1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed (now a Roller!) Yes..

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Ok, that’s one look.. but how about if I do this? This will match the fittings inlue of the hoses, plus I could paint up the star center piece to match it too.

I also figured out, (after the carbs were back off) that I can simple add the ring / collar to the stainless hose and get this look..

So anyway team, that’s where I’m at.. a few steps forward and few fails along the way..

Thank you again for your time and have a great weekend everybody

Tdc.

P.S.
My apologies for not responding to the previous posts, I’ll address them all after diner, I’ve got to go eat..

Late..

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

Thanks for posting the paint stripper. I've ner seen results like that, so that's what I'm going to use on my project. Great find! FWIW, I too used some Lowes/HD stripper, but not the same stuff. Now I know.

--Chris

Hey you're more than welcome sir.. I hope it works out for you as well as it did for me..

Your work is ridiculously awesome! I love that shotgun. I'll be honest with you, its not something I'd really own, maybe. But damn it looks cool as hell. And the pin-up with the Desert Tactical Arms rifle...
...says to me that you are probably a gun nut cut from the same clothe as me?

Hey thanks sir, really thank you for the kind words and it's totaly cool, its not your thing, it;s not a lot of peoples thing.. hahahaa.. so no worries at all.

Good eye by the way.. here's my DTA.. I love this rilfe..

Any particular reason you are using a JAPANESE motorcycle for a World War II "theme" bike?


Nothing against Japan or Japanese bikes (I own several) but they were the enemy in WWII, they killed and wounded many Americans soldiers and civilians and I would think the use of a Japanese bike would piss off some older veterans.


When I worked in Italy some older people refused to ride in a Mercedes Benz car we leased. When asked why, they said the same Mercedes name was on the tanks that invaded their village when they were children during the war. I traded the Benz for a Fiat and all was well.

I thought I answered this on the first page in the first paragraph??

I do appreciate the history lesson, after all with my wife of 19 years, who's Japanese and me doing tons of WWII projects with all of the research that goes along with it. I never knew they killed so many in the war, those rat bastards!.. Thank you for the heads up..

As for the later / your experience with others.. WOW close minded people still exist.. I actually feel sorry for them on a few different levels..

man this thing is refreshingly different. love it so far keep up the great work. cant wait to see how it turns out

Hey thanks sir.. I appreciate the kind words of encouragement.. Thanks..

I can't believe I haven't seen this build yet! I'm thinking this bike is gonna turn out abso-frickin-lutely amazing. The paint work alone would make it great, but polishing all the bits and taking the time to rebuild everything is going to send this one over the top. I'll definitely be checking up on this one.

Hey thanks sir and no worries, we all have our own stuff going on.. I'm actually not building tonight.. I need the time off and I'm really looking forward to going through other posts / threads here.. So you and me both..

Have a great one and thanks again for stopping bye and checking out my project and the kind words.

tdc.

The bike is OK. It's the "Premium Stripper" that caught my attention...... ;-)

hahahaa.. Fully understand.. No worries..

 

[kookie31]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

that is a bad ass motor. great detail. cant wait to see more. sweet rifle by the way

 

[haplo_84]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

I thought I answered this on the first page in the first paragraph??

I do appreciate the history lesson, after all with my wife of 19 years, who's Japanese and me doing tons of WWII projects with all of the research that goes along with it. I never knew they killed so many in the war, those rat bastards!.. Thank you for the heads up..

As for the later / your experience with others.. WOW close minded people still exist.. I actually feel sorry for them on a few different levels..

LMAO

It would be rather narrow minded to hold a grudge for something that is over and done with. Alot of bad things were done by all sides during WWII. Now if it was a dedication to some specific attrocity like in celebration of what was done with the jewish people in the Holocaust, yeah i could understand the offense of it. But since its just a general WWII theme i see no reason why a reasonable person couldn't apreciate it as a work of art. I'm sure that for every veteran that takes offense to it there will be ten more who will adore the craftsmanship put into this project and the sentiment that has been put into it. I say BRAVO to you good sir for this project!

 

[sr85]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

THIS IS FANTASTIC! i love the detail!

 

[MudHustler]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

Nice build, man. I'm looking forward to seeing it all put together. Can't wait to see what kind of painting you're going to do. Good job, keep it up.

 

[CresentSon]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

LMAO

It would be rather narrow minded to hold a grudge for something that is over and done with. Alot of bad things were done by all sides during WWII. Now if it was a dedication to some specific attrocity like in celebration of what was done with the jewish people in the Holocaust, yeah i could understand the offense of it. But since its just a general WWII theme i see no reason why a reasonable person couldn't apreciate it as a work of art. I'm sure that for every veteran that takes offense to it there will be ten more who will adore the craftsmanship put into this project and the sentiment that has been put into it. I say BRAVO to you good sir for this project!

I think it could only be offensive if you designed a Japanese bike to look like a kamikazie plane.
I think most vets would love to see a Japanese bike wearing the US colors.

 

[ewd]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

Hey thank you.. I'm a little different and it will defiantly show up in my projects, hahahaa.. I've actually got quite a few different things planned for this bike.. 1 example.. I'm expecting some artillery brass next week, I plan on using those for my turn signal housing and I'll be using some .50 cal brass as stems, etc..

Thanks again for your time and kind words of encouragement.

The .50 cal brass idea is excellent! Never even crossed my mind. The shell casing is certainly big enough and will give it a unique, sleek appearance. Love what you've done! Keep it up!

 

[03rangerxlt]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

Hey thanks sir, really thank you for the kind words and it's totaly cool, its not your thing, it;s not a lot of peoples thing.. hahahaa.. so no worries at all.

Good eye by the way.. here's my DTA.. I love this rilfe..

DAMN!!!! Nice DTA!! What caliber (or calibers) are you running on that thing? The need to develope a scope that allows two caliber zeros for multi-caliber rifles like that. I am jealoud of both the rifle and that Night FOrce glass on top. Sorry about the off-topicness, but here is my stick:

Still learning to how to shoot it.

Remington 700 PSS in AICS with AI detachable mags, Harris bi-pod with Pheonix Tactical Pod Claws, Falcon Optics 4-14x44 FFP glass, EWIC 20 MOA scope base with Badger Rings. Adain, sorry about the off-topicalness!

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Hey team, thank you all for the kind words of encouragement, I really appreciate it..

03… That’s a really nice looking and shooting 700 there sir.. I’ve have the opportunity to shoot a lot of them in my day, Here’s my long range shooting club, probably 75% all have some type of 700.. I'm the one wearing the white T.. Yeah the dorky one.. lol..

I want to go shooting with you!.. nice / excellent grouping sir, although, I cant get away with shooting 5 shot groups with my buddies, here are some 10 shoot groups at 300 and 500 yards

Not the greatest but I’m having fun, that what really important. The NF scope is nice, I can actually see someone blink at 1000 yards lol.. I almost went out and spent 3k on the SB.. but then I realized I’m just in too deep, and found a new / this hobby. Lol..

It’s actually chambered in a 300 win config as shown above. I’ve got the 308 conversion for it, I would love the 338 conv too but it’s just not justifiable.. hahaha you know how that goes.. I can switch between calibers in about a minute, Re-zeroing the scope for the new caliber is pretty easy now, but it did take me some time to get used it to..

Thanks for sharing your bad boy sir.. very cool..

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Hey team,
Progress is moving along at good pace so I thought I would add another photo dump, lightum up if you got them! Hahahaa..

I’ll start you off with a teaser.. Do I have team spirit or what? Lol.. Actually this was taken at 4. am pst today.

Anyway.. moving forward with the project, I ended up going back and did some of the stuff I forgot to do before, ie kickstand and tank, etc.

All painted up and ready to go

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


I’m going to purchase a new tank and seat, so I wanted to experiment with this one, more on this later..

It looks pretty good washed off, the time invested in this part was 30 minuets

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


I also finally Finished polishing up the frame.. I cant even begin to tell you how big of pain the butt that one was..

Then I also took out the airbrush and some fun with the tire and rim.. lol..

Remember team, this is what is looked like before.

Now it looks a little different

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build



This was last night / I’m getting things ready for an all nighter, here’s what my part bench is starting to look like

I’ve even got my trusty sidekicks standing by. Haha

Motor is in.. Yes..

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Time to work on the suspension and see if I can get a roller before going to bed.

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Finished it. 4 am..

Ok I got it outside in the sunlight this morning to see what I have / what my foundation looks like at this point.

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


Then I added on the tank, please note, I’m either building one or buying one, I just wanted to see what it looks like, that’s all. My tank will be 100% different then this, so no worries..

 

[tdc57]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build


For what its worth team, just to give you a different looks at things, if I wanted to take the easy way out from here and still have a cool old school café bike, then I would simply finish it off to look Norton “ish” ie Which is DAM good looking bike IMO… I like old school stuff.

But I’m going a different route!, I’ve taking the path less traveled, the one full of headache, misery, the one that up hill in snow both ways and I’m wearing milk bone underwear!.. I’m going against the grain and making my own carbon fiber parts.. I’m sooooo excited!..

I’ve been really looking forward to this phase in my journey..

I’m going to start with a bobbed front and a new rear fender.

I’m going to be using these as my molds

I’m also going to be using some bass 30mm brass out of a warthog as my turn signal housing and I’ll be using .50cal bras as stems.

Etc, etc.. it all equals out to go times ahead..

I’ll post further updates as soon as a have anything worth posting up..

Thank you all so much for your time team and have a great one

Tdc.

 

[Ringo]

Re: 1974 Honda 550~Four – WWII Themed Café Racer build

Mmmmmmm. I will be watching this carbon fiber work for sure! That frame looks great man! Very very nice. Are you doing anything to keep it from rusting?

 

[tdc57]

Thanks Ringo, Yeah I throw on about 4 coats of clear just for now.. Since I'm starting my fab, cut~ welding, etc, I'll be pulling everything back off the bike. I just needed a foundation to work from, that all..

I've got a long way to go but I'm enjoying it.. This is were I get really sine and express myself in the bike, I've been looking forward to this part, it should be really fun for me.