Stage 4: Even your friends and family say you need help…

[EzPete]

Ol Jenny needed some attention. A fuse cheat I learned was to wrap aluminum foil around the burnt out glass fuse. If that 16 gauge wire isn't working, you could try that Why the front end swap to the different fork? You plan on tearing engine down? Stage 4 is progressing to stage 5. You are descending Daunte's stages. It does get interesting when you have nothing to loose.

Ack. Why? That’s a scary question I try to never ask myself.

The fork swap is more or less just an experiment in seeing what kind of lunatic build I could put together from a free bike that was headed to the graveyard (I got this one and the other CX for a $300 discount off the 78 CX, so $900 for one bike or $600 and I take all 3.

As for the engine. Thanks to Army, ASU, UGA and some crypto those plans have changed a bit. I’ve had this idea of pressing in some 650 sleeves on the 500 block to make an under square 585, unless I can get my hands on the turbo setup from a CX650. Going to at least pop the engine case open to replace all the water cooling onrings and the main seals and it’s likely going to be due for a valve job and bore - it’s apparently got close to 60K on it and based on what I’ve seen so far, that’s 60,000 miles of meth fueled maintenance.

At the end, going for kind of a minimalist bobber/tracker built on comstars.

 

[EzPete]

Boy. I’d really like to find the engineer that designed the exhaust systems on these GLs and have a little chat. I feel like they were pre-coated with rust promoting spat at the factory and then interference fit so they could fully seize in place. Takes longer to pull those off a 45 year old bike than it does to drop the engine.

I will say the craziest thing about this one is for as absolutely beat as it is, the headers and mufflers are actually in borderline “good” shape. Typical rust in the baffles and somewhat tarnished on the underside of the left muffler, but zero scratches all the way through the chrome plating, and the muffler clamps we’re even correct and have matching bolts that look awfully close to the actual correct ones, not even stripped or rounded! Despite the left muffler being held in place with baling wire.

The one real oddity I came across was the brake lever connecting rod. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bend like this.

Now the super fun part begins. Polishing this turd.

 

[ballbearian]

The one real oddity I came across was the brake lever connecting rod. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bend like this.

The hollow ones on the CA77 Dreams are easily bent. If a lazy mechanic doesn't fully insert the arm it's almost guaranteed. I've almost resorted to using a long bolt or all thread and some kind of stepped washers to strengthen them and pull it tight. It really stinks if the splines start to cork screw also.

 

[Flyin900]

I have some CX 650 pistons and rods and bearings you can have for the price of shipping, if you decide to go that route. Thew away the engine cases and crank when I moved though. It is actually 674cc’s as noted on my engine.

 

[EzPete]

Those photos look damn near spotless compared to the picture behind the radiator…



No. That’s not black paint. And I wish it was bad lighting. She’s a messy one.



More than likely was spewing a bit of oil from the clutch cover which appears to have taken a pretty good shot.

The good news is that the important parts are looking good. While the pistons are crusty (pretty sure exhaust in the left cylinder was open for the last decade or so this sat), the cylinder walls still show faint cross hatching and zero vertical scoring or even wear patterns, the lifters look good, can looks good and the cam chain appears to be a fairly recent replacement as the guides are barely worn.

 

[EzPete]

Note - might have to zoom to look, but full range of adjustment on cam chain tensioner remains (spring pulls the lever down, square bolt locks it in place. Guides look almost new and unworn.

Heads are decent, no signs of torched valves - just a lot of carbon.



Looks like I can likely avoid a lot of machine work here, and replaced that with a whole bunch of cleaning.

Just about every oring needs to be replaced with the proper ones, recently replaced clutch isn’t installed correctly, and I’m wagering that the heads will need to be decked, but those are going to get a full disassembly, lap and new seals at a minimum.

Note all tabs on the clutch lined up, instead of offset.

 

[ancientdad]

Pretty gnarly for sure. That's the most I've ever seen of the insides of one of those, the few I've worked on have only needed external stuff. Now the big brother GL1000, different story... been in those 3 times more than I wished I had.

 

[EzPete]

Pretty gnarly for sure. That's the most I've ever seen of the insides of one of those, the few I've worked on have only needed external stuff. Now the big brother GL1000, different story... been in those 3 times more than I wished I had.

Relative to the DOHC twins it’s really a very simple machine and this one - as abused as it looks from the outside - is pretty clean internally. It’s got a lot of the requisite “close enough just put some silicone on there” orings and an unbelievable amount of gasket sealant was used on the front and back panels, but so far so good on the condition of the internals.

 

[ancientdad]

Relative to the DOHC twins it’s really a very simple machine and this one - as abused as it looks from the outside - is pretty clean internally. It’s got a lot of the requisite “close enough just put some silicone on there” orings and an unbelievable amount of gasket sealant was used on the front and back panels, but so far so good on the condition of the internals.

I was amazed at how well they rev despite being a pushrod engine. I got to ride my local riding buddy's GL650 before he sold it, and he'd done a ton of little things to perk it up. It happily turned 10,000 rpm and ran mid 12s in the quarter mile.

 

[kbongos]

Things are looking up for ol Jenny here. With 60K on odometer, would you expect to see cross hatches on cylinder walls, or does that indicate it's been rebuilt, maybe re-bored? Will you take cylinder head off to clean and measure bore to see what's been done and what it needs?

Interesting to see the internals on the GL here, thanks for sharing. Maybe this old bird has got some life in it yet.

 

[EzPete]

Things are looking up for ol Jenny here. With 60K on odometer, would you expect to see cross hatches on cylinder walls, or does that indicate it's been rebuilt, maybe re-bored? Will you take cylinder head off to clean and measure bore to see what's been done and what it needs?

Interesting to see the internals on the GL here, thanks for sharing. Maybe this old bird has got some life in it yet.

I certainly expected the cylinder walls to look a lot more worn, but it’ll be interesting to see what it looks like cleaned up. I will say that the clutch work and rebuild work were definitely not done by the same person if there was a re-hone/build done at any point. It appears that multiple sets of hands have been involved here over the years, with the last one armed with a full tube of blue rtv and a disdain for actually solving a leak. It’s an interesting archeological expedition.

 

[EzPete]

Argh. Whoever did the cam chain/guides must’ve used a half bottle of red loctite on the flywheel bolt, which is a real PITA since you can’t really heat the heck out of it without damaging the magnets and the oil pump end of the crank is somewhat prone to snapping off with too much torque - so back to the drawing board there.

And for some reason, the clutch nut on the GL uses the larger 26mm special socket, instead of the 24mm on the CB oil filter and CX clutch.

Oh well, off to heat cycle this bolt while finding that how-to guide for sacrificing a 26mm 12 point socket to the “weird tools you only need twice” gods.

 

[EzPete]

Well. This is new. I’m totally stumped here. I wanted to dry fit the ZS650 rear coilover in to check fit and see if I got the 1/2” lower I need to save a little rake overall - along with tossing out a huge leaky air shock.

Bottom bolt came out just fine but the top? Well, it seems that the PO, rather than just get the nut started with their hand and then do the two wrench thing decided to tack weld not just the nut, but the washer as well, to the shackle bracket.


So, as you loosen the bolt, rather than sliding the bolt back it’ll bend the tab and lock everything in place.

Bolt spins in place, but I cannot get it to slide out even enough to get something to pry from the back. It’s almost dead in line with the outer down tubes with about 2.5” of space

Anyone have ideas?

 

[ballbearian]

Saws-all. May have to grind some off the back of blade to get it to fit in there.

 

[EzPete]

Saws-all. May have to grind some off the back of blade to get it to fit in there.

Might be able to get at the bottom tack weld that way and chisel it out a bit. One I can get the shock out of the way, I’ll be able to get a cut off wheel on it and try to get it back to normal.

I’ve seen the nut welded on before never the nut and washer. And with one so easy to reach it makes no sense. Find all kinds of goodies like that.

 

[ancientdad]

Might be able to get at the bottom tack weld that way and chisel it out a bit. One I can get the shock out of the way, I’ll be able to get a cut off wheel on it and try to get it back to normal.

I’ve seen the nut welded on before never the nut and washer. And with one so easy to reach it makes no sense. Find all kinds of goodies like that.

There's always a good PO story in these bikes, some better than others.

 

[EzPete]

Saws-all. May have to grind some off the back of blade to get it to fit in there.

Gave it a shot. Took the nut off. Manager to rotate and grind the bolt down

And it’s fully fused to the bushing sleeve inside the upper shock mount - which is a couple mm wider than the bolt hole.

Back to square one. This one is getting real. I’m afraid the only way to do this is going to be to remove the upper shock mount entirely and weld it back on.

 

[EzPete]

This is the part of any build that just sucks. Waiting on parts and endless cleaning.

She’s all torn down. Finally got the shock free after some minor surgery. Looks like the right side of the bike being the “corroded” side is staying true to form. Left swingarm bearing was fine, right side a ball of rust. So more soaking and heat to get the race out and replace that after repainting.

Then it’s on to more cleaning and diving into the heads. I guess in my downtime I get to sort this Partzilla box.


Man. I wish Honda put more than the part number on these baggies when you order orings and hardware.

 

[ballbearian]

Man. I wish Honda put more than the part number on these baggies when you order orings and hardware.

With Sharpie in hand, I often re-translate the FSM/Parts Catalogue literal descriptions anyway.

 

[ancientdad]

With Sharpie in hand, I often re-translate the FSM/Parts Catalogue literal descriptions anyway.

And eliminate the "last name first" that is applied to all Honda parts, like "ring, set" and "pin, knock". The parts lists online often don't show the comma that should follow the "last name" so the part looks like it's actually named that way to those who aren't familiar.

 

[EzPete]

With Sharpie in hand, I often re-translate the FSM/Parts Catalogue literal descriptions anyway.

Yep! This one’s a fun box. Orings for the GL, brake hardware for a CBR600, replacement hardware for the 929RR forks and front axle. And somewhere is the replacement chain tensioner bit for the 500T.

 

[boddy]

Part of the fun is discovering what you actually ordered and looking up the part once again in the parts fiche!

 

[EzPete]

Well. In anticipation of the great freeze of 2025 headed our way, I took what looks to be the last day for a while that I could get ventilation and the right temps/humidity to do some fabrication and paint. Spent what felt like all week chipping eons of crap off the frame - particularly the lower shock mount/kickstand/cener stand mess that has some leaked low temp sealant that was used to patch the cracked clutch cover leak and instead heated up and got flung all over the undercarriage.

inspired by @Flyin900 and his nighthawk refresh, I did the same low gloss engine enamel/matte 2K clear combo for the frame bits. I really liked that look since the stock GL tank and triple from the Fireblade are going to be Ford Ingot Silver with chrome exhaust/bars/controls there will be plenty of of shiny around it. And matte black = skinnier right? This girl needs all the help she can get there.

Super high end drying rack under the infrared heater:


So now we get rolling on more of the ugly. This is the dirtiest engine I’ve ever worked on - in any vehicle. Ever.



So. Front and back covers into the dishwasher. Let’s see what an hour does in there.


Then it’s off to the 3 boxes full of nasty caked on junk and scraping the block off to paint.
Some CAD (cardboard aided design) to lay out an underseat tray for the fuse block, starter switch, battery tray, rec/reg and RaeSan module
Fiberglass seat tray to get off to an actual upholstery shop to cover
Front fork rebuild/refresh
Rear wheel bearings
Fabricate front disc adapter for the 954 discs to the GL Rim
Front axle spacers and wheel bearings (luckily wheel bearings were an easy find for the 25mm front axle)
Swingarm bearings and bushings
Assess the heads
Build a wiring harness

No problem. Couple eons of work ahead.

 

[Flyin900]

Do you have the Maytag service man on stand by with that set up? It looks like a extra large parts washer for sure?

 

[EzPete]

Do you have the Maytag service man on stand by with that set up? It looks like a extra large parts washer for sure?

Hey. He’s the most bored guy in the planet right? I’m just setting him up for a challenge. Nah, if that one dies I’ll just get another free one off marketplace and attach the pump panel to it.

Still playing with the right degreaser/defoamer mix for aluminum. It rocks on steel, chrome and plastic parts with just simple green at 10:1 and defoamer at .5 oz per 5 gal. Aluminum has proven to be more tricky without discoloring. So far the cheap ecolab stuff from HD does a reasonable job at 10:1, I might have to get more aggressive to get through really ugly stuff.

Works awesome to get those super stuck knock pins out. Just have to remember to check the bottom of the basin afterwards.

 

[ballbearian]

Wasn't Cascade the go to? IDK, I have Man-well do al my dishes.

 

[EzPete]

Whole lot of free time this weekend, so I got to work undoing some earlier work (changed my idea on how to mount all the electronics when I realized I was going to have a clearance issue at the rear tire)




Luckily my Partzilla order and bearings made it so I got the new tapered bearings/races for the steering stem pressed on, along with new bearings for the swingarm, triple painted the same color the tank is going to be, forks rebuilt (boy cartridge forks sure make that easy.)

Fabbed up and welded a riser plate above the rear wheel for the solenoid, battery and rec/rec (I was going to do a tray under the seat, thus the clearance issue - needed another 3” for travel.), along with a tray just aft of the tank for the Ignition control module and fuse block.

Sent all the measurements and my caveman drawing off to my daughter to do the CAD design for the rotor adapters - I knew those robotics classes in HS would be good for something.

Next up is wheel bearings for rear, machine down the 929 inner spacer for the front, clean up the brakes and get those mounted and get to work on the rims while I procrastinate on the top end, rebuild the stock left hand controls and wait for it to warm up enough to paint again for the tank.

Oh. And handlebars. Gotta get those too.

 

[ballbearian]

Cut some doughnuts while you wait.

 

[EzPete]

I keep telling myself that the next bike I build I’m going to slowly accumulate all new parts. Or maybe just not take on a derelict project - while I contemplate that CB350 from CMC that has probably witnessed more horrors than I can think of.

Ugh. This part just plain sucks.

Started last night after work with this:


Enough carbon there to shrink the combustion chamber. It was as thick as the fire ring.

So some chem dip and scrubbing. And scrubbing and chem dip and cursing

Ran out of razor blades getting the gasket off and couldn’t find my knife to open the new package so I bought a knife when I was getting carb cleaner

But then unneeded a knife to open my knife. Like a bad Mitch Hedberg bit.

Anyway. Got them down: and finally degreased enough to head off to paint didn’t even take my phone out to get shots of the absolute travesty that the front and back covers were. Looks like the PO’s solution to a leaky mechanical seal was to slather RTV all over (3 different kinds) and just keep refilling with straight antifreeze which corroded the cases. Fun times.



Thankfully all the valves and springs spec’d out. The parts tab is rapidly exceeding projections - not helped much by needing what I could only figure out to be the most expensive master cylinder rebuild kit Brakecrafters sells for late 80’s Hondas.

But, what goes must also stop, so it’s on the way.

Next up is case paint, then cramming all the crap back in the case.

 

[ancientdad]

The joys of undoing a PO's "efforts"... it's what memories are made of.

The heads came out looking good, congrats on winning the battle nicely. I sure hope that master cylinder works with proper cleanup, sometimes when they look that bad they don't don't respond to treatment well at all.

 

[Flyin900]

Those masters can be a treat for sure just getting the C clip out when it is rusted solid in the groove! Grinding a special set of C Clip pliers from the many I own slightly helps the cause. The good news is you have youth and patience on your side.

 

[EzPete]

The joys of undoing a PO's "efforts"... it's what memories are made of.

The heads came out looking good, congrats on winning the battle nicely. I sure hope that master cylinder works with proper cleanup, sometimes when they look that bad they don't don't respond to treatment well at all.

I’ve got hope for it. All
Of the corrosion was “behind” the seal in the bore , and a run through with a nylon bore brush and some brake fluid yielded this
You can kind of see a faint line about midway down the bore. Appears to be staining from just sitting there but I didn’t want to get too aggressive. A pick doesn’t catch on it and the bore mic’d out right at 14.01, limit is 14.06. I think it was from just sitting - piston wasn’t seized so I’m crossing my fingers here. These are actually the controls from the ‘78 CX and I’m really wanting to keep them for the look and to give the brake lever a little more range of motion, since it’ll be going to 300+mm discs up front. Well, that and some elbow grease and a rebuild instead of junking a part and dropping $150 on aftermarket. As a plus, with some silver caliper paint and polishing the aluminum OEM levers they look really cool too.

 

[EzPete]

Those masters can be a treat for sure just getting the C clip out when it is rusted solid in the groove! Grinding a special set of C Clip pliers from the many I own slightly helps the cause. The good news is you have youth and patience on your side.

lol. You can tell I gave up on gentle persuasion. I let it sit overnight soaking in evaporust and managed to get one side of the c clip to move a little, then just pried it up. Fun times.

Off to ol H-Town to see what the tail end of the CMC sale has for bargains. Hopefully my 450 exhaust is still there and I’ll probably grab a few of those sprockets and cables and try to not have the 350 follow me home. I’ve got enough projects.

 

[ancientdad]

I’ve got hope for it. All
Of the corrosion was “behind” the seal in the bore , and a run through with a nylon bore brush and some brake fluid yielded this
You can kind of see a faint line about midway down the bore. Appears to be staining from just sitting there but I didn’t want to get too aggressive. A pick doesn’t catch on it and the bore mic’d out right at 14.01, limit is 14.06. I think it was from just sitting - piston wasn’t seized so I’m crossing my fingers here. These are actually the controls from the ‘78 CX and I’m really wanting to keep them for the look and to give the brake lever a little more range of motion, since it’ll be going to 300+mm discs up front. Well, that and some elbow grease and a rebuild instead of junking a part and dropping $150 on aftermarket. As a plus, with some silver caliper paint and polishing the aluminum OEM levers they look really cool too.

Yep, it doesn't look as bad as it seemed it would. Hopefully it will cooperate and seal properly so you can bleed it sufficiently to use it.

 

[Flyin900]

Yep +1 you should be fine with a new seal kit in there. I have been using DOT5 synthetic as a brake fluid on all my rebuilds for a couple of years now and I like the fluid. It doesn't attract moisture and won't damage paint and seems to stay cleaner when older rubber brake lines are used.
You do need to flush the old brake lines internally if reusing with brake cleaner and clean up the caliper interior and seal of old DOT 3 or 4 fluids.

 

[EzPete]

After my fruitless tour of I45 yesterday, not a lot of time left over for a bunch of anything heavy, so I got to work on sorting through the bags of smaller parts to see what else might need to be replaced or scavenged from the parts bike and bins.

Due to the extensive untreated coolant leak, I’m afraid the thermostat housing, cover and crossover are toast. Straight antifreeze is quite corrosive on aluminum apparently and even when they’ve been cleaned up, the pitting is really fugly. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a spare from the 79 and they’re a direct fit crossover.

Cleaning up some of the hardware too. Pretty much everything near the leak and the area downwind of the fan looked a bit rough

So I made a little home electroplating rig just to play around kind of like the nickel plating for some of these they’ll be pretty visible


Obviously, the plating doesn’t do much with any pitting but it’ll at least keep it from rusting immediately- looks kind of cool too compared to zinc


Old phone charger, some kosher salt and white vinegar and a sacrificial anode of your own choosing and chemistry wins.

 

[ancientdad]

Old phone charger, some kosher salt and white vinegar and a sacrificial anode of your own choosing and chemistry wins.

I have a few old phone chargers laying around, guess I'll have to give it a try myself. I'm tired of dark, corroded bolts degrading the look of my 450 in places.

 

[EzPete]

I have a few old phone chargers laying around, guess I'll have to give it a try myself. I'm tired of dark, corroded bolts degrading the look of my 450 in places.

It was surprisingly straightforward. I did a couple of test runs on some old scrap to make sure I had it down right.

Supplies:

White vinegar
Kosher Salt
Big wide-mouth jar or really any glass container - jar just stores better.
Solid copper wire. I used stripped doorbell wire, 12/2 romex was too thick to work with easily.
Phone charger stripped w/ alligator clips (the fast charger type worked great, higher amp output relative to voltage
Sacrificial anode(s). The hobby shop had nickel and copper, I had zinc from my boat motor

Making the solution:

Fill up your chosen vessel with white vinegar, leaving room for parts displacement
Add salt - I did about a tablespoon for 20oz of vinegar swirl it around until it dissolves
Hook up each clip to an anode. I drilled holes and hung the anodes using the copper wire and just clipped to the wire. You want these as far apart as you can in the vinegar mix.
Plug the charger in and let it sit - the side that bubbles is the negative side, so tag that - polarity is important for the next step
Let it ride for 3 hours. Nickel will turn the solution green, zinc stays pretty clear

Cleaning:

Wire brush the part to get all rust and grime off it, Sandpaper would work too, but a cup brush on a drill made really quick work of mine, bore brush for the threaded parts nuts. If it's got chrome plating, you need to get that down to the base plate material
Hit the part with carb or brake cleaner and wipe any residual oils off - after this, only touch it with gloves so it worked best to prep stuff in batches.

Plating:

Use your wire to hook around the part you want to plate, suspend that in the solution and clip to your negative side
Positive side to the sacrificial anode material
Plug it it and let it bubble. From what I saw, zinc works quickly - maybe 30 minutes. Nickel took a bit longer, about an hour to get the finish in that photo.

Take it out and wipe it off, just rubbing the nickel with microfiber brought out some shine. The zinc comes out a dull grey without brighteners, took a hit with a brass brush and a touch of Mother's to bring shine out.

 

[boddy]

I have a few old phone chargers laying around, guess I'll have to give it a try myself. I'm tired of dark, corroded bolts degrading the look of my 450 in places.

Here is the simple set up I used a few times to zinc plate some small pieces. I used an ice cream container and drilled holes around the edge in order to hang the zinc pieces (concrete anchors are made of zinc). I used a piece of copper wire to connect all the zinc pieces together since the plating from the zinc is "line of sight" and you want to surround the piece to be plated with the zinc. You can see in the pictures how it is put together. The bolts or pieces to be plated are hung by a wire from the copper wire going across the top of the container and immersed in the solution. Just make sure the bolt does not come in contact with the zinc pieces.

 

[EzPete]

Here is the simple set up I used a few times to zinc plate some small pieces. I used an ice cream container and drilled holes around the edge in order to hang the zinc pieces (concrete anchors are made of zinc). I used a piece of copper wire to connect all the zinc pieces together since the plating from the zinc is "line of sight" and you want to surround the piece to be plated with the zinc. You can see in the pictures how it is put together. The bolts or pieces to be plated are hung by a wire from the copper wire going across the top of the container and immersed in the solution. Just make sure the bolt does not come in contact with the zinc pieces.
View attachment 41777 View attachment 41779 View attachment 41778

Interesting - I hadn't though about plastic, since I wanted to store and reuse the electrolyte solution (helps mitigate the line of sight issue). I wonder if I did the same with a larger bucket and used the lid for the holes and just swapped lids for storage. I really want to do the axle bolts next.

 

[boddy]

For longer bolts, I used one of those paint roller containers with the same type of set up as above. For really long bolts you could immerse and plate half the bolt and then turn it around and plate the other half.

 

[EzPete]

For longer bolts, I used one of those paint roller containers with the same type of set up as above. For really long bolts you could immerse and plate half the bolt and then turn it around and plate the other half.
View attachment 41781

Interesting. Looks like those are about 10” long. Might have to do the double dip method for the engine hanger bolts that are longer than that. I kept thinking horizontal tanks.

 

[boddy]

Interesting. Looks like those are about 10” long. Might have to do the double dip method for the engine hanger bolts that are longer than that. I kept thinking horizontal tanks.

yup, just under 10". Since those long bolts are mostly hidden, any variation in plating won't be noticeable if you decide on the double dip method.

 

[EzPete]

One thing I find interesting about these bikes is trying to coax the stories out of them - or just inventing the out of sheer boredom while washing parts. How many hands have been in the case? What led to it being parked and left for dead? On the surface, this one was super rough. I mean shredded, abused, rode hard and put up wet. The core internals though? Pretty damn well done for a bike that has close to 60K on it. Pistons turned out to be .25 over, and the bore is in really really good shape, rods and followers and cam in great shape. Newish cam chain tensioner that was done right. Head gasket had sealer on it - not the permatex goop, but a shop sealant you’d see used in the late 80’s early-mid 90’s so someone either used a shop or knew what they were doing.
It must have traded hands at some point and the service quality went from shop to shade tree. Different hands did the clutch and then the cancer started. Someone different redid the mechanical seal and they left off the thrust washer behind the “polo mint” - it’s easy as hell to do because it sticks to that little ceramic piece and gets tossed with the old part. The FSM doesnt mention it either. So even if you’re following instructions and just go “assemble in reverse order” you put the new parts back in not realizing you’re one short. Over time, that mint starts wobbling and the seal wears out and it begins to seep through the hole. Found my coolant leak tracing back to there after I cleaned all the crap off the case.
Those same hands also didn’t clean the gasket surface really well when doing the clutch and it started leaking oil along the bottom edge. It’s a real b&@ to get the section below the clutch basket without tearing up your fingers or taking an hour with a scotchbrite pad to clean off 8 inches of surface. So the oil leak started up. Now she’s spilling coolant and oil and the owner is just slapping sealant over the exterior of the leaks which just eventually erodes and needs more sealant - or in one desperate time, latex caulk. And the engine is getting dirtier and dirtier but the miles are still ticking. Electrical netball hacked up with taller bars for the longer cruises it was taking and ****** work leads to a fuse blowout so in a pressed moment, the wire “fuse” comes in. Probably around the same time it gets dropped on the left side and the passenger peg gets swapped into the foot peg mount and the shift lever is bent, exhaust bracket is bent and replaced with a piece of the same wire and the clutch cover cracked.
So ol Jenny gets limped back from whatever roadside repairs and parked. Now she’s spilling coolant needs real work and “I’ll get to it”’turns into years of neglect she’s covered in straight antifreeze that’s been leaking slowly and wind blown oil and road grime. Parked and forgotten. Moved out to a shed at some point and slowly rots into the ground.
Well. That’s the story I’m sticking to, while I wait for a $5 thrust washer so I can seal her back up, but she’s coming back with a vengeance.

 

[EzPete]

Finally. Past the gunk scraping stage and onto the assembly. Spent some time arguing with the 16 collets and got the valves all installed.

The original plan was to polish the valve covers to a bright shiny almost chrome, unfortunately the ravages of time and ethylene glycol took all hope of that happening both on those and the steel tubing for the water pump, and with some gloss black high temp enamel still laying around, went a different direction. That and I figured it needed something different.

Crossing my fingers all my stuff stuck in GA due to weather starts migrating west tonight - that one washer is now the only thing standing in the way of the engine being done.

 

[EzPete]

“Yeah. Just slap a seat pan together from fiberglass. It’s easy”

Liars. All of the interwebz. Liars.

 

[kbongos]

Real men make there seats with metal, coils, rubber, leather, chrome. What's with this fiberglass stuff? What's next, plastic? Just teasing. I made a hard top for my MG this way back in the day. My Dad taught me about fiberglass, he was a merchant marine that sailed the 7 seas back in the days.

 

[EzPete]

Real men make there seats with metal, coils, rubber, leather, chrome. What's with this fiberglass stuff? What's next, plastic? Just teasing. I made a hard top for my MG this way back in the day. My Dad taught me about fiberglass, he was a merchant marine that sailed the 7 seas back in the days.

Yeah. That level of metalworking is outside my scope. Honestly the hardest part was getting all the spacing right for the stuff going under the seat. That and dealing with the heaters ripping 3’ above my head to keep it warm enough to cure.

 

[kbongos]

Thanks for sharing your projects with us. I did hear about the cold blast recently down in TX and FL, not the greatest timing for curing fiberglass. Was frigid here in MN, but we are getting a warm spell coming on. During the frigid last week my 05 Escape steering pump leak became untenable, fortunately my 03 Escape is running decent. Yesterday I got the 05 in garage and front up in the air. Supposed to get in 40's this week, so I may get a chance to crawl under that and do some wrenching. This was after going to help son with leaky water pipe from kitchen yesterday. Needed the oscillating multitool to rip a access panel to it thru cabinet back panel and drywall(those tools are really handy). ABS black plastic pipe drain in wall had split a seam in it. Maybe the cold of being in that outside wall had something to do with that.

The bikes in the garage are hibernating and waiting for spring. Warming up today, time to go get some exercise, back on skates fooling around with a hockey stick after a 40 year or so hiatus.

 

[EzPete]

Left the heaters running all night. Hard as a rock and I don’t know why I didn’t think “just shape it like a surfboard”

Goggles and mask and head to toe fiberglass dust. Seat pan.