My CBX1000C Restore Project

[heli_madken]

I am not going to be able to do any real work on this bike for over a year as I am moving house next week and will have my time taken up with the new home.

In the meantime I thought I would have a go at repairing the damaged fairing and tidy up the tank and side panels. The fairing had a nasty crack around the right side mounting point, when I got the fairing removed pieces fell everywhere -

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I believe these fairings are ABS and finding a glue or resin to fix them can be troublesome so I dont try. I have had success in the past using a good quality acetone which melts the ABS and welds the joint rather than gluing it. Started out by holding the pieces in place and wicking in some acetone, a few seconds and they will stick -

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Then I used some plasticard covered in tape and vaseline as supports to make up the missing bits using car body filler -

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Once sanded to shape I covered the whole area with 3 layers of 25g fibre glass cloth held in place just with acetone which is worked in hard to melt the fairing material up through the cloth. This is here really just to stop the cracks showing through the paint, not much strength is added -

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Then on the back of the faring I used a single layer of 100g woven cloth again applied just with acetone. for added security I brushed on a layer of super thin CA -

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Thankfully Honda designed this fairing to be non load-bearing (unllike Vetter fairings for instance) so I am confident this repair will hold. A coat of primer to see how it all looks -

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The tank gave me a fight, the area below the filler is quite rusty and the tank appeared to be full of crud. I am not sure what this was, it did not smell like old petrol and was too dense to be that anyway, perhaps something added to prevent rusting, not sure. Washed out what I could then left it for a week with a strong mix of caustic soda. This got rid of the crud mostly but I have to use some acetone and a few boiling hot washes before I was happy that the tank was clean. I then used some spirits of salts to kill off the rust followed by some phosphoric acid washed out with acetone. As soon as this was dry I swilled around some MMO and put in some petrol containing HEET anti water treatment.

After this I stripped the tank right back to bare metal, applied an etch primer and a couple of coats of 2K primer.

The plastics where stripped back, a couple of cracks in the lower fairings repaired again using acetone, a coat of plastic primer applied again followed by 2K primer. She looks a lot tidier now and so I can stare happily over the next year or so -

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Unfortunately try as I could curing the overflow leak from number 5 carb is beyond me. I tried two different forms of carb cleaner, penetrating fluid and WD40 plus some shots of compressed air and it still floods. Either the floats are very stuck, damaged or perhaps the overflow tube is cracked.

In any case I found the lack of ignition cause on number 6 was a bad HT lead, once replaced I ran the bike for a very short while, wow does she sound good.

One problem I spotted when the bike arrived was a torn headlight rubber, does anyone know of a source for a replacement or am I going to have to fabricate something to keep the outer glass cover in place? -

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Thats it for a while hopefully I will get the bike safely to bonny Scotland!

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Excellent work on the fairing repair.

Work on the new house before working on the bike?
Where are your priorities?

[daves79x]

The fairing repair is just excellent! You will be quite proud of your bike when you're able to finish.

Dave

[AshishNJ]

Didn’t know just acetone could glue the fiberglass to body

[heli_madken]

Thanks Dave

AshishNJ, acetone will only work on ABS fairings, for a fiberglass fairing I would do the same thing but with epoxy resin.

Ken

[AshishNJ]

Good to know. Thanks

[Syscrush]

Beautiful work, and a very helpful tip on the ABS repair!

Good luck to you and the bike in Scotland.

[heli_madken]

Hi Everyone,

Just checking in to let you know this project isn't forgotten. Safely ensconced here in Scotland and happy as Larry for such a beautiful place I have come too.

I have a few months work on the house/garden yet before I can get to my CBX but I am still thinking and planning the work ahead.

One element that I have been dreaming about is the SuperTrapp exhaust. The right hand down pipes and muffler are damaged, I cant quite fathom out what has happened to the muffler it looks like the bike has tipped over onto something and slid a little, there are no signs on the rest of the bike that it has been in a crash.

Apologies for the picture quality, main damage is at the rear of the muffler, thankfully it is mostly on the underside -

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Some heavy scratching further along -

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And a ding on the down pipes -

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The thing is I can buy a new exhaust but the quality of the stainless steel SuperTrapp system with the ability to tune the sound makes me want to try and save them. The left exhaust is perfect, true that currently they look very dirty and are a satin finish but I know with some work I can remove this and polish to a high shine, already tried a section as an experiment.

So what are peoples opinions? there are specialist companies in the UK that claim they can remove dents in exhausts but is this damage too severe?

The only way I can see being able to smooth out the rear damage is to cut the muffler open and remove the baffle then dress out the damage. The heavy scratches may tone down with some sanding. The ding may pull out and isnt too bad I dont think.

One plus point is that the only time the damage will truly be seen is from a distance or when the bike is on the side stand.

Any suggestions or opinions? I dont suppose anyone has a right SuperTrapp muffler to sell?

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

The dent in the header pipe doesn't look too bad at all.
I've seen videos of heat being applied and the dent being pushed out from the inside. Muffler shop should be able to handle that.

[heli_madken]

Thanks Steve, I am beginning to think the muffler itself is beyond saving. I did try writing to SuperTrapp to see if they had an old stock but no luck.

At last I have some time to start this project properly so I am currently stripping everything down, assessing and cataloging.

I knew the rear part of the frame was twisted but its actually worse than I thought -

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It looks like the right side has had an upwards blow which in turn has pulled the left part of the frame over to the right. I have checked and front/rear wheel alignment is fine so damage is only to this part of the frame. Just trying to come up with a strategy to straighten it, any ideas short of brute force?

Not sure what could have caused this the right pannier is not damaged neither is the rack, wondering if its happened whilst in transit over here.

[Syscrush]

any ideas short of brute force?

You probably know this, but I'm just here to say that not all brute force is the same. In the bicycle world, it's common practice to "cold set" a frame when there's a need to change the spacing where the rear wheel goes. It's a fancy name, but it just means bending it with care until the dimension is exactly right.

Back in the motorcycle world, there's a (niche) industry of frame straighteners who set up jigs and use lasers to measure for correct dimensions and locations of key frame pickup points. They're not doing any magic to get frames straight - they're bending them back until they're right.

I would suggest that you give all of the tubing and stamped sections a very careful look for dents or cracks - if you don't find any, you should be OK to just bend it back.

[heli_madken]

Thanks for your help.

I have done some careful measuring today and I can see where the damage has taken place highlighted here, thankfully there are no cracks or severe dents -

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Not very clear but the gusset is creased upwards a little and you can see that the handrail fixing is not square to the centre line of the frame. My plan is to get the frame bare and on its side. Apply some heat to this area then use a trolley jack as a scissor off the other side of the frame to push it outwards. Then apply some force to the other frame rail to straighten everything. If I cant do it then I may have to get some professional help but it will be difficult in this remote area.

Some good news, I managed to get the baffle out of the damaged muffler so I may be able to dress the dents out now -

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Everything else is going well, I have the battery box and all the electrical ancillaries off just working my way around the bike getting ready to drop the engine

[Syscrush]

You'll want to consult with an expert, but I would advise against applying heat. Doing that could anneal the frame and leave it much more prone to bending again in the future. If you want or need to use heat to get it bent back into the correct shape, then you may want to heat treat it afterwards - I don't know about the logistics of doing that as a DIY project.

[heli_madken]

Thanks Phil thats great advice. I dont think I had it in my mind to heat the tubing to an annealing level just to make it more malleable then the right section of the frame so it would move but perhaps this wont work. I could maybe strengthen the right tube by welding a section of steel to it temporarily whilst I jack the left tube into place.

I think this is going to be a case of trial and error until I get it right.

I am hoping to be in a position to remove the motor on Saturday, then I can look some more at my options.

[Syscrush]

I am hoping to be in a position to remove the motor on Saturday, then I can look some more at my options.

You'll also be better able to asses the condition of the frame once the motor is out. It could have tweaks elsewhere, too, that are being held in proper alignment by the motor.