Homegrown Restoration! 1982 Standard - Dressed

[danf]

Really nice job, I wish I could get my two daughters to want to help, they do, but just for small stuff but to pull and engine :shock: I'm very impressed that they wanted to help in the first place.. Your bike look great you should be very proud ....

 

[mcgovern61]

Really nice job, I wish I could get my two daughters to want to help, they do, but just for small stuff but to pull and engine :shock: I'm very impressed that they wanted to help in the first place.. Your bike look great you should be very proud ....

Thanks Beav! The life lessons for them have been great! My then 16 year old daughter is now 20 going on 21 and lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She does a lot of her own work on her car and when guys see her with the hood up and wrenches in hand, they want to know how she learned. She says, "a person put it together...a person can take it apart...and I am a person!" When she has to take it to a shop for big items, she never lets the counter guys pull one over on her. When they give her a diagnosis for a repair, she questions them to the point that they often end up agreeing that the repair may not be as serious as they first tried to get over on her! :smilie_happy:

 

[mcgovern61]

ENGINES and CARBS

The '81 engine is not quite right...don't get me wrong...it runs...but it makes some noise that at that moment I was not real comfortable with. In the restoration process, I consider a good running engine key to a good restoration! As shown in the previous videos, there is a start up noise where it is obvious that there is room in between the bearings until the engine oil pressure comes up and that tapping/knocking above 3000 RPM gets really loud at higher RPMs and highway speeds. The carbs hesitate when I put the throttle down, the engine kinda slowns down ...detonates...and then suddenly takes off. Sooooo....carb issues or ignition??

I'll tackle carb real fast.....the PO claimed they were rebuilt and rejetted.....UNLIKELY IT WAS DONE CORRECTLY! Bottom line...now was not the time (nor the finances) to do anything more than bench sync and full sync on the motor. Syncing helped with some engine noise at slow RPM and idle, but not much more. It is decided that over that winter I would have them rebuilt by a professional because carbs are not my....I work on diesels!

Engine noises? In a nutshell, I cleaned the oil screen and found big chunks of carbon and some shiney metal. :crying: Is the tapping a result of low oil pressure or low oil flow? Well, I don't think low oil flow is a problem......you be the judge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPKca7Oiwjs



And low oil pressure? Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPysWst04xk



After talking to Honda, they said that the oil pressure is actually correct! (In spite of the video)

 

[mcgovern61]

There was a lot of discussion on the knocking thread, but bottom line is I am under the opinion that the lower end is worn out or some other level is bad. I look into bearings, rings and seals to overhaul and I was looking at over $500 in parts! :shock: I can find a good running engine on Ebay for less than $200! (I know...it is a gamble). Up to that point...I stayed within 1 hours distance from home thinking the engine would just stop running or blow up and I would have to have my wife come get me. If it is any consulation....that engine ran and ran and ran. I started driving faster and harder and it did not make any difference. I started winding out the gears to 7K RPM to see if that made any difference.....NOPE! I soon realize that even though the engine more than likely is worn out...it is bullet proof!!!!! :clapping: :mrgreen:

One thing that does bother me is that at 70 MPH, the engine is up at 5200 RPM and is real noisy. I keep hearing about how '82 and '83 engines are geared differently and decide I would look for one. I find an '83 with about 48K on it for $110 on Ebay! :clapping: :music: (Shipping is $176 :rant: )

I get It!! What a great find:

Ok...Ok...it is a little dirty...BUT ITS AN '83! I keep the bike on the road and decide to swap engines over winter and have the carbs done at the same time.

 

[mcgovern61]

Fast forward to spring and the engines are swapped, carbs are back, replacement OEM exhaust from Dan and ready to really make this bike work! Here is how the engine turned out:

I did a whole topic on the swap if you are interested: viewtopic.php?p=4403#p4403

In that thread I explain everything that was done to the engine including videos!

The carb rebuild? It went well enough, but I still had troubles with it. Turns out, even though it was rebuilt, the floats were either not set or were set wrong. Here is a thread on what happened:
viewtopic.php?p=2784#p2784

Bottom line.....the '83 engine worked like a champ! The bike is restored as far as we are concerned and here is how it turned out:

 

[sledge]

Beautiful ..................... :music: :music: :music: :music:

 

[mcgovern61]

Thanks Sledge! :thanks:

 

[54Greybeard]

What a great post, and how cool that you involved your girls. I'm sure what they have learned during your restoration will help them throughout life.

 

[GILLT]

Nice job Gerry, very well done. :yes: :yes: :yes:
It is always great when you can get the kid's involved and they
want to learn something. :good: :good: I don't think there is enough of that
these days.

:thanks: for the great write up.

 

[mcgovern61]

Just a bump to encourage more restorations to get posted! :read:

 

[backlander]

First time I've seen that thread Gerry, very inspirational. You and the gals did an awesome job.

 

[mwbill37841]

yes very nice.wish i had the pasentes to do that.and could spell.lol

 

[mcgovern61]

In summer 2007, I was asked to be prepared to perform a funeral service for a man in our church that the doctors said they were not sure how long he could survive with a condition he had that continually caused his skin to slough off without reason. My Pastor was going away for 10 days and my Pastor'straining was finished and it was time for the rubber to meet the road (no pun intended :hihihi: ). He wanted to get together with the family so that I could meet them and we could prepare for the worse.

Turns out....he recovered! :clapping:

Just a note to add to this story;

The man mentioned above that I was asked to perform the funeral service passed away last night (Friday March 22, 2013). His name was Joe and he leaves behind a wonderful Wife and two wonderful teenage children. He had a long battle with numerous illnesses that he and his Wife dealt with for a long time. He has gone home to be forever with the Lord (That is a good thing and I cannot wait to see him again!) and will no longer have any pain or suffering which is joyous and sad at the same time. However, his family will still be suffering the loss of his life here as they now cope with a home here without him.

Being with his family over 5 years ago in that moment he recovered originally led to our getting this Goldwing and we believe that many lives have been touched since then.

 

[joedrum]

:ahem: this is a great post ...its obvious the man fought hard and cared alot ...his family was blessed with his time and im sure it has lasting effects on them now :hi: for the good

 

[mcgovern61]

..its obvious the man fought hard and cared alot ...his family was blessed with his time and im sure it has lasting effects on them now :hi: for the good

You are so right Joe!! :thanks:

 

[mcgovern61]

I did a rattle can paint job that worked at the time (5 years ago), not the best result and we just did not put the prep time into it. I always wished for a more factory paint job or at least a more glossy finish. My clearcoat orange peeled and we just left it that way. As I am working on preparing to take the fairing off and make the bike near naked, I am re-thinking the paint job.

I have done a lot of research on rattle can jobs, prep, sand.........blah....blah...blah......compound....polish....buff.

I decided to experiment....I cannot really hurt the existing paint job, so, with the fairing off I decided to wet sand the faux tank with 600 and then 1500 grit paper. Cleaned and then tried something different. I had repaired the headlights on my Hyundai Elantra with a 3M restore kit and still had the discs. So......why not wet sand with them?? Aha!! It worked!! And real quick too!!

I then took some Mauruders liquid polish and hand buffed the paint. :shock: :shock: Holy Mackerel!! :shock: It shined up and got glossy!

Then I took some good old fashioned Nu-Finish paint restorer which I had used on the fairing 5 years ago and now it is a real deep gloss!!! Mind you, there are plenty of imperfections since I did not really prep very long, but I am completely satisfied that I can get a near factory finish on a good paint job!!


Now.....to just pick the color!!

 

[mcgovern61]

Here are some shots to get an idea.

Here is a pic after the faux tank was first painted 5 years ago:

This pic is from 3 years ago when I put the '83 engine in. You can see the faux tank is not real glossy:

Here is a pic from tonight. The sun was going down so the glosss is not real obvious, but you can see the difference (not counting the fact the pin stripping needs some work :hihihi: ):

I think you can get an idea from these shots:

The luggage bags are not done yet so compare then to the tank and side covers:

 

[mcgovern61]

I will try to get pics when the sun is shining.....these pics just do not do it justice!

 

[Steve83]

Nice! There's hope for my bad paint yet!!!

 

[brianinpa]

Gerry this is the first time I am seeing this thread and after riding with you and seeing your bike, I would have never thought your bike started out the way that it did. I guess it was all that hard work that your daughters put into it... :smilie_happy:

As far as the paint results, you never know what you are going to get until you try some thing new, and if it doesn't work out, just buy another can and start over again. :Egyptian: That's what happened to the doors on my faux tank and now I need to stop riding the bike long enough to fix it.