Renovation Time

[z1100r]

Theres a great big hole in the bracket and its channel shaped. The sides do not go outside the frame..should they .. I cant remember. If i just bolt it on it will crush down the middle of the bracket. I do actually remember the old brackets being a bit crushed...but hat cant be right surely.

[z1100r]

 Here is a pic of "so close but so far"

Not the greatest of backgrounds ...hahaha

Bigger pic HERE ..shit must change the mainstand spring, I bought one definately.

[Mercury]

Keep going, keep going, looks lovely and shiny and clean enough to eat dinner off it....well done!

[z1100r]

 I am, I am,  .. its surprising how long it all takes though. I was maybe a tad ambitious trying to get it all done in a couple of months. Its not meant to be a full restoration but when it comes down to it its dammed hard to bolt something rusty to your nice new shiny bike, even a rusty headed bolt hurts.

 Finally got my petrol tank back in all blue again last night.

 That back plate looks horible in the pic...might do that again. Allthough It actually looks OK in the flesh. The lever on the backplate and the brake lever itself are very scabby things. They are the only horible unrestorable parts I've used so far. My brake lever has seen way too many mods fitting loads of exhausts over the years and I need another one.

 Indictors are rubber mounted...I used a couple of those rubber grommets with the metal inserts...work a treat. Would like to see what the propper fixing is.

 Carbs are on the bench being jetted etc to match the old ones . The old carbs were spot on.

[ST1100]

Here is a pic of "so close but so far"

Turning green of envy here... 

Absolute brilliant and fabulous job there!! 

Lightyears away with my two CB500/4s still sitting untouched in the barn, whilst being occupied with the other project...

Your thread just reminds my how long the way is, I'll have to go there.

[z1100r]

 Another nightmare problem. The new exhausts I bought 10 years ago have a major manufacturing fault. The first bend by the head isn't bent enough on no3 cylinder.
It stands out a mile when all pipes are bolted to the head. All the other pipes sit pretty close to the rear mounting and the rear connecting pipes line up on the left pipes. On the right pipes 3 and 4 they are half the hole out on the connecting pipes and no 3 is hangin well below its mounting hole and too far forward. I could easoily fix it with a bit of heat but that would screw the chrome. I dont know what to do..!! what a pain.

[K2-K6]

Are they mounted onto spiggots at the head? if so could you make up a bespoke one to re-align the pipe to get a better fit.

It looks really good though, a very nice bike.

[Bryanj]

Have you got it the correct side of the side stand flange/bracket as it doesn't go where you think it ought to!

[z1100r]

Its the righthand side Bryan - the side you can see in the above pic. All is fine as they hang loose but when you do the engine flanges up the inner lower (no.3) drops and pulls forward dramatically. You can see whats going wrong at the front. No3 pipe sticks up and out alot more than the others - like its got 3 or 4 sealing washers in the head and the others  have none.

 I had a go at it last night and it just about fits now. I had to seriously bend the tight bend in the header some more. I've put a small ding in it on the inside but the pipe would need re-chroming otherwise and I haven't got time for that. Got some more fiddling to do with it tonight. I used a 6ft Jemmy bar down the header pipe by grinding the end down to fit in the pipe. Worked really well. I think I'm going to have a go at No1 pipe aswell...that was a bloody tight fit and needed the bracket altering alot. I've blamed the brackets for the poor fit on the left but on the right its definately a very poorly made pipe.

I remember buying and fitting a set of these in the early 90's...I just bolted them on..no issues. I bought a secondhand set of K3 pipes in the eighties - straight bolt on no probs. I've bought numerous aftermarket pipes, Motad etc, and its always been a lot of pissing about. Well these pipes are like that, like someones had a bloody good go but their quality control is non existant. Just like trying to bolt on an ill fitting Aftermarket pipe. I hadn't expected that, I thought I was buying genuine Honda parts....!!! I've lost faith in DS alot doing this bike.

[SteveD CB500K0]

If you're going to screw the chrome, now's the time to do it (when its clean)

It surely can't cost that much to rechrome one header?

[z1100r]

 Steve..I paid alot of money for this stuff believing it to be genuine Honda. If it was genuine Honda then it was out of their scrap bin. I probably got a set someone had allready returned once before, its my fault I suppose, for just storing them until needed without checking them. I'm seriously peed off about it though and haven't got time to go getting it replated.

 The fact that I have to tweak them at all is bad, if these arrived on the production line at build time they would just have been chucked in the bin. So I'm having to put up with inferior crap from the start but paying top dollar for it.

 Those rubber connecting pipes at the back force you to hold quite tight tolerances with the bending and welding of the pipe. A small amount out at the front is huge at the back. Mine is as far out as:-  1) The gap between the pipe stubs is longer than the rubber hose when the pipes are bolted to the hanger. 2) the inside pipe is too short, the outside pipe is too long.
3) the interconnecting pipe stubs are half and half over each other..no chance of fitting the hose - even when I get them closer together.

 If I'd just bought them I'd send them back and stick with my 4-1. I'm Annoyed at the moment.

[Bryanj]

They are Honda But over time the jigs wear and/or it was one that got through, DS would have replaced it immediately if you had found it at the time.

Incidentaly that was why 350 four pipes were unavailable for a long time, The jig for one pipe got damaged and Honda saw no reason to repair/replace it for a limited run of spares

[z1100r]

 The trouble is Bryan I have to get these to fit properly and I mean properly with little to no strain on them. If I was just gonna stick the bike in a heated garage and use it once a year then it would be OK now...but I use my bikes alot. What happens if its under any kind of pre stress is that the silencer cracks all over the place. I've seen it a few times before on other bikes. Theres no rubber mounting on these systems as you know, and even though the engines are smooth, everything has a some sort of vibration.
  You load some stress on by forcing the bolts in and doing them up and then you gently vibrate it. A recipe for premature failure. I'm fairly confident I can sort it tonight, but I'm supposed to be getting on with my tank, not farting about with genuine parts that dont fit.

[z1100r]

The pipes have taken over my life but at least i now have the worse side fitted as nice as they are going to get. A couple of hours with lumps of wood and serious alterations to rear brackets has done the trick. I also managed to get the black panels painted on the tank in between cursing about the pipes. All of the pipes are wrong not just no3..No's 1 and 4 are pretty bad too. 2 is about OK.

 I will not buy any more of those pipes...!!! as soon as the bikes all done and comes back from IOM the 4-1 is going back on and these things can live in the loft. The silencers seem to be made of paper..!

Masking has marked tank but i'll flat with 1200 anyway which will clean that up, then put the white stripes on and laquer the dammed thing..I've had enough. If its shit I'll blast it all off when I get back and do it with proper stuff.

[z1100r]

 Done...!!! Looks bloody fantastic if I say it myself. Stripes are single lining tape, badges are new. Now to see how tough it is...??