Other Stuff > Misc / Open

How damaged is too damaged?

(1/8) > >>

Oddjob:
Weird title I know but I like a challenge and I really dislike waste so I decided I'd see if I could recover some damaged parts and maybe get some more use out of them.

Some of the stuff was new to me. Never done any panel beating for instance. I can't weld aluminium either. So my solutions were whatever I could afford to buy or think of another way of doing it.

Here's the first little project



I'm sure you'll agree, that's in pretty bad shape. I don't think it's gone down the road, looks more like the bike fell over and landed on the cover, some surface corrosion as well, chromes in poor shape really, microdots and generally dull and lifeless. Seen much worse fitted to some bikes though. Cost of a new one, between £50-65 is average. Worth restoring? subjective. Cost of new makes it questionable, however consider this, if that was a CB750 one then that changes the question considerably. A new 750 one is around £250, same cover essentially except the screw holes are 12 and 6 o'clock not 10 and 4 like the 350/400/500/550 ones.

So I bought a little panel beating kit, just a few odd looking hammers really and some odd shaped metal pieces to hammer against. I also bought a leather cushion which was filled with lead shot. It moulds to the shape of the part and helps stop distortion. Well that's the theory anyway. Not sure of cost as I did this early 2025 and I spent the rest of 2025 either in hospital or recuperating so I forget but lets say £60 or so. Ok, more than a new cover BUT I can reuse those tools on other projects and have done so, I class them as an investment, like most tools are.

Never done this before but thought I'd have a go. Needed first of all to get rid of the gravel rash, some areas of the rim were slightly distorted as well along with a few dents caused by stones etc. Then I needed to smooth it all down, remove the chrome chips and just tidy everything up before giving it to the chromers. Bear in mind my chromers does not triple plate, no copper layer under his chrome disguising all the imperfections. You get it wrong you can see it. But it's cheap, cost me around £10 for that to be chromed as he very rarely has to do prep work on my stuff as I've already done it.

So after a few hours it looked like this.



Better but you can still see some chips in the chrome, plus the sanding etc is causing the Made In Japan to fade a little, not ideal but TBH who really looks at that. Next step was to work some more on the chips and finally onto the buffer to really get it smooth. A few hours later and that was done but I forgot to take a pic. So off to the chromers along with a few other parts I'd worked on, a horn cover severely corroded and a petrol tank cap with corrosion pits so deep I thought they'd never come out.

The points cover came back like this.



Not perfect but not too bad at all. Ok, the writing is almost gone and you can just see some marks under the chrome but that's more than useable. Not on my bike, I have a few NOS stored away of these for a rainy day plus I have a CB650 alloy cover mirror polished for my engine.

Next project is a CB550F clutch cover, which makes this one look like nothing. But that's another post.

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Nice work there Grasshopper - "Master of the Buffing Wheel".

exvalvesetdabbler:
You could probably have a good side hustle going on there knocking small dents from the Speedo/tacho housings.

The other one is the alternator cover badge plate, usually covered in stone chips and boot marks but they're very thin.

Dave

Oddjob:
Done both the 400 and the 500 alt cover. The panel beating kit came in handy again. You’re right, thin but doable. I’ll post some pics up of the results later.

Athame57:
Not perfect? You could have fooled me!  ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page