Topic: Chef's 78 F'er (paint!)

[cheftuskey121]

today was paint day. it was a gorgeous 66 degrees out, blue sky and sun. wished I was out riding but good riding weather is also good painting weather. better to get it done now I got the front fender and stay primed.





using 2k epxoy filler primer.

[tweakin]

Looking good Chef, making solid progress on both builds!  Don't remember what build thread it was in but that pic of the pool...  might want to give the pool a bit of attention.

[cheftuskey121]

Looking good Chef, making solid progress on both builds!  Don't remember what build thread it was in but that pic of the pool...  might want to give the pool a bit of attention.

yeahhh, its behind me in the pictures. I moved in here at the end of summer and it was in that condition. not too concerned with it just yet, in the coming months me and the roomates will be taking care of it. great thing about them is they don't mind the bikes. one of them is my step-brother and was a technician at Hyundai. he is now a service adviser there and likes helping me out.

[tweakin]

 I was just messing with you.  Bikes are way more important than the pool.  Once the bikes are done you will need the pool cleaned up so you have a place to take all the ladies you will be picking up on those sweet vintage scoots. 

Looking good Chef, making solid progress on both builds!  Don't remember what build thread it was in but that pic of the pool...  might want to give the pool a bit of attention.

yeahhh, its behind me in the pictures. I moved in here at the end of summer and it was in that condition. not too concerned with it just yet, in the coming months me and the roomates will be taking care of it. great thing about them is they don't mind the bikes. one of them is my step-brother and was a technician at Hyundai. he is now a service adviser there and likes helping me out.

[cheftuskey121]

very true Tige

here is the tank and side covers shot with primer. exciting I know. tomorrow before work I should be shooting some color

[iron_worker]

I think this guy is made of money. Two 750 projects on the go and thinking about starting a 450T. 

IW

[cheftuskey121]

well when there is no significant other..... FULL STEAM AHEAD. about to go lay some color

[Viktor.J]

Boom, back in black (both you and me). Fiona looks sweet and It's gonna be interesting to se what you can do with her 

Do a Cool bike/cafe, not the ordinare "carpy Cafe" Please

[cheftuskey121]

Boom, back in black (both you and me). Fiona looks sweet and It's gonna be interesting to se what you can do with her 

Do a Cool bike/cafe, not the ordinare "carpy Cafe" Please

Viktor, glad you're back. it's as if you are in my head. as "cool" as the carpy cafe's are  I am doing a modern themed cafe. not crazy modern front end and parts etc, but the styling. very similar to madscientist's F. you'll see. I have been gathering parts, waiting on my cowl, then I need to get a seat made, some brake stuff, and the swingarm rebuilt. a few hundred here and there, probably about $1200 away. not TOO bad

I did receive the cb450 today though, so get ready to check out that in the "other bikes" section

[tlbranth]

Wow that's a good read. I knew some of that but not that trick to seat the bearings.

Mr Nixon's method of seating the bearing races is incorrect, IMHO, as excessively tightening the bearing nut might damage the rolling elements and/or races. Standard practice is to seat the races without applying pressure to the faces of the races or rollers. Also, the rule-of-thumb is that if an issue is felt at the front end, it's caused by an problem at the rear. I had a nasty tank-slapper once, and it scared the piss out of me! After wasting time and dollars on the front end, it finally turned out to be a problem with the rear wheel bearings.

I agree that the tightening seems a bit dodgy but the factory shop manual for my GL1500 states exactly what Mr Nixon says. I have a wobble now on my 1970 CB750. I'd better start looking into it. The stock bearing is ball but I guess the upgrade is to All Balls tapered rollers eh?

[cheftuskey121]

haha well if it makes anyone feel any bit of nervous I have not touched anything so far. still riding it. just a tad shaky sometimes. I've gotten used to it. put close to a grand on the odometer I think. nothing to update here really. still waiting to finish Yolanda so I can strip this girl down. still sorting my front brake, gonna put a new caliper seal in. then if that doesnt work new caliper body and piston. that should do it right up. anxious to get this project moving forward

[cheftuskey121]

wow I have not updated this in awhile! the bike is still almost all together. I tore the seat and rear fender off so I could mock up the seat cowl and such. it fits great! I used the airtech streamlining cb75022 long F seat cowl, I also got the matching seat pan and end piece for the tail. I wanted to have a flat back tailpiece with two round tailights. I am happy to say I've made it happen. I have not taken a lot of pictures in this process because of other projects but I am gathering parts and hopefully will strip it down soon for the rebuild

here are the airtech pieces



after lots of mocking up I used marine tex epoxy to glue in the end piece and extra as filler to even out the ends. lots of sanding and cutting later....



this did not allow enough room for the license plate to clear the tire so I did some more cutting and bending and came up with this. even with my brother bouncing on the bike as hard as he could (he weighs 40lb more than me) it would not touch.



ordered some black napoleon bar end mirrors. these things seem very durable and look killerm, I love that you can orient them many different ways too.



I guess I'll just drop these paint pictures off here kinda skipped over the tedius part of painting, pinstriping, clear coating, wetsanding, and polishing. these make Yolanda look like dirty brown water trash....almost makes me want to re clear, cut and polish her too....almost.



I totally stole TAO's and madscientist's paint scheme......but I was in love. hope you guys enjoy. I love walking by and looking at them

[tweakin]

Bueno!   

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Chef,

You've been busy!  I like the paint scheme and body work on the seat. 

Awesome job!

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Paint looks great! You do it?

Spare body set?

[cheftuskey121]

Yes I did the paint and body work, and yes that's all a spare set. I am not touching the original, it's in way too good condition. It really pops in the sunlight.

[Stev-o]

Very impressive paint work!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Double kudos, Chef.

[lwahples]

Paint looks great! And with a can even,Sweet.

[iron_worker]

I'm glad you left those beauties of originals alone and you also did an excellent job on your "spare" set.

 

IW

[madScientist]

Looks very nice my friend! I really like the colors. That paint scheme looks oddly familiar :-D

I might have to "borrow" your colors for a build in the future. Is the red a candy brandywine variant?

[cheftuskey121]

Thanks guys. I'm not foolish enough to ruin great stock parts. Cost more to get spares but it keeps the value of the bike not cutting anything. All spare parts have either been new or crusty. The goal is to be able to take it back to stock in a day or two.

Madscientist it is Nissan Merlot red. Code Ax7 I believe. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I wish I went a shade redder, but in low light it looks like black cherry an in sunlight it pops so in the end I am happy with it. This was also my first pinstriping job and while it's not perfect I am happy with it. Hard to juggle two project bikes, an engine, and a daily rider that is misbehaving. I need another source of income.

[madScientist]

Thank you sir. I've written it down in my color book. I really dig how you matched the gold to the lettering on the Honda emblem. That's a cool effect.

[cheftuskey121]

The gold is actually wheel paint from a subie wrx sti that my brother has. Got the inspiration from him. I repainted the emblems gold, then I used a thin polishing paste (lotion consistency) to cover up only the lettering and sprayed it all black. Waited 10 minutes and wiped away the polish leaving the lettering gold. Cleaned up the edges nice and clear coated. You can use anything I'm sure, I just figured the polish wouldn't hurt the paint. Worked better than I thought, my roomate thought it was pretty redneck I do but whatever, it looks great. He was surprised too.

Need to get the SS brake lines, new pads, wheel/neck taper bearings, new harness, battery and swingarm taken care of. Then rip it apart and paint frame, engine, and start putting it back together. Oh I also need to get my seat upholstered. Always more money than you think left. Sigh

[jerry h]

Painted parts look great!   Someday when you're not so busy  , you should do a write up of your painting process. Very impressive.