Topic: cb550k cafe "Ruby"

[Cheffish]

Well I'm a couple of months late on this, but I thought it was finally time to start my build thread.  After months and months of craigslist prowling to no avail I found this baby.  I was originally on the market for a 750 but I just couldn't find one and settled on this '78 550k.  A little over 10k on the clock, and stored inside for the past decade, I couldn't resist.  Talked him down from $1200 to $800 and had her in the back of the van after a quick test ride.  Her name is Ruby.

[Cheffish]

Btw, that's my older brother in the first picture.  We've been doing this as a team effort, working on the bike at his shop after I get off work.  Working in a restaurant makes it hard for our schedules to mesh, but we've made it happen so far.  Anyway, he got right to work that night and had her stipped to the frame so we could start the inspect/clean/replace list. 

[Cheffish]

The cleaning/polishing definately is the most time consuming.  I wanted to try and retain all the original chrome and aluminum that I could. I degreased and cleaned the wheels and upgraded to sealed bearings in both hubs.  The fork lowers were polished along with some other miscellaneous bits.  These crappy phone picks don't really do them justice.  Some other parts will come off this winter to be polished and/or touched up. 






After polishing, the forks were assembled with new seals, oil, and progressive springs.  The tires have since been replaced with battlax's.  Getting decades old tires off a street bike was not my favorite job.  And after 2 failed attempts at replacing the rear tube, I threw in the towel and took it to a local shop.  I was used to dirtbike and bicycle tires.  These are just a tad bit less forgiving.

[Bunicula]

Off to a good start dude.. Keep up the good work!

[Cheffish]

I know it looks like it's going by fast, but most of this work has been done for some time.  This next segment of work was done by my brother's room mate who is a custom fabricator and jack of all trades.  I had him loop the rear frame for the seat which I got from Roccity cafe racers.  He then shaved unneccesary tabs from the frame and mounted the seat.  I had him custom mount these rearsets to the frame.  They are from a ZX10r and fit rather nicely.  Then I bolted up the clipons, also from Roccity, just to get an idea of what she'll look like. Lastly, the stock tank has been shaved and filled and is now sitting in primer along with the sidecovers.

[Cheffish]

More progress! At this point the frame and small parts have all been sandblasted and painted with a single stage chassis paint from Dupont.  They turned out great I think.  The paint is a beautiful gloss black, I hope it holds up.


I had an aquaitance of mine take a look at the motor for me.  It seemed to run fine when I bought it, but I just wanted to be safe.  I had him replace all the top end gaskets, and of course the head gasket which was weeping ever so slightly.  He told me the inside of the motor was spotless, but I thought the outside was unsightly.

So after a thorough degreasing and a little sanding, I decided to give it a facelift.


Then my brother and I installed it in the frame without a scratch using yet another trick I learned from this amazing forum. Without all of you I'm not sure any of this would have been possible.  thank you all!

[Bakeoff]

Quick progress!  Nice work!

[cb550inct]

Dude your killing me, I have the same bike and your doing everything to it I wish I could.
questions..is that the interceptor seat from rock city?
Did you spray the engine cyllinders or powder coat

[Cheffish]

Dude your killing me, I have the same bike and your doing everything to it I wish I could.
questions..is that the interceptor seat from rock city?
Did you spray the engine cyllinders or powder coat

That's the roadster seat. I got it because I'll be able to recess a taillight into it. I cut about 4" off the front but I still think it's a little long. The quality is very good though. I'd definitely call him before air tech. Especially because they told me 6 weeks for a seat!  His came to my door in 5 days. The engines duplicolor spray bomb. Good luck with your bike. And don't sweat it man, this thing has taken way longer than I wanted and isn't done yet. Just take your time and do it right the first time.

[cb550inct]

Im riding mine for the rest of the season, painting the frame and polishing the engine this winter

[Gman]

Looking good - sounds like you have a good crew around you to help, which is priceless.  Keep us posted w/updates!

[Cheffish]

Starting to look like a bike again.  I'm getting so close I can taste it!  Got most of this stuff done over the past few weeks.  Not gonna get her done for the charm city mods vs. rockers but she'll be there in spirit. Nothing too interesting here.  After we go the motor in we kinda just started putting everything back where it went.  This took a little longer than usual because I didn't take as many pictures during disassembly as I should have.  A big thanks goes out to those of you that did!

Here she is starting to come to fruition.  The only ugliness so far is coming from those terrible shocks.
And now my computer doesn't want me to be able to attach anymore pics.  So it looks like this'll be all for now. More coming soon.

[Cheffish]

Here she is from the rear. 

Slowly adding more pieces to the puzzle. Got most of the wiring buttoned up. The wiring diagram was a little confusing, luckily most pieces were labeled which made it much easier

And about those ugly original shocks

Which look great but are extremely stiff.  There is almost zero sag with me on them.  Is this normal?  The preload can't be set any softer and I'm a little worried.  I'm thinking maybe I should return them for a softer set?

Paint is finally starting to happen.  Headlight bucket was first since I had to stuff all that wiring in there.
This is what lead me to her nickname.  It is an amazing color which seems to change with the lighting from a bright red almost to a rootbeer.  I can't wait until the rest is done. We are in the home stretch.  Its about time!


Sorry these photos are so crappy.  I need to remember to bring a real camera to the shop so I can do some justice to the work we've been putting in. 

[Norske]

Great work on the bike...she's gonna look awesome!  I've got a couple questions for you: 

How did you cut the hole for the tail light?  I've got the same seat from Roc City and want to do the same thing, but I'm nervous cutting into the fiberglass.

Can you please post more details/pics on the fiberglass seat install?  Where did you tap the frame, what kind of foam or rubber are you putting between the seat and frame, what dimensions on the foam? 

Thanks so much!

[Cheffish]

Norske, I haven't forgotten about your questions man. It's just that progress was kinda slow these past few weeks. I'm on a short vacation but when I get back I'm gonna have a whole bunch of pics to update this thread. I know I still owe you some shots of the seat install and ill be sure to get those for you. I'm really excited to get back as this thing should be ready to ride in about a week!

[Norske]

Cheffish, thanks.  I didn't think you'd forget...I found your build here and thought I'd move my question over from the PM.  I know what you mean about trying to find time! I'm glad that you'll be ready to ride it very soon.  I'm hoping to start mine up tomorrow, but need to figure out the seat and a spacer issue on the rear wheel.  Thanks in advance for posting whatever you can on the seat.  Later.

[luceja]

The motor looks great, nice work there. Curious to see how those hagons work out!

[Tews19]

The cleaning/polishing definately is the most time consuming.  I wanted to try and retain all the original chrome and aluminum that I could. I degreased and cleaned the wheels and upgraded to sealed bearings in both hubs.  The fork lowers were polished along with some other miscellaneous bits.  These crappy phone picks don't really do them justice.  Some other parts will come off this winter to be polished and/or touched up. 






After polishing, the forks were assembled with new seals, oil, and progressive springs.  The tires have since been replaced with battlax's.  Getting decades old tires off a street bike was not my favorite job.  And after 2 failed attempts at replacing the rear tube, I threw in the towel and took it to a local shop.  I was used to dirtbike and bicycle tires.  These are just a tad bit less forgiving.

What type of sealed bearing did you get and where? I will be follwoing this build as I started to take mine down more today

[the-wu]

beautiful red on the headlight! cant wait to see the rest of it, great job so far

[Cheffish]

Tews,
I used all balls bearings in the neck and wheels. They are cheap and readily available. The wheels were easy, the neck bearings were a PITA.

[Cheffish]

Finally a couple updates.  Got the paint done and the bike mostly assembled.  Sorry in advance for the crappy phone pics but I can't seem to remember to grab my camera when I leave the house.  Here's the stuff in the booth drying and prior to buffing.


The tail had some kind of weird reaction with the clearcoat producing these annoying tiny bubbles all over it.  So after three resprays it came out immaculate.

For some reason these look much nicer on the phone than when I upload them to the PC...
The gauges were in perfect shape top to bottom and I felt they needed to be retained.  I think I'll have to make or modify the bracket though.  I have not played with the headlight position yet.  I did install an HID kit and I would highly reccomend it to anyone thinking about it.  It is probably 4 times brighter than stock and thats important when you live in deer country.  I know this shot is rather dark but this is the first time I saw her with all her clothes on and I may have teared up a little .  I couldn't have been happier.

The upholstery was done while I was out of town and I was a little nervous to see it in person.  But once again I was blown away.  If anybody likes what they see, please help my buddy out and "like" him on facebook.  Driven Fabrication is his company and he just started out about a year ago.  Really good dude and great work as well.


Rearend with frenched tail light.  I love it. 

Better shot of the rearsets in case anybody needs ideas

And you may not be able to tell from this pic, but just by the inner fender mounts are the blinkers.  They are mounted inboard the frame by the rear shocks.  You can't even tell they are there until they light up which I thought was pretty awesome. 

[akinz]

Wow, just peeked through your build thread here and looks great. You did a great job on the paint. I'm assuming that's one of your professions?

[Cheffish]

Thanks for checking it out. I appreciate the comments!  Actually, all the paint was done by my older brother. And it is not his profession. He drives a rollback towtruck for a body shop and has gotten into paint and restoration lately. All this was done at the shop he works at. This one came out so well I am trying to talk him into building another bike soon. But first I'm hoping to help him restore an old coke vending machine he bought over the summer.

[Cheffish]

Norske, I found a few pics that show how the seat and upholstery were done. This first one shows the underside where two brackets were mounted to the pan itself using fiberglass resin. They are threaded and allow the whole assembly to be removed. In the front there is another threaded bracket that connects to an existing hole in the frame right behind the gas tank.

This next shot shows the shaped foam that I believe was mounted with glue.

There is some high density foam running under the seat where it contacts the frame rails but I do not have pics of that. These next photos show the finished product. It's a distressed vinyl that has been wrapped around the front of the seatpan and probably glued. But don't quote me on that.



Hope this helps. If you have anymore questions let me know. The upholstery guy is a friend and lives with my brother so I can pick his brain for you if need be!

[Cheffish]

Well it's been a long time coming but she is finally in running order. However, my old mechanic "friend" screwed me outta money and time. I did find a new guy who is jus as passionate about this bike as I am though. He tells me I need to replace the cam chain tensioner which should have been done by the first guy about 5 months ago. Winters almost here anyway, so she'll be getting another teardown and I may drop a new cam in there while it's apart. Here she is complete, just picked it up yesterday.


I haven't ridden her yet. It was cold and rainy yesterday. My brother rode it today and said it felt great! I'm gonna have to wait til the weekend. I swear I'll get some better pics up one day. I always seem to remember my camera when I'm halfway to the shop. Anyway, I wanted to thank everybody on the forums for your help. This was one of the best experiences of my 26 years on earth and it's only just begun. I'm already on the hunt for another cb!