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Ed sandblasted engine, only side covers and starter, etc. are painted. Frame paint is holding up nicely so far, pretty paranoid about installing bolts up against paint with no washers as original but it's working so far. I did throw in a couple of extra washers on the center stand mount, I think I would have torn up paint there otherwise. Excited? Yes, indeed. Can't sleep for thinking about what comes next. Thus posting here at 3:39 a.m. CST. Thanks for your support. --Lee

Oh, that is so pretty! You have the look of a proud Pa Pa, after the baby is born. I have heard another way to protect the gas opening, is to sand to bare metal then coat that exposed edge with fiber glass resin. Every thing, looks so good, what a total transformation.

Very nice!

Gunner

Looking very good indeed! Can't wait to see it all back together in a "before and after" shot. Then it should be "ride, ride, ride!"

Thanks y'all for your kind words. I'll keep posting progress. --Lee

It was 44 degrees on the porch and drizzly outside today, so I thought I'd catch up on my show-and-tell here. I guess I'll backtrack to events leading up family circus engine installation in my last post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT3l_NoZkIU

I put the center stand on first, installed extra washers to take up slack in bolts. They were flopping around a bit before. Steering stem was pretty easy, if greasy, thanks to some forum posts here, thanks. I even knew how many ball bearings to use.

Fork tubes were more of a challenge. I’d had a hard time pulling left tube out of clamp, even after opening it up pretty wide with cold chisel. Resorted to tractor jack then to pull it out. Later, before painting, I figured out that spreading at the opening was actually making round part of clamp sort of egg shaped. So I had to select appropriate spot on outside of clamp and pound the poo out of it to get it round enough for tube to slide through. So it was just a matter of putting the polished aluminum fork cover and steering damper nut on, loose enough to slide up and down, putting the lower upper covers over the clamps, then stacking the chrome trim parts (washer on top) then the headlight ear covers, washers on top, and holding all that together against bottom of top cover while pushing it down and tightening the nut to sort of hold it all together. Whew, both sides had to be done at same time, I could have used a few extra hands, but I managed. Then stuck the upper fork tube assemblies up through covers and clamps and into top cover, installed fork nuts to really hold it all together. I installed the springs and bottom fork tubes after that, stuck the axle through, and tightened up the upper clamps. Installed rest of the steering damper. I don’t know if this is the right way to do it, but it’s a lot easier than reverse of how Mr. Climer’s book had me take it apart. Eventually added a little less than a cup of 30-wt non-detergent motor oil to each fork tube.

Swing arm and rear shocks
Swing arm was easy, greasy. Got a note from LM saying I’d installed the bolt backwards, one of his favorite things to pick on. He's right, Clymer's wrong, I'm convinced, as usual. http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopi ... highlight=

Assembling rear shocks was not that hard with tractor jack, I’d practiced several times with old shocks. With first one half put together I discovered that the keepers had gotten a little bigger after rechroming, hole in top of cover had gotten smaller after painting, they wouldn’t quite fit. Had to take Dremmel tool to top cover hole and make it a bit bigger, so I’ve got a little touch up to do on paint there. I’d already made top shock bushings out of hose washers so they went on real quick once I got them put together. http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopi ... highlight=

That takes it up to point where engine was installed. I’ll get from then to now in next post(s).

Thanks for lookin’, Lee

Continuing my saga:

Installing fenders and wheels
Pretty straightforward. Did break off a fender bolt in lower fork tube. Didn’t tighten that hard, but snap. Removed lower tube and took it over to my brother’s house to borrow his drill press, botched last extraction I tried free-handing. After 10 minutes or so of lining everything up perfect, padding and clamping in place, he lowered drill bit in. It caught the broken bolt and spun it out the back side. No extraction necessary. Whew. Rear fender was no big deal, took awhile to find just right hidden places to grind off paint for ground, didn’t want to just crunch lock or star washers down into my new paint. Overkill, I know.

Following my usual practice I installed the front wheel three times. First time I forgot to put the speedo drive in. Second time brake panel was upside down. Third time was the charm.

Only had to install the rear wheel twice. Tech tip: tool box won’t fit into where it goes with rear fender installed. So had to remove rear wheel and front back fender bolts, loosen middle ones, and swing fender out of way to install tool box. Luckily I hadn’t put the chain on yet.

Tech tip #2: it’s possible to install chain guard after installing rear wheel and chain, but about ten times harder. Took about half an hour to get bolt started and tightened up where back of guard attaches to swing arm under the shock absorber.

The chain: Chain was extraordinarily filthy when it came off bike. I found five gallons of 20-year-old gas in shed where bike hibernated. Mixed some with oil from crankcase in a cut-down milk jug and soaked the chain in it for a couple of months, adding gas as necessary. After power washing it was just ordinarily filthy. Showed it to Ed, who pronounced it useable (it was only a year or so old when bike went in shed). So last week I boiled it in 30-wt for an afternoon, then sprayed about half a can of brake cleaner on it. That helped, but still not as good as I wanted it, so I wire brushed the whole thing with electric drill clamped to table. Took a while, cleaning outside of links, then turning each roller with finger while holding other side against spinning brush, then going on to next one. Mesmerizing, sortta zen. Only nicked a knuckle once. Another half-can of brake cleaner got it looking pretty good, so I hung it from a tree, lubed it up, and installed it next day. I know I’ll have to lube chain on bike eventually but for now I’ve got a clean fetish. Seem like lubing chain on while turning wheel will help get lube down into rollers better than way I did it, so I’ll mask things off as best I can with cardboard and do it again before I run bike seriously. If my time was worth anything I’d have been better off buying a new one. Oh, well.

Wiring: Tied my brain in knots trying to figure out how to replace old deceased four-wire switch with five-wire unit Ed supplied. http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopi ... &highlight

Eventually I just gave up, sent back five-wire, and got Ed to send me a four-wire switch that’ll plug right into existing wiring harness. Just too dumb, I guess. I’d already been through a bit of fun rebuilding my old dimmer switch so it’s ready to go. Some details on p-8 here: http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopi ... 0&start=70

Electrical parts are all cleaned up, acetone did a great job on harness itself, just gotta work fast in small sections before it evaporates. Next tech tip: acetone will take printing right off the wiring harness label, so avoid it if you care.

Hooked everything together spread out on table, hooked up battery charger and tested. Lights light, dimmer switch works fine. So ready to install wiring when weather’s better next week.

Next post will feature making new rubber parts from shrink tube, cut up inner tube, etc. Stay tuned.

Thanks, Lee