Restoring '99 5th gen

Hey all,

Just picked up a new to me 1999 VFR for an absolute steal and I'm hoping to restore it to its former glory.

Could anyone offer some tips on repairing the pitted aluminium as shown in the pictures attached?

Also if anyone could advise me as to where I could get a set of pillion grab handles that would be ace.

Cheers

 

I think you'll find most if not all of those parts are painted; certainly the triples and footrests are.

Looks like the grab handles are available new, not sure about costs the West Island, but I gave up supporting my local Honda dealer/importer when it came to parts, as they weren't carrying local stock but charged like they were. So I now use Partzilla in the US.

 

So just sand it down and respray?

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look.

 

Bet zoom zoom has some input on getting those bits back to looking great.


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If powder is the way to go might get the lot done when I do the wheels.

Also the bike feels like it's 'falling' into corners, I read it could be poorly adjusted suspension or a squared of rear tire, tire looks fine to me though: http://imgur.com/1Fffhye

 

Pretty much any speed at the slightest lean, the bars pull into the turn, it's quite unsettling coming from my track prepped R3. I find it much harder to pull out of the turn than enter it.

I am planning on doing the 929 shock swap as soon as I can find one and get the bracket fabricated.

As far as the forks go I'm tossing up between doing a front end swap or just re-springing the stock forks, any suggestions either way?

 

I'd be wary of leaping to any conclusions until you put a set of decent tyres on the bike. In my experience worn tyres will give all sorts of odd behaviour. The other thing to check would be steering head bearings as if these are notched or over tight, weird handling will result.

If you want to keep the linked brakes then fixing up the springs and dampers in the stock forks is a good plan. Aside from a lack of external damping adjusters, the reworked fork can work just as well as any replacement. Race tech or Daugherty Motorsports can supply the necessary bits. The latter also offers a rebuilt 929 shock that is a direct bolt in, spring and valved to suit you.


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Have the sprocket, chain, swing arm and rim a good scrub, pretty sure the PO never cleaned them:

I'm still deciding on the fence about the linked brakes, they stop good but it's taking a bit of getting used to.

Daugherty is from the US right? Shipping would probably kill me, seeing as I'm from down under. Probably much cheaper to buy a shock and have the work done here.

 

As far as the slightly crusty looking bits:

Wasn't someone on here showing off parts that had been "Vapor Blasted"? IIRC, they looked brand new!

 

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/49489-Vapor-blasting-service

Wow this looks incredible! Gives an amazing finish, I'll have to add it to my to-do list.

 

Nice... yes I'd go tires and then from that start looking at the suspension, Not that you haven't checked, tire pressure will be a factor if not on top of it, then add in abnormal wear. i'd look for around the 34-36 psi for starters, but play around to see how it works, easy enough to do. WFIW I run 33f 34 r. But yes suspension bits is huge with the VFR. Enjoy, you're off on a good start

 

Out of town for a few days now so tires will have to wait until I'm back, I was thinking a pair of pr4s of Pirelli angels maybe.

Also ordered a really nice condition 929 rear shock so looking forward to getting that mounted. Then it will be on to forks, hydro blasting, exhaust paint and touching up the fairings.

Bloody great bike I have to say, super pleased with it so far!

 

As most have suggested, getting the parts powder coated or painted is likely the easiest way to go. The only thing you might have difficulty getting re-painted or powder coated is the fuel cap. If you don't mind a bit of work and something different, you could try polishing the gas cap. The fuel cap winds up looking something like this. The cap on my friends bike looked badly scuffed from the PO using a tank bag, so he asked me to polish it for him. Total time taken was about 3 hours. I sanded the part with 400, 800, 1200, 2000 grit sand paper and then wet sanded it 5000 grit. After that I polished to a sheen using a sewn cotton buff on a rotary polisher. You could use a power drill here with the cotton buff or even by hand. I used red Tripoli (jewellers rouge) on the buff and it worked great. Here is a link to the Caswell Plating site as a means of reference for the polishing. Just click on the polishing supplies link in the page and you can download a free PDF on metal polishing tips and tools.

http://www.caswellplating.com/



On a side note, I do have a set of passenger grab handles for sale. If you're intereted, shoot me a PM and I'll see if I can figure out a cost for shipping. The box isn't that big so shipping might not be to ridiculous.

 

That came out very nice, don't mind a bit of sanding so this looks like the way to go.

I'll definitely shoot you a pm for those handles, can't find any in Australia.

 

On the topic of exhaust cleaning I believe the stock exhaust is just standard steel, not stainless. Most of the guides I've found are for stainless pipes soooo any advice?

 

I polished the pipes after I got the bike as well, but they weren't terribly corroded. I used roughly the same process as the gas cap and I think the pipes are stainless though I'm not sure. My bike does not have the stock header, or at least so I have discovered, as it should have a catalytic converter but does not. The pipe looks very similar to the 98-99 catless headers but it is fitted with O2 sensor bungs. Not sure what kind of material it is but I was able to remove the slight surface corrosion with a red scotch bright pad and then I polished the pipes with brown tripoli and a sewn cotton buff attached to a drill. Personally I would see about getting them ceramic coated if I had the choice to do over again. polishing the pipes was a huge PITA and though they still look reasonable, the shine didn't last long. LOL

 

Yeah I'm thinking ceramic coating is the way to go, I really liked the look of an exhaust wrap on a streetfighter 800 I saw, seems to be a lot of disagreement over the dangers of exhaust wrapping though :/

 

Just wanted to say a big thanks to Zoom Zoom who sold me his grab handles for a very reasonable sum. Cheers mate!