45.HONING MY SKILLS

In my spare time I decided to hone both  bores.Went digging in the rollcab & unearthed the drill mounted hone.The last time I employed that was when I rebuilt my Buell S2 Thunderbolt motor a couple years ago.
It's highly likely that I'll use Honda Integra rings but will have to wait till the Corona virus drama passes b4 I can buy a set.
Itll be a good excuse to fire up the lathe too.

Drill mounted honing tool

Honing the CX  bores

44. ITS ANOTHER COVERUP

Been painting the engine cases.Had to strip all the old shit black paint off & clean out their insides of 30+ years accumulated crap. Decided to go with some of Rustoleums 'oil polished bronze' which is a metallic charcoal that verges on being a very dark brown.
I reckon itll contrast nicely with the polished rocker & clutch covers & stainless steel capscrews.

Polished covers on painted motor bits

Rustoleums 'Oil rubbed bronze' on motor parts

Still got the main crankcase to do but I ran out of paint stripper,masking tape & top coat paint & cant get any more due to the damn Covid 19 hoohaa

43.BLINKER FLUID TOP UP

Had a go at fitting the rear indicators, made a wee stainless steel bracket & they bolted right up.One more thing to cross off the to do list.

Stainless indicator bracket

Rear lights mounted

42.ELECTRICKERY

The CX needs wiring shortly so whipped up a tail tidy/electrics box out of some ali sheet.Designed it on the fly using CAD (cardboard aided design) pizza box lid then traced it out,cut it then bent it up then added a sprinkling of rivnuts. Being aluminium  it was very easy to work.The rectum fryer got mounted underneath to help keep it in the airflow.Battery wise that'll get mounted under the motor along with the starter solenoid.Both will end up in,a yet to be designed, alloy battery box.

Electrics tray done

Under tail view

Under seat view

Electrics tray design

Rivnut in electrics tray

41. STRIPPER

The motor has 40 odd years of grime,corrosion & multiple 'paintjobs' so time to employ some paint stripper in preparation for it's new coat of paint.Im undecided on color but am leaning towards a hammered charcoal or a champagne silver.
The charcoal would contrast nicely with the various polished covers & stainless cap screws tho.....

Paint strippage

40. THE SOLUTIONS

After the previous dissapointments it was decided to play my hopefully trump card.
I have a spare parts motor so delving into that I found that it had a set of quite usable crank,rods, pistons,big end shells,cam,cam chain & tensioners but sadly buggered bores.A cunning plan started to form as I did a bit of interwebbing.
Turns out that Honda Integra rings can be persuaded to fit after giving the pistons a trip round the lathe.Thatll save some $$.
So I've decided to use the best bits of both motors,adding  a bore honing  & car rings.
Next up is the clutch.I dont hold out much hope.

Some of the best motor bits

39.YET MORE CARNAGE

Busted off exhaust stud

Worn out tappets

Knackered can lobes

Cam chain damage

38. FURTHER CARNAGE

Debris on oil filter screen

Ex big end shells

'stepped crank'

Overall disembowelment

Worn out rocker shafts

37. CARNAGE ENSUES....

Heres the motor I was planning on using a1980 CX500E.
Its gunna need a bit of work or so I found out upon its disemboweling.
First up it needed 3x helicoils as a previous neanderthal had left his

One 1980 CX500E motor

Oven cleaner applied

Helicoiling 2

Helicoiling

mark's.... then I discovered the casting around one of the exhaust studs had been broken off.
Delving further into this trainwreck I found the remains of one of the big end shells floating about.
Looking closer I discovered one of Hondas very rare stepped crankshaft journals...
CX500s are prone to cam chain/ tensioner failure & this motor was no exception.Then I surveyed the rocker shafts only to find extreme wear on their undersides. Using this motor is gunna mean $$$$.

36. PROJECT UPDATE

 Dragged her outside again today for a dose of vitamin D
Lots of progress recently due to enforced Covid19 'holiday'

UPDATED PIC1

UPDATED PIC2

UPDATED PIC3

35. WHAT A TEASE

Trial fit of tank & seat

After a bit more assembly I temporarily

added the tank & seat to get a bit of an idea of where things are headed
It's certainly rather different to my usual build style.
I decided to do the complete opposite of what I would normally do ie black frame complete with lots of polished alloy...  NOT THIS TIME!!

34. FRONT WHEEL FACELIFT

Decided to tart up the front wheel today so after a good wash & hose down,sanded most of the scratches out & after spending what seemed like hours masking off the tyre/ rim I finally spent about 10 minutes actually spraying the black PA 10  etch primer on.

Masking off front wheel

 I also gave the hub cover a tickle up, white primer ,a few coats of red then several clearcoats.Added some stainless steel M8 button headed capscrews & on to the next job

Finished front wheel/hub cover

Finished front wheel disc side

33.HAD A SQUIRT

Spray painting would have to be one of my favourite activities.
Not so much the all important prep stages but I just  cant wait to get some top coat  color on.
This is where the whole project takes on a whole nuther life of it's own.
Being old school I still prefer to use good ole acrylic lacquer cause its reasonably priced & dries so fast.The only downsides are that it's not as durable as 2 pak & ya need to cut & polish for to get a nice gloss.

Primered fairing

Primered tank & seat

Bodywork awaiting gloss clearcoat

32. RED REAR END

  Sorry but not what you were thinking.
Heres the recently repainted rear brake plate & a pic of the rear end.
 I did this plate at the same time & the same way that I did the diffy.

Rear brake plate after painting

Rear brake plate B4 paint

Left hand side rear end assembly

31. NOW THATS DIFF ERENT

Repainted rear end right hand side

With a burst of energy today I finally delt to the diffy.This was a job I'd been putting off cause of the messy state of it.

Degreased it then hit it with paint stripper,then white primer then gloss  red followed by a generous coating of clear.

Once more to the polishing wheel for the inspection plug &  then fitted a couple of nice shiny bolts.

Diffy B4

Paint stripping diffy

Finished diffy