CBR600 F3 1998 - amateur restoration

[Tinkicker]

Good stuff.  Every job done today is a step nearer to completion.  One step at a time.  Worst thing ever is to go at it like a bull in a china shop.

 

You can tell the bulls in a china shop on ebay.  For sale "project bike". I bought this bike to restore but find i do not have the time.....

 

Yeah, you had at it for a week and you burned out..  

 

No need to apologise for a lack of progress.  That lack is in your mind, not ours.  Onwards and upwards.  Some days mighty things are acheived.  Other days you are going backwards.  That is the nature of the beast.

[Hairsy]

10 hours ago, Tinkicker said:

Good stuff.  Every job done today is a step nearer to completion.  One step at a time.  Worst thing ever is to go at it like a bull in a china shop.

 

You can tell the bulls in a china shop on ebay.  For sale "project bike". I bought this bike to restore but find i do not have the time.....

 

Yeah, you had at it for a week and you burned out..  

 

No need to apologise for a lack of progress.  That lack is in your mind, not ours.  Onwards and upwards.  Some days mighty things are acheived.  Other days you are going backwards.  That is the nature of the beast.

 

There speaks the voice of experience.

 

You said something similar to me early on and it's made such a difference. By far the most valuable bit of advice that I've had. So thank you.

[Hairsy]

Fiddly day but I've finally reached the stage where the swingarm is starting to looking better. It's important to have those positive days from time to time.

 

First thing was to run over the swingarm with some sandpaper just to ensure a good key for the primer.

 

Next was masking. Wow - that was a slow process! I'm still annoyed with the corroded fixings on the hugger. If these had come off OK then I'd have simply dropped the swingarm off the bike and saved myself a 2 hour masking job. The alternative would have been to drill out all those fixings and then tap larger holes and replace with slightly larger fixings. Not the end of the world and, with the benefit of hindsight, that might not have taken any longer than the masking took. But that decision has been made so on with it ...

 

I also masked off the clutch and stator covers because they weren't pretty and needed a coat of paint. Yet again, fiddly but not terribly difficult..

 

Really annoyingly, as I look at these uploaded pictures, I realise that I forgot to mask a few of the bolts on the clutch cover. What an idiot! If this bugs me as much as I suspect it might then I'll take the bolts off and remove the paint. However, they're now primed so I'll continue for now. Maybe it just won't be noticeable.

 

Finally a thorough clean with panel wipe and then 3 coats of primer.

 

 

 

There will still be a few marks after painting but I'm now feeling optimistic that it's all going to look so much better than it did before.

 

Paint and lacquer tomorrow ...

[Simon Davey]

Going very nicely.

I'm exhausted just looking at how much work it is.....

[Hairsy]

Swingarm finished. Finally. I thought it would never end when I couldn't seem to ever remove all of the built up grease.

 

Over the last 24 hours, it's received 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of silver and 3 coats of lacquer.

 

After a few hours to dry, I removed all of the masking - which took almost as long as putting it on.

 

Of course this is only part of the cosmetic improvement so there's still some way to go but it does feel like a milestone accomplished.

 

A few before and after pics ...

 

Central swingarm - the pitting from previous corrosion is still visible but it's all been well treated now and so shouldn't return if the bike is cared for.

 

I've left the chain masked up because it was a right fiddle and the paint cans will be out again in a week or two to do the frame.

 

 

And I painted the crank case covers as well:

 

 

 

It doesn't take a particularly fine eye to spot some imperfections but, for less than £15 worth of paint products and some elbow grease, I'm pleased.

 

It's definitely going to make the whole bike more attractive. And hopefully it will be enough for the next owner to be a bit prouder than one or two of the last ones and actually clean it from time to time!

 

Tomorrow I'll start removing bits from the frame to ease access. The frame will have surface corrosion removed, then all the areas of corrosion chemically 'sorted out' with the Kurust and then, finally, a few layers of primer, top coat and lacquer. And any bits that I remove will get cleaned along the way - mostly to give me an ongoing sense of achievement.

 

I've no real idea how long the prep is going to take - we'll see ...

[Simon Davey]

Wow!

You must be so pleased with this.

[Tinkicker]

Looking much better..

[Hairsy]

Spent some time today taking bits off and cleaning them. It's always more time consuming than you think but I'm happy that I'm making progress.

 

Not a lot of narrative really - the cycle was : take pictures of stuff so that I remember where and how it goes back, remove it, clean it. 

 

I have to admit that, despite all the pictures I've taken, I suspect I'm going to have moments later on where I wish I'd taken more pictures. Things like cable routing that seemed obvious on disassembly may prove to have slightly more apparent options in a couple of weeks time!

 

The stripping down so far:

 

 

And some of the parts before and after cleaning. Nothing too spectacular but it will all make a difference on reassembly.

 

 

Pictures tell me I really should clean my bench a bit. I may treat it to some paint when this bike is finished.

 

It feels that there probably shouldn't be a lot more that I need to remove before I can start addressing the surface corrosion. But I know that I often feel I'm close to the end of a phase and then end up spending a few more days on it.

 

As always ... I'll see how it goes.

[Tinkicker]

You can download an official honda service manual for not a lot of money.  Genuine manuals have detailed hose and cable routings as well as everything else you may need.

 

I have used this chap in the past.  Unlike others that are slightly cheaper, he verifies that his manuals are genuine factory manuals for UK models and in english.

 

£8.95.  A steal.  Far better than haynes type books.

 

I have a VFR one, printed it out and stuck it in a binder.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313416821767?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D260876%26meid%3D7000aa13f48a4b81844ce5d2b914ca98%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D175725288728%26itm%3D313416821767%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DSimplAMLv11WebTrimmedV3MskuWithLambda85KnnRecallV1V2V4ItemNrtInQueryAndCassiniVisualRankerAndBertRecallWithVMEV3CPCAutoWithCassiniEmbRecallAndQueryItemPopRecallAndQueryExpansion%26brand%3DHonda&_trksid=p4429486.c101195.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A3134168217677000aa13f48a4b81844ce5d2b914ca98|enc%3AAQAIAAABoBIrA5X1vid5NElyTS9VP%2B1UDU3brXlp7Y83ZwoEemYoEd8dMYtY0TcaiV3FCw4DdsmOiNTYywp9igkKH5RNA1zjc9RW64Qvu9FNZ5uWaCc0j%2FKUn4xZMTbm8DZjhnsHJ6UhzsZjhmh3StQbKPrdfvJwtS0J0Y7rmBGi%2B3UXcYM8Rc3Z5WnKKUnyviTTVW%2B4SFblppgxWspJAj4CnhymdE%2BKyIe2DMrv7rcg5paR1b7oswTmZxkIBV0INey61YFnscyhWiLVwEul4BRg1AKUqp7UVAvBJzhH5M9lV9uEbuQEtDUzoaY%2FJ8EdcZX5YEM3srTkqHK5ZERR4midZ8NEwtHVa9mUBYLb37x3azLKfw5MFDvprdCzg09%2BD9eolzfHGdmFhSb703%2FPvN7q0%2FpaVFwzAXcqqP6X3uY%2FgL%2B9xhvynVhaleEDraCp579%2FYhoJHPJRNfxGN5Sf%2FgDnHe2zpIK3h7kKPT3m4qmZXuLiw3mVNTb4Omgr3aBOyIcPUjlXUseUPo6sxzk8rIPmMBiEtVzCAj819psnK7j56rxQIaPe|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A4429486&itmmeta=01HQ6914PNT1GK1FQG0MFNKKM6

 

 

[Tinkicker]

Seems that link is for a CD not download.  Good job I remembered and checked.  No probs if you got a CD drive in your PC.

[Hairsy]

15 minutes ago, Tinkicker said:

Seems that link is for a CD not download.  Good job I remembered and checked.  No probs if you got a CD drive in your PC.

I don't but I'm sure I can borrow one if I need to. I'm going to be brave and hope my pictures are good enough - however that link is now bookmarked and armed for an emergency!

[RideWithStyles]

video it or voice recording (doesn't have to be mega close or detailed) and talk it through what you see and do at the time..it saves having to keep breaking off just to take a million pics in tiny crevices.

like main loom on under/ inside the sub frame, containing two clips/bolts at 6mm black or silver with x'markings, small indicator wire to left side of sub frame on separate clips and runs along or breaks off at t bar etc.... then when your stuck play it back in stages will help greatly.

[Hairsy]

1 minute ago, RideWithStyles said:

video it or voice recording (doesn't have to be mega close or detailed) and talk it through what you see and do at the time..it saves having to keep breaking off just to take a million pics in tiny crevices.

like main loom on under/ inside the sub frame, containing two clips/bolts at 6mm black or silver with x'markings, small indicator wire to left side of sub frame on separate clips and runs along or breaks off at t bar etc.... then when your stuck play it back in stages will help greatly.

 

Great idea - thank you!

[Tinkicker]

14 hours ago, Hairsy said:

I don't but I'm sure I can borrow one if I need to. I'm going to be brave and hope my pictures are good enough - however that link is now bookmarked and armed for an emergency!

 

I still have an old CD drive that I can easily plug into my machine, so if you got stuck getting it copied over, I would be happy to transfer it across to a pen drive for you.  Of course, providing it does not have copy protection..

Edited February 22 by Tinkicker

[Hairsy]

6 minutes ago, Tinkicker said:

 

I still have an old CD drive that I can easily plug into my machine, so if you got stuck getting it copied over, I would be happy to transfer it across to a pen drive for you.  Of course, providing it does not have copy protection..

 

Top man - thank you. If I go down that route then I'll PM you. What a great community.

[Hairsy]

Another prep day but a fairly satisfying one.

 

I worked on the back half of the frame. Mainly because the headstock section is going to be really fiddly and I want to hone my technique on the easier section at the back.

 

First thing was to remove and clean the reg/rec because it was annoying me looking so dirty. Like so much of this job, it will be completely invisible after the build but something within me means I can't bring myself to leave things looking dirty. And it's very satisfying when it comes up like new.

 

 

I also cleaned up the bolts and backplate.

 

Then it was on to the surface rust removal. I used a full size drill with a couple of different shaped wire brushes and a cheap dremmel copy with, again, a couple of small different shaped brushes.

 

As an aside, I bought the dremmel brushes very cheap from China - something like £3 for 70. They do the job but they're rubbish and throw bits of wire off at a high rate. I got through about 8 of them today. The bits of wire that are thrown off are tiny and get stuck in my clothes and then, over the course of the next couple of weeks, I find them when they get stuck in my skin. If anyone knows a source of good quality but not too expensive dremmel wire brush fittings then I'd love to hear about it and I will go for those when the current batch runs out.

 

Although rust removal is a fairly destructive job, it's also a satisfying one as the smoother surface that's left behind gives hints of what's to come.

 

I had contemplated whether to mask the rest of the bike up before rust removal and decided against it because the masking tape and plastic sheet would just get in the way and get caught up in the drill. The downside was that this left a huge amount of rust dust all over the lovely clean swingarm and the rest of the bike so the next thing I had to do was to get the vacuum cleaner out. First time I've vacuum cleaned a wiring loom. After vacuuming I gave it a quick going over with an air blower in case any bits were left. This left it looking OK again.

 

 

 

Next was to give the whole area a thorough going over with brake cleaner. Then I masked the whole rear section finally I pained on the Kurust. You can see it turning purpley blue as it does its chemical thing.

 

 

Tomorrow I'll move on to the front section so that, hopefully, next week I can complete the frame transformation and then start the rebuild - which I'm very much looking forward to.

 

The bit I'm looking forward to less is the fairings. They're not in terrible condition at all but I need to work out how to get the best out of them with, as usual for this project, no budget. But I'm not going to think about that for now ...

[Hairsy]

So yesterday I said "Tomorrow I'll move on to the front section". In my mind that was going to be fairly easy. What a fiddly and slow job that was. But it's done now.

 

Removal of the surface rust was actually quite quick and easy. I sorted out the big accessible areas with the full size drill and then got into the nooks and crannies with the dremmel - getting through another half a dozen of the awful wire brushes I wish I hadn't bought.

 

Then I moved on to the masking. This was SO fiddly. I treat the masking as important because I really want to avoid any over spray - which I see as the classic giveaway of an amateur job. I AM in amateur but I also want to do the best job I can. The pictures make it look as if I chucked a bit of plastic sheet on the bike and then applied a few bits of masking tape. If only it was that easy. There are about 20 individual plastic sheets and many small intricate parts with their own careful masking. One small bracket can take easily 10 or more minutes when it's almost impossible to reach with anything other than fingertips. And as more of the plastic sheet goes on to the bike, it gets even harder to get masking tape into small gaps that you've missed because the masking tape seems to be desperate to adhere itself to the plastic.

 

I'm not seeking sympathy! But, if anyone is reading this with a view to doing a similar job, my advice is to not under estimate the time it needs. And if a part can be removed then do that instead of having to mask it.

 

A few pre and post rust removal and masking pictures:

 

 

 

The good news that I'm pleased to be ending the week with is that I'm down to the last stages of prep. A quick sanding of the Kurust treated areas to ensure they're well keyed, clean up everything with brake cleaner, vacuum the whole garage and, finally, mask up everything else in the garage so it doesn't cut a coat of paint dust.

 

I estimate that I'll end up spending less than 1/2 an hour in total with a can in my hand and actually paint spraying - but the prep of the frame will have taken around 10 hours.

 

I wonder - Is 20:1 a normal ratio or is that a measure of what happens when an amateur takes the job on?

[Simon Davey]

Sod that! 

You do have my sympathy for sure. 

 

Don't forget to mask that serial number plate. 

 

[Hairsy]

1 hour ago, Simon Davey said:

Don't forget to mask that serial number plate. 

 

It is actually already masked. I've just pushed it down so much that you can see through it.

[Tinkicker]

That reg rec looks the same as the VFR one.  They are prone to overheating and failure.

 

First check that the harness terminals and pins on the rec do not look to have been getting hot.  A common thing if they are not tight enough gripping the pins.

 

Next.  Do not paint the frame mounting surface behind the reg rec.  Clean the rear of the unit thoroughly.

 

Fit unit to frame using thermal paste between the unit and the frame.

 

These units run very hot and you need to pass as much heat as poss from the unit to the frame.  After 20 mins running my subframe feels very warm to the touch.  Some of that maybe from the rear exhaust headers though.

 

And yes, the hard work is in the prep.  I am lucky to have access to beadblast cabinets and other industrial processes.  It speeds things up enormously.  Without them, prep work is one long, hard slog.

 

Little yeller frame from rust and paint to completely bare metal, rubbed down and ready to spray in 30 mins.

 

Without the industrial processes it would have taken days of paint stripping and wire brushing.

 

 

 

Edited February 24 by Tinkicker

[Hairsy]

20 minutes ago, Tinkicker said:

Little yeller frame from rust and paint to completely bare metal, rubbed down and ready to spray in 30 mins.

 

Wow! How jealous am I?!

 

Thanks for the advice re reg/rec - really helpful. I've masked the mating surface of the mounting plate but I'll now mask the back as well - no point in adding paint to act as insulation. And when I remount it, I'll see if there's any scope to increase the size of the mating surfaces.

[RideWithStyles]

Tink is correct about the honda reg, was the mega bug bare for owners for fair to bloody long, some sound tips.

you could also reposition it to a cooler area (with air flow) or ive head other attach little fans (bit like pc ones) to them...

[Hairsy]

A milestone day - the frame is primed, painted and lacquered.

 

Not really very much more to say at this stage - but the results are quite satisfying.

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I'll start the build up tomorrow. Despite all temptations, this will be slow and methodical. All parts will get a final clean, be correctly torqued and will get a coat of XCP where appropriate. I'll also be replacing the brake fluid along the way. No rush though. 

Edited February 25 by Hairsy

[Hairsy]

A great day today.

 

Pulled off the masking tape and plastic and was fairly pleased that I appear to have done a reasonable job at avoiding overspray. A couple of hoses had hints of some spray but with a little bit of polish this came off.

 

So it was straight on with starting to put the bike back together. As I fit each part, I'm checking the area for any bits of additional cleaning. With the frame looking so nice and the newly fitted parts all cleaned, any dirty bits still on the bike will stand out. So far, all this has needed is some Autoglym Trim & Bumper Gel on the hoses to bring them up nice and black plus giving the wiring loom a good clean. For the wiring, normally a damp cloth is enough but I'm using a bit of alcohol or brake cleaner if it needs something a little stronger.

 

Every electrical connection is being sprayed with contact cleaner before it's put back together. Although there were no electrical problems, it's a 25 year old bike so some prevention is a good idea while I have the connectors apart anyway.

 

Bolts are going back together so much more nicely than when they came apart. If I end up finding I've forgotten to connect something and have to take things apart again, it's going to be a total pleasure to disassemble again!

 

The air feed hoses around the engine went back together nicely and I think they'd been fitted incorrectly before. They now look neater than they.

 

The wiring loom is all back in place and I'm pleased to report that, with the photos I'd taken, I was able to remember how things should be fitted.

 

The battery box is back in place, including the many loom connections that go through it. This wasn't difficult but was fiddly.

 

I've fitted the tail with the rear lights and grab handle. Now that everything is so clean, little things really stand out. The heads of the tiny crosshead screws that hold the indicator lenses in place were rusty. So these were removed, cleaned up and treated with XCP before putting them back in place. It also gave me a chance to clean the inside of the indicator lenses - again, 25 years takes its toll and there was grime in there. They look great now.

 

And a few pictures ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next jobs will be fitting the rear wheel, adjusting and lubing the chain, fitting the rear brake caliper and the new pads. Then move on to refitting gear shift, foot rests and brake pedal - which will then allow me to bleed the rear brake and replace the fluid.

Edited February 26 by Hairsy

[Simon Davey]

Looking good, you'll be out on it soon....