So near yet so far..

Hi, apologies that it's been so long since my last update(if anyones interested!), work and money has got in the way for a while.
Ok on with the show, doing a lot of small jobs in the run up to the finish hopefully in a couple of weeks time, fingers crossed.
I moved the indicator relay up under the seat which involved lengthening the battery live lead and various other wires.Sorry no pictures of that. Made a couple of brackets up for the front indicators so they stick out just either side of the fork legs for visibility. They are unpainted in the pic.

Also made a couple of mounts for the new speedo and tacho. The mounts are small enough that they will hardly be seen when painted. I think the gauges look great although I may need to lower them slightly later...I will see what they look like once the headlight is attached.

Got the front end all mounted up but when doing a test bounce of the forks I noticed both fork seals where leaking so two steps back and took it all off again. I have never tackled this job before but they where ok to get apart. Glad I did really as I found the oil was in a disgusting state and someone has damaged the stanchions when removing the seals before. I used a small oil stone to get rid of the sharp edges but maybe I will have to replace them later if they leak again. I also managed to lose one of the sealing washers for the bottom fork bolt so I am waiting for delivery of a couple of new ones before I can put it back together again. Updates on that later.

Whilst the front end was on I attached the new clipons which look fantastic. Connected the throttle cables which was a right pig to do. I think if you have to do this job then it would be easier to remove the carbs to connect them rather than struggle for hours like I did! Oh well live and learn. On went the grips and clutch and choke cables, the choke cable I found was too stretched to reuse so I bought a new one.

While the bike was on it's wheels I did a trial fit of the exhausts. The down pipes will be painted black, expected some problems here but they seem to fit with the new slipons really well and mount ok to my original hangers.

Now to the best bit, the tank and mudguards are painted!Yeah!!! Applied the decals I bought from the US and they look great. Went on really well to, easy to apply. Just the lacquer to apply and it's done. My painter has done a fantastic job. Anyway here it is in all it's glory.

Other side.

Getting close now, just a few niggles to get over before lift off. Hope you like.

Is it a motorcycle....?

After a couple of hours with the Nitromors I have a very clean, fully stripped petrol tank. Deadly stuff but it works a treat, just make sure you have your hands and arms covered whilst you use it. Probably a good idea to wear a pair of goggles to.

Looks excellent apart from three very small dents which will be taken care of later.

So gave the tank to my lovely work colleague who is going to do all the paint for me. Going for gloss black for it's classic appeal and simplicity. Black goes with anything right? I have some gold Honda wing decals for the tank which should look great against the black.
Started building up the front end to see what will require modification if anything. Attached the clipons I bought from a company called Motopike which are gold anodised aluminium, they look fantastic in contrast to all the black. they where not cheap but they where worth it.

Just put them on without any switch gear to see what they look like.

Moving to the other end I did some electrical work which included lengthening the cables to the rectifier so I could mount it under the seat. As the battery is staying in it's original home there is plenty of room.

I mounted the rectifier on a piece of foam to help with any vibration issues. Left the other cable in the picture it's original length as I thought why introduce another connection? It will be tucked away underneath the seat anyway so it's all good.

Just the indicators and rear lamp to wire in when I have mounted them. I have to make a bracket for the rear lamp and number plate to get the clearance from the tyre.
With the forks and front wheel attached it's actually starting to look like a bike again!

Now that the front is on I am not so worried about the size of the rear hump as it is balancing out the more stuff that I put on.

So I am getting close now! Well a few jobs to do yet before it's ready for riding. Onward and upwards.

Wheels,carbs,chains and stuff.

More progress this week, seems to be not a lot of progress but loads of time spent! First job on the list was to install the carbs which was fine apart from needing very small japanese type fingers to do up all the awkward little 6mm bolts holding the carbs to the engine block.
I thought that was a pain in the a** until I had to tackle the airbox.....now this should be an easy job as access is pretty good, however one of the rubber/plastic boots just would not go on the carb body no matter how hard I tried. I heated the boots up with a hair dryer, soaked them in hot water and coated the insides with washing up liquid to no avail. After a couple of hours of frustration I realised that I could seperate the boots from the actual airbox part and then reconnect them after I had installed the boots. The clips where all twisted and generally in poor condition so I purchased some new ones and connected the boots up, I think maybe that age has robbed them of some of there flexibility but eventually I got it all connected. Not entirely happy with them but we will see how they go.
After that I put the disc, new sprocket and spacer, cush drive rubbers onto the rear wheel and reinstalled the lot on the swing arm.

Looks pretty sharp I thought. The gold sprocket stands out nicely against the black wheel.

One problem I have encountered is the brake stay that I have welded to the swing arm, it all connects wonderfully but it only gives me about 5mm adjustment on the chain as the support bracket for the caliper comes straight off the rear axle. I don't know why I did'nt see that coming but hey ho..it's fine for now but a small redesign will be needed shortly.

So the chain is on which feels like a major milestone to me! Back to the electrics now to relocate the rectifier and relays etc.

Engine in.

So I installed new tapered steering head bearings in the frame and onto the bottom yoke.

Next up was to reinstall the engine, I was dreading this part because of the danger of scratching the frame. As it happens I did manage to scratch it once on one of the exhaust studs, but I think it will be hidden behind the exhaust clamp where the down pipes connect to the engine. Made me feel sick when I did it though! Never mind...

I laid the engine on it's side and lowered the frame over it. Not as simple as it sounds I can assure you! After much wriggling around it went on, then it was a matter of getting a bolt in at a time and gradually line the mounts up.

Swing arm and shock is on, this was quite straight forward and ok to do. Started putting on footrest mounts etc so moving on at a reasonable pace for a change.

A special day.

Yeah!...the day has finally arrived. My frame is back from the painter.

Really pleased with the finish. It is satin black but in certain lights it has shades of graphite grey in it which is a good contrast to the gloss black wheels and yokes etc.

So the first job is to get the engine back in the frame. I have used some pipe insulation to protect the paint when I put it the engine back in.

That's as far as I got as I just remembered I need to paint the engine mounting brackets!Duh.
Tantalisingly close to rebuild now,stay tuned folks.

Engine clean up.

When I had it running for a brief time, the engine on this bike sounded pretty good and ran well with no strange noises or excessive smoke so I am going to run it as is apart from servicing.However it was in need of a spruce up cosmetically.
So I used some wire wool with Autosol to remove the corrosion and discolouration to the alloy. It's not 100% but it has a nice aged alloy look about it.

I got sore fingers trying to get in all the grooves with the wire wool!On the engine block itself I used high temperature satin black spray paint bought again from my trusty hardware store. I used four tins of it but they where only 300ml cans.It went on really easily in between gusts of wind.

Really pleased with how it looks considering I did'nt spend huge amounts of time and money on it.

So the painter says I might get my frame by the end of this week which would be great.The rebuild can then begin. Wahoo!

Shiny bits.

Ok, with the frame away hopefully to be painted soon I took the chance to clean up and paint some bits.First up was the shock absorber which appears to be in good condition under the filth!

So after a rub down and clean I sprayed it with primer and then some silver paint from my local hardware shop which is a very nice colour.Very pleased with it.

Next up the swing arm which is in brilliant condition so other than a clean up it was on with the same paint.

For the wheels I went for a paint by Simoniz called "Tough Paint", I have used it before on a previous bike and it gives a lovely smooth finish. If it's tough enough remains to be seen. Let's hope so.

This paint is very easy to apply.I used a 500ml tin per wheel.

Some other bits I painted with the same paint include the yokes, brake disc centres and cush drive carrier.

Bottom yoke.

Brake discs where a real chore to mask, should look nice on the bike though.

Loads more to paint and rebuild, looking forward to getting the frame back to start putting it all back together.

Grinding,cleaning and more grinding!!!

Ok, I have been busy removing paint, grease and 30 years worth of grime from the frame and swingarm.
I used a grinder with a wire wheel attachment which was very successful after removing all the grease first.
It is in surprisingly good condition for it's age with very little corrosion.

Not very interesting but necessary before sending off for painting.Going for satin black on the frame and gunmetal silver on the swingarm.

Feel like I am starting to get somewhere now these bits are ready for paint as I can start reassembly shortly.
You can see from the above picture I have welded on a new brake stay and the mounting bracket for the mudguard.
The next picture shows a mock up of he rear end apart from the brake stay which I forgot to take a picture of!

So in the next update we should have some shiny bits to look at.Fingers crossed.!

Another small update, had the rear tyre mounted so I could confirm the position of the new rear mudguard that I am going to make from the cbx front one. Looks good so I am going to go with this. The side mounting pieces you can see will be trimmed before final fitting.

Should look pretty good when it is fitted and painted black. Tyre looks the part to! There's nothing like a brand new tyre....

Seat mounts are go!!!!

Ok another small update, a little bit each day they say don't they? Or in my case a little bit every other week! If you could see our wet weather you would understand why.
Anyway on with the show. Fashioned four mounting brackets to mount the seat unit and got them positioned and welded on. Took a while but when it's bolted up it is very solid. The rear ones are at a slightly off angle due to the contour of the fibreglass underneath. Very pleased with how it turned out.

You can see how wet it has been in the pictures by the green moss stuff that grows on our patio in a matter of weeks. Grrr.

Also in the top pic you can see I took a template of the rear end and made a plate to sit inside the frame. I intend to mount my rectifier and various other electrical items on it at a later date.
So apart from ordering some goodies that's about it for now. Next problem is what to do about side panels...thinking maybe some old fashioned number boards? Think I will make another template to see what it looks like.

So I have found a little time after stuffing my face with xmas turkey and many other things to do some work!
Took the plunge and cut off the old rear end replaced it with my pre formed new one. Fitted great thank god.

Made up new down tube supports and welded the cross member back in (with holes in) and cleaned it all up, looks quite good if I do say so myself! Here is the result with the tank in place.

Got a new sprocket in the post which was great apart from being the wrong one. Looked nice in gold anodise though so I am looking forward to it's replacement.
Next job is to make the mounts for the seat unit, get on with it as long as the weather stays dry. Which is not very often here!

New arrival!

So my new custom built seat unit arrived today. Looks very good quality, the seat colour is a little different to what I thought, but it's okay.

It looks a little big on the bike.... the angle of the rear pod is a bit steep but I think it looks worse because the frame kicks up at the back end. My next job is to cut the frame rails off where it kicks up and make a new section to weld on to support the unit. You can see from the next picture how much it rises, so when it's done it should look better, I hope!!!

I made a template for the new rails so it's off to see a friend to get some tube bent up. Also ordered my new sprocket with a 5mm offset, in gold anodised aluminum.That should look cool on the bike against the black wheels.

In the beginning.

So here we are at the beginnng of my journey into the world of cafe racers.Hopefully you will enjoy following my progress or my mistakes!
This Honda CBX550 was left resting in a friends garage for eight years before I decided to rescue it (always been a sucker for lost causes!) and give it a new life. After a quick clean up this is what I was left with.

 Not a bad starting point I suppose but not my bag. I love the cafe racer style of bike so that is the route I will be taking.
This picture will give you an idea of what I am going for.Excuse the rough paint edit.

These bikes featured anti dive forks and inboard brakes which are a bit of a nightmare for everyday use and where discontinued by Honda after a couple of years. Personally I wanted to use conventional brakes and forks so the hunt was on for suitable forks and wheels to replace the originals. After a quick check on the carbs and plugs etc I connected a battery and fired it up. Started first stab of the button after sitting for eight years!Good old Honda. The engine seems to run well and all gears selected so I will leave it alone for now apart from servicing it.
Took everything apart and was left with a bare frame. Located some forks and wheels from a Yamaha RD350 YPVS which has the same diameter forks but the fork width/spread is different.The Yamaha forks are 10mm narrower than the Honda so I made up a couple of 5mm spacers to get them to fit the original yokes.Will need two more spacers made up when I fit the brake calipers.

 As you can see I have a very understanding wife, I don't have a garage so it's currently being worked on in the dining room! Love my wife.
At first I thought I would have a go at making my own seat unit and began with a cardboard mock up.

 On making it and spot welding it to the frame I decided I did'nt like it so off it came and instead I splashed some cash and purchased this beauty from a company called Vonzetti in Brixham,Devon.

 Expensive, but I hope worth it! Still waiting for it to be made so fingers crossed.
Also ordered a few parts for later including clipons,tyres,oil & filters,bearings,chain & sprockets and some slip on mufflers.
More soon.