1973 CB175 Project - First Build "Anna"

Ok friends, I have long been interested in finding a project to blow the dust off of my inner gearhead. I love the wealth of information on this site, by far the best of the Cafe forums out there!

In case you have not read my member introduction, this bike I picked up off Craigslist from a biker in Indiana. It was in running condition but needed some carb work. He fired it up for me and it ran like a champ, no smoke or dipping oil anywhere so that was a plus. So, I tore into it down to the frame and now trying to decide whether or not I strip and paint it myself or pay a professional shop to bead and powdercoat it. What I plan so far is:

-Clip Ons (leaning toward superbike or straight bars instead -edit 10/13/11)
-Cafe Seat built on original seat pan for compatibility -edit: OEM seat found and used
-Smaller turn signals up front and back
-Rear and front fender delete (front fender stays for support, probably chopped down a bit though)
-Aftermarket shorty exhaust on the original headers -edit: Norton Commando style exhaust used.
-Rear sets (Motobits) -edit: stock controls used
-Stainless bolt set-purchased
-Polish wheel hubs, forks and respoke (completed)

With so many ideas and design concepts out there I am still debating on the switchgear, battery eliminator and starter delete to just go with the kick start only. In addition I am up in the air about pod filters or keeping the stock airboxes and side covers. I'll tune up the engine and rebuild the carbs. I don't plan on any engine overhaul yet. I don't want to tinker too much with a functioning engine just yet.

If she runs when I get her back together my eventual upgrades would be a Dyna Coil and electronic ignition.

Here she is as purchased:


Here she is now, with the exception of the forks and front wheel now removed:


I am experimenting with a few "poor man's" setups such as my polisher:


And my soda blaster:


My first attempt at polishing a carb bowl with my B&D RTX: Before Photo:


After brass brush and polish wheel with rouge:


So, as of today I think I will next degrease and clean the frame to get a better idea of the condition it's in and whether or not I do the painting myself or farm that part out. I figure a well prepped and painted frame is the foundation to any resto project.

Incidentally, has anyone figured out a way to get the cheapo soda blaster method to feed the media reliably? It seems to spit out in fits and starts. It would be optimal to have some sort of way to throttle the media feed.

Stay tuned!

Re: 1973 CB175 Project - First Build

So I have decided to go the more expensive route on the frame and have it professionally media blasted and powder coated. I'm probably going to stick with black, however I love the red frames I have seen a few folks do on their projects. I'm on the fence with keeping the stock paint job on the tank and side covers since they are in pretty good shape. If that is the case then I'll stay with the black frame. Decisions decisions! In the meantime of saving up money I'll get to work on the smaller components and cleaning/polishing them up.

Re: 1973 CB175 Project - First Build

Looks good to start with!

I'll be keeping an eye on this one too. I will probably be parting out my 68 this winter if you need some parts.

Re: 1973 CB175 Project - First Build

Hey Big, do you have a clean set of exhaust headers on your 68? How about switchgear on the handlebars?

Re: 1973 CB175 Project - First Build

Good start man. Cool little scoot. Keep the updates coming!

Re: 1973 CB175 Project - First Build

I dont believe i have any 175 exhausts left. Sorry. But if you check the "selling" section there is a list of stuff.

You probably wont want my switches - they are different from yours. Left hand is turn signals & horn, right side is headlight only. So no kill switch.

So, after watching an episode of Twist the Throttle on Discovery HD (Honda Motorcycles) it brought back many fond memories of my time with the company. I saw one of the factories where I worked and the Valkryie/Goldwing/Civic engine assembly line that I used to support (supplier quality engineer). It was so cool to see the plant and folks I rubbed elbows with back in the late 90's. So I decided to name by project build "Anna" for the Anna Engine Plant in Ohio that I was based out of. Here's a fun picture of me at the plant with Gil De Ferran, one of our factory sponsored CART drivers at the time. I had lunch with him in our cafeteria and talked forever about his test driving for F1 and other racing series teams. Very nice guy and humble to boot. He went on to win the Indy 500 a few years later. The cool thing was he was more interested in my driving for the our local factory racing team than he was talking about himself.

Nice! I've actually used the poor man's polisher before. It comes in handle when you need to use the smaller attachments to get down and dirty in the hard to reach areas. If I can make a suggestion. Flip the drill upside down and lock it into the vice with the trigger sticking up. It will be more stable that way.

Good stuff man.

Cool little project.

You may want to consider keeping at least part of the front fender or adding a fork brace. Those front ends are a bit twisty, or lacking in lateral rigidity if you prefer.

Thanks guys for your input on the drill and fender! I might chop down the front fender a bit so that I can still use it to brace the forks. You guys rock! I appreciate your feedback! ;D

Ok, here's an update. A little background to the cafe build story in case you haven't had a chance to read my blog on the subject. My dad is assisting me with the project..it's a long distance father/son kinda thing. So a few months ago I give him the headlight bucket and light assembly to take back with him to Michigan to work on cleaning up. I figured he'd do the steel wool thing and a coat of paint and be done with it. Well, the old man does nothing half assed and really set the standard for my/our build. He came down last weekend to visit with my stepmom and brings this back to me. I open up the box and POW, there it is. He didn't try to just restore the chrome trim, he took it to a world reknown restorer in Michigan to have it rechromed! He bondo'ed, sanded and painted the bucket and made some replacement bushings for the mounts. He also found a few LED options to replace the original hi beam bulb. I told him, now you threw down the gauntlet and I cannot half ass any of this build from here on out! So I sent him back to Michigan with the wheels! LOL Unfortunately I didn't get before pictures but the chrome was pitted and severely rusted on the inside. NOTE: You can see the fork tubes in the background that I had removed the rust with a power drill and steel wire wheel.


Another..


And finally...

The rest of the update so far is I got somewhere finally on the lower fork tubes. I tried for the life of me to get the chrome dust covers off the top of the fork lowers. I tried heating it with my MAPP Gas torch, a screwdriver and even a bearing puller on the flanges to pull this thing off. No joy. I decided to ditch them and go with a replacement vintage fork dust cover from DCC. A quick verification from Herm at DCC said the one they carry should fit for my bike even though the dimensions are a few mm's larger. A rotary power tool is your friend!

Once I got this off, I tried to get the fork seal out. Again, tried prying, cutting, etc..with no luck. I finally broke down and spent $9 on a seal puller from Advance Auto Parts. I got it out in just a few minutes trying to be careful as to not scrape the seating surface. Once I got it out I realized the previous owner(s) had nicked up the inside when changing the seal in the past. So I took some fine grit sand paper to smooth out the gouges and then I went over it with a brass wire brush with the RTX power tool. Now I'm sanding out the dings in the lower tube and will gradually sand it to a semi-mirror finish. Not sure at this point if I will go with a mirror polish or not. We'll see!

So the progress is a bit slow. I have started into sanding down the front forks to clean them up and give them a rough polish look. I'm not sure I will go with the full show grade polish yet. I am learning the hard way that getting all of the dings and scratches out of the aluminum can really work the hands! Has anyone used a detail sander or similar power tool to make the job easier? ??? I will say thought that once this is all said and done, I will take a lot of pride in this machine knowing that the blood, sweat and tears are mine!

Rev,

Great tips! Thank you! Yes, I try to keep the sanding as even and randomized as possible. I have an angle grinder but it's a monster. Perhaps a smaller diameter grinder would be more appropriate. For now I have a few of those foam sanding blocks that help with the contours for the rough sanding portion.

I'll post pics as I get closer to getting one of the forks done.

Thanks again!

Here is my progress so far. I worked from 100 grit sanding block to 220, to 400 then 600. Then I used a brass wire wheel, then the polishing wheel with rouge. I have a few spots to sand over again but I am slowly getting the hang of it. Does anyone know what the white oxide bar is for in a polishing kit? Is this for final polishing?

Looking good so far. It's cool that you and your dad are tag-teaming it.

Ya, the white stuff is for finishing. Get some brown tripoli and try it first - it will give you a much smoother finish.

Ok, just a quick update, I have gotten an upgrade to the poor man's buffer (drill in a vise). I snagged a 6" Craftsman grinder from a buddy who isn't using it and swapped the grinding wheels with some polishing wheels. Wow, can you say big difference? Now I have to get back to fine sanding the fork lowers then to the coarse and fine polishing. It makes a huge difference when you have the proper tools to do the job..but then again, you all know that!

So, I'll post some pics once I get the forks polished. Huge learning curve here but that's half the fun.

It's been a long time since I posted progress and I have to admit some of my winter hours free time has been playing on the Xbox....shame! Since it has been so cold I have decided to move the operations to my basement workshop. I figured out how to rig the buffer to the drill press show below. I also wrestled the motor downstairs and decided that a former water heater stand would work well for a place to work on the engine. I started tearing into it and my next step it to disconnect the cam chain. Do I need a special chain breaker to undo the master link? Should I turn the cam chain tensioner adjustment all the way out to loosen it and make it easier to work with? So far the top end looks pretty good. I'll be interested in seeing how the valves, rings, etc look as well. I'll post more up as I get further along.



Top end with valve cover off...



Buffer stand..



Removing old gasket material from valve cover:



Keeping my son busy working on an old train engine..

Do whatever you need to to get the cam chain off, you will need a new one anyway. I highly recommend getting one from Les Barker. Really nice and helpful guy.