My SL175 look alike project.

Courier has just delivered my exhaust. Superbly packed. Apart from the heat shield, the exhaust is mint, no sign of rust at all, silencer can is very solid. Pics to follow, but I'm very pleased so far. Donor bike must have been running very rich, loads of soot dropping out of exhaust pipe inlets on can, system arrived dismantled.
 
Here it is, in kit form. I found some nice stainless bolts for the exhaust clamps. I think that the gaskets will still be usable, with a dab of exhaust paste.

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Heat shield lets it down, but I have cunning plan.

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I really prefer the later style of heatshield.

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Richard Pitman said:
Courier has just delivered my exhaust. Superbly packed. Apart from the heat shield, the exhaust is mint, no sign of rust at all, silencer can is very solid. Pics to follow, but I'm very pleased so far. Donor bike must have been running very rich, loads of soot dropping out of exhaust pipe inlets on can, system arrived dismantled.
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You found the holy grail with that, it's in amazing shape. Much like the SL350K1/K2, IMO these bikes just aren't quite the same without the stock exhaust. This is going to make your 175 look really good.
 
CB2NR said:
Great find! Look forward to seeing what you do for the heat shield.
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Wasted an afternoon making holes in a piece of polished stainless steel, not happy with the finished result. My hole saws are really only for timber or laminates, they struggle to make a clean hole in steel. For now, I've tidied up the original heat shield, but will try again, using polished aluminium next time.
 
I really ought to rename this thread as this bike is steadily morphing into an actual SL175, rather than a look alike bitsa.

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It all started my spare K4 bits, only needed some forks and fenders. I was going to use the K4 tank but then an SL175 tank showed up , ended up like this.

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But I couldn't stop at that, it didn't look right, so an SL175 frame came along, then the correct seat etc, until I ended up where it stands today. Almost ready to see if I can get it registered with the DVLA.

And this is why I don't do spreadsheets anymore ….
 
Richard Pitman said:
And this is why I don't do spreadsheets anymore ….
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Yet another thing you and I agree on about these bikes, never done any true calculations of how much is in a project because it would be depressing... I just have a round guesstimate of how much went into my red 450 and it's close to 10 times what the bike sold for new (including the $1900 purchase price of the used bike of course).
 
Exhaust fitted this afternoon. A bit of head scratching and pipe juggling involved but simple enough in the end. Scratches and dents on the heatshield don't look so bad after a touch of polish and a bit of straightening.

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Looks really good on the bike Richard.

Now you should make it unique with the 2 exit pipe mod my father did to both of our SL175s when we owned them at the same time during my high school days. It literally fooled the dealership owner I worked for that year for quite a while, he just assumed some of them came through that way and we enjoyed perpetuating the ruse.

SL175Citrusclimb1.jpg sl175 2pipes.jpg
 
Richard Pitman said:
Wasted an afternoon making holes in a piece of polished stainless steel, not happy with the finished result. My hole saws are really only for timber or laminates, they struggle to make a clean hole in steel. For now, I've tidied up the original heat shield, but will try again, using polished aluminium next time.
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Bike looks great!
For the holes; try using a knockout punch. Here in the US, Harbor Freight sells a set for about $25. They’re also sold individually in various sizes on Amazon and eBay.

HF set
 

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CB2NR said:
Bike looks great!
For the holes; try using a knockout punch. Here in the US, Harbor Freight sells a set for about $25. They’re also sold individually in various sizes on Amazon and eBay.
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Does this work sorta like a pipe cutter? Once there is enough pressure the pointy piece starts to trace a circle and score/cut through the sheet?
 
Little brackets to attach rear of bash plate to frame tubes arrived today, fitted after some grovelling around on garage floor, another job better suited to the nimble fingered original designers.

I'm glad now that I got the proper parts, my original idea of using exhaust clamps or big P clips would have been a bodge, and we wouldn't want that ….
 
ancientdad said:
No, not on what has turned out to be a nice SL175. Did you ever look into a set of SL sidecovers? Those on it are CL covers, aren't they?
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I found a right hand side cover over here in the UK, but I've not managed to find a left one. So I modified a CB175K4 side cover, moved the mounting tabs and sanded down the raised portion where the badge fitted. I do know about the replica covers, and there is also an original left cover in my watch list, expensive to import from the US. At the moment, cash better spent on go rather than show.

For that matter, there's still a bunch of stuff that could be changed to make it more original, if I could find the parts. Rear light bracket, front fender, chain guard(s), gear change pedal, kickstart lever, air filters, etc. I'm sticking with the 18" front wheel and 2LS brake, as this will be (hopefully) a road bike one day.

Front blinkers aligned correctly since this photo ! ( another concession to road use

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Richard Pitman said:
Just reading some of the reviews, it sounds as though the cheaper ones are not much good, need to spend a bit to get a quality tool.

And after looking at that youtube video, discovered something else I didn't know about, Dimple Dies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzU_bbh-4CM
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Not endorsing HF. They generally have “decent tools” for occasional use. Unfortunately; some aren’t as high quality as we’d like.
Years ago purchased a 52mm punch from the UK. I’ve probably used it 200+ times, still has a sharp edge. The trick is to not exceed the gauge rating (well, not too much anyway).
Dimple dies are cool. You can experiment using a piece of wood as a backer, and an appropriately sized ball peen hammer with a press. You’ll need to size the hole in the wood to meet your needs.
 
I'm trying to make something like this:

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So far, I've got to this. My panel beating needs to improve, but I'll blame my tools for now. Need a 'dolly' and a 'planishing hammer', I think.

It is amazing how much stiffer a panel becomes once the edges are radiused over.

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That's not bad. It's a hard heat shield to copy with the curved/pointed ends and curved edges. I wouldn't attempt to replicate one, my efforts with sheet metal fall well short of amateur. (I can make flat stuff okay, LOL) I agree that a dolly would help you shape the side edges better
 
Really looks good, impressive work. I still need to make a heat shield for mine but can't come up with any ideas I like yet. Really don't have the skills to attempt something like you are doing but will be watching to see how it turns out.
 
I don't have the skills either, I'm just making it up and learning as I go along. It may all come to nothing, but it keeps me amused, an excuse to make some noise with the power tools !
 
Richard Pitman said:
I don't have the skills either, I'm just making it up and learning as I go along. It may all come to nothing, but it keeps me amused, an excuse to make some noise with the power tools !
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Well said, one of the reasons I like tinkering with bikes in the garage.
 
Super impressed with what you have achieved here…great work.
I’d be interesting (frightening) to do a costing for the build if you added in a cost per hour for the research / work you’ve put it. I think I read somewhere in this thread the $$ ancientdad has invested in his bike and that doesn’t count his time.
When I got my SL350 I started a spreadsheet of the spending - I quickly abandoned that…terribly incriminating evidence if my wife ever found it (just joking there…I learnt long ago there isn’t much point in BS’ing to her as she knows the exact questions to ask and I don’t lie to her, even if confronted with a curly question).
I was a bit lucky with my SL as CMCNL has repro exhausts which look to be a exact copy of the original ones (again, not cheap, but you only live once!).
Cheers
Mike
 
Mikepacific60 said:
. . . I’d be interesting (frightening) to do a costing for the build if you added in a cost per hour for the research / work you’ve put it. I think I read somewhere in this thread the $$ ancientdad has invested in his bike and that doesn’t count his time. . .
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The 'spreadsheet' discussion has been active in other threads and seems to be shunned by most, but not me.

I think we would all be alarmed if we added in even a meagre hourly rate for our labour. Simply de-tarnishing and polishing a bolt could see a cost of ten £/$ per bolt. Factor in the laborious tasks of engine and frame work and we would see ourselves expending enough money to purchase the latest Corvette or Aston Martin! Such is the price of personal sacrifice to perpetuate our enjoyment and achieve our goals!(y)
 
A bit more metal bashing this afternoon, plenty more bashing to go, but at least it fits now, just needs some ( a lot ! ) fine tweaking.

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Look’n good! Metal fabrication isn’t my forte. I’m impressed with those that take on the challenge.
Kudos to you Richard. Thanks for the continuous updates.
 
Richard Pitman said:
A bit more metal bashing this afternoon, plenty more bashing to go, but at least it fits now, just needs some ( a lot ! ) fine tweaking.
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Looks very nice to me! I'm a novice welder and only have the cheapo flux core unit from HF. What sort of rig are you using to be able to weld the mounting tabs on stainless steel? Or are the tabs brazed/soldered?
 
I'm also a very novice welder, self evident from my photo. I have a Clarke Pro90 mig welder, and in this case I used stainless steel welding wire with Argon gas shielding. The Pro90 is a relatively low powered unit, OK to weld up to 3mm mild steel, and more importantly, can be plugged into a (UK) domestic 13amp (240V) socket. I'm running mine on a long extension spur to my shed, plugged into an RCD in the house, without any issues.
 
If at first you don't succeed, try again. I wasn't happy with my previous efforts, so I had another go. Put a curve into the metal before cutting the holes and welding the rear tabs on worked much better.

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Very nice Richard, second time turned out great. The bike is looking more and more like a real one, and now you can say you have one of each of the vertical-engined 175 variants
 
ancientdad said:
Very nice Richard, second time turned out great. The bike is looking more and more like a real one, and now you can say you have one of each of the vertical-engined 175 variants
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Thanks. A friend did suggest that I ought to look for a CD175 to really round things off, but that's a step too far at the moment.
 
Thanks. Just a bit miffed that the M13 bit that I used to make the clearance hole for the middle mounting screw 'grabbed' and resulted in a hole that isn't perfectly round. On my previous attempt, I went up from the pilot hole in stages, M3 > M6 > M8, then used M10 before the M13 which then drilled a perfect hole.
 
A bit of a set back. Getting things ready for first start up of rebuilt engine, decided to check oil flow to cylinder head by spinning the engine using my cordless *drill with a 14mm socket on the alternator rotor nut. Spark plugs removed and bike leant over to the right.

( *Initially used my cordless impact driver, not a good idea, it simply undid the stator retaining bolt rather than turn the engine )

After spinning it for a bit, I slackened the right rear head nut, plenty of clean oil pumping out with some force. Left rear - dry as a bone.

I'm running a CB200 head on an SL175 bottom end. 175 cam and cam journals. I've drilled the CB200 head to open the oil way from the left rear cylinder stud to the left 175 cam journal.

( CB200 cam is oiled differently, oil only rises on right side, flows through cam to blind left 200 journal. 175 oils both sides )

So, either my drilling doesn't align with the oil way in the 175 left journal, the gasket is the wrong way round, or oil isn't flowing up the left cylinder stud from the tiny drilling in the crankcase. Need to dismantle and investigate. Wish I'd done this before I installed the engine in the frame.

Before
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Drilled
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Took the dog for a walk last night and thought about this. Of course, the CB200 head shouldn't make any difference, so far as oil reaching the top of the rear left head nut is concerned. Maybe I just need to crank the engine on the drill for a bit longer, before I start to panic and pull the engine apart, oil gallery hasn't filled up yet on that side. Fingers crossed …
 
Richard Pitman said:
Took the dog for a walk last night and thought about this. Of course, the CB200 head shouldn't make any difference, so far as oil reaching the top of the rear left head nut is concerned. Maybe I just need to crank the engine on the drill for a bit longer, before I start to panic and pull the engine apart, oil gallery hasn't filled up yet on that side. Fingers crossed …
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I hope it works out. I'm curious if the drill spinning registers on the tach and, if so, what sort of engine speed it generates.

Also, why did you lean the bike over to the right for the test? Was that to make it easier for the oil pump to deliver oil at the presumably lower engine speed?
 
Good point about the tach, I'll check to see what rpm I'm achieving with the drill.

Bike is leant to the right to stop oil coming out of the open stator cover, needed for access to the bolt on the end of the crank. Still no oil up that left side despite running the drill for some time. Just reviewed pics taken during build, all gaskets and O rings appear to be correctly placed.

Currently trying to remove the top cover to have a look at the cam oiling, pesky hidden 10mm bolt is thwarting me at the moment, need to invent a tool to undo it.
 
I think it was just precautionary to ensure the oil pump was in more than enough depth of oil. Avoiding running on the side stand is really the only truly important thing. It is a good question about rpm and the length of time the piston pump takes to get oil to both sides of the head.
 
I gave up for now trying to remove the top cover. I need to weld an M13 nut onto a short M10 socket to make a tool to get that hidden head cover bolt out.

Decided to attack from the other end, removed the alternator side cover, to access the main oil gallery. This was empty after standing, but soon filled with oil when the crank was spun. The tiny hole in the top of the gallery, feed to the left side of the head, is clear, piece of Mig wire passes through it OK. On the lower side of the gallery is a larger hole, position indicated in blue in my photo, oil feed to crankshaft / gearbox. Oil flows down there in preference, so I think it's all a matter of oil pressure / rpms, my drill simply not running fast enough to get enough oil circulating. Only 350 rpm shown on tacho, drill fastest speed.

So, I'm hoping all is OK, no obvious obstructions to oil flow. This engine has a stock 175 pump, when I tested an earlier engine build in this way I had a CB200 (bigger piston) pump fitted. Tempted to just bite the bullet and try starting this engine, check the oil flow once running, as in Honda FSM.

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