Jim's $400.00 1986 VF500F

Discussion in '1st & 2nd Generation 1983-1989' started by Jim McCulloch, Jun 25, 2019.

  1. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Yeah, Crazy to think this one was going to be a "flip" LOL. I will probably never sell this one. Too much blood invested.
     
  2. straycat

    straycat Member

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    Yea sometimes its better not to know.

    I keep a tally on every bike I do. I set a budget and try to stick to it, but, it doesnt always work out that well.

    Its easy to spend more than you should on these things. But, there are worse things to be spending money on !!
     
  3. straycat

    straycat Member

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    Count me in that club !
     
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  4. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Tip of the hat to you Stray, I could not have finished this tank without your help with the decals!
     
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  5. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    It's funny, I also keep a close record also because my hobby is buying clean, interesting and NON_RUNNING bikes to resell. I have actually made money on the last 8 bikes I did until this VF500F.

    But who cares, I love to restore bikes and the money made does not even matter, it is just the icing on the cake.
     
  6. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    Also in that club, its not the money - its the time though..
     
  7. lsc86

    lsc86 New Member

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    Tank looking great, pretty sure your assumption of fade on other parts is showing up against the new tank. Don't sweat it, not a museum piece!

    High school buddy was a fool for the '70s Hondas, pretty sure they weren't even called Civics back then, just remember CVCC on the hatch emblem. Bought 'em cheap and ran them to death, so many bad stereo wiring splices with house speakers seat belted in the back seat, had one of his Honda fleet catch fire one day, burned the dash and everything behind it to bits....couldnt drive that one at night after that, but re-ran enough wires to get it to start and who needs lights during the day?!?!?!
     
  8. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    That's hilarious! I also had a set of big house speakers seat belted in the back seat of my '81 civic In the day. There was no other good option of you actually wanted good sound.

    I ran that car pretty hard also. It made it to 150,000 miles before an accident took it out.
     
  9. Captain 80s

    Captain 80s Member

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    Seat belt the speakers... pussies.

    I saw so many house speakers in cars in high school, but not any them seat belted in. That's hilarious. But makes obvious sense. But the nickname for my high school was "Cow Pie High" because we were in farm country and it always smelled like cow shit, so the folk wernt dat smrt.
     
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  10. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Alrighty then, I am going to give this graphics installation a try. The advice for putting the graphics on are to spray the tank and decal with soapy water before installing them. I tested this out on another tank and it seems you have plenty of time before the decals set themselves in place. I would say 10 minutes or so. This is plenty of time to move them around until satisfied with the placement of them. Here is the test placement with tape holding the decals on the tank.

    The backing paper is wider than the actual decal. Not completely sure what it will look like with the backing removed. The width of the stripes seem a little too thin to meet up perfectly with the width of the fairing stripes but we will see. It may just be a trick of the eye and angle you look at it.

    IMG_0217.JPG

    IMG_0218.JPG
     
  11. raYzerman

    raYzerman Member

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    Make yourself a squeegie from a plastic body filler applicator and wrap one edge with wide female velcro (the soft side).
     
  12. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Thanks, I will do that.
     
  13. straycat

    straycat Member

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    1 or 2 drops of liquid soap in a spray bottle of water along with a dribble of isopropyl alcohol Jim, that becomes your wet application spray. Make sure its warm when your doing it....probably not a problem in Texas.
     
  14. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Thank you! I will be checking everything before I do this. I appreciate the input. I think I mixed too much soap in the bottle I made. I will dump it and remix it plus add the alcohol. No rush to get this done.
     
  15. straycat

    straycat Member

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    yea, only 2 drops maximum Jim of the soap.

    The other thing to consider, which I always do, I trim the application cover tape & backing tape as close to the decal as I can, you dont want too much overhang of that, makes positioning a PITA and application unnecessarily tricky
     
  16. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Ok. good call...I forgot about the cover tape. I only considered the backing tape.

    BTW, I am experimenting on my "other" project......Checking to see how long I have to position the decals before they "stick"

    IMG_0219.JPG
     
  17. straycat

    straycat Member

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    Its usually less a factor of time and more on how much of the water/soap/ alcohol solution you have squeegee'd out from under the decal, once you've used your credit card (Wrapped in loop velcro or Felt) it becomes hard if not impossible to remove without stretching the decal.
     
  18. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    The stripes are pretty thin, I don't think it will be too hard to get the water out.

    I keep finding reasons not to just get this over with. Today I trimmed the decals and fixed my garage sink, it was stopped up from god knows what.

    Anyway here is is after the trimming. Maybe Wednesday I will get the guts to knock this out!
    IMG_0220.JPG
     
  19. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    as said above, just do it - I found a couple of pencil marks as locations can help however, its one of those things where you will get vastly quicker and better the more you do it. You only need a mist of water - it doesn't need a bath....
    Most important is to ensure its clean immediately before applying.. if you have clean air or a tac cloth, then these can help - but not essential.
     
  20. Jim McCulloch

    Jim McCulloch New Member

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    Got it done finally, not perfect but close enough. I learned a lot, for sure you don;t need to spray very much liquid. I also learned the tape on the top of the decal is a trap for air, It made it look like there was air bubbles under the decal but they were actually under the top tape. There is a compound curve on the side of the tank that the decal would hardly stick to, hopefully after a few hours it will hold and stick. I tried to use a heat gun on it and it seemed to help.

    IMG_0222.JPG
     
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