Honda-SOHC

All grades of stainless steel will rust, there is some iron left in all of them and it's that that starts to rust.

Post by Krupps.

Some types of stainless steel are more prone to corrosion than others, depending on the chromium content. The higher the chromium content, the less likely the metal will rust. But, over time and if not maintained correctly, rust can and will develop on stainless steel.

Saves me looking, thanks Phil.

I have one of these boxes and it comes with a diagram and such on what colours connect to what wires. Did you not get this? I also bought 2 systems at the same time, one for me and one for someone else and there were only one set of instructions so I send a PM or an email to the other person describing how and what to attach, if I can find either the instruction or the message I'll let you know what it said.

Essentially, Mark Paris (Hondaman) ccouldn't follow the original blue and yellow colours because it made it difficult to work out what was power in and what was power out so he changed them very slightly, I think orange was yellow and purple was blue, there was also a double connector to tap power without cutting any wires, no wires are cut at all, IIRC the blue goes to the blue, can only go one way due to bullet configuration, yellow to yellow, orange to yellow, purple to blue and the double taps into the rear brake light connector, there is an additional green wire which is meant to go to the points plate and earth on one of the screws in there.

That's what I seem to remember and if that make sense with what you can see then go with it but if it's not vital you fit it right now then wait until I can confirm it when I find the instructions.

Oh and lots of people fitted it under the battery strap, I intend to bolt mine to the back of the battery tray if there is space there or failing that under the battery tray.

There was a shop in Barmouth with a 6ft tall full scale Alien from the Alien films, made entirely from old bike bits. It was sold for £3000 I believe. I bought my daughter a smaller version of it she loved it so much.

550 headlight brackets will fit the 500 Ted. 500T might also fit if you're really stuck. I'd need to measure my pair and see if they are the same.

I do have a NOS L/H? NOS 500 headlight bracket Ted but it's not cheap, they are very very rare these days and command obscene prices.

Thought I'd pop this up here for those members who seem to have lost hope.

How bad is a casing BEFORE you think it's beyond salvage?

I've seen some bad ones, really bad TBH, seen some on Ebay that I thought were beyond saving but lets be honest, parts are becoming harder to find. NOS parts are starting to dry up and casings when they do appear NOS are very expensive and sometimes even they show damage that detracts from the look. I bought a NOS casing last week and the seller had to reduce the price because of the lacquer peeling off, it didn't look nice TBH but at half the listed price and the fact I was going to polish it anyway I bought it.

Casings usually don't get stored well, thrown in a bucket or an old box and just left for years and years. Some, like my old cases had been chromed and you'd be forgiven for thinking they'd be good as they've already been polished before the chrome was applied but not a bit of it. If the chrome has peeled and then left the damage to the alloy underneath can be severe.

I recently decided to do a CB550F clutch cover, I have 4-5 of them so I went to the box they hide in and just pulled one out, completely at random, I thought doing it that way would avoid any suggestion of picking the best one etc. It was upside down in the box, I'd washed it in petrol and the inside was facing me, looks ok, nice and clean inside, yep that'll do. Jesus what a bad choice, worse case I'd ever seen except for the one I sanded right through but that was before I realised just how bad they can get. If yours has a sort of rash on the surface, like a bad skin condition, black marks all over it or worse some sort of fur growing then you're in for a BAD time trying to polish that baby.

The 550 case is about 50% done and coming on, hours and hours still to be spent on that one but I also had a rotor casing off a 500. Finding one these days without gravel rash where it's gone down the road is hard, this was my old one, been chromed, in fact here's a pic of it as the bike was being restored.



I'd replaced it when the chrome started to peel after a winter using the bike and road salt etc. It wasn't a pretty sight but it was an undamaged case so worth keeping I reckoned.

Had the chrome removed and that revealed all the damage done. Believe me, this case ain't pretty, yet.

So after sitting in a box for a year or so I finally decided to have a go and salvage it. I used my new secret weapons, if they can get this case back to acceptable then they can do any case. I won't bore you with loads of pics as TBH I didn't bother taking any at first, I really thought this was heading for the bin. However it's really coming on so here's a sneak preview.

This is the sort of damage I mean, really deep pits, and this is after working on these areas for some time.







Still working on those but they are starting to disappear.

However this post is about the top section of the rotor cover, the bit everyone sees first, the casing has been sanded and this has revealed the damage, top surface usually gets away with a lot but not this time.

Before.





Now professional polishers show pics of damage on their websites BUT they don't tend to show after shots, just carefully posed pics of complete casings without showing where they've completely failed to fix anything, these shots IMO are excuses, here's what you gave us to start with, of course we are not magicians so don't expect a great finish everywhere. Not, this is the damage and look how good we are, it's all gone away.

So this time I thought, lets show before and after pics.

AFTER. 2.5 hours of work on what's essentially an 8 x 1.5 inch piece of alloy. NOT polished, not been anywhere near the polishing machine, just used my new secret weapons and then finished off with some of my more normal brushes, sanded down to 1000 grit.





Now I'm no different from most members on here, if I can do this then so can you, I'm not gifted, I don't have expensive machinery, I do have patience and time and some basic tools, this means you can do the same.

Next is to finish the case, if that's possible and then polish it. I reckon I can get that back to roughly the same condition as the very first pic where it was chromed. After that, I'll probably throw if in a box for a few more years as I already have a decent rotor cover 

Not read them no K2, I was reading the definition as stated in that survey, that's what concerned me. Ok, we are no longer in Europe but our politicians are known for using other countries ideas as a basis to change our definitions, so they look at that and think, mmm we could use that and reduce the numbers of historic vehicles not paying tax on our roads by 30% at a stroke. What's more they can't blame us, they altered them in the first place.

That's my worry. I'd be ok I reckon, mine is all Honda from that era and it would have to be a knowledgeable person to spot what's been changed and the Government as we know doesn't employ people with knowledge as they have to pay more.

They could get really picky though, if they chose, say Oh you've changed that bolt for a stainless one, sorry mate, that's not allowed.

Ok, I'm being really cynical but imagine 15 years ago and someone saying the Government would rob people of 10K a year just by changing the retirement age, we'd have said you're having a laugh mate, we'd never allow that to happen, it's 65 and will always be 65 cause that's what they told us when we first starting paying taxes.