Honda-SOHC

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H

https://youtu.be/_-cB62Mvakk

I recently got a dating certificate for my CB250K2 via Honda UK's dating service. Its no find...No fee... which is great.
It costs £25+VAT = £30,  if they do find a record of  it.

Initially though, they couldn't find it on their UK records or indeed acknowledge that it was a UK supplied bike and apologised via email but they then applied to Japan (which took several months) and Japan found it and issued a certificate. I literally had a frame and crankcases and no documents or registration mark, even though I definitely knew it was a UK supplied machine.
 
I always thought that they would only offer the service to UK supplied bikes but have they changed their system recently? i.e. if you sent them a frame and engine number from an import that they obviously won't be able to find  on their UK records, will they contact Japan and if Japan has records, issue a certificate? If you look at the attached though it says CB250K2E  .. maybe the 'E' denotes supplied to  England

I bought this rim from DK from a USA import and had it re-chromed (cost £150 to have it re-chromed ...ouch !)  It was intended for my Bomber CB450 front wheel but then I found there is a subtle difference between the rear and front rims on the Bomber so this is going spare. It is the original style made in Japan and not the nasty modern type made in Indonesia with the horrid side script stamping on it

The part number is  42701-283-003 and fits the rear wheel CB500/550 Fours all models, CB450 & 500T all models.

Price £130 plus post at cost .. sorry no offers or trades,  although I would swap for a  1.85 x 18" 36-hole in the same condition.

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I restored my '75 400F in 1986 and then it was in storage in a barn for 15 years.
Fast forward to earlier this year ad I repaired and had powder coated quite a few centre stands including a lovely CB400F one that I got with a stash of parts. I decided to replace the stand on my 400F with the nice one because, during storage, the pin had totally seized in it.
 
I tried my trusted method of drilling out the old pin and succeeded, only to find that the top tube of the stand was really badly corroded internally and hence quite weak.

I have always wanted to have a go at replacing those top tubes so that's what I just did today.

I firstly ground away all of the welds to remove the old rusted tube. I couldn't find a suitable dimension tube but hit lucky that the wheel nut wrench from my wife's long gone Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 was the correct dimensions and so I cut a section from it and welded it into the stand. It just needs powder coating black now.

UPDATE: I think the Vauxhall / GM wheel brace part no. is 13107800

I also made a new solid pin from a bit of scrap 316 stainless steel from work and I was going to fit a grease nipple but...... right at the end of drilling down the pin, my long-series drill broke off. So waiting for some alum off eBay to come, so I can attempt to partially 'dissolve' and remove the broken offdrill.

I recently started zinc plating my own parts again, since there are no local platers near to me, who will do small batches (nearest is 60 miles away). I have been obtaining  pretty good results .. probably on par with what Allenchrome did for me in the past professionally. A real PITA in terms of the prep. required to get good results though, particularly if you have loads to do and the items are large. My advice if you are going to try it yourself is go to Gateros and not the other outfit who sell home plating stuff called Youplate. I got crap results with the latter despite loads of emails to the owner. In the end I just voted with my feet, cut my losses and went back to Gateros zinc chemicals, which give great results with little hassle, in terms of the finish achieved. I thhink the key is that Gateros buy in relatively expensive brighteners, which work really well.

Recently I have been putting together the TLS brake linkages for my CB72 and CB450K0. Some people don't de-rivet these before re-chroming but that seems really bodgy to me and the chromers don't like it either. I was therefore faced with  drilling out the old rivets and making new ones on my little lathe/milling machine and my mate Graham suggested I make two part replacements, that are bonded with Loctite in stainless steel, which don't require any riveting.  I made the nine sets I needed (took a long time as I am not proficient at turning  ). Then I pondered and procrastinated and worried that the b*ggers may come apart some time in the future ... not good on brake parts, so I decided to scrap them and make some the same as the originals out of high tensile steel. Graham said he didn't use stainless steel to make conventional rivets because it doesn't peen over very well and has a tendency to split.

I made the 9 steel rivets in carbon steel (EN8) but obliviously, with the stainless ones,  you can polish to a high shine to look like chrome. I have always wondered about plating things like the peened over  fitting in alloy brake plates (CB750, 500 etc) and decided I would get some brush/wand plating chemicals, make some 'wands' and have  a go at zinc plating the steel fitting in the alloy brake plates and also copy chrome for the little TLS rivets.

I have not tried the zinc yet but the copy chrome on the rivet heads has turned out pretty nice. I did have  a go with copy chrome back in 2013 and didn't get decent results ...plus before I had chance to experiment further we were flooded, where I was working,  and all of my plating chemicals were trashed.

Just wondering if anyone else on here  has had a go at brush plating ... It could be useful for the parts mentioned above and also parts like Honda 400 horns, where everything is crimped/riveted together.

This PHd. guy is a bit of a guru on it and I bought his zinc brush plating solution but, as I say I haven't tried it out yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ukDXyqnpRs

The bright nickel and copy chrome (actually bright cobalt/nickel) I bought from Gateros.... The guy at Gateros told me not to use stainless steel anodes but to use pure nickel as when uses SS then iron and chromium get deposited into the electrolyte and the electrolyte degrades rapidly) 

I don't think large items in copy chrome will look too good .. you can tell it's not 'proper' chrome but on very small parts it's worked out OK for me.

The chaps at Motoclassics (who up until recently owned Caswell Europe) ... gave me this excellent plating manual ... well worth a read!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sgwx5sfjni2fwkx/Caswell%20Plating%20Manual.pdf?dl=0

Bad news on Yahoo Japan ..they have locked UK and Europe out recently so we can no longer get access from today to Yahoo auction site. I managed to get access by changing my VPN to Tokyo, Japan and I can click on items that come up but if I try to search the screen just goes blank. I then tried a few hours later and managed to get in but  I fear my days of getting bits on Yahoo Japan maybe coming to an end if I can't search. There is no eBay in Japan.

Watched a few Salvage Hunters classic car restorations. It's currently on 'Discovery Plus'. On the Volvo Amazon they took a badly pitted monkey metal chromed boot handle to a guy for chrome painting. Must admit looked pretty nice. They were so impressed they had the bumpers done too.

I think it may have been this company:- http://pinkevolutions.co.uk/projects/chrome

That Drew bloke really annoys me though, dare I say even more than Mike Brewer. He talks to car selling  vendors like they are  a piece of sh*t quite often. Or is it just me? The other bloke seems OK though.

https://www.discoveryuk.com/series/salvage-hunters-classic-cars/

Superb condition from low miles US import

£40 plus post at cost .... same as 400/4 but much longer 'foot'

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