How damaged is too damaged?

[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! 

[Otis]

Absolutely brilliant and thank you for sharing. David Silver spares are in my opinion far too expensive so much better to do what you have done. I completely agree that tools, even if only used once, are an investment.

[Spitfire]

Great result, pretty sure that I have some points covers lurking in the loft maybe I will give it a go.

Cheers

Dennis

[Oddjob]

Quite right Otis. One day we'll all pass on, my lad will inherit all my tools. If he gets a use out of them, great. If not then he can sell them or pass them on when he passes.

There are some on this forum who seem to resent me posting stuff like this, they seem to think I'm sort of saying how clever am I? Nothing is further from the truth, it's an attempt to encourage more to do what I do. Experiment, see what works what doesn't.

I've done some stuff I'm immensely proud of, stuff I think is just ok but seems to get raved about for some reason. I'm good at polishing, I'll admit to that. Was I when I started, not in the least. It took time and more importantly the right tools to get the best results.

Here's the petrol cap I mentioned. Now most people don't know the internals can be removed with no damage, you can even dismantle the inner part, the part with the rubber seal which seals the tank, it's vented as well so dismantling it can check all is well inside there. It's not hard but does mean a little expense to replace the rivet holding it together. Removing it allows it to be rechromed and more importantly you can clean up all the rust that is present in every cap I've ever seen. I did of a How-To for the American site on dismantling the inner part, I still have all the pics.

Ok, so started with this, major corrosion damage, the tank it was attached to sat outside on a garden bench for 4 years or more. This is the result.

 

The underside was better but still rusty. You can see where I'd started to clean it up on the right hand side before I remembered to take a pic.



And after chroming.

[Oddjob]

Now this one I'm very proud of. I have a good mate on the forum called Roo (don't tell him, he'll get all bigheaded) he has a CB550F he's restoring. He'd had the casings polished by a local company and TBH they didn't come back great, very poor in fact. I did him some fork sliders, they were so good he went back to the polishers and shamed them into redoing his casings, they were claiming it wasn't possible with Jap alloy but had to admit they were wrong after he showed them the sliders. So I wanted to do some 550 casings for him as his were still pretty poor. I did the rotor cover first, I may do a post on that in the future. I had a lot of 550F parts lying around, about 5 clutch casings amongst others. So I decided I'd randomly select one, not try and pick out the best, just put my hand in the box and see what came out. Not the best decision I've ever made TBH.

This is what I started with.



Doesn't look that bad at first glance but boy was I wrong. That corrosion on the upper left is bad, if you ever see that type, run.

Close up. Doesn't look bad, looks like discoloured lacquer. Or it did to me. Soon clean that off I reckoned. Oh dear, my comeuppance was on the way.



There were lots of damage to the casing as well. The kickstart area looked to have been chewed up by using a bolt too long for the kickstart, as it rotated it just gouged big marks in the surrounding area.





So started to clean the casing up. Underneath all that rash was this.



Doesn't look that bad? Look close up.



Those are really deep holes, luckily the clutch cover is made of quite thick alloy and it's main job is just to keep the oil in, it's not really structural so you remove quite a bit before it becomes a problem. Got to admit cleaning this up took me a few months.

And finally we get this. Before I started to polish it.



A close up of the rash area, not 100% perfect but the polishing should remove those little imperfections present.



I'll do the final result in another post as there is a limit of 10 pics per post.

[Oddjob]

And finally the end result. I gave this casing to Roo free of charge, I'd fitted all new orings and seals. The only thing it needed was for the lifter mechanism to be zinc plated and Roo can do that as he has all the kit.

You may need sunglasses for the next few pics. Just saying 









And finally the damaged area around the kickstart. Totally gone.



So he has a clutch cover and a rotor cover, next up a sprocket cover.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Very impressive work Grasshopper, sorry meant to say Ken.
The work you did on my 400 clock casings was what got me into those little plastic wheels, and finally to buy a buffing wheel.

[neat street]

Thanks for sharing Ken, this shows what can be done with a little time and effort where some might just change for new. Well done!

[Spitfire]

This is ever so impressive, that casing looks better than mine which have been polished and nurtured since I bought the bike in 1976, note to self, Must Try Harder, and be more patient.

Cheers

Dennis

[Athame57]

There are some on this forum who seem to resent me posting stuff like this, they seem to think I'm sort of saying how clever am I?

Well, count me out, I'd say you're an inspiration if anything!    It is much harder for me to do a lot of things I would like to do though, not having a garage because I live in a flat and my bike outside under a cover. If anything changes that way I've always promised myself a lathe et al 

[Oddjob]

Oh you and me both George. I have a friend with a lathe and I’m sure he’d train me in the use of one if I asked nicely. I’d love to turn out some masterpieces on it. I want to learn how to weld really well as well. I have a small garage but it’s full of tools and stuff, I still have huge Snap On roll cabs from my time in the trade, 2 sets of everything really so I could do foreigners at home without taking bags of tools home. I was intending to build a custom workshop at the top of the back garden last year but I got sick and I’ve done nothing at all since, still recovering, still very weak. Exactly one year ago I was still in intensive care, just about to be transferred to a main ward on the 8th, seems like a lifetime ago now but it still haunts me. Everything I planned has had to be shelved, I’m not sure I’ll ever get back to how I was. I may start doing a little polishing, just to keep my hand in. It’s like plastering, if you don’t do it for a while you get real rusty and struggle until it all comes back.

I’m very proud of that casing Spitfire, not because it’s any better than anything else I’ve done but because of the condition it started in. Plus it was always planned for Roo, so it had to be good. There were times I almost gave up and started another but I hate being beat so I persevered. Glad you like it. I may just do the others and sell a few, if I can get the energy to start them.