Old bike disease

[DaveMadsen]

I'm a new member and have Old Bike Disease. My doctor says it is probably only curable by throwing a lot of money at something that should have been left for dead rather than attempting to restore it to its previous splendor (he uses my own body as an example).

You know the axiom "no good deed will go unpunished", well this story starts with a friend asking if I could get his BMW running - which had been sitting in the garage for the past 9 years with no steps taken to prepare it for long term storage. Being a kind-hearted guy, I accepted the challenge. In payment, he offered me a 6-pack of beer or his 1979 Honda CBX with 40k on the clock (for free). I am thinking I should have just taken the beer.

My friend is the second owner, purchasing the bike in 1980 with 4,000 miles. The CBX has been sitting outdoors since 1995. Initially, it was covered with a tarp until that deteriorated at which time a blanket was thrown over it. Rather than worrying about the blanket, he may have been better off draining the fuel or taking steps to keep it from rotting away, but alas, that is now up to me to correct.

I have just started to assess "my gift". The bike was running when parked, so I assume that the engine will run again without any internal work. I am in the process of sourcing new f/rear brake cylinders since both are completely rusted. The prognosis of using the calipers will have to wait until I have working brake cylinders. Also, the wiring looks in exceptionally good condition.

Of course the key to the bike is in a desk drawer which was probably donated to Goodwill twenty years ago. A locksmith was unable to cross-reference the key code on the ignition cylinder with his database so ended up creating a new key using trial and error and a bit of black magic. Unfortunately, the key does not work for the tank nor helmet lock (couriously, the helmet lock has a different key code. Question: did the bike originally use a single key for all locks?)

My intend was to restore the bike to its original condition (or something close). This would include replacing any components to ensure it can be safely - and reliably - ridden, cleaning and lubricating components which can be salvaged, doing something with the gas tank (rusty!), and then finally paint and polish.

I look forward to using this site - and your collective experience - to bring this project to fruition.

Dave

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Welcome to the site, Dave.
There are a few CBX specific parts suppliers if that is the route you choose. One of them is in your part of the country.
https://www.cbxperformance.com/oscommerce/
A quick search on the site will show a few more.
There was 2 different keys.

[Larry Zimmer]

Good on ya, Dave. You are a brave man! However, you did come to the right place. All sorts of help here. Don't be timid to ask. We'll all be happy to help. Might even find someone nearby to toss in that 6-pack you passed.

[FalldownPhil]

Congratulations Dave !! You made the right choice
As for the key, one key should open all locks on your bike. Something has been changed. You can actually have one key made that should open both different locks. Because the stock key will work either way you put it in the lock, you can get a new blank and have one key pattern cut on one side of the key and the other key pattern cut on the other side of the blank. Unless your ignition switch is a repro in which case I have never tried the dual cut key. Or, you can have something re-keyed.
Very Best,
Phil

[DaveMadsen]

Re Keys: it appears the ignition was not original (gasp!). The stamped key code was not recognized by locksmith. The helmet lock and gas tank lock are the same but there was so much crap in the gas tank lock the key blank would not fit - locksmith dug out the offending sand particles and now two of the three locks accept the same key while the ignition requires another.

[DaveMadsen]

Good on ya, Dave. You are a brave man! However, you did come to the right place. All sorts of help here. Don't be timid to ask. We'll all be happy to help. Might even find someone nearby to toss in that 6-pack you passed.

Thanks, Larry, we are probably on the way to becoming long lost friends

[wyly]

I have just started to assess "my gift". The bike was running when parked, so I assume that the engine will run again without any internal work. I am in the process of sourcing new f/rear brake cylinders since both are completely rusted. The prognosis of using the calipers will have to wait until I have working brake cylinders. Also, the wiring looks in exceptionally good condition.

My intend was to restore the bike to its original condition (or something close). This would include replacing any components to ensure it can be safely - and reliably - ridden, cleaning and lubricating components which can be salvaged, doing something with the gas tank (rusty!), and then finally paint and polish.

I look forward to using this site - and your collective experience - to bring this project to fruition.

Dave

hopefully you have deep pocket$ cbx restoration isn't a cheap project...two most complete suppliers for cbx spares, Louis at http://www.usedcbxparts.com/ and Bert at http://www.sixcenter.nl/index.html

brakes-I'd give the oem brakes a pass, clean up the oems and toss'em in a box..sourcing the later CB twin pot brakes are a better option than the cbx parts, readily available, plug n' play and probably cheaper as they're not "cbx"spares...an easy and valuable life saving upgrade and no one but other cbx owners will know it's not stock equipment....

tanks-I met a vintage Honda collector this summer who cleans rust from tanks with a battery charger and anodes, high school science stuff he said( I must have slept through that class)...he uses electrical charge to attract rust to the anode, when done he coats the inside of the tank...

[Michael Vidovic]

I'm a new member and have Old Bike Disease. My doctor says it is probably only curable by throwing a lot of money at something that should have been left for dead rather than attempting to restore it to its previous splendor (he uses my own body as an example).

You know the axiom "no good deed will go unpunished", well this story starts with a friend asking if I could get his BMW running - which had been sitting in the garage for the past 9 years with no steps taken to prepare it for long term storage. Being a kind-hearted guy, I accepted the challenge. In payment, he offered me a 6-pack of beer or his 1979 Honda CBX with 40k on the clock (for free). I am thinking I should have just taken the beer.

My friend is the second owner, purchasing the bike in 1980 with 4,000 miles. The CBX has been sitting outdoors since 1995. Initially, it was covered with a tarp until that deteriorated at which time a blanket was thrown over it. Rather than worrying about the blanket, he may have been better off draining the fuel or taking steps to keep it from rotting away, but alas, that is now up to me to correct.

I have just started to assess "my gift". The bike was running when parked, so I assume that the engine will run again without any internal work. I am in the process of sourcing new f/rear brake cylinders since both are completely rusted. The prognosis of using the calipers will have to wait until I have working brake cylinders. Also, the wiring looks in exceptionally good condition.

Of course the key to the bike is in a desk drawer which was probably donated to Goodwill twenty years ago. A locksmith was unable to cross-reference the key code on the ignition cylinder with his database so ended up creating a new key using trial and error and a bit of black magic. Unfortunately, the key does not work for the tank nor helmet lock (couriously, the helmet lock has a different key code. Question: did the bike originally use a single key for all locks?)

My intend was to restore the bike to its original condition (or something close). This would include replacing any components to ensure it can be safely - and reliably - ridden, cleaning and lubricating components which can be salvaged, doing something with the gas tank (rusty!), and then finally paint and polish.

I look forward to using this site - and your collective experience - to bring this project to fruition.

Dave

Same issue. It's a disease-but a great one. Told my wife years ago I could collect women or I could collect old bikes! She made the right choice!

[DaveMadsen]

brakes-I'd give the oem brakes a pass, clean up the oems and toss'em in a box..sourcing the later CB twin pot brakes are a better option than the cbx parts, readily available, plug n' play and probably cheaper as they're not "cbx"spares...an easy and valuable life saving upgrade and no one but other cbx owners will know it's not stock equipment....
[/quote]

You comment is timely. With replacement master cylinder in hand I will determine if the calipers can be salvaged. If not your "dual piston" alternative will come into play. You referenced "later CB twin pot brakes" - could you be more specific?

[wyly]

early 1980 Honda twin pots ...CB900, CB750F super sport, at least one 750 Interceptor, a Nighthawk...and probably more, possibly the CX. It's important to get the hangers too they need to bolt to the original fork mounts, when I found mine I took the discs as well. Cost me $300 for wheels, calipers, hangers and discs.

I was told by other forum members that the CB900 was straight swap but CB900's are not common around here so I searched the Partzilla spares list and found the number for the hanger on the cb900 was the same as a few other models #45110-455-632, mine came off a CB750F. I replaced pads with EBC HH pads. There are other models that may work as well but I went with what was inexpensive and I could find easily.

Significantly better stopping, some people say you only need the front and the rear twin pot doesn't help much but I switched my rear as well.

[DaveMadsen]

Yes, salvaging the fuel tank is certainly on my list. Presently it sounds like the tank has a bunch of sand in it (I am not a brace man so have yet to still a flashlight into the filler neck). I suppose there ar Elmore than a few posts on the site which will get me in the right direction.

[NobleHops]

Hi Dave,

Cleaning out gas tanks is nasty horrible business, but if there's one single most-important thing that my pal Dave here taught me, it's that you must indeed service the ENTIRE fuel system when waking up a slumbering bike, and that of course means attending to the fuel tank, ensuring you have a clean petcock and intact and clean petcock screen, good fuel lines, and perfect carburetors and insulators.

We did a write-up on Facebook of our process for cleaning nasty old gas tanks that I'll link to in a sec, but I'll reprise a few key points here:

1. Protect your paint. Get a roll of shrink film from Costco and mummify the tank. Remove the filler cap and plug the petcock bung.

2. Mechanically blast out as much crap from inside as you can, and that means a pressure washer with a rotating 90-degree tip that you can find on Amazon. You can physically blast out a lot of rust, gunk, even the looser varnish with a pressure washer before you get to chemically cleaning and derusting and it will save you time and save your solutions some work.

3. Use the POR15 cleaner/degreaser (thanks again Dave) and use it BOILING HOT. We had a nasty tank last week that was scoffing at all attempts to clean it, including tumbling it in Tankzilla (our adapted concrete mixer) with chain. We finally gave in and boiled up 2 gallons of the cleaner solution and it finally melted away the nasty varnish we could not get any other way.

4. I do prefer the paint safe derusting stuff mentioned above, Evaporust and MetalRescue. Get 5-gallon buckets from Home Depot and a giant funnel and you can filter and save the solution for other derusting needs.

5. I like a metal etch before lining. POR-15's product (MetalPrep) is excellent, so is Ospho. These are mostly phosphoric acid based.

6. Opinions vary on liners. If you are confident that your prep is PERFECT then I like the Caswell epoxy. If you have ANY DOUBT then I like Redkote, mostly because it can be removed with MEK if it fails. Once you've cleaned and derusted the tank, then just pickup the project following the instructions with the kit you choose.

7. A reversed shop vac and sunshine are the tools of choice for drying the tank after cleaning and derusting. You need to block off most of a day to do a tank, and you really should try to go straight through from start to finish, as flash rust is an ever-present possibility.

8. Or you could punt, and nobody would blame you. These folks are excellent: http://www.gastanklining.com/

Good luck!


EDIT: Here's a more detailed blow-by-blow: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 6d38140806