papadapalis
New Member
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!
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!