1994 RVF400R Build Project

Discussion in 'Mechanics Garage' started by NorcalBoy, Nov 7, 2018.

  1. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    A quick point to notice:
    the mass of soda is basically nothing this means that anything not in the path of the jets is pretty safe. It will still go everywhere ! but without the mass to damage anything.
    Mask up the bike well - I just used standard masking tape & plastic sheeting.
    If you put it in a large plastic sheet you just grab the corners after you finished & tip it into a bin.. Then hose down.
     
  2. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    I remember him at Wembley Stadium in 75 or rather his crash.. - He was a breed apart from most people..
     
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  3. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    My pops took me to see him at the Cow Palace in South San Francisco when I was kid.....it didn't go well.....
     
  4. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Worked on another piece of the puzzle today too, the rear fender....it needed a little massaging

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    It was looking pretty raspy, so I carefully removed the OEM heat shielding as best I could....ended up with this little gem, which I could use as a basis for a template

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    At least it gave me something to work from.....I then cleaned up all the old adhesive and mess from the plastic.

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    Using Thermotec 2000* adhesive backed heat barrier..I created a new piece, creating the missing parts of the template. Took a little bit of patience to get the template recreated in cardboard, transferred onto the material, cut out, aligned, and applied without any bubbles or buckled areas. It's a lot of complex bends...but, in the end, I think it turned out decent. I also drilled out all of the old rivets to remove the nasty corroded ones and cleaned up the pieces that were attached. Didn't have small enough rivets, so I'll have to grab those tomorrow. I also need a new piece of rubber to recreate the flap...it is pretty knackered and needs to be replaced.

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    More to come tomorrow....
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2019
  5. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Yesterday I had good weather and started attacking the engine cleaning...which I wasn't looking forward to doing...It was time to test out the new portable soda blasting setup...

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    Set it up and went to town...it does make a little bit of a mess, but the end result was better than I expected....the engine wasn't looking so good when I started, but it turned out a lot better than I expected.

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    With that done, I started in on stripping off the engine covers, water pump, and shifter cover so that stuff could go out for vapor blasting and powdercoating. Started with the water caps and pipes....

    This is what I found under the caps....not so good, LOL

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    O-rings were toast and hard as a rock, had to dig them out.

    Once the caps were off, I went about getting everything cleaned up. Looking much better now. I have a new, complete, replacement cooling system, luckily. The caps went off to the vapor blaster to get refurbished.

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    Next I pulled all the left side engine covers. The shifter cover, water pump cover, and the sprocket cover are all getting vapor blasted, along with the caps. Time to scrape gaskets and do some cleaning....not my favorite, but necessary.

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    I have found these two devices make this job tolerable, 1.) Used hacksaw blade, sharpened with a grinder, makes the best gasket scraper there is. It holds an edge, is just the right width, and the teeth give you something to hold onto. 2.) pneumatic rotary tool with Scotchbrite attachments for final clean and polish of the gasket surfaces.

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    Started with the clutch and stator covers, which will be added to the powdercoating pile...

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    Turned out pretty decent. Next attacked the engine itself.

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    Polished all of the engine mounting bosses, ran thread chasers through all of the threads and got it generally ready to be reassembled. Once all the covers come back, it will be time for a valve check, before it gets buttoned up for good and the frame gets bolted back up.

    Glad that's done.....I will have to attack the oil pan, once the engine is back in the frame and suspended of the ground, it's a quick half day thing to get it vapor blasted, just have to do the gasket scraping thing again....

    Tomorrow I will yank the valve covers, clean up anything that needs it, and put those on the powdercoating pile to go out on Monday. The caps were already done this afternoon, so I will pick those up and start putting that back together....which will be a nice change from taking everything apart all the time. I have to manually scrub the water pump, can't be getting abrasives inside that....they don't make them anymore and you can't get OEM parts for them, as it only came as a complete assembly. That's it for yesterday and today.....another busy day tomorrow. Definitely, no shortage of tasks that need to be addressed.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019
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  6. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    are you going to paint 'clear' over the block?
     
  7. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    I don't think so, Mr. Pete. Just going to leave it like it is. I painted it three times yesterday with vinegar to neutralize the caustic effects of the soda, let it sit, wiped it down, and dried it with a heat gun. I used very fine abrasive, the surface is very smooth. Things don't corrode in the desert like they do in Tokyo.
     
  8. Captain 80s

    Captain 80s Member

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    Nice work! You got a bunch of shit accomplished. Heat shield came out really good.

    Check the parts list, but I would expect the oil pan to have an o-ring?
     
  9. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Thanks, Cap. It's a standard gasket. I have one coming from Rick Oliver in the UK, along with new early (smaller) turn signals, emulsion tubes, pilot jets, and float needle valves for the carb rebuild.
     
  10. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Started off the day working on the petcock.

    Started with this

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    Went to work with the trusty rotary tool and got it to this

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    Got down to rebuilding it, new OEM guts and backing plates, ti bolts to hold it all together. Used a little Krytox at the clamping areas to keep the rubbers flexible and fend off any future corrosion at the joints.

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    Ended up with this. I didn't do the HRC mod to disable the vacuum function....still have to get used to turning the gas off again, LOL.

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    Progressed to assembling the lower radiator and fan. Refurbished the terminals, connector, and wiring for the fan. Fabricated a new ground wire and installed a new flag terminal for the fan switch. Soldered all the terminals, covered them with heat resistant covers and sealed it up with adhesive shrink wrap. Previously painted the fan with self etching primer and black engine enamel...after a little scrubbin'.

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    Mounted the fan to the recently powdercoated fan shroud with ti metal lock nuts...yeah, those things. Trust me when I say that isn't rust, LOL, just a little copper anti-seize because of the ti.

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    Got the blade on, routed the wires accordingly, and mounted it all to the new radiator

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    Got out the torque wrench and the high temp thread sealant and installed the new OEM fan switch. I like the Permatex, because it's clear.

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    Finished up with a new OEM mounting rubber and collar, for good measure. Turned out decent

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    Went next to yanking the valve covers off and getting those cleaned up for powdercoating. It's always easier when you aren't screwing around with trying to scrape gaskets off your newly coated covers. I was quite pleased with how clean the inside of the engine is, and the cam lobes looked perfect. I'll take it.

    Front before

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    Front after

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    Breather cover

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    Rear after

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    Now all of the covers are headed out for coating and that's the last of the bits that have to go. Hoping to see some of the bits come back next week, especially interested in the frame and zorst.

    Have a few things to putz with tomorrow, gotta finish up cleaning the water pump. It's almost done, so no big deal there. Going to start bolting some small stuff on the engine, very minor, but I want to pull the cylinder water jacket bolts and drain any residual coolant and install new bolts and sealing washers. Also going to start working on refurbishing the wiring harness, starting with the coil wiring.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2019
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  11. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Started early again this morning...was looking at the engine and realized the starter motor was still needing attention...so I yanked it off and went to town.

    Before

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    After

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    Got it reattached to the engine with a new o-ring and some ti hardware. Also got the cylinders drained and installed new ti plug bolts and washers. Will have to remove one of the bolts on the starter motor at a later time to install one of the Rick Oliver ground kit leads, but I didn't want it just hanging there. The ground kit individually grounds both coils, the starter motor, and the main harness, to assure proper grounding.

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    Next was moving on to finishing the water pump clean up, turned out decent

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    I'm happy to report that is the last of the cleaning nonsense. Necessary evil, but my least favorite part of any used machine build....even more so with a 25 year old machine that wasn't well cared for. Waiting on a couple NTN 1212 needle bearings for the shifter cover and the countershaft cover. Also waiting on Marc at Factory Pro to ship me the shift start, detent arm, and spring so I can start putting that assembly together and get those covers buttoned up. Stator cover is headed to powdercoating tomorrow morning.

    Finished off the day with the assembly of the thermo housing

    Vapor blasted thermo housing, new t-stat, new temp sensor, sealing o-ring, and ti mounting bolts for the cover. Won't mount it up until I have the frame back on the engine.

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    Assembled and torqued up, ready to go

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    After putting in 80 hours on this build this week...gave myself the rest of the day off :Violin:
     
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  12. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    My morning started off great, Captain 80's in the chat box with R1, shooting the shit...great guys, good way to kick off the morning. Headed out to the garage mid-chat and started working on the wiring harness stuff that needs to get going.

    I received the clutch safety switch for my TWM lever over the weekend, so I started with that. Originally, my plan was to be lazy and just bypass the clutch safety aspect, but after thinking about it more, decided not to go forward with that idea. So, I set about installing the tiny little terminals that are needed to hook up to the switch, which meant disassembling the switchgear I worked on last week. Two steps forward, one step back.

    The new clutch switch, tiny little spades on that thing

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    Decided to replace the wire sheathing, along with the terminals

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    So I cracked open the switch again and had to do a little surgery to remove the old sheathing

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    Installed the sheathing and got the shrink wrap ready, then went about crimping and soldering the terminals. I had to be really careful, due to the size of the terminals, and also because I only was provided with two. Got them crimped and soldered, and got the adhesive shrink wrap melted on good.

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    Buttoned it all back up, all while chatting, lol.

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    The next project was reversing some of the horrifying work done by the folks that supposedly have a reputable shop on the East Coast. From what I've seen so far, I would rate their work in negative numbers, their work is shit, basically. I had aftermarket body work installed by them as part of the "refurbishing" they were supposed to do...well, let's just say they burned me for $900 and the fairings were garbage and the fit was laughable. The seller was supposed to ship the OEM body work with the bike, but, he tried to keep it instead. Put that conniving SOB on blast, and he shipped me the fairings, which I received last week....lo and behold, it's in need of cosmetic help, but it is in great shape otherwise...I'll take that as a win and move on. I digress, apologies for ranting.

    When I removed his "custom" fairings, I noticed the lower rear cowl mount was some aborted fucking mess somebody had attempted to fabricate, I originally thought it must have broken during the machines previous life in Tokyo. Boy, was I wrong. When the stock fairings arrived, the OEM mount was on the back of the panel...hmmmmm....then I saw why, the aluminum cowl bolt had seized into the steel nut welded onto the mount, they had tried to get it apart, but couldn't handle it, so they just disconnected it from the engine where it was mounted....fucking idiots. So I went about unfucking the mount and getting it separated from the cowl without damaging it...took a little doing, but, I got it off with no damage

    This is what was left of the fastener, after I drilled off the head and then removed the threads

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    Now, For Your Entertainment!!!!!! This is the OEM mount after cleaning and primering for paint.....and the piece de resistance....their fine fabricated piece

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    I'm saving that poor thing for anytime I need a laugh.

    Next I got all the engine covers cleaned up with degreaser and hot footed over to my coating folks to get them dropped for cerakote. Getting them done in Desert Tan, a little darker than sand, but similar to the Honda HRC color. I like the cerakote, because it is a thin film ceramic coating, like 1 mil thick, not like powdercoating, so you can coat the entire cover and still get all of the seals back in easily and the part won't have any bare metal showing. I only have them mask the gasket surfaces, the threads for the breather cover, and the threads in the clutch cover for the timing plug. Got that done, $225 for all five pieces, takes about a week. They also told me the exhaust cerakote was done, but I told them I would take it when the other bits were finished...which is supposed to be tomorrow afternoon....itching to see the frame, calipers, and bars. Frame in semi-gloss black to hide any scratches, and gloss black for the other bits.

    Went over to Restocycle and picked up some more vapor blasted parts. That is the last of the blasting, just waiting on a few bearings to show up and get pressed in, then I will have the swingarm and the two covers back. The engine is going to Evan Steel Performance this week and they are going to do a thorough check of everything, just to make sure it's all good, before the frame and the engine covers go back on. They will also do the dyno tuning and ignition programming when the machine is completely done.

    Back in the garage, I got to work installing the vapor blasted cooling system caps, OEM o-rings, new coolant hard pipe with new ti bolts to match the rest that will be on the engine...ProBolt Dual Drive, DLC coated

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    While I was busy with that, the nice postman dropped off a package from David Silver spares, so I went about reassembling the rear master

    All new OEM internals

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    Got it all assembled, including the pressure brake switch I wired up a while ago

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    Attached it to the rear set to see how it would look, not bad, if I do say so myself. The vapor blasting really makes these older parts pop.

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    I also received a few little bits I needed to complete the rear caliper assembly, so I decided to just power though it and get it done

    DLC coated titanium pistons, all new OEM seals, rubber bits, and springs, ti slide pins, pad pin, grub plug, bleeder, etc. S3 Racing compound GoldFren pads from my buddy Dave at 1MotoShop.com. Vapor blasting by the boys at Restocycle.

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    Assembly completed

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    Tomorrow is going to be wiring harness day, as I received 4 rolls of gray wire harness wrap, so I will start redoing some terminals, removing terminals from existing connectors for inspection and cleaning, removing the old wrapping and replacing it, and generally getting it cleaned up.....hoping to get that call to come pick up the frame.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2019
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  13. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Spent the better part of the last couple days working on wiring and the wiring harness. Finished up the clutch safety switch and started in on the front brake light circuit.

    Clutch safety completed, new terminals, boots, sheathing

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    OEM terminals and sheathing for front brake light switch

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    New terminals and sheathing for the front brake switch

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    New front brake light terminals at the lever

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    Once the clutch safety switch and front brake light cicuits were completed...started in on the mother of them all....wiring harness.

    Started at the front of the bike, removing the 25 year old factory wrap and inspecting everything. First issue didn't take long, ground wire chafed on the horn circuit.

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    Stripped off the terminals and the sheathing

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    Fixt, one down, who knows how many to go

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    Cleaned every inch of wire with goo gone. Inspected every terminal, every connector, and replaced all of the plug in components, all the relays, the silicon rectifier, and all of the rubber suspension boots. Replaced a lot of the old terminals and boots with parts from Cycle Terminal, soldered all the terminals, and started re-wrapping it with gray OEM harness wrap from Vintage Connections.

    The next issue was when I got to the....wait for it.....white connector for the RR....Crispy crittered

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    Had a Rick Oliver MOSFET RR kit on the shelf, so I cut of the OEM connector and went back to where the wires were in decent shape again and lopped them off.

    Used non insulated butt connectors to join the new wiring and soldered them in, with shrink wrap

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    The finished product, one plug for the three yellow wires, and one for the red and green wires. RR is already wired up and ready to plug and play. Harness re-wrapped to this point. I also decided to just go ahead and order a new stator, so that got done. The entire electrical and ignition system is completely new now, except for the harness and the ignition switch.

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    The next issue was found at the blinker relay wiring. At some point, someone had made three unauthorized taps into the three wires....but they weren't plugged into anything, so I cut them out, and shrink wrapped over the tap locations and wrapped it back up nice and tidy. Then I got to the connector and terminals for the taillight and rear turn signals and found that two, of the three, wires for the taillight were nicked. So I popped them out of the connector and patched them up.

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    Last but not least, replaced all of the fuses in the fuse box and cleaned it up.

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    Everything else checked out fine, so I'm now convinced there won't be any surprises and that the harness is going to be fine for another 25 years, if not more.

    The final product, complete

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    The boss said I could go home, but I stuck around and worked on the sprocket cover. Had it vapor blasted and installed two new NTN HK 1212 needle bearings, seal, clutch lifter and clutch lifter x-ring for the clutch release arm. New return spring for the arm gets in Wednesday....not easy getting that small bottom bearing out.....probably why Honda doesn't even show them on the parts fiche, but when there's a will, there's a way. Action is buttery smooth now.

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    Need to start working on the reproduction rubber engine shields and the flap that keeps spooge off the rear shock for the rear fender. I have ordered some translucent silicone sheet, 40A durometer, 1/16" thick, to make up the engine shields, as it's good up to 500* F, the fender flap is just 50A durometer EPDM.

    I think that's about it for today...need to start getting some parts back from the coating folks and receive a few orders of parts before I can keep going. It's moving a lot quicker than I expected in the garage. Have a few things to post progress on later.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2019
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  14. penak

    penak New Member

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    Following, this looks interesting[​IMG][​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2019
  15. Gator

    Gator Insider

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    I have not checked in on your build in a bit, all I can say is WOW! Nice!
     
  16. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Thank you for the kind words and thanks for taking a gander. :D
     
  17. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Was a pretty slow day today on the project. I have basically worked myself out of stuff to do until some parts start showing up and the plating and coating folks get their shit together.

    The powdercoating folks got the frame, calipers, and bars media blasted today and they are going to be shooting those tonight. The cerakote on the exhaust is done, but I have nothing to bolt it to currently, so I just left it with them and I'll pick it all up at once. Not sure if they have started on the engine covers I dropped off a couple days ago for cerakote....

    https://www.perfectionindustrialfinishing.com/

    The plating folks who are doing all of the plating on the various brackets and stuff will be done by the middle of next week.

    https://www.royalplating.com/about-us

    Dropped the engine off today to the folks that are now going to be tuning for me locally. They are going to give it a good looking over and replace the exhaust studs that were in pretty rough shape. Supposed to start in on it on Monday. Factory Pro got the shift kit sent out today, so as soon as it arrives, I will refurbish the shifting assembly and get it ready to be sealed up....waiting on an NTN 1312 needle bearing from Motion Industries for the shift case cover, which won't be here until the 28th.

    http://evansteelperformance.com/

    I just ordered up a rotor holding tool so I can yank the flywheel off and replace the stator when it gets here. The order is in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for 4 new turn signal assemblies to arrive and then that will ship from the UK. The OEM signal assemblies were pretty well corroded and not worth screwing around with.

    The 2007 VFR8 25th Anniversary tank wings came in today, and this time, they are the right color. The yellow wings for that machine are a good match to the later "RT" paint scheme decals, as the RVF on the side panels is in yellow. Ordered a complete repaint decal set from the UK and going to get all the OEM bodywork resprayed and adding a Tyga Performance one piece single seat cowl, which should get here next week. Tomorrow I will pick up the wings and drop the tank off to my painter, Mr. Don Tromble, so he can get started. Don has a very good reputation in my area for being an excellent paint man. I've seen some of his work, and it's very good. Saw a complete repair and repaint he did on a set of NSR400 bodywork for Restocycle and it was amazing. The man is good.

    http://cycleskins.net/

    Worked on installing a screen on the intake of the Tyga carbon airbox. Used some leftover ti screen I had from the carbon inner cowl I screened earlier.

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    Turned out decent and that should keep any big stuff out of the airbox...just making sure that a wayward rodent doesn't decide to crawl up in there and start setting up a residence, lol.

    Worked up a reproduction flap for the rear fender. Tried to make it as close to an OEM copy as I could.

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    Mr. and Mrs. Diving Pete are helping me out again. I needed 4 mm rivets and backup washers to complete the rear fender refurbishing. Tried to use SAE sized rivets, but that didn't work out so well, either too small to get a good purchase, or too big. Didn't want to drill everything out, wanted to keep it OEM. They were kind enough to source the 4 mm rivets and washers in aluminum, so they wouldn't corrode like the OEM rivets, and they will be sending those to me soon. When they arrive I will get that done. Another big thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Diving Pete!
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2019
  18. Gator

    Gator Insider

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    The thanks go your way for such a detailed build thread. What camera are you shooting the photos with?
     
  19. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Hahahahahahahaha - Motorola Z2 Force cell phone. The images aren't that great after you load them to a hosting service and then resize them, but it gets the point across of what's goin' on, and people love pics.
     
  20. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    I thought today was going to be boring and slow, sitting around waiting.

    Decided to take a good look at the OEM bodywork that's going to the painter next Wednesday. Removed the headlight from the "not made in a decent factory, to any sort of standard" front cowl, no problem, easy enough. Found all the hardware was knackered by the bohemian that installed the fairing set, who apparently doesn't own a JIS screwdriver....but, I got it off and phoned in an order for a new mounting grommet and the 4 special headlight mounting screws. they actually had one in stock, and I was headed that way anyway, so I picked it up. Parts guy is super chill and does a lot of track days and MotoAmerica stuff, so I normally spend way too long shooting the breeze with him, lol.

    Proceeded to check out the OEM upper cowl, sure enough, it was blasted on the inside where the headlight mounted. Apparently, the screws had seized into a single piece with the threaded insert in the fairing, so, they just twisted them out, fucking up everything in the process. Of course they did...at some point I'm going to have to name these folks so you guys know to stay the fuck away from them, but I'm trying to play nice.

    What I found

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    All four mounts looked exactly like that....gonna be kinda difficult to mount the headlight, lol. As you can see, they even blasted the headlight housing, idiots.

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    So, I started thinking about how I was going to unfuck this mess....then it came, epiphany. Mic'd the hole in the fairing, then I mic'd up an M5 rivnut. I could make that work, but the problem with rivnuts, is that the threads start deep in the fitting....

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    So I got out the pencil air grinder and proceeded to remove the flange. This allowed the modified part to be pressed into the the plastic and actually have some grip.

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    Flipping it over and inserting it backwards into the hole in the fairing mount was the answer to my problem. I lightly reamed the hole in the mount until it was just a touch smaller than the o.d. of the rivnut piece, mixed up some two component 3m epoxy and coated the walls of the hole, and a little on the outside of the rivnut, and tapped it in...relief, it worked great.

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    Crisis averted, They had put some cracks in the mounts themselves, so I sealed those up with expoxy as well. Proceeded to do the other 3.

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    Felt good to have them done, decided to check the alignment

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    Worked perfectly, cowl was salvaged. I will let the epoxy cure over night, then I will put a second coat on the exterior of the mounts, just to make sure they hold together over time. My painter told me not to worry about it, it would be just fine, once painted and installed, nobody would ever see the repair, even if they looked. He said he would clean up the hackage scars prior to painting to make it nice.

    Was working on the reproduction rubber pieces for the engine protection flaps when my coating folks called....come get, it's done. Don't have to tell me twice...

    They did an awesome job of precision masking everything. I have had a load of powdercoating done since 2007, and this was awesome work.

    Calipers, before detailing

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    Clip Ons

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    Suspension Link Arm

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    Frame, perfectly masked, not one thing missed

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    They also applied black cerakote to the Tyga Header pipes. I only unwrapped one, of the 8, pieces...flawless

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    They are currently prepping the valve, breather, clutch, and stator covers for cerakote. Having those done in desert sand, which is very similar to the HRC color. Now I'm itching to get the engine back so I can install the Factory Pro shift kit and hang the frame. I'm prolly jumping the gun a bit, as I'm missing the two roller bearings for the swingarm, which are apparently backordered from Honda. But it will still be good for my chi to start making some real progress.

    Started prepping the calipers for assembly tomorrow

    Used 400 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper on glass to deck the faces of the halves, just to make sure there was no powder overhanging the edges, and buffed it out with very fine wire cup brushes.

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    Chased all of the threads and made sure the powder was tapered back at the right places, and gave them a good blasting with the air gun through all the passages.

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    All cleaned up and ready for assembly tomorrow.

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    Time to go back to making those engine protection covers.....
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2019
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