Honda CX 500 first Café build

Nitroed the tank too

I tride Nitromors on my tank, the new green, gloopy stuff, it did s*d all, just sat there and sulked!

I wound up stripping the thing with a rotary wire brush on an electric drill. Took forever as there were 3 layers of paint and the one in the middle was a type of twin pack/polymer product which didn't so much strip as melt, a right pig!

I also used the green gloopy stuff and it did nothing for about 20 minutes then went nuts so I decided to cover it in polythene and leave it over night.

This morning it was stripped down to the metal. I would recomend you apply it then walk away and let it do its job.

Anyway, tank stripped, rubbed down, now its time to start filling and getting fid of 30 years worth of dinks and those horrible tank badges.

Ok, after a couple of fils and knocking it back I went over it and looked for anymore tiny dinks





I like to circle them as I find them so I dont miss any.





I aint a fan of the machine weld they use on tanks so I like to wipe round the tank with a little filler then knock it back to smooth tha edge right off.



This is what I mean. I filled the edge's of the tank on my blade to get a nice smooth finish. Perhaps no one else notices it, but I know its there.



Anyway, sanded of and wiped with meths to get rid of dust and greasey finger marks





Now a blast of primer. In a couple of days I will knock it back with 1200 wet and dry and look for any more minute dinks.

Nice job and I like the idea of filling the tank welds.

Tried leaving the stripper overnight covered with cling-film, but no joy.

Yep, I've also ditched the tank badges and filled a couple of small dents.

I also extended the filler neck with a piece of 56mm (2 1/43 in) pipe brazed to the original filler neck. I then cut a hole in the filler flap, slipped the flap over the new neck and brazed it into place. I then cut the new pipe back to around 10mm above the tank with an angle grinder and filled and sanded round the tank flap to blend it into the tank profile.

I'm now applying black paint and the decals and will finally bond on a nice Moza-style flip-up tank cap I got off Flea-bay for 25 quid.

I'll post piccies when it's finished :-)

Sounds good mate, I'm lookin forward to seeing it. Pix soon fella.

I'v been thinking about making my own seat from fiberglass but wondering how I could get a profile of all the frame mounting points. The I rembered the seat it came with and thought I could get a cast from it.

After removing the cover and foam I discovered the seat pan was made of fiberglass. Well then, half the job has been done for me, now all I need to do is trim off some of the fat and make a pod.



Should be quite easy to adapt



And Fiberglass sticks to fiberglass really good.

Right then, on to it.

I cut the high point off the fiberglass seat pan and trimed both edges with my jigsaw



Then made up a form for the pod I will cast then graft onto the pan. The MDF form will be filled with expanding foam then sanded into shape and fine filled. From this I will take a cast and produce a mould to reproduce the finished pod.



Shape looks right



As does the height.



During the week I'll get it preped ready for fiberglass.



Lots of other things to be getting on with for now so I'll do a bit more tomorrow.

Ok, back to this for a minute.



I filled the voids with some polyfoam packaging blocks then sanded them sub-surface of the frame edges. The reason for this is, If I fiberglass straight onto the polyfoam it will melt as the glass starts to cure, and I wont get a crisp finish to cast my mould.



I used construction filler to go over the whole plug and I'll sand it back to the spines that form the frame work.



It will need a few more fills and sand to get it right, but it will be worth all the effort.

Does anyone know how to get the fan off the front of the CX motor?

The filler has gone off enough to scrape and sand back to the markers and get the rough shape



I'm gonna let it dry for another day then give it a 2nd fill



While I had the heat shield off I gave it a crafty refurb



And pop riveted it back together



Another box ticked.

Got in tonight and gave the pod a quick sand



Then gave it a coat of PVA to seal it



While I was waiting for thzt to dry I decided to lower the rear seat mount



after grinding it off I chopped off about 2cm from both sides.



I have got a few bits and bobs to weld so I'll do them all at the same time.



I went back to the pod and stuck on anothe coat of filler, and tomorrow it will get a sanding with 120 grit.



Then turned to the radiator and gave that a cleas up. I think I'm gonna get it recored as its a bit forked.

The pod is just about ready for a final fill then a sand with 220 grit then I'll make the base



The engin was really cruddy so I removed the fan and gave it a clean



The fan wont be going back on as I'm gonna do an electric fan conversion.

Looking good Bud, keep up with the commentary and piccies :-)

OK, on to the base

I placed a section of 12.5mm ply on to the frame and marked a center line on it, then from the front marked back to the pod 330mm and sat the pod onto it.



I marked round the pod and marked up the front of the seat



The it was a quick wiz round with a hand saw and jig saw for the curvy bits.



I need to do something with that gap under the seat above the frame



I cut some blanks and ran a plane over the edges to bevel them as I want the sides to taper out



Its important to get both sides the same so take care doing this



Well then, I'm not a 100% on the shape of the sides but I can always chop em.



Starting to look a bit more cafe now.

I got stuck in to shaping the front of the seat edges today after removing the fixing screws. The glue is really strong and I'm less likely to damage my blade by removing them.



Its not that easy to see, but I sanded the base about 1mm smaller than the pod so I can fill it and get the two to blend



Its a bit easier to see how the infills taper out from the front of the bike.



Ow!!! I forgot about this. A real stumbling block was removing the fan as I didnt have the right tool for the job. Basicly its an M14x1.5 bolt, but the tool costs £7.95.

I had a bit of a mooch around on ebay and found a Mercedes car wheel stud is also an M14x1.5 but only cost £1.75.

Bit more filling and it starts to come together.

I cleaned the engine Thursday evening with Gunk then washed it off with soapy water



This afternoon I had a bit of time to kill while I waited for filler to go off, so I went over the engine with a dremil to brighten it up a bit.



Rocker covers are going to be powdercoated black along with the clutch cover, oil filter cover and the tops of the carbs.
I'm gonna do a bit more to the engine to brighten it up but I think I might take the heads off, re-seat the valves and polish the inlet ports.

Well thats it then, final sand is done and its ready for 3 or 4 coats of pva then lots of waxing

While the seat is sitting in wax I decided to make a start on rebuilding the heads, so after removing the carbs (4 x 9mm bolts) I popped of the rocker covers.



The plan is to polish the inlet ports, reseat all the valves and new head gaskets.
For a 30 year old motor I was really pleased to find the barrels were in first class order



Apart from a bit of gloop the tops of the pistons look great too.



The face of the heads need a good clean so thats my next job



Just a very light going over with some fine sandpaper is all thats needed, just to remove any old gasket and crud. be carefull not to damage the surface of the head.



I find it a good idea to keep everything organised so you know what went where and how it goes back together.



These are great little engins to learn on because there aint much to them.

This bit always bores the pants off me



Wax on........... Wax off.......... Wax on..........

looking good really impressed with seat unit out of interest are you going to change cam chain and tensioner as they are a real bastard to do as the whole back casing has to come off.
cheers
Steve

You're really hammering on with this one, impressed my friend, very impressed. BTW Like the 'fighter in the background, funny how some of us can't leave things alone, fighters, chops, bobs, trikes, cafes, it must be an inherrent urge to be different!

Pud wrote:

looking good really impressed with seat unit out of interest are you going to change cam chain and tensioner as they are a real bastard to do as the whole back casing has to come off.
cheers
Steve

Hi mate, I see you are only about 10 minutes down the road from me, I'm in Harwich.
I hadnt thought about the cam chain mate but now youve flagged it up its somthing to consider.
Thanks for your interest in my project and your positive input.

pauliexjr wrote:

You're really hammering on with this one, impressed my friend, very impressed. BTW Like the 'fighter in the background, funny how some of us can't leave things alone, fighters, chops, bobs, trikes, cafes, it must be an inherrent urge to be different!

Thanks for those kind words mate.
I built the fighter about 3 years ago, and nothing has captured my imagination untill I saw a CX500 that some other guy had done. Instantly I knew it had to be my next project, I thought, I gotta have me one of them bad boys.