Topic: greasy's re-rebuild 'the utilitarian transcendentalist' 71 cb750

[greasy j]

Hi Joel: I went to sears and got a 1/3rd HP grinder and the fine sow-en buffing wheels which to work better than the soft fluffy ones they shred really bad. The wheels are only 1/2"down from the outer sowing band.The wheels like the ones you have pictured are the ones that shred bad!. I found the white buffing compound the best for Alu. George Colgett

thanks george, I just ordered some stuff so I should be cool. I'll be sure to post my results.

[greasy j]

some mysteries...

ok, so the head may be from a post k1 bike seeing as how it has the removable oil galleys. but if so the rocker arms and shafts were kept. they are the old style used until k2's. they freely move in the cam bearings and rockers w/ no 5mm bolt holes or oiling 'valleys'. just a wasp-waisted smooth shaft. but, the cam sprocket is of the type used later, k1's are supposed to have a bunch of 1/2 and 1/4" holes. mine just has the bolt holes like in the later bikes.

so I think at some point the PO(there was only one before me) exchanged the head, but kept parts from the earlier top end. but if so he had it ported, because this head has the porting typical of k0's and early k1's. also the 'chamber top' part of the cylinder head has been smoothed out, which they stopped doing on later heads I gather.

the sprocket could've just been changed out at some point but that doesn't explain the oil galleys.

nee-nee noo-noo, nee-nee noo-noo, bana na-na-nah (think twilight zone)

quite a mystery.


a question for the pros:

I already honed my cylinders. I put some light oil in them so they wouldn't rust, but somehow they did. I just noticed they have more spots on them than a leper colony(my shot at a carpyism). reddish brown dirty flash rust. at least it doesn't ooze puss and cause limbs to fall off. but it really bums me out. I cried a little.

do I need to hone them again? or can I just scub it off with something. I had a perfect beautiful cross hatch pattern. I feel defiled by the filthy stuff. it's an outrage, really.

and I was supposed to wash them out w/ soap right after honing, then wipe them clean til I could not dirty a white towel. if that is the case they would rust for sure, right? which is why I figured I would wait til right before putting it back together to get them super clean. and oil them in the meantime. I can't understand why they would rust. how do you guys do it? should I wait to hone until I'm about ready to put it back together?

[traveler]

green scrubber pad and WD-40?

[greasy j]

that's what I was going to do. then I don't have to rehone after???

I can't see the scrubber taking off the cross hatch marks, which are supposed to help the oil stick to the sides. but a guy told me I shouldn't use those scrubbers on mating surfaces and that threw me off. I can't imagine the metal being that soft.

thing is I borrowed the hone from school, and school is out for the summer. don't want to buy one. I'm cheap. need to save $ for wheels and fun stuff.

[greasy j]

did you guys miss me? haha

I've been busy. and sick. coughing up my guts for the last few days.

but I made some headway on the polishing and finishing of engine covers and case, etc. going to polish up the case and cylinders with wire wheels. head painted black. and wetsanding/polishing the engine covers w/ wheels and compound.

the sisal wheel and black compound will polish it from the alum oxide blasted state, but it takes forever. I ended up just doing it the way I usually do. with sandpaper and water. using my da sander to get out the scratches then wet sanding til I get up to 1000 grit or so and polishing from there with the wheel and compound. will post pics when I'm done.

I decided I don't want the 'SOHC' points cover to be black, and the chrome plating won't blast off, so I just started sanding it off with the da and the dremel for the small parts. got it all of so it's just the shiny alum underneath. was a pain.

I have an idea for that cover and the stator cover, going to have some black on them but mostly polished, hard to explain but it will accentuate the 'honda' and the 'sohc'. I'll post pics when I'm done...

so the only part of the engine that will be painted is the head and some little bits on those 2 covers. the case which is normally painted is going to be bare, probably no clear coat, just working gibbs oil into it while I wire brush polish it, same with the cylinders. they will have to have some more gibbs oil applied every 6 mos. or so to prevent oxidation, but no masking and painting needed, yay! plus it'll look cool.

sorry for the lack of pics. soon...

[greasy j]

I never really considered it before but if chrome's gotta go, you can always just sand it off...

I'm allergic to a few different metals. as in skin allergies. so I had to wrap myself up while sanding the failing chrome off the side covers, but I still got #$%* tons of little bumps all over me right now. itchy.

if you didn't know; chrome plating only has a thin layer of chromium, under that is a slew of other deadly(to my complexion) metals.

ok here's some pics.


some has been blasted off and some sanded off in this pic. you can see the ridges from the layers edges all over.


all smoothed out but still has some non aluminum metal layer left


this guy has been blasted and still has most of it's layers on, but the copper is showing through in the corner


1/2 sanded off. it's steel underneath, not aluminum. bummer.


here they both are sanded to 600 grit and bare alum/steel



and here's my homemade polisher. it works pretty well so far...

[greasy j]

I got my upper case back from the machinist. it only took him a few minutes, but he had a backlog of work so he put it off for a while. I told him I wasn't in a rush.

so now I'm busy cleaning that up and wire brush polishing the exterior.


here's the lower case, all done being polished


I replaced a few of the roller bearings that weren't so hot. one from the counter-shaft and one from the reduction gear.

I also needed to replace a bearing in my die grinder which got a bunch of water in it when my air drier started to fail, cause the desiccant was used up.

I got the bearings at a place near my house, Bearing Engineering in San Leandro, CA. they had the ones I needed in stock from SKF, which is supposed to be the best. for around 5-10 dollars each. would've costed 30 and 45 dollars from Honda! so it's a lot cheaper to just go directly to the bearing house.


by the way- the HF air dryer I referred to works pretty great for the price. it's a long tube that holds desiccant pellets. they start out blue, turn pink when they can't hold any more water. then you can bake them in the oven until they turn blue again. the only prob I've had so far is the 2 baffles that go above and below the pellets are raw metal and will rust bad. I just cleaned mine up and painted w/ rustproof paint. it's only $40 and Devilbis and/or other paint co.'s make something similar for a few hundred bucks.

well worth the price to avoid screwing up your paint job. and rusting out your tools.

here it is w/out the end caps or hoses hooked up


here's the rest of my covers and stuff to be polished, done w/ the sanding. the starter cover I might just paint, possibly paint it black and do a little design on it? maybe a good place to put the sohc4 forum logo? I need a sticker or decal for that. maybe I'll strip it down to bare metal like I did the others then clear coat with the decal... what do you guys think?

the stator and points cover get a lil paint like I mentioned before, and some of the lil things are already polished


sending in my computer to get fixed so I won't be able to upload pics for a while. the other one sucks, I'll just be able to give a few 'word-only' updates til I get the good one back.

[RAFster122s]

Things are looking good J. Thanks for the tip on the air dryer.

Re: > here's the rest of my covers and stuff to be polished, done w/ the sanding. the starter cover I might just paint, possibly paint it black and do a little design on it? maybe a good place to put the sohc4 forum logo? I need a sticker or decal for that. maybe I'll strip it down to bare metal like I did the others then clear coat with the decal... what do you guys think?

You can get a vinyl paint mask to apply to the starter cover and it will give you nice crisp edges. The carrier tape will help keep it from distorting when applying and then you can do the logo in paint. You could even lay the base coat on and then when it is good and cured apply the vinyl mask and spray the logo. Then when it has skinned you remove the mask and when things are dry clear coat both...
Just a thought.

[greasy j]

Things are looking good J. Thanks for the tip on the air dryer.

Re: > here's the rest of my covers and stuff to be polished, done w/ the sanding. the starter cover I might just paint, possibly paint it black and do a little design on it? maybe a good place to put the sohc4 forum logo? I need a sticker or decal for that. maybe I'll strip it down to bare metal like I did the others then clear coat with the decal... what do you guys think?

You can get a vinyl paint mask to apply to the starter cover and it will give you nice crisp edges. The carrier tape will help keep it from distorting when applying and then you can do the logo in paint. You could even lay the base coat on and then when it is good and cured apply the vinyl mask and spray the logo. Then when it has skinned you remove the mask and when things are dry clear coat both...
Just a thought.

do you know who makes that type of thing, or would I have to make it myself? I've cut logos out of tape before then peeled off and sprayed, then touched up or did outlines w/ pinstripe brush. one trick is using clear scotch tape or that brown packaging tape. it makes really crisp edges. there's a paint store that sells that brown plastic tape in ultra thin rolls for doing tight corners. I might just paint the logo by hand, cuz it would look cool and be personalized. I'm pretty good at logos and lettering and lil detailed stuff.

but should the cover be black to stand out a little, or be metal? hmm...

[RAFster122s]

vinyl sign shop...
Should be around 20 for the mask I would expect.
how many colors will the logo be?

[greasy j]

not sure, but I found a guy in the services offered section who does vinyl. he mentioned making a mask for someone else. I might have him make one for the shape of the main part, then do the details with a brush. I like the way brushed graphics look. more authentic or something.

if the cover is metal, I guess the logo in black/white and red.

if the cover is black, then in silver/white and red.

I'm thinking like this on metal/silver cover


there's a japanese version as well... might be cool.

so I could paint the red circle, easy to mask with tape. then use a vinyl mask for the black over the top. after that I would just have to do the lettering by hand. the wing in the middle would be a prob, though. maybe get a mask for that as well. or use a decal for that part. hmmm... maybe I'm making this too difficult and I should just get a sticker. but that's for chumps who want life to be easy. haha. I love a challenge.

[RAFster122s]

It is only paint, so if you don't like it you can strip it and start over.
You know the vinyl could be used for a sand blasting mask to give a textured finish for the silver...
As long as you don't shoot at an angle where it would want to lift the vinyl it could work.
A different effect...
I would want a mask for the wing or it would be lots of hours with fine paint brushes and large lighted magnefier.

David

[greasy j]

I decided to just get a decal. need to simplify

I got all my covers and stuff polished. they look awesome. just went up to brown polish, didn't go to white. it's shiny enough.

I'm taking a little break from this project to paint my CBR. the fairing is pretty trashed and I want to get it in shape to keep riding while I finish my baby.

starting school full-time on monday, so it'll be harder to get money for parts and stuff. trying to get a bar gig nights and give up the house painting biz while in school, it's too stressful trying to hustle up work all the time, doing bids and all that takes a lot of time and is unpaid. I'll still paint motorcycles as that work comes, but I want to simplify so I can concentrate on my studies.

I'll take some pics of the polished bits and post them at some point...

as far as the CBR paint job:

the tank and wheels will be stripped, polished a bit and cleared. the other parts will be all black. with a thick gray and skinny white stripes along the top, just on the front fender, tank(hard to see in pic) and tail piece. michelin man on front fender and 'honda racing' on tail.

I want to keep the fairing, since it's original and functional and keep everything stock except for the paint job. I'm not a big fan of the looks of full fairings, but it sure is nice to ride. so the fairing has no decals or stripes or anything, kind of understated, just black.

not sure on the decals, whether to use the honda wing on the tank or the HRC logo(prob a lil smaller than in pic).





so what do you guys think? the wing or the HRC. the grey and white stripes are on the tank, too. just hard to see. with the actual paint job I'm going to mix the gray myself, so I'll make it stand out better, prob a bit darker than in the photoshop pic.

honest opinions welcome. design wise I was going for more of an older racer kind of look, as opposed to what people normally do with full fairings, using them as a big ad space.

[RAFster122s]

You set on the gray, silver, & black?
Or, would you consider red, silver & black?
Or polished or brushed steel sides with gray top and white stripe on the tank?
Or is the tank not metal?
Guy in my apt complex has an old CBR in the White, Red, Blue factory and it looks great.

A set of stripes on the fairing in the grey, silver, and white with your current scheme would tie everything together well.

A charcoal gray would look good with the black...or titanium.

That would be my preferences.

David

[greasy j]

You set on the gray, silver, & black?
Or, would you consider red, silver & black?
Or polished or brushed steel sides with gray top and white stripe on the tank?
Or is the tank not metal?
Guy in my apt complex has an old CBR in the White, Red, Blue factory and it looks great.

A set of stripes on the fairing in the grey, silver, and white with your current scheme would tie everything together well.

A charcoal gray would look good with the black...or titanium.

That would be my preferences.

David

the tank will be just bare metal. polished a bit, but not a ton, so kind of brushed looking, or lazy polished. the stripes are supposed to be just grey and white. trying to keep it neutral, will sell it eventually. which is why I also want to know what other people think. I wanna like it, but not have it too personalized so it can be someone else's bike someday.

I like red, too. but I painted my girls bike black, white and red and don't wanna be too matching.

I would do the factory paint scheme if it was the older one, but I hate the red white and blue that it came with and was all that honda offered that year. sorry, just different taste I guess.

I might be able to be talked into doing something on the fairing, but I like the idea that the hardest stuff to prep and paint is going one color and done...

[RAFster122s]

You set on the gray, silver, & black?
Or, would you consider red, silver & black?
Or polished or brushed steel sides with gray top and white stripe on the tank?
Or is the tank not metal?
Guy in my apt complex has an old CBR in the White, Red, Blue factory and it looks great.

A set of stripes on the fairing in the grey, silver, and white with your current scheme would tie everything together well.

A charcoal gray would look good with the black...or titanium.

That would be my preferences.

David

the tank will be just bare metal. polished a bit, but not a ton, so kind of brushed looking, or lazy polished. the stripes are supposed to be just grey and white. trying to keep it neutral, will sell it eventually. which is why I also want to know what other people think. I wanna like it, but not have it too personalized so it can be someone else's bike someday.

I like red, too. but I painted my girls bike black, white and red and don't wanna be too matching.

I would do the factory paint scheme if it was the older one, but I hate the red white and blue that it came with and was all that honda offered that year. sorry, just different taste I guess.

I might be able to be talked into doing something on the fairing, but I like the idea that the hardest stuff to prep and paint is going one color and done...

On the fairing?
Can't you mask and paint and then remask after removing the old and have a thin transition that is 3M vinyl pinstripe?
More work yes, worth the effort? depends on if you are happy with it.

The 1990 version is the one the guy in my complex has and I always liked that scheme.
A few others I found.  Got a couple more I'll post after this as it limited me to 5 pics.

David

[RAFster122s]

Here's a couple more and a gray and black I liked...

[greasy j]

I like the last one in each post.

the wing on the tank of the guiness one gives me ideas...

[RAFster122s]

J,

Glad the pics helped give you ideas...that was their purpose.
I looked for black & grey bikes schemes and didn't find any that caught my fancy for what your were looking for other than the Guinness bike. While it's a billboard for the fairing it has some neat effects.
I used Google's Image search on CBR to mine the pics...
I'm fond of the 2nd one in the first posting, as it has the wing feathers morphing colors onto the tank.

Ghosting the wing design into your tank by brushing that area in a different direction would be a neat effect.
Or polishing the metal to a very fine finish with the wing design masked so it was the only thing receiving that polish...

David

[greasy j]

that would be pretty cool...

[greasy j]

I finished painting the CBR last week, been busy riding.

one of the lower fairings was busted in half and it had a ton of broken and missing tabs. the wheels look way better and I'm really happy with the way the tank came out. I didn't polish the clearcoat because it layed down so nice and it's my bike and I don't care enough. but for anyone else it would've been done anyways. but it looks awesome, you can't see any orange peel. and it doesn't rattle anymore when I go fast.

there's lots of pics on my website- before, during and after. here's a link: https://sites.google.com/site/dimalepainting/home/photos/1989-cbr600f









I haven't gotten a lot done on the CB because of being busy with school and all, but all the engine parts are polished up and look great. I'll post pics when I get a chance.

[RAFster122s]

J, The CBR looks SWEET!
I like how it came out.

Heaven forbid but, Time to drop the photos off at the insurance so if the unfortunate happens and someone likes your shiny new looking CBR for themselves it will be properly documented for a claim.
Cornandp finished the CBX for his sister and less than two weeks after delivering it some ape in a jacked up 4x4 drove over it and dragged it for about 20 feet.  They don't look like much after that happens but he's lucky it appears to be rebuildable.  Just having to haggle and dicker with insurance adjusters on it now.

Hope school is  going well.

David

[greasy j]

J, The CBR looks SWEET!
I like how it came out.

Heaven forbid but, Time to drop the photos off at the insurance so if the unfortunate happens and someone likes your shiny new looking CBR for themselves it will be properly documented for a claim.
Cornandp finished the CBX for his sister and less than two weeks after delivering it some ape in a jacked up 4x4 drove over it and dragged it for about 20 feet.  They don't look like much after that happens but he's lucky it appears to be rebuildable.  Just having to haggle and dicker with insurance adjusters on it now.

Hope school is  going well.

David

oh crap! I had no idea. I watched him build that on here. that is really a bummer. I hope the 4X4 guy feels like a super jerk, someone should send him a link to the build thread so he feels worse.

thanks for the compliment. I put the michelin man on over the clear. my girlfriend said it looked stupid and had to go. she was right, it was kinda busying up the place. I just thought it would be a fun touch, but I was wrong.

I did leave his face, gloves and boots. but peeled the rest. so he's a proper black michelin man. who ever heard of white tires, anyways? but those will come off, too. just a lil joke for a few days.

[greasy j]

it's really fun riding a 'new' bike, at least one that looks like new. but the CB is calling to me from under the tarp. "make me fly" and "traitor"...

and I'm way too much of a dirty hooligan thug to be riding something this pretty. I'm just going to ruin it. so the plan is to sell the CBR, buy a beater bike that runs well, or just needs a lil work. and use the change left over to get my baby up and at em. I have to have a running bike, though. for transpo, school. and money is short, because of school.

I still need engine bits, but I can't justify the expense while I'm broke. I just saw a CB1000 'big one' for 1200. needs body work. and a guy selling his ducati monster for a grand because he dented the tank and it's not running right, now. bet I could fix that... amazing how cheap you can get non running bikes that only need a carb cleaning or battery, etc.

[domer]

just a thought, since you are speaking vinyl graphics... i spent an ungodly amount of time making the old honda wing logo in MS design. (im not very good at this #$%*, hence the many hours of work... but it looks perfect!) and im going to have some guage faces and such printed up in the next couple weeks, i could squeeze something in for ya if you want to give it a shot...
here is a rough draft, colors are #$%*ed, and its too big imo. not laminated either so it looks kind of flat... but you get the idea...