Hairsy Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 The tougher days seem to often be followed by a better day. After my update yesterday, I did some searching and found a second hand tacho on eBay. I got in touch with the seller who had bought the tacho second hand himself to replace an intermittent one on his back. In the end he didn't swap it. Sounds very like my situation but he's never actually tested it. The great news is that he's happy for me to return it if it doesn't work. So that's ordered and will hopefully arrive later this week. This morning I worked on the mirrors. They came off the bike with plenty of evidence of past abuse. Definitely seen better days. I've never tried to repair this sort of damage before but new mirrors are outside budget. Following some research I started by attacking them with some 120 grit sandpaper over the whole thing. After 15 minutes or so they were looking very dull but a lot of the scratching had gone. Those remaining scratches did then need a lot of elbow grease to take the plastic down to the level of the scratches. Each mirror got about 30 minutes of sanding but they ended up looking OK but obviously very dull. I then moved on to smoothing out the surface, initially with 400 grit wet & dry and then finally with 800. They still looked pretty awful but the final step was to melt the surface with my heat gun set to high. After a couple of tests I found the best technique was to get the whole mirror as hot as possible and then hold the heat gun very close to melt the surface and move systematically over the whole mirror. It needed care and patience but once I had the hang of it, it felt a bit like spray painting with hot air. They took some time to cool and I'm really pleased with the outcome. I'd definitely recommend this. It just takes patience and having the faith that, as you make it look worse, it will come good in the end. Before and after ... 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddlesticks Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Tidy job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Great work, on one of the first things you see when looking at a bike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Westerly Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Have to get a heat gun. Nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 (edited) Just some polishing and waxing of body panels today. Photos don't really show the benefit so I'll save that for when the bike's back together. Waiting for the replacement tacho to arrive now - and praying that it will work. Edited March 7 by Hairsy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 Very brief update - the second hand tacho arrived - and it works! Instruments are now back in place, along with most of the fairings. Photos to follow when its complete and there's a break in the rain so I can get it outside. Happy boy. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 14 minutes ago, Hairsy said: Very brief update - the second hand tacho arrived - and it works! Instruments are now back in place, along with most of the fairings. Photos to follow when its complete and there's a break in the rain so I can get it outside. Happy boy. That's brilliant, make sure you do the lottery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Everything is now back together and even had a brief moment of dry weather for some pictures. And a few before and after of key areas of corrosion ... Feels nice to be done! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 So last job will be to take the bike through an MoT but I'm not in a great rush to do that because I suspect that people will start looking for bikes once the nice weather starts. No real benefit in having a quick MoT and then spending 2 months waiting for a buyer. I suspect I'll look to MoT and sell after Easter. The key question will be how much to sell for? The bike has done 40,000 miles (the odometer reads in km) which isn't unreasonable for the age but I don't have the service history so that's got to factor into the price. The plus side of course is that this thread will hopefully serve as a helpful accurate record of what's been checked out and/or sorted out. The price for rideable bikes seems to range from £1,000 to £2,000 (although I've seen one recent optimist looking for £3,500!). We'll see. If anyone happens to be interested in buying the bike then please feel free to DM me. And of course there remains the possibility of falling in love with the bike when I take her for the MoT! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Westerly Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 The bike looks very tidy indeed. Well done you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorky Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 What @S-Westerly said. For what you described as a "cheap" job it looks cracking. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Seriously good result. I'd be proper chuffed with that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old-codger Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 That is a cracking job you should be really proud of your work, im not a fan of fully faired bikes but I do like the paint scheme on your bike it looks classy. well done 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V650 Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 looks Great Well done 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkicker Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Much better. I bet you are finding it far harder to part with it than you anticipated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 I’m certainly contemplating keeping it, yes, even though logic says I shouldn’t. I’m certainly not in any rush to advertise. The reality is that I have a bit of a yearning for something that I can do a bit of touring on - specifically VFR800 or Sprint ST1050. In which case, both my CBRs will have to go to fund the replacement. We’ll see. The experience of taking a rusty non runner and making it in something that I can feel good about has been a great one. So, whatever happens, it’s all been positive. I’ll update the thread with whatever ends up happening with the bike. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GojuRyu5 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Sorry, I’m late to the party but I have just read through your thread and, wow, great work. Well thought through, and you clearly have a lot of general mechanical confidence to have tackled some of the issues you came up against. I’ve been working on an older bike for my first restoration and reading your progress has given me a boost. Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 8 hours ago, GojuRyu5 said: Sorry, I’m late to the party but I have just read through your thread and, wow, great work. Well thought through, and you clearly have a lot of general mechanical confidence to have tackled some of the issues you came up against. I’ve been working on an older bike for my first restoration and reading your progress has given me a boost. Thanks Very kind of you to say so and if it gives you that boost then that’s fantastic. I certainly got a boost from reading other threads on here. And I’ll keep an eye out for you when your work is finished - we live in the same town! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 It's been a while since I gave an update, mostly because other things have been getting in the way and it can be hard to re-engage once momentum has stopped. But today I finally got around to getting the MoT done. One advisory for slight play in a front wheel bearing but not of concern. However, as a result of the ride to the MoT place and back I've realised that I'm not happy with how smoothly the bike runs at low speed. Dirty pilot jets are definitely the main suspect. Those who've been following this thread may recall that I replaced the carbs with a second hand set from a recently running bike. I contemplated doing a full clean and rebuild when the replacement carbs arrived but I was so desperate to know whether the bike would run at all that I fitted them with only a minor clean of the bowls. The bike does run OK now, and there's probably bikes out there that run worse, but I can't consider the bike finished with this rough slow running. The MoT place were very complimentary about the bike and that just gave me even more incentive to get her running right. So next week I plan to, once again, strip away the bodywork and pull the carbs off. They'll then get a proper comprehensive clean, rebuild and then balance which, I hope, will leave the bike just how she should be. A few more updates coming soon. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted April 30 Author Share Posted April 30 Given the lack of reliability of non OEM carb parts, I decided to clean the original pilot jets and see whether that solved the problem. And it did! I'm afraid I didn't take photos of this process but all 4 pilot jets had at least some blockage. A combination of generous amounts of squirty carb cleaner and air were needed, along with leaving them to soak for a while in carb cleaner. This allowed me to clean them all so that all openings were letting through light as intended. I also reset the idle screws, all of which were turned in about half a turn more than factory settings. I put the carbs back together (I'm getting quite quick now) and the bike immediately settled to a better purr than before. With everything open, I took the opportunity to do a carb balance and this turned out to definitely be needed following the cleaning of pilot jets. The bike now picks up on the throttle nice and quickly and settles back to idle quickly instead of a slow drop, which it was doing last week. I took the bike for a 20 minute ride in today's glorious sunshine and all the work felt worthwhile. Sadly though, I don't have space to keep multiple bikes indefinitely so this afternoon I've advertised the project bike for sale. Just in case anyone is interested - the advert is here (but you already know far more if you've been reading this thread!). https://www.gumtree.com/p/honda-motorbikes/honda-cbr600f3-1998/1478534295 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 That's great news, and looking at the advert, someone's going to get a bike that looks brand new, for an absolute bargain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairsy Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 Final post on this thread I suspect. I took the bike out for a 30 mile trip around the New Forest at the weekend and it was absolutely brilliant. And now, a few days letter, the bike has been sold and has just been ridden away by a thoroughly nice guy. He seemed really chuffed and it felt so good to see it going to a new home. My reflections & learnings from the process ... 1) Don't buy a bike unseen - even though I don't feel in any way ripped off, I didn't understand the true magnitude of the work involved. 2) Make a plan and, most importantly, make sure that plan has really small steps. I'm hugely grateful to Tinkicker on here who gave me the advice to set small goals for each day. I sometimes ended up exceeding those daily goals but by having only a small goal, it means it's a lot less frustrating when things don't go to plan 3) A bench grinder with a wire wheel is awesome for a project like this 4) The majority of problems can be solved without new parts if you're patient and have a decent level of ingenuity, creativity and tools 5) You can do a really decent job with rattle cans provided you focus on the prep 6) You really DO have to take safety things apart to assess their condition (learned from when the friction material fell off the rear brake pad upon disassembly) 7) A 50/50 mix of Auto Transmission Fluid and Acetone really does make a fantastic penetrating fluid A manual impact driver is a great tool 9) Bike fairings / plastic are really hard to repair & colour match if you're not a professional. 10) Overall, Honda build and parts quality is excellent. This was a 26 year old bike and I'm experiencing just as many corroded fastener issues with my 'new' 7 year old Kawasaki as I had with the project bike. 11) A restoration like this is incredibly satisfying. I highly recommend it if you have time available. Thanks to everyone here for the encouragement and advice along the way. You definitely helped when things were frustrating me. Dave 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Thanks for sharing! Congratulations too, on the sale of a really nice bike and an absolute bargain for that chap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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