the Hunley or, pidjones needed a retirement project

[pidjones]

Shazbot! Took her out for a Sunday ride. Started blowing headlight fuses, so headed back home after only 20 miles. Coming down our steep, concrete, tree shaded drive, all traction decided to leave and I stuck her in the woods near the bottom. Pulled her out with the winch on the wife's mule and soft straps. Looks like I get to touch up the barbeque paint on the headers and re-polish the right valve cover and belt cover. And, find the short in the headlight circuit. I suspected no headlight when I saw the voltage about .5 higher than normal.
Edit: It was a blob of solder on the dimmer switch hitting the handlebar that took out the headlight fuse. Either there from Honda or a PO, I had nver disturbed it.

 

[pidjones]

This green mold is SLICK!

 

[Maritime]

Ouch. Glad you're ok. I did similar on the wet grass on side of my drive.

 

[ridesolo]

Dang, really sorry to see that! Glad you are ok, though, bikes fix easier than people. The wooden ramp at the back of my shop is on the north side of the building and doesn't get any sun. I found out the hard way that it gets very slick when wet. I went down hard one day and the Mrs. almost had to call the squad.

 

[pidjones]

Thanks, guys. I wasn't hurt at all, and after looking her over close (and hosing her off) I think that all that will be needed is a touch-up of the exhaust headers. I'll just shove some cardboard behind them and mask off the engine parts. Luckily I wasn't pre-crunched like Maritime. I may have a sore butt cheek in the morning, but not feeling any ill effects now. Think I may pick up a bag of play sand at Lowe's on my way back from getting new tires put on the daughter's car tomorrow. I slid about 3/4 of the way down the drive, amazed that I kept her up as long as I did and probably only fully lost her when the front wheel got off the road. The scrapes on the concrete appear to be from the footpeg slider and the headers. VERY little abrasion to the valve cover (that already had marks from a previous owner).

 

[CarbsAndCylinders]

Crap, I hate when that happens. Glad it wasn't too serious,

 

[pidjones]

Working the big crowd at WingDing 40 in Knoxville. I was honored to put the Hunley (far back right) in Pistol Pete's display of GL1000s. This group includes serial # GL100000002 - the oldest in America, along with 40 and 104. Also a supercharged '75 and several others. He wanted the Hunley as an example of how bad they can be and still be rescued.

 

[Maritime]

Rad, that's great.

 

[pidjones]

Hunley update time. She's been resting quietly in the "family room" side of the basement for over a month. Today I backed her outside, fired her up and turned off the petcock to run as much fuel as possible out of the system. When she finally died, disconnected all fuel lines and drained the float bowls. Topped of the tank with treated, real 100% gasoline. After airing out a while, rolled her into the garage and removed the carbs for a winter servicing. She'll go back into the family room tomorrow.

 

[Maritime]

Ooh, I'm going to be doing the same this winter. Also installing a dyna and dyna coils. Plus chainging out the 1100 fenders, I don;t like them and maybe painting her again. We'll see LOL. Oh and doing timing belts as they are 4 years old now too. so much fun this winter coming ;D

 

[pidjones]

I found that a ratchet-head 10 mm wrench is a GODSEND for removing timing belt covers without pulling the radiator. Just remove the bottom bolts and lossen the top nuts and block the radiator out some with rags, etc.

 

[Maritime]

Yep, done that too. So much easier than removing and replacing Rad.

 

[pidjones]

I just love it when the guilty party(s) are a little obvious. I had planned to put the carb work on the Hunley off until winter, but I finished taking the deck off of the John Deere, scraping the year's buildup from under and pressure washing it and putting it away. Then mounted the blade carrier, snow blade, and chains to ward off bad snows. Not having parts on hand to go forward on the 750, I moved crap around in the garage in preparation for carb work. Rack all set up and ready for disection, I strolled up to check the mail where of course I found brake pistons, tach cable, speedometer cable all for the 750 and the new timing gear for the motor on my little lathe (it may be cheap Chinese tool, but very handy).

So, I thought at least pull the #2 slide cover, slide, and float bowl. The needle looked fine, but I wanted to compare it to another so I pulled #1 (which appears to be great). #2 was a couple mm longer, so I pulled both needles and squinted real hard to read the numbers. Different, of course. Looked in my carb box and sure enough I had one of the originals in it so it was cleaned and installed. I doubt this was my main problem, however. In the float bowl, I found the float way high and croked. That was easy and I doubt it was my main problem, either. But then I pulled the primary and secondary jets and found this o-ring with a guilty look on its face.

So, tomorrow back to brakes on the 750. I hate brakes.

 

[pidjones]

Unless a miracle happens in the next hour or so, I'll probably have to sand the covers and repaint all over again. Temperature 65F and humidity <60%, so I decided to try the Spraymax 2K over the lacquer (already wet sanded). All the prep, coveralls, respirator, goggles, warming the can in warm water, plenty of lighting waiting for months for the one break in the weather. Looks like hell. Milky, runs, yeck. will probably take forever to sand this off, so I may just take the panels to a shop and have them match the Duplicolor in a 2K anddo it all for me. I guess I sound pretty frustrated. I am. I hate having someone else do it, but can admit when I'm no good at something.

 

[MandoSteve]

That’s a beautiful bike and I’ve enjoyed your thread. My own shop has insanely high humidity so I feel your pain. I’ve started putting out those buckets that pull moisture out of the air after my mold adventure. Might not help, but certainly can’t hurt. Makes painting finely difficult. I usually drop sheeting for something that requires a deft touch and use fans to push out some of the damp air.


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON

 

[irk miller]

Clear epoxy coatings tend to be milky until fully cured when it's really humid, rainy, and/or cold. Have you given it plenty of time to cure? The cold and humidity makes for an extremely slow cure.

 

[pidjones]

Clear epoxy coatings tend to be milky until fully cured when it's really humid, rainy, and/or cold. Have you given it plenty of time to cure? The cold and humidity makes for an extremely slow cure.

No, and it IS looking a lot better now. Most of the haze is gone. I left them in the shed for about three hours to fully flash and so handling wouldn't be a big issue. Brought them into the heated basement garage for overnight. Tomorrow I'll probably take them upstairs to my den for a few days. Still have the run, but it a non-obvious place. Worst thing is a gnat landed smack in the middle of a shelter cover. Hopefully he will sand out. Or be part of the show. Sure glad I have no painting plans for the CB750F.

 

[Maritime]

Let them cure, No one tells you but if you go a little heavy or quick they milk up sometimes, I panicked the first time too but all ended fine. also a lot of sins can be wet sanded out with this stuff as it it hard as hell once fully cure per the can instructions. Even small runs can be taken out if careful. Good luck you should be fine.

 

[pidjones]

Let them cure, No one tells you but if you go a little heavy or quick they milk up sometimes, I panicked the first time too but all ended fine. also a lot of sins can be wet sanded out with this stuff as it it hard as hell once fully cure per the can instructions. Even small runs can be taken out if careful. Good luck you should be fine.

Thanks! How long to cure? The mfr sez 24 hours to sand, but that seems short.

The gnat will no doubt leave a mark, although small like a dust nit. One run can probably be ignored due to its location right at the back of the shelter cover where it closes in front of the seat. The other (actually double) run is on the top of the shelter and will need sanded and buffed. A few dust nits that I might sand or just live with. Also, I had lightly sanded the lacquer before clear, and there are a few places where it seemed to kill the metallic look and it looks like a dark shadow there. Clear reduced it, but I fear that I should have left the Duplicolor unsanded. Or cleared it with Duplucolor first lightly before the 2K, because the previous time that I used lacquer clear, it brought the metalic glint back.

I think the main thing I've learned is that for future work, I need to find someone with a good booth that will do this at a reasonable price.

 

[irk miller]

I should dig up pics, but my dad restored a bunch of cars growing up: several Roadrunners, a Charger, two Cudas, two Thunderbirds, my Gramma's Cordobas, all painted outside in South Carolina in the summer. His paint jobs were flawless once wet sanded and rubbed out. You can imagine the bugs in the air (especially mosquitios) in a southern summer.