Topic: Mo the 80 CB650 Custom: "As the Spanner Turns..."

[manjisann]

You can always sell the old frame and title to help with the cost of a new one.  I've heard of people just using the VIN plate with the title to use on a custom build and trashing the old frame.  Not sure if it's legal though.  Good thread so far.  I'll be watching.

I'm not a hundred percent certain what I will do with the old frame, I may keep it, hack off the steering head and have a new one fitted at a different angle and do a bobber or something, later of course. Thanks for the compliment 

So, update, got the buggered frame stripped for the most part. If anyone needs some 650 parts let me know, as I'm gonna have a surplus soon. I'll also post it in the for sale thread. Anything that hasn't been sold through the forum by the end of my build will end up getting put on eBay.

I was able to find another 1980 CB650 Custom at a local bone yard, it's a mostly complete bike that comes with a title. Unfortunately it's gonna set me back $550  but it's the best option I can find so far. In another post about the frame a member was nice enough to find some frames on a few CL's around the states and all of them that were titleable would come to at least $200 including shipping to get here, and that was just for the frame and title. So while I'm gonna be paying more, I'm getting more parts that are useable. And yes, I did check the steering stem to make sure it was in good condition  I'm gonna be getting a much nicer right exhaust and some engine covers and such that will look oodles better than what I have. I'll have a spare set of carbs, which is always a bonus. If I'm lucky I can find enough Air Cutoffs to at least get running and make it through this season, if not longer.

So while this was definately not part of the plan, at least there is a silver lining to this ugly cloud. I'm just waiting on some money to come through and then I'll go pick it up.

Here's some picks of the damaged Steering Stem, seriously, I'd never have thought to look here in a million years when evaluating a bike, but now I know better. Tuition to the School of Hard Knocks $550 and counting, my education, priceless!

Brandon

[cb650PK]

If that was my bike, I would have it welded without thinking about it twice. Look at the ugly welds holding the whole frame together. Put the old race in to help hold its shape. I have 80 frame I wish I could give you, but no title.

[Hush]

Don't be too hard on yourself Manjisaan, I would never have looked there for damage when buying a bike and I don't know anyone who would.
Bonus is you get better pipes and a heap of useable parts, I paid $50 just for a rack of carbs and they usually sell for $150 up so there's a quarter of your money back already.

[manjisann]

Dear Motorcycle Gods,

I am running out of oompf!!

It is getting warm around here, and that always saps my energy and drive. Plus, I'm experimenting with the multi-part paint I bought, namely the primer and it hasn't gone so well. I was getting orange peel really bad, so I called the place I bought the paint and gun kit from and they said I was using too small of a tip. I hope thats really what it is, if not guess I'll go from there.

On a lighter note, finally got the fundage to pick up the parts bike, so I will be doing that tomorrow, and then see if I can set some sort of record for tearing it down in just a day. I've decided to keep the buggered frame and make it into a bobber. I am takeing a metal sculpting class either fall or spring semester ( I really hope it means welding, because if the instructor gives me a lump of lead and a file and tells me to get sculpting, it won't go so well.) They usually have you do a project, and so for my project I'm gonna weld a hard tail on the frame and weld a new steering stem onto the front. At least that is the current thinking, and my awesome wife said she is fine with it!

As for this build, I made myself a new tool. I remember when I redid the steering stem bearings on the CB500 I just sold that I swore if I ever did any more I would make something so I didn't have to use a pin wrench or even worse a punch and hammer to remove that weird little cap. I cut a 33mm socket to fit the notches using my dremel, a cutoff wheel and a really cool cutting bit I have. It's not the greatest looking thing, but it will hopefully do the job. On the current frame the cap wasn't even finger tight (that actually scares me a bit.)

I decided to try and straighten out the rear fender that came with my bike instead of using the one off of the parts bike. The one on the parts bike looks really good and straight and mine had some creases in it. Since I plan on painting my fenders anyhow, I have no problems using a bit of body filler, so I hammered my fender out as well as I could using a hammer and dolli set I purchased at Harbor Freight. I doubt I'll ever win any awards for my body work prowess, but I straightened out the lines pretty well, and it will need just a small touch of body filler. I also cleaned off the bottom side and sprayed it with some 3M undercarrage stuff. This will hopefully keep it from rusting out on the bottom. I don't have any pictures of the fender before I started hammering on it (sorry) but I will get some close ups of the hammered area, and then the after shot.

I'm now working on cleaning the underside of the front fender, and it only needs some very very minor tweaking to get it to look good. Hopefully I can take the little I learned on the rear and do a good job with the front.

I also have pics of the positive pressure mask I made using an old Australian gas mask (yes Hush, I had to remove the sheep), some PVC fittings, and air hose. All told it cost me around $60 or $70 dollars to make. When I first dreamed up this adventure I thought I would be using paints that have Isocyanates in them, so I started looking at the fresh air systems as everything I had read said they were the only way to go when using that kind of paint. Since I couldn't afford the $500+ for the commercial ones, I made my own and it works really pretty well. The constantly flowing air keeps the visor from fogging up and keeps my face cool which is nice. There is a tear away plastic sheet on it so when it gets too dirt I can just replace the sheet.

And now the pic of my spray booth. I tend to go way overboard on things and this booth is something of a shrine to that I suppose. I have a box fan on the inlet side pushing air in through some paint booth filters I bought off eBay. The fan is on the inlet side so the fumes don't exhaust past it and go BOOM!! I'd read that was a danger, so I figured out a way around it. I have lights on all four sides, and normally a few on top, but the ones on top are on my sandblasting booth for the moment being. There is a paint booth filter on the exhaust side which does a really good job of removing the over spray from the air before it goes out. This is a bonus as my moms car is usually just outside the garage, I doubt she would appreciate the free repaint 

Brandon

[manjisann]

More pics, the thing won't let me post them all at once, very annoying.

Brandon

[manjisann]

And these ones.

[razor02097]

Maaaaan I could have used that tool when I did the clutch on Rina... I had to use a punch and hammer.  My Honda clutch nut tool was too small 

Nice job and keep the project going!

[manjisann]

Maaaaan I could have used that tool when I did the clutch on Rina... I had to use a punch and hammer.

Not sure if it would work for the clutch or not, haven't sized it up.

Nice job and keep the project going!

Will do, thanks!!

Brandon

[razor02097]

well 33mm is too big I mean that same concept would have worked for the clutch tool 

[manjisann]

well 33mm is too big I mean that same concept would have worked for the clutch tool

Well it worked on the donor bike!! I picked up the parts bike today and got it home. With the help of my brother we were able to strip the frame almost completely down and get the engine put into the buggered frame, which is how everything sits at this moment. Tomorrow I have to go through and figure out where I'm going to put everything so that the garage can be walked in. I am seriously toying with the idea of building a large crate to stick everything in, with wheels on the crate so when it comes time to move to my own house (in who knows how many years  ) it won't be too hard.

The upside, the parts bike has several parts that are in significantly better cosmetic condition than the old one. The down side, wasn't as complete as I had hoped. It didn't have any side panels, or headlight bucket. The wire harness was intact, but some of the wiring had been fried, so I think I'll just be fixing the other harness and using it. In all honesty, it wasn't the best deal in the world, but I needed a titleable frame as fast as I could get one, and this was it.

That being said, the boneyard that I picked it up at was pretty cool. The guy said if after taking it apart I found something wrong with the frame they would find me another one and make it right. I really think he was sincere, but fortunately I don't have to find out as this frame appears sound to me. So a shout out for Grims Cycle in Orem Utah, they seem to be pretty reputable and good. If you are looking for a part, they aren't a bad place to try.

Pic of the parts bike before we stripped it.

And apparently it doesn't have any pants!!!

[manjisann]

Ever wonder why a particular bike ended up in a bone yard? I think I discovered one of the reasons why my donor bike did. While taking it apart I couldn't get this one electrical connector to separate, ended up finally busting the plastic housing, and pic one is what I found. This was to the rec/reg I believe.

The carbs have that really awesome varnish build up we all know and love, it was really nasty. I'll have to clean and rebuild them after I get this bike running as I'd hate to leave it long enough it actually does more damage. I am not sure but I don't think the coils are useable either, considering that the housings are all cracked and split.

Are there supposed to be ball bearings in the swing arm? I didn't find any.

Brandon

[razor02097]

I find that the OEM style coils crack a lot... 1 reason I put dyna coils on my 650

[manjisann]

I find that the OEM style coils crack a lot... 1 reason I put dyna coils on my 650

Fortunately those are just from the donor bike, the ones from Mo are in decent enough shape. Does Dyna make coils that work with the oem setup?

Brandon

[Frankenkit]

for the 650 I think those'd be the 3 ohm coils.

[manjisann]

for the 650 I think those'd be the 3 ohm coils.

Sweet. With any luck the stockers from Mo will work for now. Since I had to buy the donor bike, I really have to watch where I spend my pennies now  Sure hope we get bonuses at work this month!

Brandon

[manjisann]

Haven't been able to get  anything done on the bike the last couple days because we had a new addition to the family. Meet PJ, scientific name Buildus Interuptus! He's about 4 1/2 weeks old. My moms neighbors cats had a couple litters of kittens and we would play with them when they were in the front yard. The first time I went over there this little guy came right up to me and let me pick him up then fell asleep in my arms while I pet him. My wife really liked him and after she kept saying how much she wished we could keep him and me repeatedly telling her we couldn't afford it (yeah, I can spend oodles of money on a motorcycle be we can't afford a kitten   ) I realized I was being really dumb. We talked to our landlord who is a really good guy and he agreed as long as we promised the apartment wouldn't smell like a cat box.

We were going to wait until he was fully weened in a few weeks but Thursday when we were playing with him we noticed his left eye was really goopy and almost swollen shut. I didn't want my wife to go through having the little guy die before we got him, so I talked with the owners and they agreed to let us have him. Took him to the vet who gave us some eye meds and after just two treatments his eye was tons better. We kept it up for about a week and now he is a happy healthy energetic kitten who loves to nibble on toes (his teeth are very sharp!)

Today I am hoping to actually get a bunch of stuff done so I can post some more progress pics. My goal is to have all the frame and body work done and painted in two weeks. Then it's on to the engine and other aluminum parts to be repained and stuff. I am figuring a month for that barring any unforseem damage with the engine (knock on wood the frame was the only @#$@ed up part!)

(er, sorry forgot to add the pic  )

Brandon

[CBJoe]

I just hope that poor thing doesn't grow up to be like this one 

You'll never have clean laundry and all of your bike parts bags will have chew marks in them....

[razor02097]

Haven't been able to get  anything done on the bike the last couple days because we had a new addition to the family. Meet PJ, scientific name Buildus Interuptus! He's about 4 1/2 weeks old. My moms neighbors cats had a couple litters of kittens and we would play with them when they were in the front yard. The first time I went over there this little guy came right up to me and let me pick him up then fell asleep in my arms while I pet him. My wife really liked him and after she kept saying how much she wished we could keep him and me repeatedly telling her we couldn't afford it (yeah, I can spend oodles of money on a motorcycle be we can't afford a kitten   ) I realized I was being really dumb. We talked to our landlord who is a really good guy and he agreed as long as we promised the apartment wouldn't smell like a cat box.

We were going to wait until he was fully weened in a few weeks but Thursday when we were playing with him we noticed his left eye was really goopy and almost swollen shut. I didn't want my wife to go through having the little guy die before we got him, so I talked with the owners and they agreed to let us have him. Took him to the vet who gave us some eye meds and after just two treatments his eye was tons better. We kept it up for about a week and now he is a happy healthy energetic kitten who loves to nibble on toes (his teeth are very sharp!)

Today I am hoping to actually get a bunch of stuff done so I can post some more progress pics. My goal is to have all the frame and body work done and painted in two weeks. Then it's on to the engine and other aluminum parts to be repained and stuff. I am figuring a month for that barring any unforseem damage with the engine (knock on wood the frame was the only @#$@ed up part!)

(er, sorry forgot to add the pic  )

Brandon

AAAHH kitten!  Sooo cute.... can't....help....it....must....post....pic.... 

[manjisann]

HAHAHAHA sometimes it's fun to post about non bike specific things.

CBJoe, this cats mom is a miniature so he should get too huge, then again, who knows we'll see what time brings. The important thing is he is healthy and happy!! I'm not so worried about the laundry or bags as much as electrical cords. Gonna pic up some of that bitter apple spray tomorrow and spray all the cords so he won't munch on them. 

Razor, does he still fit in your helmet??? 

Well, off to pull the dent out of my tank. Flushed it with soap and water and it really doesn't smell like gas, so with luck no boom or poof!

Brandon

[razor02097]

Razor, does he still fit in your helmet??? 

He could wear that helmet now

Well, off to pull the dent out of my tank. Flushed it with soap and water and it really doesn't smell like gas, so with luck no boom or poof!

If you use a gas type MIG just fill it with shielding gas to displace the fumes.  Or you could put some dry ice chips in the bottom to displace the fumes.

[manjisann]

He could wear that helmet now

Haha, he eats his spinach eh?

OK, so I was really hoping to be able to report some definite progress on my fuel tank. Sadly it seems I have actually gone backwards instead of forwards. The pics pretty much speak for themselves. The holes aren't from the mig welder but from me using the slide hammer and tearing out the metal. It would seem that the way I am welding them on there is causing it to tear. I have a thread in the other section about this so hopefully some of the knowledgeable members who have done this will respond. As far as it exploding, I rinsed it real well, let it set in the sun for a while to try and force out more fumes and then rinsed it again. It has a nice appley scent now, and no boom.

Brandon

[razor02097]

OOOoooo ouch man... I think either a different tank or patch the holes and start playing with fiber glass.

[RM81]

My vote goes for a new tank.  I appreciate the effort though.

[manjisann]

I wish a new tank was an option, but short of ripping the side off this one (I really hope that doesn't happen) I have to make this one do. Besides, it's already messed up, so really I can't go backwards only forward. Did a lot of thinking last night, and I might have a way to do it. I'll have to experiment a bit and see if I can pull it off. I think the biggest mistake I was making was I was not welding the bent part of the L to the tank, so when I pulled up it caused the metal to want to tear off, kinda like removing tape or a bandaide. Either way, I don't think it's beyond repair, yet.

Brandon

[Soos]

posing to keep track of this, gota go,




l8r