The International CBX Owners Association

Thanks for your quick answer I will report back with my result (or lack of result:)

Hello and happy 22.

I got some work done over the holiday, mainly on the engine blocks. I also got me a zink plating kit that i have experimeted with, with both good and bad result.

And let me not forget the valve cover, it can make a grown man cry I have made the base work and it is starting to look good.
So got me a soda blaster, (thanks Nils) it helped a lot by getting into all the hard to get to places. The halves are now almost ready for paint. I have tried the paint on some smaller pieces first to see how it will hold up. When i have painted the cases the engine will start to come together.

The cylinders and head is at a local vapour blaster. I didnt now it but he is just 15 minutes away from me. In hindsight i should have got there with the blocks also but better late then never.

I tried the soda blaster to the head but the color was so tough that it would have taken forever with my (probably to small) air comp. The cylinder was 70% clean but it was hard to get everything clean. I will get these parts back next week.

And my zink plating career had a rough start
Before the actual plating i put the bolts etc in to acid to take away the rust and grime. Here is the exhaust flanges (in lack of a better word)

Before pic:
followed up by a failed plating. I waited to long to get them in the bath and they flashrusted on me, i wont make that mistake again.
Last is the pic of the finished plate job, these were after zinkplating dipped in to a yellow phosphate.
If the surface was better from the beginning i think they would look like new. The picture doesn’t do it justice, the yellow, gold is more obvius in real life. Note the flange in the back. The parts are supposed to be in the yellow phospate for 2 minutes. This one i found when i emptied the bucket som 15 min later….

I also plated the exhaust nuts (??) and some engine bolts. Think they turned out pretty good.
And at last my super duper f..k up
I put a lot of bolts and nuts into the acid, what i didnt now was that one of the bolts that hold the oil hose between the block and the head has an alu insert……

Acid and alu is a no go

Here is the bolt before:
And after:
I guess i have to contact Louis again…

A new insert could be made in a lathe and pressfitted in to the old bolt but a dont now if i will take that risk on a 20euro bolt on this bike.

Also the zinkplating looks kind of dull but with a brass brush they got som shine to them. I have come to the conclusion that its better to plate fewer (??) parts then to load it up to the max. The result is then much better.

I would like to have seen my own face when a took said bolt up from the acid

Hope you got some laughs

I have a question also, how do you experienced boys plan a resto?

My initial plan was to take care of the engine first then the forks, brakes, fram etc. But when i am on a standstill with the engine i am hesitant to start with something new because i dont want to start on a lot of objects and then never finish one. (Wich i sort of already have done:)

Do you strip the whole bike down to pieces? I can se the ups with having the frame done and start to bolt on ready parts.

Thanks Marten

Martin you are not the first guy on this forum to have done that!!!

I encourage everyone to GOOGLE or ask here before you do any processes or procedures that you are unfamiliar with. There is a couple 100 yrs of experience on this forum for Stock and modified CBX CBX’s!

A new insert could be made in a lathe and pressfitted in to the old bolt but a dont now if i will take that risk on a 20euro bolt on this bike.

The aluminum crush washers for sealing the oil hose bolts are widely available

Thanks Hondaman

Clarification: I knew from searching the web with GOOGLE that alu and acid dont match, i didnt know there was an alu insert in the bolt.

There are a few other things you may use around restoration and service that you have to be careful with exposing aluminum to. Simple Green and rust remover come to mind.

Anything with phosphoric acid in it will not play well with aluminum! Many 'cleaning' solutions use phosphoric. Great cleaner. BUT........

Marten wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:55 am

Thanks Hondaman

Clarification: i didnt know there was an alu insert in the bolt.

That’s my point, you are not the first one to find that out too late, most people who have restored to the point of your restoration know about the insert!

Got some work done.
Kind of hard to line up the cams, but with a lot of google and Peter Rose youtubechannel i solved it. Waiting for a stud to be able to get the valve clearence job done.

WOW, Marten, that is a lot of progress. The engine looks fantastic!

Thank you Nils, i can say that i have also used your facebook page for extremely good rebuild guides.

Stud came in the other day, and i got to start the valve clearence work. Peter Rose and the factory manual is always by my side (well maybe not Peter but his youtube channel) when i doing work at my cbx.

Now i have googled and read on this forum about valve clearence. I now i should be shooting for 0,13 mm. But i got som questions anyhow.

All my valves are lapped and the seats are cut.

i have used the factory manual shim replace diagram, and almost all intake valves will then be 0,10.

My thinking is that i should go for 0,15 as my valves will get seated and the clearence will get tighter. Right or wrong?

Ex valves i will get almost everyone to 0,13mm (didnt follow the honda diagram to strictly here) but some will land on 0,11 or (with one step thinner shim) 0,16. Should i go as big as that?

Here is my homemade valve shart. I dont got a printer and are not so good with computers so thats the reason i dont use the valve sharts on this page.

I have encircled the proposed shim sizes and left out the ones i asked about and also left one that alreday is at 0,14mm.

You asked early on about the cam spec and I didn't see an answer (or your final decision). It does sound like someone swapped in the cam from another year. In practical terms, this doesn't matter. It will have less effect on power than day-to-day variations in weather, and it will have no noticeable effect on driveability. So, the question for you is if your only concern are those practical matters, or having it "correct". This is a personal and subjective decision.

Anyhow, it looks like you're doing great work here - can't wait to see more!

Syscrush wrote: ↑

Tue May 31, 2022 10:20 am

You asked early on about the cam spec and I didn't see an answer (or your final decision). It does sound like someone swapped in the cam from another year. In practical terms, this doesn't matter. It will have less effect on power than day-to-day variations in weather, and it will have no noticeable effect on driveability. So, the question for you is if your only concern are those practical matters, or having it "correct". This is a personal and subjective decision.

Anyhow, it looks like you're doing great work here - can't wait to see more!

Thanks for the feedback!! Then i am happy to run them as is

The paintwork on the engine looks great! This whole thread is full of good work.

Thank you!

I have finished the valve clearence work and also this piece is ready to go

Before: After: Almost to shiney when i look at oroginal cbx photos but i am happy.

Also got me some controls ready:

Before: After: Before: After: I used Nils smoke trick:) I used some Lucky Strikes that i had. But first i cleaned up the controls with som cleaner and then a grey scothbrite, finished up with som silicon cleaner.

I searches for the SEM paint Nils used but nowone sells it in Sweden so i tried VHT bumper spray. I think they came out great.

To lay the orange paint with a smoke was pretty hard:)
If i took to much paint i ruined it, if i pressed the smoke oh so little i ruined it and if i got out of angle i ruined it

Ended up painting one of the controls with the VHT paint one more time, the rest of my smoke mistakes i could fix up with some aceton.

I am happy with the end result, its not perfect but…

The stop switch i polished with Meguairs polish that Peter Rose recomends, PA button polished with Mothers back to black.

Today i got som plating done: Kind of hard to get that nice surface but with some polish or/and ha wirebrush its ok:

No befores here:(
Before:
After: Sorry for my bad english, and for not getting the pictures at the right angle.

Marten