Topic: '71cb500 FOR SALE

[davis96]

I recently sold my cb350f chop for more than it was worth, so of course I went cruising craigslist for a deal on a new project. Not 4 days later I had bought this 1971 500 for $300. It wasn't running but all the pieces were there and the motor turned over fine. The plan is a super budget build, and so far so good.

What I've done:
-De-rusted the tank with vinegar and BB's
-Painted the tank and the side covers (along with many other parts) with my favorite thing ever, appliance epoxy.





-Replaced a few cruddy oil seals

-Cleaned these nasty carbs (guy said he "just cleaned them recently" a.k.a. sprayed in the inlet with a hose and let the water sit and corrode everything)


*no after pictures on these, but i cleaned them as well as was humanly possible
-Replaced a shoddy ignition coil
-Normal tuneup stuff like plugs oil/filter etc.
-New fat tires

-Then it looked like this, but not for long:


-Clubman bars, narrowed about 2 inches, and speedo delete with center tach mount
-Before I rebuilt the forks with new seals and shortened springs lowering the front end about an inch:

After:

The taillight I got for free from my buddy, its from a 1958 Sporty

-I had the caliper and lines/bracket from my 350 in my parts box (turns out its the same one from the 500) so I decided I'd do the dual disc swap. Soon I'll have the rest of the parts and she'll be ready for the road.


Here's how it sits now, just waiting on parts to finish it up and start the undoubtedly arduous tuning process:


So as of now I'm in it for around $650 total including the forthcoming exhaust/dual disc/miscellaneous parts
Let me know what you think,
Davis

[seanbarney41]

damn...that's real clean style...totally dig...that appliance epoxy looks great...looks way better to me than modern basecoat/clearcoat...in the the pics it looks like an old laquer job...where do you get it?

[davis96]

damn...that's real clean style...totally dig...that appliance epoxy looks great...looks way better to me than modern basecoat/clearcoat...in the the pics it looks like an old laquer job...where do you get it?

I get it from Home Depot, its less than 4 dollars a can. It took less than 2 cans to do the tank and side covers, with about 5 coats each. I've found that it helps to heat up the can either in warm water or sitting it out in the sun for a few minutes, and really shake the #$%* out of it, that way there is more pressure in the can making for a finer mist and a much better result. Light coat, 5-10 minutes flash time, then another coat etc etc til the part you're painting is as glossy and fresh as you want it to be.
The paint is great because you don't need to prime the parts and once you spray it it lays down thick and glassy; and best of all after it cures (it takes a week to cure fully) it is tough as nails.

[seanbarney41]

damn...that's real clean style...totally dig...that appliance epoxy looks great...looks way better to me than modern basecoat/clearcoat...in the the pics it looks like an old laquer job...where do you get it?

I get it from Home Depot, its less than 4 dollars a can. It took less than 2 cans to do the tank and side covers, with about 5 coats each. I've found that it helps to heat up the can either in warm water or sitting it out in the sun for a few minutes, and really shake the #$%* out of it, that way there is more pressure in the can making for a finer mist and a much better result. Light coat, 5-10 minutes flash time, then another coat etc etc til the part you're painting is as glossy and fresh as you want it to be.
The paint is great because you don't need to prime the parts and once you spray it it lays down thick and glassy; and best of all after it cures (it takes a week to cure fully) it is tough as nails.

how is the color selection?

[:c:]

Doing the exact same thing. 71 CB500 after 9 years in a garage... and I was complaining about my carbs this morning    I take it all back.

That really is something to behold...

Nice work!

[davis96]

Well thats one of the major downfalls of this paint being meant for appliances, the only colors readily available are black and white, but online there is also like a fugly off-white color and "stainless steel" color (no idea how that would look)..
I'm making this bike very simple, so black works great for me. I did a cafe with a full custom fiberglass seat and the whole nine when I had my 350, which then evolved three more times into a sort of curb-hopping mini chop..



But this time I'm keeping it  easy and subdued, and most of all, cheap.

[lucky]

Good job on getting that bike cleaned up.
Those carbs were a mess.
The appliance paint looks so good I want to get some myself.
"They" took all the good paint away from us DIY people.

[davis96]

Good job on getting that bike cleaned up.
Those carbs were a mess.
The appliance paint looks so good I want to get some myself.
"They" took all the good paint away from us DIY people.

Yea I hope the carbs will still function despite their state of decay.. Rustoleum would make a bundle of cash if they offered this paint in a wider array of colors

[Greggo]

Nice work so far!!

[MoMo]

Good work so far and I am a fan of the DIY economy builds. I rarely have more than 500  into a redo.  The tip on slightly warming the spray can is great, as Rustoleum does not have  the most reliable tip-I work at Home Depot and seen the returns and complaints.  I have wondered how the appliance epoxy would hold up to gas spills-is it as tough as you say?...Larry

[davis96]

I doubt it would hold up to gas, but it is very tough in terms of laying on thick, sticking to the material well, curing good and hard, and resisting scratching

[illrational]

not to be sour puss but did you say it ran now?

[davis96]

not to be sour puss but did you say it ran now?

Hah no, the bike had allegedly run recently (take that with a grain of salt), but the battery was dead and a coil was shot along with a bunch of little things which made it impractical to try to start it when I bought it.
I have been dealing with a very bad seller in obtaining a usable exhaust (the exhaust that came on it was a rusted-through set of mufflers from a Kawi police bike JB Welded to some cb550 head pipes). 2 months after sending this guy a money order I am still waiting for my refund. I'm not going to attempt to start it up until I have all the pieces to make the bike complete.  So, all the stuff I've been doing has been in anticipation of getting the exhaust. But no worries on my side, I am not in much of a hurry,  and I don't mind taking care of tune-up stuff now and sorting out the tuning at a later date.

[illrational]

not to be sour puss but did you say it ran now?

Hah no, the bike had allegedly run recently (take that with a grain of salt), but the battery was dead and a coil was shot along with a bunch of little things which made it impractical to try to start it when I bought it.
I have been dealing with a very bad seller in obtaining a usable exhaust (the exhaust that came on it was a rusted-through set of mufflers from a Kawi police bike JB Welded to some cb550 head pipes). 2 months after sending this guy a money order I am still waiting for my refund. I'm not going to attempt to start it up until I have all the pieces to make the bike complete.  So, all the stuff I've been doing has been in anticipation of getting the exhaust. But no worries on my side, I am not in much of a hurry,  and I don't mind taking care of tune-up stuff now and sorting out the tuning at a later date.

But you are spending all that money to make it look nice which it does but then it might not run...shouldnt you figured out if it ran and needed rebuild first...im just saying.....

[davis96]

not to be sour puss but did you say it ran now?

Hah no, the bike had allegedly run recently (take that with a grain of salt), but the battery was dead and a coil was shot along with a bunch of little things which made it impractical to try to start it when I bought it.
I have been dealing with a very bad seller in obtaining a usable exhaust (the exhaust that came on it was a rusted-through set of mufflers from a Kawi police bike JB Welded to some cb550 head pipes). 2 months after sending this guy a money order I am still waiting for my refund. I'm not going to attempt to start it up until I have all the pieces to make the bike complete.  So, all the stuff I've been doing has been in anticipation of getting the exhaust. But no worries on my side, I am not in much of a hurry,  and I don't mind taking care of tune-up stuff now and sorting out the tuning at a later date.

But you are spending all that money to make it look nice which it does but then it might not run...shouldnt you figured out if it ran and needed rebuild first...im just saying.....

I wouldn't call $650 a lot of money for a poor man's resto. But I have enough experience to know what to look for as far as major engine flaws are concerned. It turns over fine, compression is good, oil looked good when i drained it, electrics tested within spec aside from a bad coil, even the old plugs looked good when I pulled em. Im plenty confident that whatever problems may come in the future I can handle it

[davis96]

Small update:

From the front you can see the solo tach mount (its so low than I ended up running the tach cable through two holes in the headlight bucket). Also I got 2 truck shock covers from JC Whitney for about 3 bucks apiece and did the cheap fork boot mod from the FAQ.. I was surprised but it actually turned out great, and thats a good thing because my factory gaiters would disintegrate in your hands if you touched em.


The front end is actually about an inch lower than this, its resting on a jack so the front looks a little high. Also welded up some drop brackets for the headlight, moving it down about 1.5" and forward about an inch to accommodate the gauge configuration.




Still no exhaust... But one good thing came out of the two months of dealing with an awful seller and a few weeks of dealing with a good seller; when all is said and done I'll end up with a MAC 4-1, a full set of HM303 4-into-4's, and a bunch of other misc brake/suspension parts for the same price I was going to pay for the 4-into-4's by themselves.

[davis96]

Lemon juice + vinegar


Not too shabby

[davis96]

Assembly has moved forward thanks to the arrival of some parts from member damagedduck: second brake disc, 550 right hand fork lower, center stand/hardware, and MAC 4-1 exhaust.

For whatever reason, the exhaust was painted blue  so I wire-wheeled all that mess off and repainted black with barbecue grill paint, and cleaned up a rust spot on the muffler then polished it up. 

The last time I tried to get my carbs off, it was such a pain and I shouted so many obscenities that I decided to do away with the stock airbox alltogether and run just the velocity stacks with a screen for large debris. If you are thinking of tell me how dumb this is and how I'll have to re-jet etc, I know and #115 main jets have been ordered. This was a conscious decision on my part and I know all the probable ramifications of it, but I ran the exact same setup on my 350f and after rejetting I had no problems. That said, I do think it looks pretty schweet.

I also pulled my clutch cover to access my broken clutch lifter rod, which I replaced. I also hand polished (I don't have access to my bench grinder/polisher when I'm away at school) the clutch cover itself which it was off.

Helpful Tip (I think might be worthy of going in the FAQ): The ever-elusive cb500 clutch push rod is fairly expensive on ebay, and there is a post in the FAQ about making your own. But I found out that the cb500k rod is exactly the same as the rod from cb450, cl450, and cb500T (probably some others). So while the 500k unit is rare and more expensive, clutch pushrods from any of the above models are more abundant and a good bit cheaper (mine was from a cl450 and cost 12 bucks shipped).

I gave the fork lower a preliminary cleaning and replaced the seal in anticipation of installation for dual disc set-up. I encountered a bit of a snafu when I realize that this fork lower (from I believe a '78 cb550) is about an 1.5" longer than my 500 unit. I don't think the functionality will be affected and the fender/brake mounts are all in the same place, so I will likely run it as is, one lower being longer than the other.

progress pics:

[Greggo]

I believe the fork internals are different from 500 to 550's, not just the height.  So, your 500 tube may not work with the 550 lower. 

[davis96]

I believe the fork internals are different from 500 to 550's, not just the height.  So, your 500 tube may not work with the 550 lower. 

You are correct, the internals are different, the 550 has a different damper mechanism which does away with the damper rod of the 500. However, one can use cb550 internals in a cb500 case and vice versa; which is what I will be doing.

[davis96]

damn, "the works" toilet bowl cleaner is amazing:

[wedoo2]

What is that green blob picture?  Tell me more about the vinegar / lemon juice treatment.  Curious minds, you know.

I have been thinking about the uneven forks and that sounds a little dangerous.

[davis96]

What is that green blob picture?  Tell me more about the vinegar / lemon juice treatment.  Curious minds, you know.

I have been thinking about the uneven forks and that sounds a little dangerous.

The green blob is a picture of the inside of my tank after about 20 minutes of intermittent sloshing around of "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner. As a point of reference, it looked like this beforehand:

I boiled the carb bodies in 75% lemon juice 25% vinegar and some water for maybe 15 minutes.. The main reason I did this is because of the white powdery corrosion in one of the carbs. It cleaned them quite well, but they began to oxidize fairly quickly after pulling them out and rinsing them. So I sprayed them down with penetrating oil to prevent the oxidation. It worked great.

As far as the fork leg goes, I'm curious about what specifically seems dangerous to you? The fork lowers are interchangeable parts, and function the same. As a matter of fact I switched them out today, and everything fit together perfectly.

To minimize the aesthetic impact of having one lower being longer than the other, I simply pulled the gaiter down about an inch. The bike was never going to be a concourse restoration (I'll have spent a good deal less than $1000 for the entire build, including the price of the bike), and honestly I don't think it looks half bad, definitely not bad enough to really bother me:
(the trees are tilted, so it looks like one of the boots is higher than the other, but actually they are even)

[wedoo2]

I hope that the different sizes work ok for you.  I was trying to figure out if that would effect the geometry of the front end in any way.  I can't see how it would change the rake or trail but I'm not sure.  Also, there will probably be more fork oil in the longer tube and I wondered if that would matter.  Spring rates?  As far as aesthetics, I'm sure with the boots you can make that look just fine.

Your build is very clever davis and I'm just a worry wart.  Tank clean?

[davis96]

I hope that the different sizes work ok for you.  I was trying to figure out if that would effect the geometry of the front end in any way.  I can't see how it would change the rake or trail but I'm not sure.  Also, there will probably be more fork oil in the longer tube and I wondered if that would matter.  Spring rates?  As far as aesthetics, I'm sure with the boots you can make that look just fine.

Your build is very clever davis and I'm just a worry wart.  Tank clean?

Ha yep the tank is good to go. The oil might be an issue in fork but I don't think so, I'll just pu in the normal amount for the 500. Effectively the only difference between the forks is the height of the top of the fork where the seal is. All the internals are the same and located in the same position as stock, so should be good to go. Waiting for the M8x110mm grade 8.8 bolts I ordered from Bolt Depot, then I can mount everything up and start the arduous task of bleeding the dual disks. :/