[LRCXed]

A year ago I started working on another full resto project after I finished my GL650I. On the old forum it was called "Not a Good beginning" After I got started on it (08-2009) I started to get swamped with total restorations and projects from a local bike shop as well as carb jobs. In the last year I have restored 6 bikes completely and 5 near total rebuilds. Since they were paying jobs, of coarse mine took the back seat.

These are a few I do have pictures of,

And A 72 CB450 And of coarse a dirt bike for the kids. There are more, but you get the idea. I got busy.



I got the frame and all the components painted as well as 90% of all the polishing done, that included the new reverse rims and all the electronics and controls, before the rush started in a couple weeks. But then it went to the side and was ignored. Over the next few months I was able to at least build a new engine for it since the original one had a blown piston. Everything inside the engine is new if I could get it. All new bearing shells, pistons, rings, vale guides, (bronze) the triple bypass stuff was done too as well as porting the heads. I even found time to paint the engine with automotive paint while I did some paint work on one of the restorations. This way if anything spills on the engine it won't stain the paint.



Well, after I retired in April of this year I have been able to get caught up with everything, including finishing my Carb rebuild book and getting it printed and ready to sell. Now, finally I'm getting back to work on my CX500D project. 2 days ago I pulled everything back out and started assembly. Since the frame and suspension has been together for a while, and the engine was done, it didn't take much for me to get going and put the 2 together. After that I just had to see what it was all going to look like mocked up. I bought one of the Eagle Screens with the flared lips to deflect the air and was jazzed to see what it all looked like together.

I really like it so far. I have always wanted one of the euro style shields on one of my bikes.



Now I'm working on the exhaust system. I have Sportster pipes going on it. But the Hbox needed to have the rear attachments replaced due to being rusted out. I went to the muffler shop and had them make a couple flanges for me to work with. After getting them cut down to length and cutting the slots in them, I machined a new sleeve that will weld to the front of the pipes so that they will slip in and seal the way the stock pipes do. It took a while, but I think it's worth it. Everything is ready to start welding together now. So after rebuilding a set of carbs that came in the mail for me to do today, I'll get it going and show you how it all looks with the exhaust on it. I just hope all these pictures were put in right!



It's been a long time but I'm really excited to be working on it again. I need to get it finished though because the waiting list is growing for bikes waiting to come in and get restored.

 

[LRCXed]

It's just a tiny one! I don't think anyone would notice do you!

 

[LRCXed]

Believe it or not yes. I bought 2 bikes sight unseen a year and a half ago. This was one of them. Before I tore it apart I wanted to see if it ran. It did, but as you can guess not too well.

 

[LRCXed]

All I know so far is that the two main colors will be black and red, with a silver metallic 3D design strip of some kind. I haven't sat down and figured out the exact layout yet.

 

[LRCXed]

OK the exhaust is done. Welded the new ends on the HD pipes, And the new flanges on the Hbox. No picture though. Forgot to take one. After painting it with VHT and baking it in the oven I went on to making the mounts for the pipes. I've found that using the stock bracket and cutting it in half, I welded it to the pipe when they were mocked up in place. and painted it with VHT too.

Doing the system this way ensures it won't have those annoying leaks. And I think it comes out looking stock, if you've never seen one before I guess.





Tomorrow I'll start hooking up the wiring, rear brakes, and controls. I need to build a set of carbs for it still, but that has to wait till the set on the bench is done for Shoreride.

 

[LRCXed]

Well, after a few days now I have it running. But not without a hiccup. You know how it goes don't you? A project sits around a while and you go back to work on it a few times off and on. Your pretty sure you covered everything but there's always that thing in the back of your mind that keeps nagging at you. Well, I worked my way from the front to back hooking everything up, polishing the clamps, wiring it all up, etc...etc... Everything is done, I have spark, oil is circulating, hmmm, can't think of anything else. So lets put coolant in it and start it up. Filled up the radiator and went to mix more to put in the reservoir tank when I heard what the nag was trying to tell me. I FORGOT the O-rings on the chrome water pipe! CRAP, I hate antifreeze too. It sticks to everything it touches. Sooo, drained out what was left and did the O-rings. Take about humbling!



Moving forward, I got that done and hooked up the gas bottle and she fired right up. A little sluggish at first due to everything in the engine being new but it settled in and smoothed out in about a minute. Nice and quiet too.

Here is proof. It's running and I hadn't even balanced the carbs yet.

As some of you know I tend to polish everything. When I started cleaning up the CDI unit one thing lead to another and, well, yep, polished it too. I couldn't help myself.

I discovered a neat trick while I was getting the coils ready to mount. As with most of these old coils the rubber grommet on the HT where it goes into the coils always seams to be dried out and cracked. I had the plug caps on the bench and notice the grommets on the ends that the wires go into were ok. SO I dug out another set and pulled them off. They fit perfctly on the base of the coils. Problem solved.



The next thing I'm trying is a rear brake lever from a GL650. They are an inch longer and I figure a little more leverage may help in the rear brakes. They have the same shoes in the 650, so why not try there upgrade on the CX500? We'll see how it goes when it's on the road. I may need the help slowing it down now that it has the 650 clutch in it.



Tomorrow I'll hook up the front dual piston caliper brakes and then it's on to getting all the bodywork ready to paint. There are more pictures of the build here on my photobucket sight. It's moving along well so far. I just hope the paint job moves along as smoothly as the assembly did.

 

[LRCXed]

Don, I need for it to stay hidden anyway. That way folks won't know about my addiction!

Thanks phanton. I'm looking forward to seeing just how much wind it deflects.

I'm getting ready to bleed the front brakes right now. Then it's on to bodywork and paint.

 

[LRCXed]

The front brakes are done. And I have to say it always amazes me just how good these brakes work when I use a SS brake line. After bleeding them and tying the lever down for the night, I cut the zip tie off to find that full lock on the brake lever only pulls in an inch before it's rock solid. Well worth the money I spent at jdaent DOT com. I forget the guys name but he has most of the break line patterns for the bikes we have.





I moved on to the tank last night to start the body work. It only had one dent that needed pulling out. I know I have done this before and I should have learned, but if you guys have one of the pin spot welders for pulling out dents, I don't advise using one on our thin metal tanks. As you can see I burned through on the first one I did. I forgot just how quick this thing welds the pin on and pulled the trigger for too long. Oh well, at least I have the practice under my belt from building Don's tank. Got out the TIG welder and filled the hole up just fine.



I'm going to try to get the tank in primer today. May end up doing the tank liner first.

 

[LRCXed]

Ok I need your opinion. The left side cover for these Std. & Deluxe bikes have a square section molded into it. The right side does not. Using PlastiFix I can cut out the section and fill it with a section on the extra right side cover I have making both sides match. What do you think?

 

[LRCXed]

OK that's one vote for no! The space was used by Honda to place a sticker there with instructions for the overflow bottle. I think the main interest in this is that I can do it. ANd you know what I'm like at wanting to be a little different!

BTW, I found a sweet way to get all the old paint off the plastics and make sure every nook and cranny is etched and ready to accept paint with out lifting later on. I used the glass bead cabinet. It works good but I learned that it takes paint off better when you angle the gun from the side instead of straight on. The plastic bounces the beads off when it's straight on. At an angle it strips it right off.

 

[LRCXed]

Lucky, it's an 86 XR80R.



Jasonh, I use two on the pipe. I also put a thin layer of high grade silicon sealer inside the hole of the housing, as well as a bead of it around the front of the O-rings too. That way when you push in the tube carefully, the seals slid in easier. Let it sit overnight so the sealer sets up. You won't need to worry about corrosion build up ever getting under the seals this way.



As far as the project goes, As I was getting ready to glass bead the tank and do the bodywork, I dropped the tank off the stool and put a dent in it right where I just pulled the one out. Arrrg... I knew I wasn't in the mood to do this today!

 

[LRCXed]

It's been a couple days but the bodywork is all ready to prime as of tonight. Fixing the tank again didn't help my mood either. Today I finished blasting the rest of the plastics for the bike and filled all the nicks and chips with PlastiFix. Well, I couldn't help it. It kept staring me in the eyes daring me. So I did it! I cut out the flat area of the left side cover and fit a piece from another one to fill it in. Now I have left and right matching side covers. I even tried to match up the mold marks in the back but one was wider than the other.

Still need to do some final sanding in between the grooves, but If the weather gets better tomorrow I should be able to get the first coat of high build primer on it all. That way I can put all the body work on the bike so I can get a cleared picture in my mind of what I want to do with the paint. All I keep seeing is the all flat black picture that's up near the top of the thread. It has my brain locked up right now!



I ordered a cover for the bike yesterday too along with a set of mirrors. I got lucky and found a cover in black and red. I guess that nails down my choice of colors.

 

[LRCXed]

I finally got all the bodywork done and a few coats of high build primer today. Now it can sit while I try to come up with a paint scheme I like.

What do you think of the left cover now?

 

[LRCXed]

Well, this project got another interruption. I bought an 82 GL500I that only has 11K on it. It won't take me much more than a week to get it cleaned up and ready for sale. Then I'll get back to the paint job on this one.

 

[LRCXed]

I know what your thinking. Dual disc brakes right? Well, I think I already have that covered with the single disc. I put the dual caliper from a 650 on it with the metallic pads along with SS lines. The pressure in the lever so far is amazingly tight. I think it will stop a LOT better than the stock setup.



This GL500 will stay the way it is because it's such a low miles bike. I don't want to deface it in any way.

 

[LRCXed]

Thank you Joel. Soon I will unveil the latest project that interrupted this one. I know I said it would only take a week or two for cleanup, but as some of you know I can be anal about details. And the GL500I I'm doing to sell is way worthy of the attention.

 

[LRCXed]

Thanks guys, it is after all a labor of love.

 

[LRCXed]

I can't believe it's been 9 months since I last posted here about getting the GL500I that had interrupted this build. A lot has happened in that time as I'm sure most of you that were following this build know. The quick clean up and sell of the GL500I ended up being a very extensive rebuild that ended up in Ramprat's garage. Glad to see it's still in the family too. Thanks Joel!



During those 9 months I had the pleasure of reading a post by Mr. Breeze (Scott) that he was looking for a 79 CX500D so he could go back and relive his early years when he had bought a brand new 79 CX500 Deluxe. At the time things were a little tight on my end financially so I decided to reply and show him the bike I was building for myself. To make a long (4 month) story short, Mr Breeze wants my build. It took a while to settle with it but I figured what the heck! I built this one; I can build another one if I really want to later. Heck, I have 2 more on the side of the garage! So the plans were put into motion even while I was building the GL500. Scott and I talked about what he really wanted. An original deluxe model with the same deep candy red color and the original style chrome headlight bucket and gauges. I agreed thinking it wouldn't be any problem doing the change over. Little did I know!



After the GL500 left I took a few days off and promptly got tired of taking it easy. That WAS my plan to take it easy for a while and relax. I'm going to have to see if they have a video on how to do that!

Well, off I went into finding the parts for the gauges. Most of them I had but they were not to the standard I wanted. So the search and buying started. Thanks to the members here I got most of what I needed to do the change from Std. to Deluxe.



The main issue I found was that the wiring harness and the controls would have to be changed to make it period and model correct. The early Std. wiring harness had larger plastic connectors for the controls than the Deluxe does. So I had to change out the entire wiring harness and control assemblies.

This is just one example of what I'm referring to.

So I set about rebuilding a wiring harness with the correct plugs on it. Cleaning ans lubing all the plug ends and completely rewrapping the entire harness.

After stripping the bike back down to the frame and wheels to clean things up after sitting for this long as well as making it easier to remodel it, I got started redoing it from what you last saw.

I mocked up the gauge package so I could do an inventory of what all I would need to buy to accomplish the change. Here's what Scott wanted in the end.

But since I had just acquired a 120 mph speedometer I decided to rebuild that and reset it to 00000 since the bike is pretty much all new with a completely rebuilt motor. Why not start it's life over on the odometer too! That can be seen in my link of resetting a speedometer to 00000.

It will be at zero when the bike hits the road again.



After a bit of work getting things ready I reassembled the bike and did a preliminary hook up of the wiring system to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

When I turned the key on the minimal setup I had set in place lite up just fine. Starter, turn signals brake lights etc. worked just fine.

Now comes all the details that follow to bring everything up to standards I can live with. When I get the bike completed and running again the way it was before I started the remodel, I get to do another tank for it. You see, Scott has been inspired by some resent bikes. You'll get to see that later when I get started on the update. But the main reason I got another tank to put on the bike is that I didn't realize I had done all the prep work on a late model Std. tank. I didn't notice that it had the larger fitting for the vacuum operated petcock. So since I'm building a 79 deluxe I needed to change that so that it was correct for the year and model. I even got a set of 79 Deluxe carbs to build for it.



So basically I'm starting over in a way. But the changes will be quit nice when it's done. There is a CJMC bike show on the weekend of June 4th. I'm not sure I'll make it but I'm going to try and get it done to enter it in the show.



Update will be forthcoming as I make progress. I just hope I don't get many interruptions in the next couple weeks.

 

[LRCXed]

As long as I can convince myself that I can make it before the 4th I'm sure I'll be ok. Well, as OK as you can be without getting much sleep! 12 days left though and I haven't reached that point yet. Once it together and running I'm sure I can get into the tank mods and get it painted in time. We'll see though.

 

[LRCXed]

OK, the latest progress is that I have the bike all rewired with the new gauge package on it for the remodel. I now have to get busy on the tank that I got to replace the original one I had on the bike. I discovered that that tank had the larger threaded fitting for the vacuum petcock. Since it's not correct for the 79 deluxe I bought another tank for this project that IS correct. Today will start that part of the build. I'm hoping the painting will start in a couple days at the most. Since I only have 7 days to get it painted and to DMV to get it registered and plated I'm not going to hold my breath. But if I can divert any interruptions I MAY just make the show.



Here is a quick and crappy phone video of it so far. Sorry it's so blurry but it's the best I have for now. [media]http://www.youtube.com/user/LRCXed?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/7Gss8lLZL-0[/media]