The perfect 100 point Restoration of the Legendary

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Part 5: Clean-up and Re-finishing Supplies

The clean-up and refinishing part of a restoration project is when the real work starts. It is tedious dirty work. But there are rewards to all the hard work. Once you have experienced how much fun it is to reassemble the bike with nice clean, polished and refinished parts…. that is what motivates you thru all the hours of cleaning, scraping, sanding, washing, and rubbing.

Basically, All I use are the following cleaning and polishing supplies:

Back-to-Black by Mothers is great for all the rubber and molded black plastics stuff. Unlike armor-all, it will actually restore the black finish instead of putting an unnatural shine to it. I love the stuff.

Semi-Chrome is great stuff. After you have wet sanded all of the polished aluminum engine cases etc. put a little bit on and hand polish it until it has that as factory satin shine. I will feature this method later in this article.

Solvent and a 20 gallon parts cleaner does wonders for the grungy greasy grimy dirty parts that will give you dirty hands just looking at them! I go to an Industrial supply store to buy it, auto parts stores don’t have the good stuff anymore, at least not in California.

Wet Sand Paper is needed for the polished aluminum items and for the general preparation of items before painting. I regularly use 80, 120, 220, 320, 400, 600, 1000, and 1500 grit paper. Again, I will talk more about the use of this paper on the polish aluminum later.

Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax is great for polishing up allot of misc. items. I will use this on painted parts that are free of any scratches. Instead of repainting them or powder coating them, I will use this cleaner wax. It will restore the shine without scratching it like rubbing or polishing compound will. It is amazing how an item that looks old and dull turns out looking new after this treatment. I used it on my 79 CBX frame, and it looks like new again.

Blue Job is amazing stuff for the blued or yellowed chrome pipes. My pipes where totally blue/purple and after 4-5 hours of rubbing with this stuff, they look brand new. I will feature this later in the article.

Turtle Wax Chrome cleaner in my opinion is the best chrome cleaner out there. Most of the chrome on my bike was full of surface rust and this stuff took it off perfectly. If the item has minor pits in it, it pretty much deals with those also, but if the pits are major, then there is no hope, however, this stuff will even make those items look 100% better.

3M Scotch Brite Pads and Wire Brushes are great for some of the hard surfaces like brake rotors and some nuts and bolts that have a raw finish, engine fins, and brake hose fittings. The Scotch Brites are great for brake rotors. It takes at least an hour of rubbing per side, but they look new when you are done.

I must have 10 different types and sizes of wire brushes. They really come in handy. It’s also a good idea to get some nylon and soft brushes as well.

Jasco Paint Remover is what I use to strip the clear off the polished aluminum engine cases, etc. before they are wet sanded and polished. This will be featured later.

Click on each picture for a larger view of the image

The photo above and on the next page shows various parts after they have been cleaned up, degreased, polished, repainted and or powder coated. The chain guard was brought back to as new condition with the back to black. The black cover that covers the front sprocket, shown in the lower center of the picture above, was polished with Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax. It looks like new. The two silver pieces were also polished with the cleaner wax as well, and look new. The swing arm, kick stand, rear brake stabilizer bar, tail light bracket, front upper motor mounts, battery box, and oil cooler brackets were all powder coated in high gloss black to look like the original finish. Notice that the kick stand and center stand both have new springs and mounting bolts bought from Honda. One can’t put that old grungy spring back on a newly finished stand. It is these kinds of fine details that make a difference. Also, the side stand has new rubber on it as well.

In the picture on the next page, notice the inner fender and rear fender and air box assembly were brought back to look like new with Back-to-black.

The tail light was completely disassembled, each and every part washed and polished with chrome polish or cleaner wax. Then it was re-assembled using all new screws from Honda. The tail light lens is new from Honda. New lenses for all the lights on the bike makes a huge difference in the restoration. It’s one of those details that some people overlook.

Some of the large engine bolts are finished in a raw aluminum or stainless steel. These can be brought back to looking like new again with wire brushes. I will focus on the new nuts and bolts and screws etc. later.

MMM, nothing like nice cleaned, polished and refinished parts. You just want to stand there and stare at them when you have reached this stage of the restoration.

Click on each picture for a larger view of the image

This is a before and after photo of front brake rotor after it has been treated with the Scotch Brite Pad. It takes a good hour or more per rotor, but as you can see, it’s worth it. These are the rotors off the 1100F, but the result is the same

Painting: I did not really paint that much really because when ever possible, I chose to have things powder coated. But some things are better painted. The master cylinders for instance would be better painted if they are in good working condition. Powder Coating requires curing in an oven at 450 degrees. So plastic and rubber items obviously can not be powder coated or sent through the oven. In the case of the CBX, the only things that I ended up painting were either silver or black. They were as follows:

SILVER - Valve cover, the Upper and Lower Engine Block Cases, and the Oil Filter Housing. I did not paint the head or cylinders of the engine. These were not painted from the factory, and should only be bead or glass blasted if needed. My bike only needed and good scrubbing with Comet and a wire brush.

Believe it not, after many attempts, and running back and forth to different auto parts stores, paint stores and hardware stores, I finally found the most unlikely match for this color and shade of silver. It is made by Dupli-Color, it is of their Truck Van & SUV series of paint, item # T178 Silver.

Click on each picture for a larger view of the image

BLACK – I used both High Gloss and Semi-Gloss or Semi Flat (same thing) Blacks. In the case of this era of Honda, Black was Black. I used Dupli-Color and or Krylon. It really doesn’t matter what brand you use as long as it is a high quality paint. I tend to think that if you a High Heat Paint, that it will stand up to chemicals i.e. Gasoline and Brake Fluid better.

Some guys may think they have to buy it from Color-Rite or some other source that supposedly has the correct match that Honda used, but in my opinion both the Blacks and the Silvers that Honda used on all their early bikes were really simple colors, and with all the choices these days that are off the self, these are easy to match up with a much less costly product.

These are the different blacks that I used. Any good quality brand will work.

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This Site Was Updated on: Saturday March 29, 2008 07:30 AM

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