1978 HONDA CB250 T RESTORATION PROJECT

[polecat]

Worked really Hard on the bike today and made a fair bit of progress.

Got the swing arm back together first new greased bearings everthing working as it should

Put the stands back on which was a real Burger (bolt that goes through the main stand took nearly an hour to get back in )

Reconditioned Air box,Battery box and finally shocks (also reconditioned today)

the pile of bits is starting to look like a Bike again

[keith565]

wow, this is amazing, keep up the fantastic work.

[polecat]

wow, this is amazing, keep up the fantastic work.

Thanks The funny part is the hardest thing I did on a bike prior ro this was change a spark plug ! so am learning as I go along with the help of haynes,google and TMBF, so Although I was in a previous life a Spray painter I am a complete Novice mechanic !

[Guest]

Looking awesome

[Mighty Mariner]

You're an inspiration.

Might even have a go myself.

keep up with the posts.

[polecat]

Day off work today So got back to the bike

Got the steering head de rusted and sprayed up today then the headlight bowl sprayed all in Satin black.

placed the chrome headlight brackets in a bath of phosphoric acid for the night as they were quiet rusty.

Rear wheel axle and bearings greased up and back wheel put on which really helped with the balance of the bike on the main stand

So many little parts to derust and paint ect that I am just doing them as I require putting them back on the bike.

note I had to make a new "spray bay" today as the dog sat on my old one and squashed it !

[Fozzie]

Come up to the rally on it!

[rennie]

I thought you were going to say you's painted the dog!

bike's looking good!

[Throttled]

It is progressing beautifully. I love the spray bay idea

[polecat]

Thanks its amazing what you can do with cardboard boxes

Spent a good few hours derusting small parts and assembly of the front end of the bike.

Lots of parts came in the post today fork seals,dust seals,air filter and bits & bobs so I thought I would make a start on the front end and electrics but unfortunatly Every part and clip and nut & bolt had to be cleaned up and sprayed as now things look kind of wrong if they are not clean and shiney.

[polecat]

Forking day I have had today as the sun decided to come out again and the rain was minimal.

Had a go at taking the Forks apart today (a job I've been putting off long enough )

Noticing the fork stantions were made of aluminium I decided to strip of the many layers of paint and will polish them up like they are on the cover of the haynes manual

Fnished off the foot peg restore and ordered a shed load of hard to find bits from CMS in Holland mostly missing parts from my front calliper ect.

Ordered some engine mounting bolts and washers and other bits and bobs on Ebay and bought my Paint for my tins

I decided to Paint it in HONDA NightHawk Black by Holts as the bike is already black and you can't beat black and chrome although I discovered today it was originaly Blue (don't like blue)

I am trying to decide wether to have a black front mudguard to tie it in with the rest of the paint or get a new chrome pattern one.....guess the condition of the original will help me decide when I take the paint off.

Half the day was spent cleaning off paint from the fuel tank which like all the tins will be back to bear metal before repaint cos you Just don't know if rust is lurking under the surface more of the same tomorrow I reckon

[polecat]

Tinny day to day and very messy it was too !

DIscovered a few hidden gems as I took off the paint : filler on the front mudguard where the bracket underneath has rotted through to the outside ,lots of rust on the rear Mudguard underside which will have to be treated with acid and the Fuel tank has a fair bit of rust underneath under many coats of "underseal" ? and shock horror a wadge of filler in one side (which I am betting is overkill for a small dent which when removed could be done properly by beating out the dent

Nothing too bad anyhow and I still may replace the front mudguard. .........

Spend nearly half the day going from shop to shop trying to find a 13mm Hexkey went to B&Q,Jewsons,Halfrauds and a few tool suppliers and it seems 13mm is not a size people use (although I need it to put fork oil in the forks), ( actually its not fork oil as the Haynes manual said use Automatic Transmission Fluid in the Forks )

So with much time wasted looking for tools I managed to get most of the paint off my tins and Tomorrow Hope to sand clean and at least get a coat of Primer on them

[Colin the Bear]

You can use the head of a 13mm bolt as a hex key. Add lock nuts to turn it and cut to size or weld a handle on it.

[polecat]

You can use the head of a 13mm bolt as a hex key. Add lock nuts to turn it and cut to size or weld a handle on it.

I may give that a go tomorrow ...Thanks

Depends how tight the things are I suppose when I try to undo them cos I have no welder unfortunatly

[Capitano]

( actually its not fork oil as the Haynes manual said use Automatic Transmission Fluid in the Forks )

 

That was common for Hondas of that era. I think at the time ATF was more stable as regards variations in temperature. So, using ATF the same oil provided the same damping in Florida and Alaska.

The CX500s I owned both had ATF spec'd for the forks. I think the weight of ATF is about 7.5w so you'd probably find that you could experiment with 5w - 20w fork oil to get the damping you prefer but ATF works well enough.

[Throttled]

This brings back fond memories of helping a friend to restore a Villiers (never finished and returned to its owner, a relative of my mates) and then his first 125, a Suzuki I think. He would do the mechanical work and I would clean. I love cleaning and painting. I cant wait to see the the tank being transformed back to lovely painted and shiney.

[polecat]

This brings back fond memories of helping a friend to restore a Villiers (never finished and returned to its owner, a relative of my mates) and then his first 125, a Suzuki I think. He would do the mechanical work and I would clean. I love cleaning and painting. I cant wait to see the the tank being transformed back to lovely painted and shiney.

Me too

Thanks to Colin the Bear... the old Hex bolt and lock nuts worked but the second one was too tight So I went out and bought a Work bench but still not managed to grip it tight enough to undo the thing (will try wrapping it rubber in a bit)

Just a quick update on the tank ..............

The guy who had it before must have been a Body filler factory owner

The tank had about half of one side covered in filler about 6mm thick, Having now removed it all to reveal a small Ding about 4mm in diameter and about 2 mm deep.

The bottom of the tank was well rusty so having removed the worst of it I am now giveing it the phosporic acid treatment as in many ways the Underside of a fuel tank is more important than the top (fuel leaking onto hot engines springs to mind)

yet it is the most neglected place and HONDA just give it a coat of thin top coat with no primer !

I Have been working on the Mudguards (more layers of body filler removed) and they are pretty good really so I'm Busy getting all the rust off underside so the rust wont eat through into my(hopefully)spanking shiney new paintwork.

[polecat]

Finished for the day

Got the worst of the rust off and tins are now soaking in Phosphoric Acid for the night so by tomorrow the remaining Rust will be gone from underneath the Tank and Mudguards.

I am in so much mess with bits and tools and crap everywhere it is all getting a bit much So I guess this is the worst bit of the restore project.

[Ryder2889]

I am really looking forward to seeing this one finished.

Good luck mate!

[mackemforever]

Looking great so far, hell of a lot of work you've put in and it should look great at the end.

What are you planning on doing with it after you've finished? Keep it to ride or sell on?

[polecat]

Looking great so far, hell of a lot of work you've put in and it should look great at the end.

What are you planning on doing with it after you've finished? Keep it to ride or sell on?

Good Question

I am restoring as if I were keeping it( not just a quick tart up) but as I have only ridden it about 10 meters down my side lane I can not say yet if I would want to keep it or not really

[polecat]

Excellent day for me today although things did not go as planned...

I meant to get all the Tins Primed up today but having been sanding, scrapping and grinding since 8AM it was getting a bit late and the Humidity was quiet high, also I noticed although the Acid had made the underside of the tank shiney metal again the seams still had some traces of Rust so will need re treatment over night.

So I went back to the Forks and after wresling with one of the filler nuts in my newly aquired B&Q Workbench, It finally gave way after I wrapped it in a rubber mat to stop the fork tube turning (Got the idea from an aerosmith song I was listening to "I wanna Wrap you in rubber" )

So seals went in nice and easy New dust caps on and then just needed oil.....How do you measure 140cc ? well in the end I found a 10ml syringe and measured out 14 of them then marked a jar where it came to

seemes about right anyhow

Note the newly polished Fork stantions and the shiney chrome on the brackets from the acid treatment

I sprayed a shed load of WAXOIL inside the brackets to avoid any further rusting happening in the future.

[Colin the Bear]

Set of measuring jugs from the pound shop

[polecat]

Set of measuring jugs from the pound shop

As you should be learning Colin I have to do it the hard way

Forgot to mention earlier I started putting the electrics back on (for them that didn't notice)

[Horseynat30101]

Omfg they look brand new!!! Well done!!