Topic: My 76 CB550f cafe build

[cafetimmy]

Wats up everybody I've got this 1976 CB550 f that i bought back in may. I found the bike on craigslist for $650 and its been a project bike for multiple people but I'm hoping to be the one to breath life into this classic. It doesn't run and the wiring is a nightmare but everything appears to be in good mechanical condition so after some time, money and TLC it should start (I've got my fingers crossed!).

I'm in college right now so my part time job is taking a while to pay for parts and such but I'm starting to make some good progress and I figured it's time to start my very own thread!  My plan is to turn this bike into the most badass cafe racer i can afford so I'm gonna need everyone's opinions along the way! I'm well into the project now and the bike is stripped to just the engine and frame. I just had the wheels and hubs powder caoted and i'm currently waiting for my mechanic to lace up the wheels and mount the tires. I've got a bunch of pictures from everything i've done so far so I'm gonna jump into posting as many pics as possible so everyone's all caught up on my adventure. 


Here she is









The majority of the bike is in good shape other than some rust, corrosion, grime and other the other fun stuff you'd expect to find on a 33 year old bike that's just been sitting. Although i grew up riding and working on dirt bikes, this is my first project bike and the first cb four that i've ever worked on so i'm learning and teaching myself as i go. Everythings gone pretty smoothly so far so i'm confident that I'll be able to pull through. Let me know what you all think!

-Tim

[fastbroshi]

  It looks like a solid bike for starters.  Tires look good, does it turn over okay?  Get that wiring fixed and give 'er a whirl.  My first bike was a 550 a lot like yours, but mine was missing a few pieces to run, and my wiring was fragged too.  Good luck with it, and get some primer on that tank!

[Stev-o]

Great bike to start with!  Get some clubman bars on there and I think you should use that exhaust!
Good luck and I'll stay tuned.

-Steve

[cafetimmy]

Thanks guys! I'll try to start postin some pictures tomorrow of the tear down. Like I said it's just an engine and frame right now and it's been on blocks like that for about 5 months lol. I've got a bunch of pictures from everything i've done over the months. The tank and wiring have been replaced along with a whole bunch of other crap i've bought to restore this baby.. AND I did get some clubmans  I kinda suprised myself with how involved i've gotten on this build but i think it's gonna pay off!

ya the bike seems to turn over good, its got good compresion and it's even between all cylinders. Right now I'm waiting for a new petcock to arrive so that i can hook up the tank and try firing it

[cafetimmy]

So a couple days after buying the 550, I decided that the best way to start the project was to tear as many parts off of the bike as possible. That way it would be fun AND i could figure out what condition everything was in! So i did exactly that...


I put'er on blocks and started the tear down




Here's the rusted out tank that came on it


a little blurred but you can still tell how severely the rust is built up inside


I love these drag pipes that came on the bike but here's the problem. As you can see, a previous owner started to cut the rusted section off and this might be the only way to save them. I'll worry about this later though






the front brake was a little rusted up but it'll all be fine after some cleaning


and so we came to this after a nights work





I've been doing a lot of work on the parts I removed but this is basically the stage it's been in for a good 5 months. check it out!

[cafetimmy]

My main focus so far has been putting my restoration efforts into the front end. I know i should be more worried about what condition the engine is in but i'll see where that's at when i try to crank it over (hopefully soon). It's been a long process of tracking down the parts needed to start it up, but i'll go into that later cuz thats a story in itself. 

Once I had the bike stripped down to basically just the engine and frame, I started cleaning up the front brake components and ordered new pads and shoes. I wanted to check the condition of the wheel bearings front and back so I began pulling apart the front and rear hubs. They were a little worn so  I ordered new bearings. While I had the hubs apart I started dreaming about how nice the wheels would look if the rims and hubs were black. And seeing that i'm trying to redo as much of this bike as time and money will afford, I decided to splurge and get some powder coating done    I had the wheels pulled apart, ordered new spokes, and took the rims, hubs, and brake caliper in to be powder coated satin black.



Getting a box full of freshly powder coated parts sure as hell isn't as good as sex but it  ranks up there!



And god damn do they look good!





had a guy at a nearby shop reassemble everything and I couldn't be more proud of my my 550's new set of kicks! F'ing beautiful if i do say so myself 

[fastbroshi]

Sweet, one more thing off the checklist.

[yellowbirdrs]

looks good! keep posting more pics.

[cafetimmy]

And a never ending checklist it is. Good thing building a bike is so rewarding!

[cafetimmy]

During the time the wheels were being done i decided to paint the rest of the front end myself. The first thing i did was to toss out this ugly-as-hell original indicator light unit:



I had seen a different style unit that earlier cb's came with that doubled as the top handlebar clamp. I really wanted to find one of these reason 1) because they look 100% cooler and 2) because I'm planning to run a speedo only set up and the indicator light unit already on my bike wouldn't work with a single gauge set up. After some time and patience i found one on ebay for cheap and then set to work sanding it down for paint along with the center of the front brake disc, and the top and bottom triple clamps.



in the masking process


first coats of primer



above is the indicator light unit i was talking about

first coat of Rustoleum semi gloss black. I was hoping that the semi gloss would match the satin powder coat that i got done on the wheels but turns out the semi gloss pretty much is gloss. Oh well, i think the difference might add a bit of contrast, might be cool.


What do you guys think? Could gloss black next to satin black look okay or would it look cheesy?

[cafetimmy]

I was gonna paint the bottom fork legs with the semi gloss black also but i decided that would put way too much black on the front of the bike and would be too distracting. Instead I decided to try my hand at polishing them. The forks appeared only to need new seals but right at the bottom of the upper part of the fork leg, just above where it pushes down through the oil seal, there was a chunk of chrome missing! It was about an inch across and appeared as though someone took a grinder to it!  thank god i realized this before i got to the polishing part! It had taken about a month of searching to find a good used pair but i finally did. The new ones are on the left.



the bottom fork tubes were oxidized pretty bad but started to clean up fine after I took my shiny new die grinder to them 


Btw that's my only air tool, everything else i've managed to do by hand. I can honestly say that I LOVE AIR AND POWER TOOLS. They make everything so much easier! I used a fine grit scratch pad and stripped it all down to a fresh surface.




The next step is to hit it all with 400 grit, then 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and steal wool all by hand. FUN! then I'll buy a buffing wheel for the die grinder and use some polishing compound to finish those babies off. If all goes according to plan, they should look awesome! That might take some time to finish but keep posted y'all.

[cafetimmy]

Hey all, did some more sanding on the forks yesterday. I left off after wet sanding with 1000 grit and they are starting to look good  They have a nice subtle gleam. Hopefully sometime this week i'll have a chance to hit it all again with the 1500 grit and then get to polishing. I just bought a complete polishing kit at harbor freight for $20 bucks. So the forks should be lookin beautiful sometime soon. I'll post pics when i get a chance. Later!

[JIMLARCH]

You are doing some excellent work.  I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[cafetimmy]

Thanks for the kind words JIMLARCH. Hopefully that'll be sooner that later!

Here are some pics of the forks at 1000 grit. Getting closer.

[joec3613]

Wow, all this looks really good. You are going all out on this. I'm working on a 550 I just bought for $250.00 I'm tearing her apart right now. I got the motor running on Sunday, just plugs and a battery. Lucky I guess. Here's the trick on mine. I've got a budget of $1000 for the rest of the project! Good luck with yours.

[cafetimmy]

It's been a little while since I posted an update so i here goes. Haven't made a lot of progress other than putting the last coats of paint on all the front end parts. I was able to mount the triple clamps and forks and stood the wheel up to get an idea of how it will look mounted. I couldn't be happier with the look I've managed to achieve so far 


finished product for the upper triple clamp


here's the rotor. This took a lot of masking but it was worth it


greasing up the upper neck bearings


bottom neck bearings ready to go


All bolted up


I almost crapped my pants when I first stepped back to look at it! it's coming along just how I imagined



Next step it to try to get the engine to fire. I checked the points and only one side is electricity. I HATE wiring. Would this just be a bad wire leading to it?

[CU2151]

Sweet build.  I just graduated a few days ago from college, and am looking forward to having a garage to actually do some of this stuff myself on my '75 550K.  Keep up the hard work.

As far as wiring goes...these things are pretty easy.  If you have a manual for it, there's a wiring diagram in there.  If not, they can be found around here.  Let me know if you need a copy of one.  Just follow the lines back from the problem area and test with a multimeter to see where the problem actually is. 

I've been curious how a small powdercoater like they sell at HF would work for the smaller bits.  Those wheels and trees turned out awesome!

Keep rockin'

-CU2151

[traveler]

Looks GREAT!

I'm going to do up a set of wheels just like that! (gloss black though)

Love the way your tank turned out...or is that another you found?  Stock striping, etc....neat!

~Joe

[cafetimmy]

Thanks guys. It's been a while since I did anything on the bike since the holidays come with so many distractions :/ Hopefully soon I'll be able to afford the seat base to make it look more complete before i sell it. I was hoping to be able to follow through on this project but seeing as I'm planning to move to San Diego this summer, I need to start putting my money to more important things If anybody out there is interested, or knows anyone who might be interested in purchasing this bike please spread the word. I'll post more info when I'm getting ready to sell it.

Thanks CU2151 for your advice. I have a manual and I think it's about time to start checking all the wires. A few weeks ago I was going to attempt starting it for the first time and when I checked the points to make sure they're getting electricity, only one was sparking. Plus I have no power to the headlight, breaklight, right directional, and plenty of other stuff. I really got some work cut out for me now and I hate wiring  lol

Thanks traveler, the tank is a stock that I found on ebay. I got it because the inside is rust free and there's only a few dings on the outside. My plans were to completely refinish and paint it but when i mounted it up next to those black wheels I fell in love! It has a real badass vintage look

[redbullssg]

Any updates?