'72 CL175....here goes nothin'

i was on the hunt for a winter project for a few weeks and ran across a 1972 Honda CL175 on Craigslist. It had a title and was in my price range. Unfortunately, it hadn't been on the road in over 15 years. It rolled straight and I didn't see any signs of trauma so this is what I brought home:



Since this is my first build (or bike for that matter), I immediately started the teardown process. I figured it'd be best to learn it inside and out. Plus, since I've got til March, no need to rush. So as of today, this is what I've got:



and



Plans are wide open at this point. Probably not going to modify a whole lot on the bike outside of bolt ons. Just wanted to keep a thread to track my (hopeful) progress and to document issues I run across in hopes of helping other CL175 owners.

I would suggest some plastic bins to keep the pieces together

Mr.B said:

I would suggest some plastic bins to keep the pieces together

Click to expand...

Yeah, all of my nuts and bolts are in labeled bags. I'm getting the rest organized throughout this week. I know it's gonna be crucial. Especially when I end up in a frustration induced fit of rage. ;D

subscribed

Good choice on the 175! Hoping my season starts out in march as well.

Sub'd for 175 'luv.

little progress this weekend. probably the last nice days of the year so i decided to paint the frame. i started prep last week and spent a couple days getting personal with the wire wheel, hand sanding, mineral spirits, and power washing. powdercoat would have been my first choice but limited budget with Christmas on the horizon doesn't lend itself to indulgences. anyways, i read a ton and tried to prep as well as i could.

as far as what paint to use, it took me a while to decide. i want a somewhat industrial look so flat black appealed to me. after doing some research and weighing the pros and cons, i decided to go with this stuff:



prior to application, i did spot treatment with rust converter and applied two coats of primer. i also followed directions on all of the products (including waiting a day after applying the rust converter before proceeding).

when it was all said and done, i'm pretty pleased with the outcome. the application wasn't bad, this stuff applies really well. not nearly as thick and i had imagined. i did get careless and caused a run or two but after blotting with a towel and applying a second coat, you can't tell.

it's raining today and my garage lighting is really poor so please forgive these crappy pics. hopefully the texture is conveyed this these shots.

That stuff rocks, I covered my Ruckus with it. Touch-ups work too if it flakes or gets scratched and you can't really tell because of the texture.

Love Bedliner. Half my jeep is covered in that stuff. I use duplicolor, I like the texture better but either one is a great choice. I used it on a cb350 tank once it was pretty nice.

Subscribed. I've got a similar 175 set for a Winter rebuild so it will be nice to follow along with yours. Good call on the bedliner...looks tough.

BarnBurner said:

Subscribed. I've got a similar 175 set for a Winter rebuild so it will be nice to follow along with yours. Good call on the bedliner...looks tough.

Click to expand...

thanks. sub'd to your thread as well. look forward to seeing where it goes!

What do you guys think about accent colors/textures on other pieces? like the engine mounting brackets, headlamp bucket, etc? i don't want the whole bike to be flat black, but a buddy and i were thinking that glossy accents might look nice against the matte frame. thoughts?

patrickshofner said:

What do you guys think about accent colors/textures on other pieces? like the engine mounting brackets, headlamp bucket

Click to expand...

I think it depends on the piece. Some pieces aren't that nice looking IMO so I would want it to blend in (like the engine mounts). The headlight on the other hand would be cool to have it as a complimentary color/finish.

well i was out of town for a big part of last week and didn't get anything accomplished. on saturday, however, i was able to break down the forks for polishing/seal replacement. unfortunately, when we initially took the forks off of the bike somehow the a bolt well for securing the fender got broken. so, i'm going to attempt to shave the unnecessary bolt wells since I'm not going to run a front fender anyway.

here's what i've got right now...





the tubes are also irking me. the travel area is really, really clean. however, the portion of the tube that will be under the gaiter is badly rusted. i'm thinking i'm going to sand the surface rust, fill the pitting and then paint the upper tube. thoughts?

hey folks....i ordered new bronze bushings for the swing arm to replace the old plastic ones. i saw lots of posts about using a saw blade to cut through the old ones, making removal a bit easier. any tips on removing the old ones that will allow me to preserve the metal sleeve?

Regarding your forks... I had the same problem on mine. Painting them will not last and is only a short term solution. I would recommend either trying to find a different set of fork tubes, or possibly having them turned down on the lathe until all the rust is gone *only do this in the area where the forks seals do not travel*. This is also dependent on how deep your rusting is, it could possibly weaken your forks. After you have them turned down, they will need to be replated so they will not rust in the future.

alright, my fork seals and swing arm bushings came in today. i wont get to install until tomorrow or Wednesday, but i wanted to post about my bushing experience to this point.

in regards to getting the old swingarm bushings out, i first removed the interior sleeve. for this, i used a very specific tool:



yup, a socket extension. the outer diameter of the extension very closely matched up with the sleeve. a couple whacks with the hammer and they popped right out. to remove the plastic bushings, i very carefully used a flat head screwdriver and tapped them out from behind (not the outer flange, but the shaft inside the swingarm).

i got the bronze replacement bushings from McMaster-Carr (p/n 6659K44). they were under $13 for all four including shipping. after comparing them to OEM with my cheap caliper, i've found them to be within .08mm at shaft OD (26.04mm OEM vs 26.12mm replacement) and .02mm at shaft ID 19.96mm OEM vs. 19.94mm replacement). The outer flange diameter is .77mm larger on the replacement (31.19mm OEM vs 31.97mm replacement) and it's .51mm thicker (2.51mm OEM vs 3.02 replacement). The only significant difference is in total bushing length, where the OEM if 23.19mm vs 19.96mm on the McMaster-Carr replacement. Here are a couple photos:

well, my daughter's birthday is over........Christmas is over.....I can finally get back to chipping away at this bad boy. I've rebuilt and mounted the forks. Wheels are being cleaned and prepped for paint. I'm shopping tires and having trouble. I don't want to invest a lot in rubber for this bike. It's small and i'm never going out onto the open road with it. I wanted to snag a pair of the Michelin Gazelles but the widest available is 3.0 and my stock tire size is 3.25. will this fly or do i need to save a bit more for a set of tires? i've searched but guys are always wanting to run larger tires....anyone ever mounted one slightly smaller than stock??

I would not recommend running smaller that stock, it most likely will not fit as the manufacturer intended inside the rim. I would suggest just looking on fleabay for a set of the same size or larger. If all else fails, maybe see about buying a different set of rims and mounting some rubber on those. Also you will want to at the minimum, mount a fork brace. Without it, the bike will handle very poorly.

Looking good though! Post some more pictures. Pictures are worth a 1000 words.

I'm scribed........I have a '72 CB100, and I'm wanting to do a cheap as possible build.

Hell, as good as that bed liner paint job looks, I'm probably gonna do the entire bike in that.

IIRC, some CL175s ran 19 x 3.0/18 x 3.0 tires from the factory and some CBs ran 18 x 2.75/18 x 3.0. I am basing this on my shop manual, though, which covers up through K4. The 72 is a K6 I believe, so it may be possible that Honda went up to a 3.25 rear tire by then. For what it's worth, I have definitely heard of people running a pair of 3.0 M62s and loving them. In fact, that's what I plan on running on my 175 - you can't beat $50 for the pair! I've also seen people run IRC NR-53 (front) and NR-53 (rear), which is similarly cheap yet P-rated (i.e., up to 93 mph). If you have a 19" front rim though you're out of luck because I don't believe either of those tires are available in that size. You could score a CB175 18" rim for pretty cheap though, which is what the PO of my bike did.