A little progress report before 'part 3' of the CJMC Show. Most of the heavier rust and paint removed from the frame. Accomplished this with a small sidewinder grinder running a 'medium' wire wheel cup brush, and a smaller disc shaped wire brush. Some of the tighter areas I hit with a hand brush and a dremel tool with an abrasive impregnated nylon wheel. Nothing too aggressive, just wanted to remove as much rust as was humanly possible in this heat wave we've been experiencing. I also used an abrasive nylon disc to remove some of the deeper scrapes and scratches this frame had picked up in it's 42 years of being around...Oh yeah, I welded up the several cracks I found. I did this with a MIG welder at work. MIG stands for metal-inert gas, AKA GMAW, or gas metal arc welding. It's a wire feed process versus a TIG welding process where a welding rod is fed into the weld zone by hand, similar to Oxy-Acetelene welding. TIG stands for Tungsten-inert gas. If you hear someone referring to 'Heli-arc' you are probably talking to an old fart. Heli-arc was a trade name for a Tig welding process.And SMAW, stands for shielded metal arc welding, commonly called 'stick-welding'...and if you're falling asleep....welding is a fascinating subject and I suggest that if you have an interest in it, do sign up for a class at a junior college or an adult education class if you have any in your area. So don't quote me on any of this, I've just got off a hot day at work...and those classes were many years ago.. So after getting tired of this....the rust removal that is...
I shot on a good coat of a 'Rustoleum' brand acid etch primer....kinda like the color of it, started thinking a green frame might look nice...
...but got back to the plot, and shot it with 'Rustoleum' gloss black.
Had been waffleing back and forth on black or a silver like the original...but after seeing another silver SL frame at the swap meet, that was even rustier than mine, decided to go with a nice thick coat of good primer and black.
Stuck the Cub in here...just because I wanted to see it...subject of a future 'how he did it'...
Loot from the CJMC Show, and other places...
The head, with various valves, springs and such...ten dollars, but I'll get back to it. Used speedo cable...2 bucks. NOS (made in Japan) fork seals, foot peg rubbers, and exhaust sealing rings. Seals....5 bucks. Peg rubbers....10 bucks. Exhaust sealing rings....4 bucks. Taiwanese spark plug boots were another 5 bucks I believe. Always amazed at the NOS stuff that shows up at these events...and the nice prices that are being charged, from nice friendly Honda riding folks of course...
The brake shoes are original Honda items bought at a local Honda shop several years ago. Walked into the shop expecting to have to order a pair. (They are smaller than CB/CL shoes and usually are not easy to come by. Turns out some one else had ordered a pair and had never come in for them. I had thought about converting to a CB wheel for this reason, but it would entail a complete re-working of the brake pedal and brake actuation as the later SL's is cable operated and CB/CL's are rod actuated...and since I have a disc up front, figured these would do.
The white package is '4-stroke' exhaust packing' , and represents an exhaust system I have yet to construct...so, stay tuned for that one.
The head was labeled 'BAD' top and bottom by someone at a Honda shop...hence the 10 dollar price. They used another head when they built the engine for his CL 350. The seats look good, the valves look good and are'nt bent. No cracks or broken fins that I could see. I figured I could borrow an exhaust stud from it to replace the one missing on my engine.
There are some marks in the combustion area where it looks like a previous mechanic had gotten a bit rough with a coarse wire wheel...? and the thread repair insert is on the short side.
Yeah, a sloppy thread repair...but not something that can't be easily fixed.
So, this weekend after the smoke clears from all the Yankee (and Rebel) celebrations...I'll work on the swing arm, front fork assembly, and wheels...then reaquaint them with the frame.
Then on to cleaning and stripping the fuel tank and many other tasks. Have a safe weekend and watch out for those short fuses!!
