My cb550 project start to almost finished- lots of pics

Ok, heres the story. I'm not sure what bit me but I decided in April of this year I needed a project. My brother in law, father in law and friend all have bikes. Nothing I like, but I loved riding them. SO I looked and looked and I loved the look of the old triumphs, BSAs and similar bikes. I decided the cafe thing was the coolest style because you make it what you want it. No rules. Thats like me, no rules. I don't color in the lines and I don't work for anyone, basically I do what I want. SO, cafe it was. I gathered pictures for months and then realized I didn't have the extra money to buy a bike so I put the idea on hold.( im self employed and things are pretty slow right now) So my wife (girlfriend at the time) employed my now brother in law to find me a bike. All they knew is I wanted a cb550 that I could do what I wanted with. Well, on July 30th I had a party and guess what got pushed into the back yard......My cb550. Wow, it was a mess!!!! It didn't run or do anything very well actually. It was a basket case. I loved it! SO , here are the pictures to tell the story. Please ask any questions because I have tons to tell about this build but not the time to tell it. The first thing I did was ordered 4 carb rebuild kits and a set of handle bars. Upon inspection of the carbs I found one of the jets just laying in the bowl of one of the carbs. Might be why it didn't run.


Heres the brother in law making a funny face. Think hes like, uh my bad dude.



And as soon as I got the carbs rebuild I took it to my shop (small stereo shop) and ripped it apart. It leaked oil like a siv and looked like crap. This is what happened after looking at it for a day or two and getting the nerve to rip apart a running bike.This picture makes my stomach hurt. I can remember how much work it took to get it to where it is now.



Pretty. I rebuilt the top end of the motor. Never pulled a motor apart but I bought a manual and went to it. I had to build a valve spring compressor tool and it worked like a champ. Its a cheap 6" c clamp and a deep well socket that I cut the sides out of.




Next I rolled the bike around back and used 2 cans of Tal-strip paint stripper and stripped it down to bare metal. The stuff works like a champ. I highly recommend it.



After getting all the chemical off the frame and hitting a few spots with a wire brush, I rolled it back inside and made a make shift paint booth. aka I hung plastic from the ceiling. Heres the first coat of primer.



After a second coat of primer I shot the first coat of gold. Oh boy. Let me just tell you I stared at paint colors for 10 minutes and I went with gold because I knew people would hate it but I was sure I could make people love it. After this first coat I wasn't so sure any more. I actually stopped working on it and stared at it for 3 days until I convinced myself once again I could make it look good. It actually grew on me allot in 3 days.



I wished I would have taken more pictures here. But I pulled the rotor off and drilled it. I went through 3 bits before I found the magic recipe to drilling it. I was able to do the whole rotor using 1 bit and it is still super sharp. Wont go into that now, but if you are planning to do the same, Id be happy to save you a ton of time. Just ask. So here it is put back together. I also painted the inside of it gold on the front and low gloss black on the back. All the paint I used in this build was high heat paint with ceramic. Its works wonderfully. The spokes have all been painted black with the exception of the spoke nipples. A little secret, I used a paint pen.



All the bearings where in great shape so I saved some time and didn't pull everything apart. Im actually very good with a paint can and I was able to tape everything off very well. If you saw this in person you would think I took it all apart. Here are the before and after pics.




Wow, did you see those lame forks? so Dull and crappy looking. Well, I didn't take step by step pictures on them, but I did polish them. I used a few different grits of sand paper, a red 3m wheel and a polishing kit. Takes lots of time but it is so worth it. Here it is with a little re assembly. Check out those forks now



At this point allot of time and sweat have gone into the project and I needed a boost. So I put the side covers on it and tank.Yuk, what have I done? I hate it. I looked at it for 2 more days and realized it looked to bubbly. I hate those side covers. In the trash they went.



I went back and forth from working on the frame to working on the motor. While I was doing the paint, I had the head of and soaking. So much work removing the 32 year old head gasket. Took a day. Yuk, theres that stomach pain again. SO how is the head doing you might be wondering. Well here she is all clean and waiting for reassembly.



Top end rebuilt, new valve seals and gaskets. Adjusted the valves and hopefully got her back in time. We will see.




I didn't take allot of pictures of everything. For instance, in this picture you can see the rear hub that I drilled and polished. Lots of work. Also, the piece that holds the handle bars on I chopped up and made 2 separate pieces. I cut the middle out that housed the lights. I shaped and polished the 2 pieces and reassembled them. looks so much better. Also, the motor is back in the frame, kinda. I painted it black. I completely re wired the entire bike.



Here you can see one of the gauges. I scanned the original faces into my computer and reversed the image. I took the image to a vinyl shop and had them printed up.



Rear sets? this took for ever to decide. I am on a budget so this is what I came up with. A small disclaimer, I cut the aluminum with a jig saw. I am planning to get my pattern re cut professionally in the future, but as you see in the pictures, the cuts are very crooked. I looked and looked and finally came up with a design. I wanted to be able to use 2 identical rear sets. It worked pretty well and Im completely happy with it. The long bar you see in the picture is actually an automotive brake line I purchased at the parts store. I cut it to size and welded the 2 ball joints on either side. ( I actually had them welded, I don't own a welder) I had to rotate the internal piece in the hub so I could attach the arm upside down. The arm and shaft are keyed so it wont work if you dont do this. I re bent the brake bar and shortened it a bit as well.I used BMX bike pegs.




The seat......Well, I spent hours and hours on e bay and hated every hour of it. I want to be able to have my wife ride with me but I want the cafe seat look. Well, I just reshaped the foam, picked up some material (water proof suede) and took it to a shop to re cover it. Trust me, it wasn't as easy as I just made it sound.



I wrapped some 1/2" foam around it to smooth it out before taking it to get wrapped.



Also, after several failed attempts on battery choices, I finally bought a gel cell and recessed it about 2 inches in the bottom of my seat.



I built a custom blinker reminder. Its a skull that flashes while the blinker is on. You can also get a better view of my gauges and handle bar mounts in this vid.

[youtube=425,350]RQLujMeNqJ8&rel[/youtube]

Of course I decided to cut all the tabs off after the fact.



Some parts of this project just fell together. Like the exhaust. I didn't know what I was going to do. Then one morning I decided to go to walmart for some inspiration. I was in the automotive dept. and on the clearance shelf there was a chrome exhaust tip for like 4 bucks. I grabbed it not knowing what size it was or what size I needed. I took it to my shop and the freakin thing fit perfect. Not good or close, perfect. I slid over the exhaust snug. I used a rubber malled and its on there. I still decided the set 2 screws into it just in case, but I'm almost sure I didn't need to.



OK, wanna hear her purr? Well I'm sorry, she only roars, I love the straight pipe sound. And let me tell ya, it sounds freakin mean above 3000 rpms. Holy crap!

[youtube=425,350]9lATqCnCKOI&rel[/youtube]

OK, the lighting situation. I upgraded the head light, new head light ears, LED blinkers all around. I installed 2 red LEDs in the each of the rear turn signal housings. and wired it all up.







OK, Im an hour and a half into this post. I'm getting over it. I'm gonna skip allot of stuff. Here are some pics of the bike with the seat on it.




I just dished the gas tank and don't have any pictures of the bike with the tank on it yet, but it looks sick. Here are the pics of the dishing the tank process. I only used the big rubber mallet in the picture.



And here is where I'm regretting it.



After the flapper wheel.



First body filler application



First take down



more filler



Taken down again then primed so I could see the areas I needed to work on.




First coat of black. I then sanded it with 400 grit and repainted it 2 more times



Then I added my trademark image which is simply a wedding card that I turned into a stencil. I applied a pin stripe and there she is. Took about 4 hours to complete. I put the tank on last night and it looks great.



As soon as I get more pictures, Ill throw them up. I still have several small things I need to do before it is complete. But its winter time now so no hurry. Anyways, I hope I didn't bore you. If you have any questions at all, just ask. Hope you enjoyed. It has taken almost 4 months to get it to where it is today. I'm sure it wont ever be done.

Sweet post! I edited it a bit to put line breaks between text and pictures so they don't try to go side-by-side in the browser.

awesome, thanks

Sweet story man! I'd be interested to know your special secret to drilling discs. I'm still on the fence whether or not I'll do my XS400 discs yet or not. Posting everything when you're mostly done the project is kinda nice as readers can see the whole story all at once. The gold frame does look good. Well done man! Check out my XS400 thread here in the projects area. I did the same with my fork lowers. Turned out really nice. About 2 hours each.

Please... tell us the secret. I plan to drill out a few sets of discs...

Druro said:

Please... tell us the secret. I plan to drill out a few sets of discs...

Click to expand...

I bought a cobalt drill bit for around 10 buck and used it in a drill press. Worked very well.


Hey savannah...beautiful work on that project! I really love the kneewells

Great job on your bike. How are those Dyna coils working? Are they the 3 ohm resistant ones?

Sweet post. When I first saw the gold frame I wasn't liking it but it all came together beautifully. I like how you added the bit of gold to the tank to tie it all together. Really nice work. I love budget builds, as all mine are, you see real ingenuity come out then.

You planning on running a front fender? And please make a post on how you drilled those rotors, really good job.

Nice Job!
I really like it a lot! I'm thinking about doing a KZ550 up a lot like what you did on yours.

I thought about going to a gold frame( like a Ducati) and metallic Charcoal for the tank(bad chrome and dents in my old tank) on my Hodaka,but I found a much better chrome tank and decided to go with a black frame instead(it was red..YUK).

I even had a ridding buddy photo shop some pics for me of the Gold/charcoal look and it didn't look half bad.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c55/toyozuki/Hodaka_Duc_frontcopy.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c55/toyozuki/Hodaka_Duc_Sidecopy.jpg

Great Post - thanx for sharing. It was like deja vu for me and my own CB550 project.

Your bike is looking great and is definitely unique and one off.

I want the "secret rotor drilling" technique. (promise I wont tell anone else)

The pods on the carbs seem to run well. Any tuning problems or difficultiies? I want some - what/ where /how?

Point - is the rear brake lever fitted upside down ? (or have I got mine wrong? - mine hangs down)

QUESTION : The thing that amazes me is how much work (ie painting) you did with the bike frame relatively un stripped down. (eg wheels and swing arm or front forks thru the clamps ). You seemed so close to totally stripped out that may I ask ... why did you not go that little bit further and make life easier for your self?

Shooter said:

Great Post - thanx for sharing. It was like deja vu for me and my own CB550 project.

Your bike is looking great and is definitely unique and one off.

I want the "secret rotor drilling" technique. (promise I wont tell anone else)

The pods on the carbs seem to run well. Any tuning problems or difficultiies? I want some - what/ where /how?

Point - is the rear brake lever fitted upside down ? (or have I got mine wrong? - mine hangs down)

QUESTION : The thing that amazes me is how much work (ie painting) you did with the bike frame relatively un stripped down. (eg wheels and swing arm or front forks thru the clamps ). You seemed so close to totally stripped out that may I ask ... why did you not go that little bit further and make life easier for your self?

Click to expand...

OK, I didnt mean to make the rotor drilling a big deal, I just had nothing to go from when I did mine so it took some learning. I will give some helpful tips though. First, and obvious, use a drill press.

Second, mark out all the places you are going to drill with a sharpie or any permanent marker.

Third, with a new drill bit, go around to every place you marked and use the drill bit to mark all the dots you just made. Just drill into the rotor enough to make a mark. Why you might be wondering? Well when you begin the drilling process, you will need to use some sort of cutting oil to keep the bit cool and help drill the rotor. When the oil starts to get everywhere, your marks on the rotor will quickly disappear.




I used a DeWalt drill bit. My first mistake was that I tried using an old drill bit. It didn't cut well at all and actually started melting the rotor. I threw it away and bought a couple of the DeWalt drill bits that are gold in color and have the little nub on the tip that starts to predrill a small hole before the actual bit starts cutting. My second mistake was that I used the new bit on the hole that wasn't completely finished, it made that new bit dull. I was able to finish the old hole and I should have thrown it away but I didn't so I created the same problem again. Seriously, if you mess up a bit even just a little, toss it.

From there I used a pair of vise grips to hold the rotor in place on the drill press. I don't think I need to explain why. From there, I just drilled holes opposite of each other so the rotor didn't heat up.

Thats pretty much it. Just take your time.

The pods work great. I wanted a non cone shape and I found mine on e bay. They where pretty inexpensive. I think I paid $20 shipped for all 4. I rebuilt the carbs myself and adjusted them without any carb sync tools and it runs pretty freakin good. I am sure that once they are synced it will run much better though.

Yes, the rear brake lever is upside down. I had to do that to make it work with the rear sets I built. I also reshaped the bar as well.

I did do allot of paint on this bike. There are lots of things I did remove but didn't take pictures of all of it. Actually the only thing I didn't remove was the triple tree. I did remove the swing arm and everything else. The wheels stayed on it while painted the frame. I taped everything off EXTREMELY well. with the wheels on it I was able to paint under the frame and pretty much everywhere which I don't think I would have been able to do any other way. It really wasn't very difficult at all.The next bike I do will be taken to a powder coater.

DrJ said:

Great job on your bike. How are those Dyna coils working? Are they the 3 ohm resistant ones?

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The dyna coils seem to work great. Yes they are the 3 ohm coils. They where actually on the bike when I got it so it was like finding a hidden easter egg when you where a little kid. I planned to buy some but this saved me some money. It also has the Dyna s ignition which was on it too.

HerrDeacon said:

Sweet post. When I first saw the gold frame I wasn't liking it but it all came together beautifully. I like how you added the bit of gold to the tank to tie it all together. Really nice work. I love budget builds, as all mine are, you see real ingenuity come out then.

You planning on running a front fender? And please make a post on how you drilled those rotors, really good job.

Click to expand...

no, I didn't plan to run a front fender, however I rode the bike allot this weekend and it sprinkled a little bit and I got a little bit of stuff on the shield of my helmet so I may run a very minimal fender. Probably just on the backside of the front wheel. I also still plan on a very small rear fender just for looks. We will see. Its funny how so much of that stuff gets forgotten as soon as you get your bike up and running. Its like some sort of mental block.

Anyways, thanks for all the compliments. It is very encouraging. I will get some new pictures up of the bike with the tank on it as soon as I take some.

Holy Smokes!!..
You've got so much put into this project.
One of the thinks that I havent seen before was putting the passenger pegs on the shock mount.
I was grappling with the same issue, since Im mounting rear-sets on the passenger peg mounts.
Could you give me more detail on exactly where and how you mounted the pass.pegs?

Thanks
N

Thanx for answers. (esp drilling tips)

I am very pleased the PODs worked and you inspired me to go ahead with them on my bike. I had heard they were troublesome and had reluctantly gone off the idea until your affirmation. I installed cone shaped ones yesterday and they look very cool.

Wont know how they work until later in the weeek when we fire her up for the fitst time.

Finishing my electrix today.