My Superfour

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craigs23
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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:12 am

I'm thinking of keeping the hugger black - I like the way the side panels and muguards create a line through the bike at the moment (what with my hanger plates being black now too), plus think white might stick out a little too much.

Could always change my mind once it's sitting in place though, but I know at the moment, with my chain guard being stainless, it doesn't look quite right from the left hand side.

Fork seals are quite easy to replace if you have tools, a manual to refer to and a little patience. Fiddliest part was separating the fork leg from the stanchion on disassembly.

I've just ordered some preload adjusters for the forks, as I feel the front end isn't as good as it could be - will let you know how I get on with these.

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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Sun Jul 15, 2012 4:09 pm

Few minor updates.

Just couldn't get a setting I liked on the YSSs, so opted for some Hagons. They don't have a piggy back option, which I think takes a little away from the look of the bike - but they felt better right away. I opted for CB500 items, which are 20mm longer than the Superfour's - gives a nicer stance when tipping into corners.

Might try out some Ohlins if I really want the look of the OE items back - bit pricey though.

My hugger arrived, fitted pretty well, although I had to drill a new hole on the right hand side. Blends nicely into the lines of the bike, being quite discreet and keeping to the colour palette.

Preload adjusters also fitted to the front forks, so I've got the static sag on the front end more-or-less how I like it. Does feel a lot more poised and the road holding hasn't been compromised.

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hannakournikova
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Re: My Superfour

Post by hannakournikova » Sun Jul 15, 2012 4:57 pm

Craig, that looks superb.
Have you got a build thread for it, or in what condition did it come to you?

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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:08 pm

Cheers.

I really should have taken some before shots. I bought it out the local Friday Ad for about £600 - mechanically sound (bar leaking fork seals, tired suspension and requiring a brake service), but cosmetically needing some TLC. There was corrosion on all alloy parts, the paintwork was poor - the original silver 93 scheme, but the tail piece looked as if it had been repaired with Dulux and Polyfilla. The cheap buy gave a nice budget to get it up to a state I was happy with - originally, I was going to use it as a hack and leave it in its original state. But, having owned a Superfour before, changed my mind within the first hour of getting it home.

I sent the panels off for painting - opting for a design I drafted in Photoshop - a cross between my NC30 and the 50th anniversary all-white Superfour. Whilst they were away, it allowed me to strip the bike for a thorough overall - new suspension, brakes, HT leads, plugs, filters, oils, tyres, bearings, etc, as well as giving it a good scrub and lick of paint here and there.

Since then, it's been a constantly weekend-tinkerer project (around the time I started this thread), which keeps me entertained and away from faffing with the NC30's finer details.

I'll see if I have any photos of its state before when I get home.

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Re: My Superfour

Post by hannakournikova » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:00 pm

Thats great Craig, i have a project one myself that i would like to see some marked improvement in - currently painted by stevie wonder :/

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Re: My Superfour

Post by reddeviljp » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:50 pm

Craig, new member here.
I saw your bike on a couple of other sites and what you've done to it looks amazing and it's one of the reasons I joined 400GreyBike.com

I'm looking to buy my first Super Four at the moment and as I've never renovated or even repaired one before I was wondering if it's possible that you could give me a bit of a steer in the right direction for a few bits of work I need to tackle immediately.

The first jobs I want to get to grips with are getting the engine alloy polished, the down pipes also and both front and rear brake units. How or where did you manage to get those jobs done?

Also, the sportive leather on the seat. Was that a one off or custom made for you?

As I said, I'm new to this so any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:59 am

Cheers for the comments - I'll try and help the best I can, but don't take my comments as gospel - there might be better ways to tackling a project, and I'm sure I had a better eye for it/more time for it in the past, but seems to be working okay so far.

The first thing I'd say is to get comfortable with working on a bike - taking one apart and knowing how to put one back together again. My Dad's an engineer by trade and my first few years or working on bikes was always double checked by him. Even now, he still offers a hand when I'm doing a fiddly job (even if it's just holding something together whilst I reassemble a component), or if I'm seeking advice on how to work on a certain part.

Either that, or occasionally the friends pitch in - or I go visit them to lend a hand with whatever they may be doing to their bikes. A workshop manual, confidence and a little experience helps dividends.

The next step is to ensure your 'base work' is covered. I tend to make sure the bike's mechanically sound, or there abouts before going to work on it. I work out what requires servicing/refreshing, restoring or replacing - starting with the major components first such as the engine, suspension, brakes, bearings etc. That way, things don't get too mucky later on, you know that there'd be no need to restore a pair of rear shocks if you intend to replace them anyway, plus it's always easier to work an area of the bike which has already been disassembled for a purpose.

I'd also try to ensure my workspace is as a clean as possible - so re-used components go into particular boxes, fixings/fastenings into labelled tubs, wiring looms get photographed on a digital camera, etc.

Finally - the devil is in the details. No point on having a nice pair of heelplates polished if you intend on bolting them back in place with the old corroded fasteners - so remember to restore/replace these too.

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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:14 am

Right, onto the specifics.

First call is metal polishing - which used to be my forte. As per any restoration, if you intend on doing this yourself, the trick is in the preparation / patience. It always surprises me how good Honda's build quality was when original exhausts, forks legs, etc clean up after a little TLC. The same cannot be said for their latest bikes (bar one or two). Most people who've seen the Superfour so far, for instance, think that the exhaust system has been replaced.

It's not spotless though - there are still marks on it/heat staining on areas where I couldn't get to, but it seems that only I can see that they're there.

Easiest method I found was to remove the complete system - only a couple of bolts on this bike, plus a set of new gaskets. Allowed me to work around the item in a little more comfort, having is supported on an old piece of carpet as I went to work.

First on went some oven cleaner, with a good scrubbing from a mixture of heavy duty scouring pads plus a medium wire-wheel drill attachment (didn't want anything too coarse as it would have been fiddly polishing out any deep marks I made). I continued to work until most of the corrosion and staining was removed, leaving the exhaust with a light, brushed silver finish.

Then it was a case of polishing up this base. I've always favoured wet and dry as this approach as I find it gives a really good finish and offers a level of control that I can't seem to obtain from using a drill attachment. Applied in the same way as restoring paintwork - keep the sanding paper wet, use a dash of washing up liquid, work around polishing the metal until you can get it as smooth as possible on each grade. For metalwork I tend to start with a 400 grit, then move to 800, then finally 1200 - 1600.

This will finally give a really smooth brushed silver finish, which is a nice look in itself (it features a lot on my NC30), but if you want that finally bit of bling - a dollop of Autosol on a cotton rag will get a really good shine and lustre appearing. Finish off with some lighter polish (such as Brasso).

This has worked not only on exhaust systems, but all alloy work as well. Some work I cleaned/polished earlier:

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More when I get home from work...

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Re: My Superfour

Post by reddeviljp » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:04 pm

Top man. Great stuff and advice. I'm going to look at the bike this evening and hopefully seal the deal.Then I'll photograph it all over and start putting together a job list next week. Thanks for the initial help.

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Re: My Superfour

Post by craigs23 » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:00 pm

Hope it all works out well - this is my second Superfour now, after owning quite a number of bikes - great little things they are (prefer them to CB1s - but only just).

This was never meant to be a full restoration, as I don't have the time or budget that I had for my NC30. If it was going to be a full nut and bolt job, I would have stripped the bike to the frame when I got it, and quickly despatched it, along with many other items off the the powdercoaters. (Love the work on Tim's NC30, for example, which shows what incredible level of detail you can go to for a restoration).

However, with the tank and panels off to the sprayers, I did have the bike in a half-assembled state, which allowed me to go to work cleaning up what was left. First port of call being a thorough clean and degrease (find paraffin great for this purpose), so properly see what was under a couple of year's worth of crud, as well as gauging what required scrubbing, polishing or respraying/coating.

The engine, cosmetically speaking, wasn't that bad. There was a bit of corrosion and soiled in dirt and the paint was faded/marked in places, with the odd road debris/staining and tar splatters. Normally, I would have stripped off the side covers/cam cover/etc and sent them off to the powdercoaters, but this being a budget restoration, I got busy with the rattle cans and masking tape. With the exhaust out the way for polishing, things were made a lot easier. I'd also removed the radiator for a good blast through with a hose (and much needed new coolant), plus sourced a second cam cover to strip down and give a lick of paint (the original cover's finsh, although corroded, just wasn't shifting with out a bit of brute force - which I didn't really want to employ).

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Not a bad result. I'm wondering whether to source a second set of side plates to have a go at mirror polishing (not wanting to make a mistake on the items currently fitted and all), and I'm in half a mind to replace the engine bolts with shiney stainless items (but it may look 'too bling' if I opted for that). Note the radiator side plates were scrubbed down - not with wet and dry, as I wanted an OE look, but just the first couple of steps mentioned above.

Every time the bike comes out the pipework are treated to another going over with Autosol - they're gradually getting more and more like chrome :smile:


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