Another RVF thread!

[RVFHooligan]

Be patient here, just joined photobucket so I could post pics and start a thread about my restoration project. I'm trying to start with a picture of the motor after hours of wire wheel cleaning. If this works I'll start from the beginning and post more.




OK, it's looks like I got it figured out so here we go.........................

[RVFHooligan]

On the trailer when I brought the bike home.

[RVFHooligan]

Dirty bits...............

[RVFHooligan]

Cleaning up nice!




Motor out!




Now a push bike!

[RVFHooligan]

Biggest problem now is the tank. Flash rust. The paint on the outside is almost mint, so I would hate to have to dip the tank cause it would destroy the paint. Debating on which approach to take. I haven;t heard anything good about the epoxy's and sealants to coat the inner tank???????????????? The bike sat for an unknown period of time. Motor was thought to be seized but I got it running before I yanked it out. Ran it for 20 minutes, brought up to temp, idled fine, oil pressure good, clutch and gears worked fine, shut it down, flushed the coolant and oil two times. Of course, since I didn;t have a tank to use I had to rig up a water bottle filled with fuel and an extra fuel line. McGyver!

[RVFHooligan]

Going to completely disassemble the entire bike and start from scratch. On the list, powdercoat the frame, swinger, sub-frame, wheels, triples, and lower fork legs. Rebuild forks and shock. (Thank you Flea-Bay!) Fresh coat of Honda red paint. (Thank you brother in law that owns a body shop!) Rebuild and re-jet carbs. Bunch of other stuff, brakes, SS lines, rear sets, etc. I'll check the valve clearances and compression on the motor, believe it or not only 8200 KM on the clocks. Everything is looking good so far and an exciting project. Woot!

Oh yeah, my mother in law is from the UK, Cheltnam (sp?) in the Cotswalds and is going over the end of the month, so I may put together a shopping list of things I can;t get here and have her bring them back. THings like spark plugs and miscellaneous gaskets. Rich Oliver or David Silver, right?

The wife and I spent our honeymoon in England in 1996 and I even got to go to the WSB race at Donnington. There was a banner hanging in the crowd that read "Kiwi's fly! (SLight and Crafar) Foggy's got mad cow disease!" LOL Saw a ton of VFR's, RVF's, and RC-45's. That's what got me hooked, only took 12 years to get one over here!

[nas00]

Wow. Very nice project you have going there.

Engine looks beautiful... please give me more details on how you got it to look like that. What wire wheel did you use?

[hannakournikova]

very nice project! i would maye say for you to keep the frame as is...nice clean and standard!

for the tank, i have heard of people putting in a rust inhibitor and an old chain, and just shaking the life outta it, then drying and sealing after.

good luck!

[royster81]

very nice project! i would maye say for you to keep the frame as is...nice clean and standard!

agreed,leave the frame as is,and i have heard of people putting diesel and nuts and bolts into the tank,swirling it around before sealing it

[randallbass]

yep my tank on my previous kawasaki project looked like that lolz i used some metho and some marbles, rocks what ever and shook it to buggery for ages and kept on draining the dirty crap and starting again, the chain is a good idea cause u can tie a bit of string to it so u can remove it where with the marbles i had to use the vaccum cleaner to get them out hehe
oh n after u get most of the surface rust off put some "rust converter" and swish it round and leave it for a while and keep swishin every now and then hopefully that does it :) :)
i have also heard of ppl cutting the bottom off and cleaning it that way then welding it back up and being on the bottom you wont notice it but yer thats mainly for race bikes not street bikes
have fun n keep the pics coming engine looks smick as mn
cheers Tim