Project:1982 Nighthawk CB450SC

[CaptainHenreh]

Ok so it's not a car. But it *is* a project.

This is my motorcycle. There are many like it, but this one is mine:



I bought this last fall for 200 bucks, and had Matt ride it to my house.

450CC 4 Valve air cooled parallel twin. I have no clue how many horsepower it makes, (the title says 40BHP) but it's enough to scoot the thing to a 14 second quarter mile, so it's as fast as pretty much any car. A reaaaaalllly big 6th gear gives the bike (supposedly) over 50 miles per gallon. Score.

It needs the following:

• New Fluids
  
• New Tires
  
• Greased fittings
  
• Tank Work
  
• Petcock Rebuild
  
• New Plugs and Wires
  
• Possibly some top end sealing.
  
• Possibly headlight repair.

You can see one of the many dents in the tank here:


It's also rusted as hell on the inside, but appears to be solid all around. So here's the idea. I took off the tank:



So that I can strip that nasty turquoise, sandblast it on the interior and exterior, then powdercoat the outside, probably black. The inside I'll seal with tank sealer and hope for the best.

The tiny little engine:

Here's the headlight that needs repairing:



You can see the headlight bracket is bent up, so I don't know if they can be ghetto repaired or if I'll need to remove the bracket and put on an after market one. It (the headlight) also sometimes acts funny, as there's a switch in the starter that dims the headlight when the starter button is depressed. Apparently this is a common problem, as a wire comes loose inside the starter switchbox, so we'll see if that's my problem.

Here you can see the oily plug:



I don't know what's going on there, but I'm not going to worry about it for a while. I'll just put fresh plugs in more often than I really need to.

I also have one missing side cover and one half broken side cover. You can see how ugly the sides are without the covers, so I'm on the lookout for new ones,

I also need a new seat cover, but the plastic underneath is solid, so I may just get a piece of scrap leather and reupholster it myself. Get some rivets, some padding like RJ got for the SV, and see what I can do. I'll probably pick up some new grips too.

Anyway, the idea here is for this bike to be my "first bike" being gutless and fuel efficient, I'll get seat time to and from work, and with 50 mpg, I'll try to save a couple of bucks in gas as opposed to the MS3.

So, hopefully next week I'll have a nice, shiney, rust-free tank writeup.

[Mike]

what happened to the vfr?

[CaptainHenreh]

what happened to the vfr?

Caught the Ebay virus.

[Evan]

Step 1: Get rid of the parts from your last project

[CaptainHenreh]

Quiet you.

[Sijray21]

Honda Milano Red (or close) would be my vote :thumbup:

[CaptainHenreh]

JRay wins, sort of.

Ok, Steps One, Two & Three:

Strip, primer, and bondo:




Step Four:

Get your father in law to shoot it:


That's the first coat. After that comes a wetsand, second & third coats, then maaaaaaaaaaaaybe a clearcoat to protect it from me spilling gas all over it. Oddly, that's damned close to the original color, which I believe was "Candy Wineberry Red".

Also, I dropped my "wings" into some paint thinner and got this:


Also, the original color. Why would you paint them grey? I put them up against the tank and it looks great. So I'm going to shoot them with a little UG, then paint over the "HONDA" with the tank color.

The second coat will have to wait until I get a new tail and new side covers.

[HAULN-SS]

Looks good - does the tank get any pinstripes or anything?

[CaptainHenreh]

Looks good - does the tank get any pinstripes or anything?

Great question! I have no idea. If I do, they'll be gold, and they'll be simple and along the tankline.

[PGK]

Nice work. Looks good.

How's the bike running?

And doesn't this seem like a lot of work for a bike that is nearly disposable?

[Ginger]

I think, for Rex, half of the whole this whole bike "thing" is to have something to "do."

As said in IM - looks really good.

[CaptainHenreh]

And doesn't this seem like a lot of work for a bike that is nearly disposable?

Eh, I am bordering on polishing a turd, but I spent 8 bucks to do what you see above, and now it isn't ugly.

Sure, it was more work than rattle-can'ing it, but if it's worth doing, etc, etc. And that color was hideous. Seriously ugly.

Besides, I learned alot.

[CaptainHenreh]

PRESTO-CHANGE-O!




Still alot of work to be done. I need a new speedo cable, and I have *got* to do something with that seat, and my throttle's a little sticky. Maybe it needs some lube.

But at least it doesn't look like crap.

[CaptainHenreh]

It lives.

[Chris]

nice Rex, looks much better.

[.RJ]

Why rex's bike is leaking fuel - the rubber on the float valve is worn.

[CaptainHenreh]

I could not give RJ more Kudos for taking on my carb rebuild for me. To say they were "leaking fuel" doesn't really do justice to the stream of gasoline flowing out of my carb bowl onto my hot exhaust. (And/Or pant leg, depending on lean angle)