davis
Active Member
Hey guys,
This is the second build of my second SOHC bike, my 1971 cb500. I have another build thread on sohc4.net if you have any questions about the first rebuild.
A year ago, 4 days after I sold my 350f, I bought this for $300 from craigslist. It had 9k miles and was in non-running, pretty crappy condition.
BEFORE:
THEN:
I did a cheap/somewhat fast rebuild the first time just so I could get out on the road:
THE (RE)REBUILD
I used a very minor head gasket leak as an excuse to take the 3 months of summer to do an equally cheap, but more thorough and thoughtful re-rebuild. I am currently in my last year of law school so I am as poor as poor students come. My summer internship was of the unpaid variety, so I couldn’t afford to do things in a manner which some deem to be the “right” way (i.e. replace instead of polish/rebuild, powder coat instead of paint). But elbow grease is mostly free, and I think I ended up with a good result. My goal was a clean, mild café-style daily rider which retains a general quasi-period-correct look (nothing too modern).
I opted for the instant gratification, start-to-“finish” build thread in lieu of the day to day updates style, so after I list modifications, there will be a lot of pictures. I'm almost certain I'll forget some stuff, but for everyone's information, here goes:
FRAME
-Tab welded to center stand to limit travel
-Frame/center stand/swingarm/top and bottom triple trees were stripped and painted with black Rustoleum appliance epoxy
-All other frame bits (footpegs, battery box, etc etc) were given a similar appliance epoxy paint treatment
TANK/PAINT
-“Honda” tank emblems shaved, dents fixed
-Painted tank and side covers with Rustoleum appliance epoxy, allowed to cure
-Tank/covers wet sanded up to 2000 and cleared with SprayMax 2k two part rattle can clear
-Walmart chrome door trim added to tank’s edges ($8 for 18 FEET)
-NOS Honda CA72 wing emblems applied to tank with outdoor double-sided tape
ENGINE
-Head pulled, cleaned, full gasket set installed (except base gasket)
-Polished the normal covers (tappet, breather, left/right side, etc)
-Painted the rest of the engine (Duplicolor ‘aluminum silver’)
CARBS
-Basic carb clean/rebuild/bench sync
-Light polish on tops and bowls
-Factory “velocity stacks” pulled from the airbox and used by themselves because I’m lazy and want it to be easy to pull and re-install the carbs (spare me a lecture on the evils of open stacks, I am aware of their disadvantages)
-#115 main jets from dime city cycles
ELECTRICAL
-Replaced inline-type with fuse-type main fuse holder
-60s/70s Sportster taillight
-I mucked up my headlight bucket pretty bad, so I replaced the stock unit with a smaller 55w light made for off road trucks (from Harbor Freight), generic toggle switch used for headlight and mounted out of sight on the back of the new bucket.
-As a result of changing the headlight assembly, there was no room inside for all the wiring, so I hid it all under the tank.
-Replaced both the horn and starter buttons with cheap switches from Radioshack (no problems yet)
-Neutral/oil pressure idiot lights made from $2 Radioshack LEDs, and moved inside the tach.
SUSPENSION/BRAKES
-Converted back to single disc setup for ease of bleeding and selling the parts to helped finance the rest of the build.
-New fork seals
-Fork lowers, brake pivot polished
-Caliper rebuilt/repainted
-Stock headlight ears eliminated, replaced with 10 dollar Emgo Ebay special headlight brackets
-Chrome plumbing pipe used to make covers for Rusty/nasty area on the upper forks between the trees after treating/painting affected area
-DIY fork gaiters from JCWhitney (trimmed down offroad truck shock covers)
-No name (possibly homemade?) clip-ons from ebay, refinished
-Shocks disassembled, chrome and aluminum polished, springs painted with (you guessed it) appliance epoxy
-New gold 530 chain (kinda splurged on this, but the aesthetics of the gold chain is one of the few things I was willing to pay more for)
PICTURES:
After appliance paint:
Sanded (2000)
This clear is awesome:
Bit of orange peel, couple runs, but I’ll live and eventually get around to sanding out the imperfections and buffing:
Reassembled:
Still left to do: New grips, do something about those awful rusty exhaust header flanges. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and let me know what you guys think!
Update:
So the other day I was riding and one of my freshly painted and cleared side covers fell off and cannot be found
. It really bothered me at first. But like all things, I've gotten used to it to the point where my lack of side covers doesn't keep me up at night. I think I'll just run it like this with no side covers for a while until I come up with the motivation necessary to procure and repaint a replacement... Maybe I'll paint the battery so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.
Thanks Guys,
Davis
This is the second build of my second SOHC bike, my 1971 cb500. I have another build thread on sohc4.net if you have any questions about the first rebuild.
A year ago, 4 days after I sold my 350f, I bought this for $300 from craigslist. It had 9k miles and was in non-running, pretty crappy condition.
BEFORE:
THEN:
I did a cheap/somewhat fast rebuild the first time just so I could get out on the road:
THE (RE)REBUILD
I used a very minor head gasket leak as an excuse to take the 3 months of summer to do an equally cheap, but more thorough and thoughtful re-rebuild. I am currently in my last year of law school so I am as poor as poor students come. My summer internship was of the unpaid variety, so I couldn’t afford to do things in a manner which some deem to be the “right” way (i.e. replace instead of polish/rebuild, powder coat instead of paint). But elbow grease is mostly free, and I think I ended up with a good result. My goal was a clean, mild café-style daily rider which retains a general quasi-period-correct look (nothing too modern).
I opted for the instant gratification, start-to-“finish” build thread in lieu of the day to day updates style, so after I list modifications, there will be a lot of pictures. I'm almost certain I'll forget some stuff, but for everyone's information, here goes:
FRAME
-Tab welded to center stand to limit travel
-Frame/center stand/swingarm/top and bottom triple trees were stripped and painted with black Rustoleum appliance epoxy
-All other frame bits (footpegs, battery box, etc etc) were given a similar appliance epoxy paint treatment
TANK/PAINT
-“Honda” tank emblems shaved, dents fixed
-Painted tank and side covers with Rustoleum appliance epoxy, allowed to cure
-Tank/covers wet sanded up to 2000 and cleared with SprayMax 2k two part rattle can clear
-Walmart chrome door trim added to tank’s edges ($8 for 18 FEET)
-NOS Honda CA72 wing emblems applied to tank with outdoor double-sided tape
ENGINE
-Head pulled, cleaned, full gasket set installed (except base gasket)
-Polished the normal covers (tappet, breather, left/right side, etc)
-Painted the rest of the engine (Duplicolor ‘aluminum silver’)
CARBS
-Basic carb clean/rebuild/bench sync
-Light polish on tops and bowls
-Factory “velocity stacks” pulled from the airbox and used by themselves because I’m lazy and want it to be easy to pull and re-install the carbs (spare me a lecture on the evils of open stacks, I am aware of their disadvantages)
-#115 main jets from dime city cycles
ELECTRICAL
-Replaced inline-type with fuse-type main fuse holder
-60s/70s Sportster taillight
-I mucked up my headlight bucket pretty bad, so I replaced the stock unit with a smaller 55w light made for off road trucks (from Harbor Freight), generic toggle switch used for headlight and mounted out of sight on the back of the new bucket.
-As a result of changing the headlight assembly, there was no room inside for all the wiring, so I hid it all under the tank.
-Replaced both the horn and starter buttons with cheap switches from Radioshack (no problems yet)
-Neutral/oil pressure idiot lights made from $2 Radioshack LEDs, and moved inside the tach.
SUSPENSION/BRAKES
-Converted back to single disc setup for ease of bleeding and selling the parts to helped finance the rest of the build.
-New fork seals
-Fork lowers, brake pivot polished
-Caliper rebuilt/repainted
-Stock headlight ears eliminated, replaced with 10 dollar Emgo Ebay special headlight brackets
-Chrome plumbing pipe used to make covers for Rusty/nasty area on the upper forks between the trees after treating/painting affected area
-DIY fork gaiters from JCWhitney (trimmed down offroad truck shock covers)
-No name (possibly homemade?) clip-ons from ebay, refinished
-Shocks disassembled, chrome and aluminum polished, springs painted with (you guessed it) appliance epoxy
-New gold 530 chain (kinda splurged on this, but the aesthetics of the gold chain is one of the few things I was willing to pay more for)
PICTURES:
After appliance paint:
Sanded (2000)
This clear is awesome:
Bit of orange peel, couple runs, but I’ll live and eventually get around to sanding out the imperfections and buffing:
Reassembled:
Still left to do: New grips, do something about those awful rusty exhaust header flanges. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and let me know what you guys think!
Update:
So the other day I was riding and one of my freshly painted and cleared side covers fell off and cannot be found
. It really bothered me at first. But like all things, I've gotten used to it to the point where my lack of side covers doesn't keep me up at night. I think I'll just run it like this with no side covers for a while until I come up with the motivation necessary to procure and repaint a replacement... Maybe I'll paint the battery so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.
Thanks Guys,
Davis
