Topic: Cory's CB550 Progress Report

[krmtrains]

I bought this CB550 in November to give to my youngest son Cory (19) for Christmas.  I worked on it like crazy for a month, early mornings, late at night, to get it to this point.  He is thrilled with it, and despite the cold weather, has ridden about 40 miles so far.  Lots to do yet, but plenty of time until spring.  When I got it, it was non-running, and rusty, and only the rear brake worked (barely).

The worst thing is that I spent a ton of time restoring the hard cases, and sent the luggage racks to support them, plus an engine guard to a shop to be rechromed.  That place, (Adams Plating in Lansing Michigan) burned to the ground right after Christmas, and my parts are likely a total loss.  So I have some nice hard cases and nothing to mount them with.


These are the parts that were lost in the fire, except the turn signals, which I had removed.  If anyone has something like this laying around, I would be interested. 


The restored hard cases.

Anyway, I have enjoyed this forum, and the information has been very helpful so far in bringing this machine back to the road again.  I decided to repost this with better sized photos.  Still learning how everything works here.  We are having fun, for sure, and can't wait for warm weather!


As you can see, this bike was pretty rusty after sitting in a wet barn for 20 years.


Looking better after being cleaned up, new wheel and tire, but the same fender.  Not perfect, but usable for now.


A photo when I had the carbs off.  I rebuilt them, as they were a total mess inside.

[
This is just before Christmas, when I reasembled everything in order to see if it would run.  It did!  Still need an exhaust.


I found some off-the-shelf spray paint that did a fair job of imitating the old Candy paint.  Maybe in a year or so, we'll have it all redone. 




First ride, two days after Christmas.

As you can see, Cory likes orange!

[bluesmoke69]

That a great story sorry for your lost parts. Cory will love the old honda!!

[ksmith0034]

I think I had that same fairing on an old Suzuki T500 back in the day - except mine didn't have pictures of kids inside it...

[cafe550]

nice ride, but imho i don't like the faring 

[kck3]

That rear fender looks 100x better.  What did you use on it to remove all that surface rust?

[krmtrains]

A lot of elbow grease, scrubbing with WD-40 and ultra-fine steel wool.  Also soaked it in a liquid called Metal Rescue, made by a company called Armor Protective Packaging.  It's a little difficult to use for larger parts, but is amazing for smaller parts.  I used this stuff on a lot of parts, and it does a pretty amazing job if you just let it soak. 

I wasn't sure about the fairing either, but it's a rather unique vintage look, and it's growing on us!

[tango911]

i like the fairing, and its more for wind protection than look anyway imho.

were did you get the rattle can paint.  looks good. 

[krmtrains]

I sent you a message, but will share with anyone interested.

This paint is called "Metal Specks", by Dupli-Color.  This color is called burnt copper, and depending on the light, can look more copperish, but in the bright sun, it's fairly close to the original color.  I figure in a couple of years, we'll get all the body parts professionally done, but for now, this looks acceptable, for very little money, maybe $40 in materials. 

I primed the parts with grey primer, then painted a light coat of chrome silver, then enough coats of the color until it looked good to me.  Then, finished it with several coats of clear. Once we got it together and outside, I think I need another coat or two of clear on the fairing, but I'll do that when the weather warms up. 

I'm sure there are other colors available, too.  The only other one I've seen is a candy red.

[krmtrains]

Here are a few "before" photos for your entertainment.


This photo shows the machine loaded in my truck for the trip home.


Right side view.  Someone had painted the side cover black, right over the original candy sunrise flake paint, which appeared to be in excellent condition underneath.  Why?  Good question! I tried to remove the black without destroying the paint underneath, but had little success, so I repainted the whole thing. 


This left rear view clearly shows the travel cases as they were installed, likely since this was nearly new.  I removed the trunk and luggage rack, and kept those at home.  The hard cases, I have restored.  All the rest of the rack, plus the engine guard you can see on it were sent to Adams Plating in Lansing, Michigan, where they were likely destroyed when the place burned down just after Christmas.  If anyone has a rack like that they would like to sell, I am very interested!

[krmtrains]

Hello Again,

I've continued to work on Cory's CB550, and found some parts to replace the ones lost in the Adams Plating (of Lansing) fire.  It's been cold, so progress is rather slow.


This is a very nice engine guard I found on ebay.  It's the best piece of chrome on the machine right now!


This photo shows the "new" Shoei hard cases I bought.  I've cleaned them up, and they still need some work, but they are in very nice,
usable shape.  They have turn signals integrated into them, and I got those wired and working. 
I think the rig looks better than what was on there before. 


Took the exhaust off in preparation for the new ones that I have coming. 


The original exhaust was extremely rusty, and full of holes.  One of them might be usable, but the rest are really bad!


The exhaust pieces have been cleaned up and are ready to bolt the new pipes in place.  I cleaned up and painted the brackets,
and used Metal Rescue (excellent product!) to remove rust from the collars, nuts, and washers. 

Can't wait for spring so Cory and I can start riding!

[krmtrains]

Here's a couple of photos of recent progress.  We are installing the new exhaust to replace our old ones that looked like swiss cheese.  Actually, they aren't new, but lightly used originals, with very nice chrome.


This photo shows the new and old pipes laid out so I could figure out how the brackets attached.  I have learned that you CAN'T take enough pictures of your machine when you are taking it apart!


This photo shows the right side pipes installed.  Finished those at 5:30 this morning!

We are having a lot of fun bringing this motorcycle back from the dead.  I would like to see more like this restored!  While I don't understand the fascination with the cafe racer craze, I do appreciate the enthusiasm and workmanship that I see going into those machines.  It is interesting to see how everyone has different ideas about how they most want to enjoy this hobby, and we are all having FUN!  Aren't we?

Happy wrenching!

[krmtrains]

And now, the left side are completed!  We just bought a new battery this morning, and when it is finished charging, we are riding!


The left side pipes installed.


What an amazing difference from our rusty old things.  Can't wait to hear how it sounds.

[fergie]

Most everyone removes those old fiberglass fairings ,bags, and goes the cafe route.. Its nice to see someone restoring one and really taking it in an old school direction. It really sets the bike apart from the rest. great job by the way. Cheers, Fergie.

[krmtrains]

Thanks. I'm glad my son likes something a little different, and this is looking cool riding down the road.  His car is a 1976 AMC Pacer, so he is no stranger to the unusual!

[krmtrains]

Here's a picture from today.  That's Cory, my "baby"!  He's 19, and a freshman at Central Michigan University. 
We had a couple of rides, maybe 35 miles total, the most we have taken the 550 so far. 
It's running pretty well, but #4 does not seem to be running. I have spark, so I must not
be getting fuel there.  So, we are still sorting things out, but it keeps getting better!



Ride safe!

[Goofaroo]

The bike looks great!  I'm putting a set of bags just like that on my current project so it's nice to see how they look installed. That looks like a very civilized way to take a trip through the countryside. Very nice project and thanks for sharing it with us.

[krmtrains]

Lost a lid for these saddlebags yesterday.  Searched all over, and could not find it.  Spent and hour and walked my entire route, no sign of it. 

Looking online, it appears that these are model SB-4.  I hope I can find a lid for the left side!

[krmtrains]

Just thought I would post a couple of photos to show how we were progressing.  These taken today after I installed the repaired and refinished saddlebag lids.  Also did some adjusting on the clutch today.  She's running very well, and on all four cylinders, too!  I think I need to have the timing set and carbs synced, and she'll be all set.

[MasterChief750]

i really like that fairing

[Bankerdanny]

Nice, and that's my favorite CB color.

[krmtrains]

I just received a call yesterday from Cindy from Adams Plating (Lansing, Michigan) where we had taken a bunch of our parts for re-chroming before Christmas.  From the first post in this thread, you may know that Adams Plating had a huge fire, and our parts were presumed lost.  Steve Adams (Cindy is his wife) was badly burned in the fire, and is still recovering.  I learned yesterday that our parts were not in the building at the time of the fire, and have been saved!  I will have our case guards, rack, and engine guard back on Saturday.  Unfortunately, none of it was replated, and Adams is permanently out of business. 

Not sure what we are going to do yet, as I have since replaced all our original parts with vintage equivalents.  I'll have to talk to Cory and see what he wants to do:  put the old stuff back on, or sell it.  I may have some stuff in the for sale area soon.  I did refinish the cases, and they look great.  Also bought a bunch of new stainless steel hardware to put everything back together with, and refinished miscellaneous metal parts for the luggage racks. 

I'll let you know what we plan to do.

[MasterChief750]

theres a really good plating shop here in toledo. cant think of the name of it right this sec but i got a quote from them for 100 bucks a fender last year. my dad used them for all the chrome on his restored wooden boat and he was very pleased. pm me if you want their info