cb550 The Papadilious

[papadapalis]

This is my first bike and first build. It is a 1976 cb550 that i bought running and rode for most of the summer. Now its cold and I've begun to work on it. I tore it down in November and it sat while I continuously second guessed my self on where to go with it, and wondered where to even start. About a week or so ago I decided on a somewhat cafe/brat style and just said screw it and started.

Here it is after I got it. (sorry if the quality of any of my pics sucks, all I have atm is my cell phone and the garage lighting does it no favors.)








During teardown (along with my 65 suzuki t20 that will hopefully someday run.)

Goodbye ugly PO special seat


And the giant chunk of metal that is the rear fender/taillight






Carbs look to be in pretty good shape





That is how she sat for about a month and a half. I decided to dive in with my first purchase of a set of BCR clip-ons and ebay bar end mirrors.



The mirrors are actually much nicer than I expected from the ~$20 I spent on them, they seem solid and the glass is nice.

So I pulled the forks to make sure the clip ons fit, as well as clean and rebuild everything there and of course under the headlight ears I find this.



So since I lack an actual bench grinder I set up my "bench grinder" : with a wire wheel on it.



After some cleaning the rust came off fairly easily, but only to reveal a good amount of pitting underneath. I decided for the time being I will clean them up and run them as it's not too horrible.

After initial cleaning, the pitting is kind of hard to see in this picture.



Sanded with 200,400,800,wet 1000 and a bit of buffing on the same fancy drill setup as the wire wheel.



Pitting



Before/After



Both done



That is about where I stopped aside from some paint removal on the lowers that I currently have no pictures of.

I plan on finishing the front end fairly soon, I have on the way:
All Balls racing tapered bearing set
Ebay headlight brackets (going to change the headlight to a bottom mount in the nearish future so I went cheap)
Led backlighting for the tach and speedo
Led indicator lights to be mounted inside of tach and speedo
Small led turn signals for the front (plan on running integrated tail light)
1/2 turn side exit throttle
New grips
Also going to replace fork seals and oil

Plans for the rest of the bike:
Flat bratstyle seat with upswept tail
Upswept seet hoop
Rearsets
Strip tank, pray it's not cringeworthy under POs paintjob
Bates style bottom mount headlight with HID projector retrofit
Clean/rebuild and sync carbs
4-1 exhaust
Clean up wiring and a smaller, hidden battery

Feel free to let me know if I'm doing anything stupid/dangerous, or if I'm not doing something I should be. I'm open to criticism, thats a big part of the reason I'm posting this. It is my first bike after all!

 

[VonYinzer]

Welcome to DTT. Quite the project, but you seem to have a handle on it. If the pitting on the forks is NOT in the seal travel area, they'll be ok. Keep at it, and don't hesitate to ask for help if ya need it. It's why this place is here.

 

[papadapalis]

Thanks for the encouragement. Iirc you posted in my introduction thread and im not very far from you. The pitting is mostly where the headlight ears were and going no lower than about an inch below the lower triple so i think it should be okay.

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[VonYinzer]

Oh yeah. Cool. We'll have to do some riding this spring.

 

[papadapalis]

For sure man. Anyone have tips on getting the bottom bearing race out of the neck? The top one came out pretty easily but the bottom one broke my BF screwdriver and didnt even budge. Also does the bearing race come off the bottom triple clamp?

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[Finnigan]

Good to see them going to good use, I'll be watching this one

 

[VonYinzer]

The race in the neck will hammer out. Screwdrivers are not chisels. You can really hurt yourself using them that way. Get yourself a piece of heavy wall pipe about 18" long and a good hammer. Then just work the race out by hitting it on opposite sides repeatedly until it drops.

As for the race on the tree, you need to remove it. There are a couple ways to do this. With a GOOD SHARP chisel, you can try and pry it off. Or you can use a dremel tool to very carefully cut it off. Or, if you have any friends who work in a machine shop, just give it to them.

 

[VonYinzer]

Oh, and when replacing the lower race with the roller bearing...

Stick the whole bottom tree in the freezer overnight. Then when you're ready, warm the bearing till it's hot (keep it under 200°f). You'll be able to drop the hot bearing onto the cold stem with little resistance (keep a small hammer and brass punch handy in case though). Let them settle till everythings at room temp and grease the bearing. Done.

Stick your races in the freezer with the stem too... Will make it much easier to install in the neck. And when doing so, DO NOT use a chisel/screwdriver/anything steel to drive them into place. Brass punches are good, as is a large wood rod or dowel. Make sure the races (and bottom bearing) are properly seatedbefore aassembly of the front end as well.

 

[papadapalis]

Yeah my stupid a** almost learned that the hard way. Ill have to pick up a suitable chisel for the neck. Thanks for the freezer tip too, im always down for quick and easy.

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[Bru-tom]

Great work so far

I feel your pain with the shocks. The tops of mine were gonners and there were quite a few rust spots on the "working surface" which would have ruined any new seal i installed.

I had to have mine replated. Had them hard chromed and ground. The guy told me that the chrome honda used back in the day was cosmetic if you may. It was never designed to be hard wearing at all. it makes sense, it scratches so easily. hard chrome removes teeth from a hacksaw blade for Petes sake. huge difference.

keep up the good work

 

[papadapalis]

Yeah im not too worried about it as long as everything functions properly.

Does anyone know if the exhaust on this is worth anything? Its a stock 4-4 hm323 with a nickel sized hole in the outer right pipe.

Also is it possible/safe to lace the rear rim to the front hub? Id like to run 18" front and rear with 110/90/18 and 130/90/18 tires.

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[papadapalis]

Got some more parts in a did a little work today.

Headlight ears and tach/speedo backlight leds



Grips, half turn throttle, and all balls tapered bearings



After what seemed like forever I finally got the pin hole for the left side control in the correct place (measure a million times cut once right?)



Wire hole drilled (dont have one before I started feeding wires)



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[papadapalis]

Haven't updated this in a while, the pace has been somewhat slow but steady between work and school I can spend about 5-8 hours working on it a week usually.

Started with a freshly cleaned work space:



Got all of the front end parts ready for paint:



Used Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy, I'm very happy with how it all turned out:












Plastidipped the levers:



Gonna run a mac 4-1, not sure about the muffler that came with it:







Thought about this, I think it looks cool but I think I may be a bit too attached to my hearing:







Quick sheet metal mock-up to get a better idea, not sure if i have the proper tools to pull off a decent belly pan:



Grips, mirrors, and controls mounted on the bars. Forgot to snap a pic of the other side:



All Balls tapered bearings on:



Put the trees, fork uppers, and bars on today just to see how everything would look. I stripped the 8mm bolt in the bottom of my forks so I'm waiting on replacements to come in, I did however replace the fork seals. Still not sure what fork oil to run. I am also in the process of shaving the bar mounts off of the top triple clamp no pics at the moment though:




Front turn signals:



Cleaning up the frame triangle:





Next up on my list is to pull the motor out which I really should have done a while ago. After the motors out I will be picking up a set of modern sport bike rear sets (most likely 99-02 GSXR 750) and welding brackets on the frame as well as welding the up swept rear hoop on. After all the welding is done I am going to get the frame cleaned up and painted along with the wheels. I'm thinking about doing a set of rebuilt RFY rear shocks as well as a set of Michelin Pilot Activs. Also need to find a suitable battery that I can fit under a brat style seat.