project-the motorbuild.

here is where i started with-check out the sissy bar-ha!

1/4 '' flat plate steel welded on both sides for strength, very simple and worked out great for my rear-sets.

cb 750 forks

cb750 forks with two cb550 rotors and discs-i already had 2 550 setups, and the 750 discs were only .50" bigger anyways...

final mockups before powder coating. the seat i made with 304 stainless steel. steering stabilizer bar, dunstall tank. ialso made the battery box from aluminum(this took forever.....)but i wanted to keep the electronics as stock as possible for reliability and laziness.

oooohhh nice.

all set!

almost there

the stock bar seemed too lame for me, and even though this (steering heim bar for a circletrack racecar) cost me 40$ and its heavier-i love it and its looks kick ass.

and were off to the current project- the motor. im doing a port/polish job and a cb650 cam along with the proper rebuild neccesities(rings gaskets etc)

domes all polished now

port and polishing so far........

having a mill and lathe helps alot

ive polished the valves and completed getting the old goo off the case and head.
i got the wear limits off my cylinders and im still within stock, so i etched the walls with the honing stones for a proper seating of the new rings. stay tuned.

no parts yet..........just waiting to reassemble.

FunJimmy · « **Reply #1 on:** January 18, 2009, 01:14:52 PM »

Great job!
Nice to see some more 550 cafe projects too.

d3buttz · « **Reply #2 on:** January 23, 2009, 04:11:08 PM »

the rust on my left exhaust was really bad, it was repaired a few times by the previous owner and did a terrible job with a mig welder, hence why i wrapped the pipes and hid the novice repair. it the rust and shoddy welds got worse and worse, so today i cut off the 5" of bad repair and rust and rolled 7" of 20ga. stainless steel and tig welded it up. it looks pretty nice, but i think ill still keep the header wrap.

Ecosse · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2009, 09:46:26 PM »

that's some nice work! satisfying to undo someone else's cob job huh?

TheFox · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2009, 07:06:47 PM »

Were you able to bolt up those 750 forks to the 550 tree? Also, does the 550 wheel fit in the 750 forks? I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about my brake setup on my 550. I've got calipers off of a GSX-r 600 and 6 piston calipers and master cyl off of a yamaha R6. Those would be bad-ass but I don't know how to get them to work, because they would hit the spokes. Some help on that would be great if you have some ideas.

Brad

Mach-5(50) · « **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2009, 10:37:56 PM »

i am really digging on your attention to details. i especially like the heim joints. spendy maybe, but excess in the name of differenece and practicality is right up my alley. i also like the exposed chrome tip of the wrapped headers. it is like the best of both worlds in my mind. it goes without saying the tank is great. i am not sure if i feel like the seat and side covers compliment it so much. i like the side covers, i am not sure the are right for that tank. that may be my only criticism. like fun jimmy said, it's great to see more 550 cafe projects. it is a build i will aspire to.

thanks.

ryan

mateo tomas · « **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2009, 10:56:53 PM »

Great progress... its motivating me to get off my ass, hoping we have an early spring.

BTW, what area of the city do you live in? I'm near cap hill.

d3buttz · « **Reply #7 on:** January 26, 2009, 04:45:36 PM »

thanks for the reply posts guys!
brad- ive seen alot of awesome fork/brake conversions here but its alot of work,Relacing hubs etc. and expensive (very expensive) if you dont have a machining background. here is what i did and it was cheap and made a huge difference.
the 750 forks are the same 35(?)mm diameter tubes as the 550 and the wheel bolted up perfect. when i started i didint know the 750 f2? bikes came dual disc, that would have been a simple bolt up, but the casting on the forks are there on all the 750s. the only modifying i had to do is the speedo drive bell on the hub because of the added disc(really easy). one thing to know is that fork leg that your adding a caliper to was NOT machined down to spec for the caliper mount. i had to CAREFULLY file down the blank mount(on the fork) untill the caliper was lined up with the disc. only take 5-10 thousanths off at a time. it was time consuming pulling the wheel/caliper on and off but it worked out great(shims arent trust worthy). the caliper mount arm swings around reverse and just unbolt the new calipers 2 bolts and rotate it. get a dual disc brake line "T" off a honda goldwing because they bolt in the same place and still have the brake light actuator. i ordered an after market brake lever off of an online dealer and it was a piece of crap, so i got a junk yard mid 90's lever off a ninja that still had the same style banjo fitting and more importantly was made for dual discs with LARGE PISTONS. newer brakes are designed better and have smaller pistons so the newer levers dont push as much fluid.

hey mateo tomas, im up in the denver highlands around 48th/i-70. cant wait to get all the colorado sohc guys together!

d3buttz · « **Reply #8 on:** January 28, 2009, 06:10:01 PM »

bored, no parts.
so i cleaned and polished my tappets, breather cover,piston tops etc...
stay tuned.

d3buttz · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2009, 05:04:00 PM »

a post by mach-5 got me thinking of having a go at making another seat with the old gas tank route-still needs bondo,paint and upholstry but, what do you guys think between the two?

aussie · « **Reply #10 on:** February 02, 2009, 10:17:34 PM »

Very nice mate, i prefer the second one you made as its a lot rounder.

Just a question is that tank alloy? And where did you get it from?

cheers

TheFox · « **Reply #11 on:** February 02, 2009, 11:17:58 PM »

That's what I want to know. What tank did you hack up to make that seat?

d3buttz · « **Reply #12 on:** February 03, 2009, 02:09:36 PM »

AUSSIE-i went to a stupid chopper show/swap meet hoping to find something cool and by some crazy luck, i found this tank sitting next to a bunch of harley crap. its a fiberglass tank that never had a drop of gas in it before and the guy had no idea what it was. 80 bucks! I had it painted by a pro to make it look like aluminum with the lettering added. icouldnt get any metric or std. nuts to fit the mounting bolts, and later found out its a rarely used any more british thread pattern. it makes me guess its an ORIGINAL DUNSTALL tank due to that and the cork sealing ring on the gas cap. im a lucky bastard.

FOX-as for the seat(tank) im not sure what it cameoff of, 70's era honda mx bike im sure of. i picked a small narrow one for less work.

i had the day off today and its 60 degreestoday, so here is the bondo and paint work.
color match is good enough for me for the 20$ total it cost me to paint/bondo/materials. off to upholstry!

Speed King · « **Reply #13 on:** February 03, 2009, 02:37:37 PM »

Man, I'm tellin' ya, I like everything about that project.

Retro Rocket · « **Reply #14 on:** February 03, 2009, 03:11:09 PM »

That tank really does look like aluminum, i would love to know what paint was used.

Mick

Ecosse · « **Reply #15 on:** February 03, 2009, 03:21:48 PM »

Quote from: Speed King on February 03, 2009, 02:37:37 PM

Man, I'm tellin' ya, I like everything about that project.

+1 Great paint (and score) on the tank. Tail looks good and non perfect paint match does not detract one bit.

scartail · « **Reply #16 on:** February 03, 2009, 03:39:24 PM »

Quote from: d3buttz on February 02, 2009, 05:04:00 PM

http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq233/d3buttz/newseat003.jpg[/img]

Hey d3buttz, nice project. What type of tail light is that?

d3buttz · « **Reply #17 on:** February 05, 2009, 04:28:45 PM »

i got some leather yesterday and cut my pattern(i did a crappy job of it, but the leather will shrink), and put in the snaps/cut the foam.
i went to a chopper upholstry shop to look for wax thread to sew up my seat, and they were so cool they sewed it up for me(free foam too!) for a 12pk of rolling rock. sweet. heres the finished product after 25$ and beer.

ecosse- idont know what kind of taillight it is- buti got it from a chopper shop-i think they all have em' from the cheapie distributors. it a REALLY low quality chinese made light(5 bucks).

Mach-5(50) · « **Reply #18 on:** February 05, 2009, 04:48:53 PM »

very well done. i think it all works together now. plus, its amazing what beer will buy you. keep up the good work.

later,

ryan

Spikeybike · « **Reply #19 on:** February 05, 2009, 05:07:03 PM »

what a difference a seat can make

looks fantastic

and as said before , awesome score on the tank

Chester345 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 09, 2009, 07:57:33 AM »

Awesome build! Very cool 550!

d3buttz · « **Reply #21 on:** February 18, 2009, 04:46:50 PM »

i got a complete gasket set yesterday by Vesrah and installed the new valve seals.

im cheap so i made a spring compresor with a c-clamp,piece of rubber, tape, and two washers welded with 1-1/2" rod painted with plasti-dip(so it doesnt slip)

masonryman · « **Reply #22 on:** February 19, 2009, 06:04:36 PM »

cool bike, I have just recently started working on my project again.

I am very interested in the 650 cam in the 550 head, and seeing how you have the lath and mill why don't you look at making some adapters to put screw in jets in the push in holes. It seems it would be as simple as taping the carb to a standard tread, drilling and taping a bolt or all thread and tapping it to fit the threaded jets. if this is something you might want to do I would buy a couple sets.

the screw in's are more readly avalible and much cheaper

Mark

d3buttz · « **Reply #23 on:** February 20, 2009, 05:55:48 PM »

m-man,
im not too familiar with any other style jets/carbs or mods out there, this is my first and only bike ive ever owned. that does sound like a neat mod, but my machining set up doesnt hold close tolerances that something like that would require. im gonna get into a battle with my carb tuning as it is with the cam/porting/and velocity stacks im planning on running. i hope someone who reads this has a stab at it with results- you may have started something!

masonryman · « **Reply #24 on:** February 20, 2009, 07:08:34 PM »

I have built a custom exhaust put on pods. I am currently checking out ignitions set ups and I have a CB 650 custom parts bike I want to steel the cam and brakes from. Looking at your build we are going to be in the same tuning boat, that is why I mentioned the jets to you.

The stock, for these bikes, push in jets are harder to come by and are over $4.00 each. The later model screw ins come in more sizes, are easier to get and are $1.00 each.

I can get you pics and dim's if you are interested yet.

Mark

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Author Topic: 1975 cb550 cafe racer-FINISHED w/ video! (Read 30979 times)

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