1970 Honda SL100

[bmcdonau]

I installed the air box with new hardware.

I cleaned up the rear brake plate and installed both the front and rear brakes.

The rear brake plate was a little beat up, but it cleaned up nice.

I reused the old brake shoes, they hardly looked worn.

The brake lever attaches with a bolt in this slot in the cam.

The cam opens the brake shoes to provide braking action.

Both wheels finished.

I was going to install the engine in the frame so I rechecked the static timing, points gap and valve clearances. I have since decided to wait until I get the title straightened out to install it.

I prefer this type of gauge for these old bikes with rockers.

They slip right into the rocker cover hole.

I spent a couple hours at the paint store and finally decided on Lazer Blue Candy over Cosmic Dust base.

I'll spend the next few days preping the parts for paint and hopefully will shoot it next week.

The last of the fork internals will be here next week as will the steering stem seal, races and nut. I found a NOS light bucket and ordered the headlight and hardware from Honda. I had ordered all the cables from Honda, but the ones they sent were black and not gray so I've been looking for gray ones. I have a throttle and clutch cable and need the brake and speedo cable. I still haven't found a taillight and I still need one fork tube. I'll probably end up rebuilding one fork and just use one of the others until I can find a tube.

If I had gotten the title issue straightened out at the DMV I'd reallly think about putting it together, but I'm going to wait until I get the okay for the bonded title. It's not in their computer system and is not reported stolen so I'm confident I'll get the title, but why take chances. I should have that straightened out by the end of next week.

 

[bmcdonau]

I painted the body parts today:

I always use white as a base for candy colors. The primer is dark and sanding leaves an uneven color which can telegraph through the translucent candy colors. I forgot to take a picture of the white though.

The basecoat is silver which is very bright over the white.

This was a nice color by itself.

Then I shot blue over the silver.

Here's the blue after one coat. I put on two and it didn't look "blue"enough so I used a third coat and I think that was too much. It's close, but a little darker than I think it should be.

Here's the parts after the clear.

I can't get a picture that really captures the color and density of the paint. Its close to what I remember, but I think its a little dark. The color is sorta in between the two pictures of the tank above.

I'll wait a week or so and paint the white stripe on the tank and put the decals on the side panels. A week later I'll put more clear over the stripes and decals.

 

[Sam McLeod]

opcorn Wow!

 

[George]

The color is probably close. Yur remembering what it looked like after some years of sun fade.

Great job, can't believe yur putting so much into a throw-away. (Seriously, they used to take these old bikes on trade and just thow'em away, too muich money to put'em back into working order.)

 

[kempco]

The one I had was also blue, But it doesn't look like the blue that I remember. My memory is going though. It looks nice but don't add up the receipts, it might scare you.

 

[bmcdonau]

The color is probably close. Yur remembering what it looked like after some years of sun fade.

Great job, can't believe yur putting so much into a throw-away. (Seriously, they used to take these old bikes on trade and just thow'em away, too muich money to put'em back into working order.)

Its not a thrwaway to me George, its my first bike. And my grandson will be riding this in a few years if I can sneak it past his mother.

 

[bmcdonau]

The one I had was also blue, But it doesn't look like the blue that I remember. My memory is going though. It looks nice but don't add up the receipts, it might scare you.

I'm having a hard time getting the color to show up right in the pictures. I think I was close with two coats, but the third made it too dark. From what I understand the colors varied from bike to bike. I remember mine as a lot deeper blue than what I see today.

I'm going to be around $2K which is way more than I could ever sell it for, but its only money right?

 

[kempco]

I remember mine a lot deeper blue also. I have an early bronco restore that I did about 10 years ago with more money than I could ever sell it for. My offspring will have to worry about selling it. Great job so far.

 

[bmcdonau]

I remember mine a lot deeper blue also. I have an early bronco restore that I did about 10 years ago with more money than I could ever sell it for. My offspring will have to worry about selling it. Great job so far.

I know what you mean, If I ever find a 1970 chevelle ss 396 I'll spend money like a drunk sailor on shore leave to restore it.

 

[janfmiller]

Wow, while in the Army in MO, was in a trail riding club, had an SL350 myself, but on of the guys had one of these 100's and rode the wheels of it! congrats on the prize, but makes me miss my 350!!!

 

[BlackPaw]

I had a green one for my first bike. These pictures bring back a flood of memories. I even had a Captain America helmet to go with it.

 

[JohnConner]

This is a beautiful restoration. And it brings back fond memorys of my CB-100. I rode it for 10,000 miles before moving on to a '66 Chevy II my Senior year in HS.

 

[George]

Don't bet on NOT getting $2k, some of the early (now rare) Hondas, 'specially the 50s, sell for big buck$.

 

[bmcdonau]

Could be, I see decent ones go for about $1k, good looking ones go for about $12-1500. I don't think I'll be selling it soon anyway.

I put the white stripe on today, it came out pretty well, exept I think it went on pretty thick, I'll see if I can take it down a little before I clear coat it next week so there isn't such a big step between the white and blue. If it ends up really pronounced, I'll put multiple coats of clear on it, sanding the step in between coats.

 

[George]

Looks good, keep it up.

 

[Bigmak96]

I hope your Grandson knows what a great Gpaw he has.

 

[bmcdonau]

I should have expected the forks wouldn't be any different than the rest of this project---cursed from the beginning.

I took one pair of forks apart a month ago and instead of oil, they were filled with water. The internal parts that hadn't disintegrated were corroded beyond use. The fork tubes were pitted beyond use too.

That was okay, I had another set that felt a lot better when I compressed them and one of the tubes had very little pitting and the other had no pits where the fork seals meet the tube. They would do until I could afford replacement tubes from Frank's Engineering and Maintenance. Just to be sure I managed to find all the internal parts for the forks so once I bought the new fork tubes they would be brand new except for the fork lowers.

In the meantime I did find one NOS fork tube on e-bay that was reasonable so I bought it, but when it came in it didn't look like the tubes I already taken apart. I sent them back and got my money back.

Today I took the second set of tubes apart and they don't look like the ones I already took apart, in fact they look like the one I bought on e-bay! Holy , my head is starting to hurt.

The one on the top is from the second set and the one on the bottom is from the first set. To make matters worse, the Honda parts breakdown shows the bottom set for all four years, 1970-1973, while the Clyner manual shows the top set!

The fork lower are the same for both sets as you can see from these pictures. The one on the far right has been polished.

Getting them apart was a real challenge, the PO must have changed the fluid, he used gear lube from the way it smells, and replaced the allen head screws with philips head. Naturally I couldn't get them out with a screwdriver and because they are recessed in the lower fork tube I couldn't use an impact driver. I ended up drilling out the screw head, then after seperating the upper tube from the lower using an easy out to remove the rest of the screw.

The PO also used some kind of glue to hold the screws in--probably why they wouldn't turn for me.

I had plenty of screw to grab and turn, but it just snapped off and I ended up with this.

I can use the seals, and drain screws I have to make the top set of forks usable and then when I can afford the new fork tubes I can order new seals and screws for them

 

[bmcdonau]

Well, the f'in nightmare continues.

I have an appointment at the SAPD Auto Theft Unit on the 3rd and must have a rolling chassis with a motor to get the VIN verified. This is an interim step toward getting the bonded title.

I was going to get it on two wheels today and put the engine in it tomorrow, but the **** shocks won't fit.

Here it is with the swing arm installed. I put new bushings in it and bought a new swing arm bolt, but the one I received is diffrerent than the one I took out.

Here you can see the one I took out. The K0/K1 model attaches the muffler support to the end of the swing arm bolt, but the K2 model doesn't. The bolt I received doesn't have this stud on the end. This one is not in good condition, I'll look for a better replacement.

I started to install the shocks on the swing arm and the bottom bushing wouldn't fit onto the bung on the swing arm. ***? I pulled out the old shocks and they have the same size bushing as the NOS shocks I bought. Then I looked at the swingarm itself.

They are both off 1970 SL100s, the serial numbers are only 226 numbers apart! We tend to think that all bikes coming down the assembly line are the same, but after messing with these little bikes its obvious they aren't. Before sending theh swing arm off to be sand blasted I held both swingarms up and thought they were the same. I'm going to have to put the other swing arm on the bike for the inspection and blast and repaint the other one for the bike. I'll also have to order two more swing arm bushings.

After some appropriate words I went to work on the other end of the bike. The steering stem install went a little better.

21 balls on both the upper and lower bearings.

Grease the lower race and stick the ball bearings onto it.

Then you push the stem into the headstock.

Then install the upper ball bearings in the race.

Then install the upper race and nut.

That done, I tried to sort out the forks.

Here are the seals I pulled out. They are a two piece unit unlike the ones I got from Honda, which are one piece. What it looks like is that the outer piece is actually hard plastic that serves as the upper bushing and the inner part is the seal.

Here you can see the difference in size between the new and old seals. I 'don't know what I'm going to do here. Maybe just put another washer in it to take up the space.

Here are the fork internals, the seal is a fiber washer which fits tightly into the fork tube bore. The tubes were so corroded inside there is no way I could install these parts. I'll have to wait a couple months to order new ones. In the meantime I'm using the other forks without oil or seals just to get the front wheel on the bike.

 

[bmcdonau]

Well this is embarassing.

After taking the refurbished swing arm off and putting the old one back on I decided to just put the old shocks on too. No point in putting the new ones on with the old swing arm. First one goes on with no problems, but the second one is too loose at the swing arm. What?? It doesn't have a bushing!?? Then it hits me, the lug isn't bigger, the old bushing is still stuck on the swing arm! I took a look at the refurbished swing arm and sure enough, one of the lugs is bigger than the other one.

Movin' on.

 

[meanwun]

I joined st-owners just because of this thread.