Author Topic: 76 CB550K Cafe Project NEW PICS! (Read 5799 times)

Fentoozler · « **on:** July 04, 2011, 08:47:53 pm »

I dug this 76 CB550k out of a friend of a friends barn in exchange for some paint work on his car. Since I got it for basically free my goal is to make a nice daily driver for under $2000. Despite it sitting for over 15 years it only took about 3 hours to get it "running". Once I knew it was going to run I started reading build threads here for about a month and then started tearing it apart. Since it is missing so many parts already I decided to Cafe it , apparently all the cool kids are doing it

This is my first attempt at anything like this so if you see me headed in the wrong direction feel free to steer me back! Here's what it looked like the day I brought it home.

MorePDX · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2011, 10:31:08 am »

Go for it! I've got '75 550 that's in about the same condition. A guy saw me riding another 550 and asked me if I wanted another one, I could have it for free if I came and picked it up. It had been sitting in his yard for a number of years and the engine was seized. A week of soaking with Marvel Mystery Oil and it fired up and ran. These old Hondas are amazingly well built!

I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Statenheimer · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2011, 01:49:15 pm »

Welcome. Looks like a great find. Just judging by the fork legs, rims and exhaust you really don't have a lot of rust/corrosion to worry about

I am working on a '76 550 right now as well, so I will be anxious to see your progress.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2011, 04:03:22 pm »

Went ahead and started chopping up my rear end. I have never welded before so dont make too much fun of me.

I wanted to have a good place for all of my electronics and battery to be spread out and easy to work on. I decided I would put my battery on the back and then build a tray in front of that for the electronics that way everything will be tucked under the seat.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2011, 04:14:00 pm »

Since I could stick my finger through the bottom of the gas tank (thankfully someone had removed the fuel lines) I picked this white one up off a guy on craigslist.
Note to self: If I ever do another build I will not immediately grind off every tab and bracket on the back of the frame. I'll probably miss the seat hinge and exhaust hangers? before this is over.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2011, 06:11:46 pm »

Cleaned up the welds and started spraying paint. Since my motor is ready to go and I just don't have the time right now to do any polishing I cheated and just taped off my motor and blacked everything out with hot rod black primer ,then a layer of matte black. This should solve any adhesion issues and looks real good.

Here's a detail of the rear just because I'm proud of it

Statenheimer · « **Reply #6 on:** July 07, 2011, 09:07:17 am »

Looking great. And no worries, the welds looked fine, especially for never having welded before.

What is the radius of the loop you put on the back and the diameter of the pipe?
Did you bend it yourself?

Fentoozler · « **Reply #7 on:** July 07, 2011, 06:58:29 pm »

Thanks!
A friend of mine builds metal and aluminum awnings for buildings and has a medieval looking pipe bender that may or may not kill him some day. I bought a 2' piece of 3/4" pipe from Home Depot and ran it through his wacky bender until it was as tight as the machine would go. It measures about 11 1/2 inches across , which is fine with me since I wanted to build my seat to be very near the width and height of the tank .

Fentoozler · « **Reply #8 on:** July 07, 2011, 07:14:01 pm »

Grabbed some foam to try and make a seat. I used a hot glue gun to glue all the blocks together. Here's what I started with.

I used an electric fillet knife to get a basic shape chopped out and then found that you can lean a regular fillet knife at a 45degree angle and drag across the foam to do the final shaping. You can take off large or very small amounts depending on the pressure and it ends up being very smooth.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #9 on:** July 10, 2011, 02:02:11 pm »

When I took my forks off I found a crazy amount of rust under the headlight brackets:( Since Im doing this on a budget I took a painters approach to fixing it. After a couple layers of high build primer I sprayed them black down to the lowest point of rust which was plenty far above the farthest point the shocks will travel to. Hopefully this will work out fine. Also messed around with painting the lower fork legs ,after spraying this antique white color I'm not too happy with it and am thinking up new color schemes.

psycherhexic · « **Reply #10 on:** July 10, 2011, 02:29:31 pm »

I'm not sure how quick this is going to happen.. but.. my photography grad friend is going to take some photos of my bike and digital render them as "coloring book" style prints so I can mess with color schemes... its a 77 550F so it should be close enough

Fentoozler · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2011, 11:12:15 am »

Sounds cool, I'd love to take a look at that when it's done. Although I saw a 2011 Scion XD this morning with a new color that Toyota calls Cement , sort of a metallic gray that looks incredible.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2011, 08:07:51 pm »

Ok got a question , the tank I bought off craigs has a different petcock than my 76 so I've got to find a new one but I dont have a clue what Im looking for?

My original...

The replacement...

Whatcha Got For Em?

T.Stanley · « **Reply #13 on:** July 12, 2011, 12:09:53 pm »

74' 750 Petcock.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #14 on:** July 12, 2011, 03:50:15 pm »

Thanks!

Bakeoff · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2011, 11:05:00 am »

Also the same as a 74 550. I have a 74 with that style (two bolt) and a 76 tank with the large threaded pipe.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #16 on:** July 15, 2011, 06:03:17 pm »

Thanks guys. It's really great to have so much knowledge readily available.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #17 on:** July 15, 2011, 06:20:01 pm »

Started building up a seat the last couple days , between dirty hands and my 2 year old deleting pictures off my phone I didnt get to document much of the seat build. The only pic I have is this post primer shot of the front.

Also got the electronics mostly sorted out.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #18 on:** July 16, 2011, 10:05:39 pm »

Got impatient and started spraying paint today ,settled on a metallic gray.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #19 on:** July 18, 2011, 07:29:55 am »

Set everything on it to get an idea of what it will look like
Love the look of these bikes cant wait to throw a leg over it!

Bunicula · « **Reply #20 on:** July 19, 2011, 10:49:22 am »

very nice work dude.. its such a cool feeling to stand back and get an idea of how its gonna look.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #21 on:** July 24, 2011, 08:39:11 am »

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh why does shipping take so long when it's something I care about? If I ordered an enema kit it'd be here tomorrow but rearsets and shocks apparently are having to fight their way out of hell like Superman before they even get to UPS.

LostSoul86 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 24, 2011, 12:43:10 pm »

Zang, you work quickly!

Looking good so far, keep it up!

Fentoozler · « **Reply #23 on:** July 30, 2011, 09:16:26 pm »

Got a seat pad built and covered today

Found these at Lowes and got all excited about building a seat

Fentoozler · « **Reply #24 on:** August 15, 2011, 07:09:23 pm »

Finally got some parts in the mail!

Gman · « **Reply #25 on:** August 17, 2011, 06:51:09 am »

F,
It's coming along very nicely - I really like the back end/seat. Do you mind my asking what shocks those are? They look sharp!

Cheers,
G

Fentoozler · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2011, 03:30:40 pm »

Thanks , I ordered the shocks from Dime City , they're the 14.5's mostly because the 13.2's were unavailable.
I slipped them on late last nite and love the downhill/forward stance they give it. I'll get some pics up hopefully tomorrow with a bunch of the new stuff tacked on.

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-racer-bobber-brat-chopper-custom-motorcycle-suspension-eye-to-clevis-365mm-14-5-inch-black-shock-absorbers-damper-32-0211.html

Gman · « **Reply #27 on:** August 17, 2011, 07:24:25 pm »

Thanks for the link - I'm looking forward to seeing pics of them on your bike, along w/the rearsets, etc. Should look schweeet!

G

Fentoozler · « **Reply #28 on:** August 27, 2011, 06:45:46 pm »

Here's a pic of the shocks installed.

Updates will probably be few and far between for the next month or so because I broke my leg wakeboarding over the weekend.
Sitting in the house did help me find the time to jump on craigslist and score this little beauty though!

It runs and is completely clean looks like I'll have a Cafe and a Resto on my hands when my leg heals up.

Fentoozler · « **Reply #29 on:** September 28, 2011, 06:34:15 pm »

Well I hobbled out to the shop and got the rearsets all figured out. I'd read a lot about the RAASK rearsets before I bought them and the general opinion seemed to be that the old style sucked but the newer ones had improved in quality. I got them from Omars RearSets and after me asking for the 3rd time he said " I assure you your kickstart will still work." WRONG I'll post detailed pics of the rearsets if anyones interested but I would suggest building your own out of wood before these craptastic pieces.

On a happier note I found a local old school bike shop who was willing to trade some paint work for a little carb adjustment and exhaust wrapping and my beast is alive!
I'll do a whole bunch of pics over the next few days and a start up vid!

Gman · « **Reply #30 on:** September 28, 2011, 06:51:16 pm »

F,
Really clean triangle on the cafe - did everything fit as planned? Looks great! Nice score on the resto - wish I had the time/space to do some work like you've done... keep it up.

Cheers,
G

Fentoozler · « **Reply #31 on:** September 29, 2011, 06:35:30 am »

Thanks Gman , almost everything worked the way I hoped except the rearsets , ended up moving my kickstart 90 degrees and chopping a small piece off the rearset to make it work.

Really happy with the way the exhaust turned out

And heres whats under the seat

robdrobd · « **Reply #32 on:** January 20, 2012, 11:20:50 am »

Quote from: Fentoozler on August 27, 2011, 06:45:46 pm

Here's a pic of the shocks installed.

Updates will probably be few and far between for the next month or so because I broke my leg wakeboarding over the weekend.
Sitting in the house did help me find the time to jump on craigslist and score this little beauty though!

It runs and is completely clean looks like I'll have a Cafe and a Resto on my hands when my leg heals up.

Hey, How tall are those shocks? I am trying to decide between 13.5 and 14.5. Can you touch the ground at a light? I am 5'11''. Thanks

davo_florida · « **Reply #33 on:** January 20, 2012, 12:11:59 pm »

just curious if you'll be parting with a 4:2 exhaust.

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Author Topic: 76 CB550K Cafe Project NEW PICS! (Read 5799 times)