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Restoring the streetbike

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 8:42 pm
by NightBiker07
its a 1980 Honda CX500. i get a LOT of looks and questions with this bike. EVERYONE notices it, and the sideways cylinders, and pretty much the whole thing in general. its definitely an antique now, and it runs like a fuckin CHAMP. figured best thing i can do is repaint it and make sure it is still mechanically sound all around. All my buddies diss on it cause its not a Harley, but when we go somewhere, even in its ragged state, people always ask ME about MY bike.
I have already converted the mechanical fan to an electric fan, controlled by a 170 degree thermostatic switch. If you own one of these bikes, it is HANDS DOWN the best upgrade you can do.


here it is before
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Labeling the harness plugs as i disassemble
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minus seat, tank, grab bar
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Minus the radiator and motor
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color scheme gets decided tomorrow. was going to paint it with auto paint, but with being such small parts, i can get just as good a finish out of a Spray bomb job.

deciding between red/black, yellow/black, yellow/purple, and black/green. it all is going to depend on the shades of colors i find. i want something different that stands out, hence the yellow/purple. a few cars ive seen that are yellow/purple based look killer, so i think in a bike it would be sweet, provided i can find appropriate shades.

any suggestions or criticism is welcomed!

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 9:26 pm
by JBaze
Thats sweet man. I love to see people hanging on to the older bikes. I have a Yamaha VStar 1300 and all the Harley guys here talk to me until they find out its a Yami then they'll leave me alone. Really piss's em off when they ask to borrow a tool and all I have are metric! Are you painting the frame too?

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 11:09 pm
by NightBiker07
JBaze wrote:Thats sweet man. I love to see people hanging on to the older bikes. I have a Yamaha VStar 1300 and all the Harley guys here talk to me until they find out its a Yami then they'll leave me alone. Really piss's em off when they ask to borrow a tool and all I have are metric! Are you painting the frame too?
yes. most everything will get painted one color or another.

Posted: February 20th, 2010, 2:13 am
by CR500R7
Cool, I have never even seen one of them before.

I am sure you will come up with a good color decision.

Posted: February 20th, 2010, 5:11 am
by Joshwfl
I vote for black and orange like the CB F's
Silver and blue would look sweet too
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Posted: February 20th, 2010, 5:23 pm
by NightBiker07
Well, here she is down to the frame
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Swinger primed
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Center stand finished.
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ran into problems with the swinger while i was spraying....nothing ever goes smoothly!

Posted: February 20th, 2010, 6:08 pm
by Joshwfl
How well do you think the spray bomb job will hold up? For example, the center stand. I would think that over time your boot would rub/scrape it off fairly quickly.

Posted: February 20th, 2010, 7:50 pm
by NightBiker07
Joshwfl wrote:How well do you think the spray bomb job will hold up? For example, the center stand. I would think that over time your boot would rub/scrape it off fairly quickly.
wherever contact is frequent, i expect the paint to rub off. i would expect this with auto grade paint. so it might have lasted 20 more bumps, so what?
cant afford P/C right now.

i do, however expect the rest of the job to hold up quite well. i ride this thing, so i expect it to wear down some.

Posted: February 21st, 2010, 5:17 am
by CR500R7
Well that should definitely stand out from the crowd. :wink:

Keep up the fluro work. :cool:

Posted: February 21st, 2010, 11:34 am
by Joshwfl
Seriously! What color did you decide for the tank?

Posted: February 21st, 2010, 12:22 pm
by JBaze
Watching this makes me want to grab this old CB750K this dude has for like 400, and do a little restore. I like the brilliant colors shows character.

Posted: February 21st, 2010, 2:30 pm
by NightBiker07
tank will be Black, with a couple custom Monster stickers laid under the clear, same with the side panels.

the stickers will be a green chrome.

Posted: February 27th, 2010, 3:24 pm
by NightBiker07
Frame done

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tonight or tomorrow, I will be re-installing the swingarm and kickstand, then it will slowly get re-assembled, painting and cleaning pieces along the way

Posted: February 27th, 2010, 8:56 pm
by Joshwfl
:ride: Lookin good!

Posted: February 27th, 2010, 10:31 pm
by NightBiker07
More progress tonight

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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 8:13 pm
by NightBiker07
I got the decals a few days ago. here they are. the big one is fo the top of the tank, the 2 Monster's are for the sides, and the 2 smaller M's are for the side panels. all decals will go over a black base, underneath the clear coat. the second pic is what the material looks like........its like SEX, the pic doesnt do it justice.
Stay tuned for the gauges.....i already have the plates mailed off to my guy to work his magic. I will be mailing 9 parts out to be polished. that will halt most assembly until I get the carbs back. In the meantime, i will be cleaning parts, and painting small pieces.


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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 10:13 pm
by NightBiker07
Got some parts polished....100 bucks for all of it, he was having a 25% off sale through the middle of march.

Before and after
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 10:18 pm
by CR500R7
VERY SPIFFY! :wink:

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 10:20 pm
by JBaze
Looks great man

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 11:13 pm
by NightBiker07
The guy's known on 3WW as GKing Polishing.
Ill post him up in the product review section.

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 7:47 am
by dannygraves
very :cool: !
I had a '76 cb750 that I was going to build a cafe racer out of, but the wife convinced me to sell it. I really wish I would have kept it especially now that I'm moving much further from work, would have made a killer DD. I'm liking the color scheme, matches one of mine :lol: :wink:

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 9:14 am
by NightBiker07
dannygraves wrote:very :cool: !
I had a '76 cb750 that I was going to build a cafe racer out of, but the wife convinced me to sell it. I really wish I would have kept it especially now that I'm moving much further from work, would have made a killer DD. I'm liking the color scheme, matches one of mine :lol: :wink:
Thats what im shooting for :D

Posted: March 12th, 2010, 7:38 pm
by NightBiker07
Heres the tach. the green will be identical to the decals above.

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Posted: March 12th, 2010, 7:56 pm
by CR500R7
:o That looks FRICKEN unreal! :cool:

Posted: March 12th, 2010, 8:06 pm
by dannygraves
linkie no workie :?