Restoring an old friend

Well, I'm new here... But I thought this would be a good place to start.

I decided to restore my old friend after rescuing her from my daughter's delinquent boyfriend.

Short story, I bought a brand new VFR750F in 1986. Loved the bike... Traveled all over Ontario with friends, camping... Just having a great time. Between then and 1990 I changed a few things. Full braced swing arm, GSRX INVERTED FORKS, matching GSXR wheels... To make things fit I had to mess around with things... For example relocate the battery. What can I say, I was young. I thought I knew what I was doing... Luckily I saved all the old parts.

Flash forward 20 years... I decide to give the bike to my daughter's boyfriend.... Yeah. I know what you're thinking... I'm older but not much smarter. So six years later, I want it back... he was supposed to help me with some patio work in exchange. Never happened... Yeah... Not much smarter.

So I get the bike back... First off... He lost the key, the inside of the tank is rusted, there is a massive mouse nest in the air box, mouse pee in the carbs, the alunimum parts looks like they were exposed to salt.

So I'm now stripping her down and cleaning parts. Oh... He removed parts and lost the bolts... Know the little clips that hold the fairing together... He didn't return them... eBay... $30. Ordered a bunch of bolts and parts from partzilla... Still a work in progress, but getting there.

Also... He couldn't start it after 6 years, which turned out to be a good thing mind you.... I had her going in 20 minutes. It's rough and idles like shit. But it was running after I changed the oil, rad fluid, spark plus and hooked up a funnel to a new filter to pour in gas as she idled.

I'm much smarter NOW... take care of what you love. You may not be as lucky as me.

Cheers.

 

Photos or it's not happening.

Welcome aboard and good luck!

 

Lol.. Sure I'll do that tomorrow. Kind of dark now. I want to sell the swing arm and inverted fork and wheels so I should take some pics before I covert back to stock.

Thanks for the welcome

 

Wow what a story. Its good ta see your goin to bring her back from the dead. Can't wait to see the thread expand...oh picture are a must throughout the build please.
Oh and WELCOME



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As promised here are some pics. My camera went weird and converter to BW..not sure... some pic have red streaks... so I'm not sure.

I plan on removing the sub-frame and having it powder coated. I have a DIY kit from sears that I can do small parts with. So I'll remove those too and powder coat them.

I don't expect to get this done right away. I'm not in a rush. I also plan on powder coating the cases the same color as the originals. I haven't been able to find anyone that does the original paint.

While it did start and run on it's own, the carbs leaked from the rear overflow and the idle was rough. I'm going to pull tem and send them to Billy C for a PRIMO carb rebuilt. I rebuilt them myself around 2000 but I think it deserves more than I can give her.

I'll also be pulling the stock pipes on... yeah... I kept them for 30 years and numerous moves. They are in good shape... they still bear the scuff marks where I slide along the polished pavement of a parking garage What do people normally do to restore the cans? They seem like stainless steel... do you paint or polish? Or do nothing?

I'll take some better pictures as I move along .. will probably sell the racing parts. So if you are around Toronto... message me. They will be bolt on to a 86-87 VFR

 

Here's a scan of a Polaroid I took of her back in 1986. Yup... I was 25 and young. I know... the young guys are thinking... just another or fart reminiscing about the past... LOL. But this bike outlasted 2 marriages and a number of girlfriends... so who can say that!

BTW... the hard part of this rebuild will be getting the old plastic to look new. Anyone have any suggestions? I found a set of decals on eBay but don't know what they are like. Anyone have experience removing the old decals on these? I heard you should heat them with a hair dryer... but they look like they have clear coat on top so I'm not sure if this will work.

 

Looks like the bike has great bones. Why though are you getting rid of the hotted up parts? Nothing wrong in my opinion with some nice period correct mods.

 

I have it in my mind to put it back to when I first bought it. More of a "old fart" nostalgic thing. Plus I lost a few things when I did it. For example, when I did the race swing arm I had to move chop the inner fender, move the battery to between the sub frame bars and bolt the rectify to the fender. With the front end... I lost the inner fairing covers. Not a big deal in that case.

 

I like the race bits, but I can understand you wanting to bring it back to original, as its a classic/antique now.

 

Welcome aboard my friend, It seams like we have similar taste, i have a 86 vfr750f with gsxr parts.
Mine is down right now I had the frame a swing arm and a few other pieces chromed and now figuring out what paint i want. I be watching how your progress goes. Tim (speed)

 

Nice rescue!! Your old setup is what I wanted until I restored mine completely last month. I hope you have fun getting her back to original. Ed

 

Thanks. I thought about it for a while. Which is probably why I never threw our or sold the old parts.

 

Thanks for a great story. I owned a couple of VFR700's and miss them, still the best paint scheme for a stock VFR IMO.

Personally I wouldn't be in a hurry to replace the "race parts". With those, you have access to all the good modern radial tyres, decently stiff forks (what were Honda thinking when they fitted 37mm forks to those?) and plenty of adjustability to make the ride match your intended use. Your call of course, but unless you were entering a restoration contest I would just refurbish those parts to match the colours of the originals.

 

Admittely I do like the swing arm... and the invert forks are cool. But the biggest problem is there is no place to put the overflow bottle and the battery. If there was an extremely small lithum battery I wasn't aware of I could maybe make it work.

 

Swapped out the swing arm to stock today. I was amazed at how easy it was and that I had all the parts still. what was nice how everything fit together so nicely. I had a chance to clean everything. I couldn't put a clean swing arm in a dirty frame

The rear wheel has also been cleaned. First time in 30 years. These wheels were always hard to keep clean!

Found where the heat shield went. I wanted to paint it but didn't have time.

Had to pull apart a 30 year old caliper. Soaked it in evapo-rust just in case then popped out the Pistons with compressed air. I was surprise at how relatively clean they were. No pitting or rust. Just a little gunk that made them stick. Will clean them and pop them back in. The seals look good still. I am continually amazed by this technology. It just lasts. I read last night that the motor is considered bullet proof... I believe it!




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Starting to look better, I was so close to getting one back then too. Where in the Toronto area are you?

 

I'm actually in Markham, outside Toronto. But few people know where that is.

 

I thought I'd give everyone an update.

I pulled the stock front calipers off the stock front end. They haven't been used or on the big for 25 years. I actually thought they would be ok. But they were seized. Not sure where the front end was stored for the 6 years I didn't have the bike. But it was in a dry heated garage when I had them.

Anyway, they were seized. I was enventually able to pop the calipers from one set with compressed air after soaking in degreaser for 24 hours. The other won't budge. Stone solid seized.

Try air, soaking, heating.... Nothing worked.

So I did some research on the Internet and saw this trick to hook up a grease gun. I thought that would be really messy, but I didn't have a choice. I bought a gun with min of 10,000 psi, 8mm grease nibbles.

Plugged the hose hole with a bolt and pumped some grease in there.
First one moved, then the other. I had to hold one in place with a c clamp to get the other started. Eventually got them out.

It worked!

The clean up wasn't bad. Wiped away the majority of it them used compressed air to blow out the rest. It's now soaking in degreaser. Plan to use an ultrasonic cleaner to remove the dirt and corrosion.

The pistons were in good shape. No pitting... Just some sticky stuff. The top seals are messed up, and there was corrosion around these seals... The bore looks good.


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The bike is in bits and pieces. Hope I remember where everything goes... I just finished rebuilding the rear master cylinder. The clip spring was all gummed up and it was leaking. I changed the seals and cleaned everything. While I was at it, I stripped the black paint and left the raw alunimum. I then cleaned it in a cheap ultrasonic cleaner with two cups of simple green HD PRO.

Turned out well I think. The cleaner was the best $136 I spent. It's a 10 liter unit.




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Nice job, I have a pair of (no shameless plug for tool makers) Mac internal cir-clip pliers with knurling on the ends, I think they were designed for working on transmissions, anyway, its a nice way to grab the inside of the piston and rotate it. Did the grease gun thing as well as air, if your patient and got a touch, using the master with a pair of clamps can coax these things out of the bores. More pictures to come pull-ezzz.