Montreal Manchild with an '81 Honda CB750K

farmer92 said:
The only time someone would care enough to stop would be if you had pissed them off or inconvenienced them in some way.

Hey jimbo, you see this ad?
www.kijiji.ca/v-motorcycle-other/city-of-toronto/vintage-kawasaki-900-and-suzuki-500/1331593246?

Thought i saw you was looking for the next bike already


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks man, I actually bought and sold a '77 KZ1000 at the end of last summer. Thought it would make a great project but it turned out it was just too nice to chop.

Montreal driving - unquestionable and categorically the worst on the planet. Place is an absolute scrum - two eyes on the traffic, two on the potholes, two for the cyclists and two more for the old bill. Some serious rubbernecking going on.
 
The Jimbonaut said:
Thanks man, I actually bought and sold a '77 KZ1000 at the end of last summer. Thought it would make a great project but it turned out it was just too nice to chop.

Montreal driving - unquestionable and categorically the worst on the planet. Place is an absolute scrum - two eyes on the traffic, two on the potholes, two for the cyclists and two more for the old bill. Some serious rubbernecking going on.

around here a red light means "three more through..."
 
Time for a tank-shaped update.

It's been a year since I cleared the tank with SprayMax 2K clear, and it's not looking too bad. It's not looking too great either and so I'm thinking about stripping the clear and re-doing it - it's expensive as hell to plate a bike here in Quebec so Rhonda's square-wheeled anyway while the KLR has all the fun. I'm going to approach it the same way I did the KLR tank - heat it up as much as possible before spraying it to try and drive out as much of the moisture inside the steel. From what I understand it's this moisture that leeches out of the steel from underneath the clear, causing the surface rust.

It's early days for the KLR clear - only 2 or 3 months - but so far so good. I also really like the gloss clear on the KLR over the satin on the Honda so I'll go with gloss again this time. I'll post some pictures up once I get to the garage.

I'm also thinking of restoring the side covers on the engine too - they're pretty roached. Can someone let me know what the process is for stripping and restoring aluminium? I'm debating between a polished finish and a kinda darkened, oxidized finish but I don't know much about working with this metal. Again, I'll get some pics up later.

Other than that, Rhonda's in pretty damn good shape. After an oil/filter change and a battery charge she fired right up - oh, only after pissing fuel all over the starter motor. Leaky inline gas filter it turns out - $10 for 6 new ones from FortNine took care of that little snafu.

One more thing - the engine housing itself could use a touch-up here and there too - some of the original silver paint is looking pretty buggered. Anyone know of a heat-resistant paint pen I can use that's a close colour to stock?
 
Too bad she is an 81
1980 and earlier bikes can be plated as antiques for like 150 bucks
You can’t really go on any road over 70 though but it keeps him pleaded so you don’t have to worry about going through an inspection if it’s been more than a year
 
Yeah I found that out the hard way. Called the SAAQ the other day - 1980 is the cutoff. I asked the guy what happens in, say, 5 years when my bike is even older? Nope he said, unless the law changes your bike'll never be classed an antique. Well that sucks balls I said. Not mine he replied. Damn right I told him.

(Balls conversation never happened thankfully).

So all's that to say, figured I'd work on the old girl a bit until I decide what to do. Keep, sell. Jury's out.
 
I admire your tenacity
While everybody in Quebec is wishing they lived somewhere else you decided to move here on purpose.

Not that it’s worth anything but my vote is that you sell Rhonda and buy a nice two stroke.
Because... you know... anything more than 2 strokes is a waste.
 
Here in BC collector plates are available for any vehicle at least 25 years old. There are other restrictions but you can make period modifications. There is a move to allow custom vehicles to get collector plates, fingers crossed. To gve you an idea, attached are my SR500 and R100 BMW cafe racers that both have collector plates.
 

Attachments

  • 45431_456859856933_4070069_n.jpg
    45431_456859856933_4070069_n.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 469
  • 320040_10150472992321934_2051894429_n.jpg
    320040_10150472992321934_2051894429_n.jpg
    69.9 KB · Views: 474
The only thing being over 25 here gets you is a requirement to have an authorized dealer appraise the bike when it gets transferred/sold.
 
Goddamit.

Me and the missus lived in BC when we first arrived in Canada - a year in Vancouver and then a year on the Sunshine Coast. Oh if I knew then what I know now...

Still, the weather out west sucked bad...reminded me of the UK for all the wrong reasons. Other than that though, God's country. Maybe we should rekindle the Salt Spring Island dream...

And that's a pair of beauties your got there Crabs, bikes you've built yourself?
 
Over on this side of the pond 25 years old means “veteran” - which means exempt from tax and really cheap insurance without any limitations or restrictions. At 40 years old they also get exempt from the standard bi-yearly inspection (where inspection people tell you that you can’t have loud pipes, indicators placed there and there etc). Police may still take issue though... The beauty of this is that my ‘89 slingshot gixxer is tax exempt and full insurance is $150/year - which is like 95% less than it would be if it was a ‘94 or later :)


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
More proof that Quebec can pretty much fuck anything up given half a chance.

"Here's a great thing Quebec - see if you can fuh- Oh. You did already".
 
The Jimbonaut said:
Goddamit.

Me and the missus lived in BC when we first arrived in Canada - a year in Vancouver and then a year on the Sunshine Coast. Oh if I knew then what I know now...

Still, the weather out west sucked bad...reminded me of the UK for all the wrong reasons. Other than that though, God's country. Maybe we should rekindle the Salt Spring Island dream...

Ya, the rain here can be a drag. I have lived in Alberta and was born and raised in Toronto, there are always compromises in Canadian weather :)

And that's a pair of beauties your got there Crabs, bikes you've built yourself?

Wish I did but no, I didn't build these two, only made a few minor changes, on the Yamaha I put on an billeted top triple clamp, alloy swing arm, different exhaust and a sweet 4ls replica Yamaha drum brake, on the BMW I just put on clip ons, alloy top triple clamp I have a set of Mikunis to put on it though. They aren't fast but they are fun and I have buried the speedo on the BMW.
 
That might work, but I like the brushed steel look too much! Still working out the finer details on how I can mitigate the rust coming back. Seems to be holding up on the KLR so let’s have it


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
Think sandblasting the aluminium engine side covers and valve cover would do it? Then hit them with the 2K?


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
I like the brushed look too. Maybe it you dry the metal again it will last longer. Are you sure the rust is from water under the clear? Otherwise maybe wax on top of the clear would help. I am just throwing out ideas, I don't really know.
 
You know that feeling when you wake up in the morning and you just know you can't go another day looking at your roached aluminium engine covers?

No, nor did I. Until yesterday, when that feeling arrived and - mid way through the opening set of Djokovic vs Verdasco at the French Open - it was still there. I like watching the tennis, so this feeling meant business.

Quick Google search led me to a great how-to video on YouTube (big shout out to HackAWeek, here's a link to the vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LM3PKY8Jvg), showing a great method on how to do the job, involving Drano. I've never tried restoring aluminium before so really can't compare this method to any other, but for what it's worth it definitely seems to save time. Essentially the Drano attacks the surface of the aluminium, stripping the surface corrosion and oxidation - of which there was a lot on my engine. Meaning, in theory at least, that you don't have to sand as much - the Drano does the work for you. God knows it had its work cut out.

Decided to start with the valve cover. The thinking behind that was it's easily the cover in the worst shape of all - both in terms of corrosion and, well, shape itself. It's like a giant molar tooth, takes some cleaning. And I figured if I started with an easy cover and that turned out to be a ball ache then knowing the hardest was yet to come would be a miserable prospect. In at the deep end. Here's how it looked to start with after giving it a good clean -

DHM1oD6.jpg


Not exactly spotless has to be said. Major oxidization, heavy pitting and a general sense of malaise and ill-being. Figured there could well be some kind of clearcoat on the thing, or at least some vestiges thereof after 37 years or so of hard service so gave it a good douse of paint stripper first -

1CDFS9g.jpg


- which I'm fairly confident did bugger all. I did however learn a good lesson from the process, and that is it's a terrible idea to apply paint stripper on an uneven surface using a stiff-bristled toothbrush wearing a t-shirt. You end up wearing the stuff, and it burns like a bastard. No running water in my garage either - a shitty gift that just kept giving throughout. However. Wiped off the stripper and nailed the thing with my favourite go-to, carb cleaner. Job done. On with the main event.

The Drano part. Schlepped about 5 gallons of water from my balcony 5 minutes away from the garage, and piled in about 10 tablespoons of Drano into it. Actually, not Drano but the closest thing I could find at Canadian Tire, who had a hundred different liquid Drano's but not the crystals. I wanted the no-fucking-around stuff, and figured this looked the part -

NGhCQQE.jpg


It has tiny aluminium shavings in there, so you know it's good. Gloves on, eye-protection donned. This shit is caustic. In goes the valve cover and pretty quickly it starts bubbling. That's science getting deep down and dirty. Stuff's happening in there - crap being eaten off the surface of the aluminium - and I figured 20 mins was about right. It came out looking like this -

e0evdk1.jpg


- which is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks to the Hackaweek guy I knew that blackened aluminium not only meant that there was no clearcoat left on the thing, but also that the Drano stuff had done its job. Gave it a good rinse off, and then it's elbow grease time. With a Scotchbrite pad and some soapy water the next stage is to scrub off all the black. Once you do, you get to pretty clean aluminium underneath. It's definitely a job you want to set a few hours aside for - after a couple of hours I guess I'd finished one half of the cover. Not perfect by any means but that's fine, I'm not after perfect anyway. Anything's gonna be better than what it looked like before.

After the scotchbrite scrub, it's time to polish. I don't have a bench polishing wheel at the moment, so with run-what-you-brung chutzpah I hooked up a polishing wheel to the drill, got some red tripoli polishing compound and had at it. An hour or so in and a neighbour appeared at the garage door, telling me that the sound of my drill for the last hour was giving him conniption fits. Fair enough. Here's how it stands -

3YU2tJb.jpg


- the top right part and the central part have been polished and not looking too bad at all. The pitting isn't going anywhere (that would take a decent sand to get out but that may be a job for the next owner), but it's night and day to how it looked before. Needs a bit more work (well, a lot) but I'm stoked with how it turned out. Hackaweek, I owe you one mate.
 
Time for an update. I've become a cautionary tale.

After several more hours polishing with the coarser (red) polish to the point where I had the thing looking pretty damn good (here's one side getting close to being finished) -

cVHMg0b.jpg


- I then re-polished the thing with the white polish, and after several hours of that then gave it a final polish with Autosol. No photo of the final product, but man this thing looked like new. Ok, not like new maybe, but pretty damn good. Thing is, there was lots of black polish caught in the hard to reach areas, and after trying to get it out by washing it under hot running water and soap (to little, but encouraging effect) I had the genius idea to empty the dishwasher, put the valve cover in there along with the soap pod and hit the Full Cycle button - firm in the knowledge that the thing was going to come out gleaming.

Well, it didn't. It came out not gleaming at all -

Jump9uB.jpg


Black as the ace of spades. Totally oxidized, looking pretty much the same as it did before I started polishing weeks ago. Fortunately at this point in the evening I was half cut so kinda smiled when I saw it. In the morning when I woke up sober as a judge and saw it I was smiling considerably less.

So, word to the wise. Don't put your freshly polished aluminium engine covers in the dishwasher to clean them. It's an awful fucking idea.

Back to scotchbriting and polishing. Christ doing cartwheels.
 
Back
Top Bottom