VF1000R rebuild

Got the exhaust done. The rear header, pipe and can are the left side and it's attached to the front which is the right side. There's a break in the front mid pipe to allow for easy installation. It's held together with an exhaust spring. It will definitely flow some exhaust, maybe too much, who knows. I sprayed on the Ceramic coating and baked it for 1 hour at 500 degrees, another good use of the custom oven. I didn't think it would actually polish out but it is shiny, not chrome shiny but more like nickel shiny. It comes out chalky but does polish out. We'll see if it holds up. They say it's good to 2000 degrees? If it does hold up, it's a bargain at $40. I thought it would hide my crappy welds but not so. I'm no welder but I want to do everything myself on this project. My first attempt at an exhaust, thank God for mandrel bends. Good enough for a race bike. The cans are polished aluminum with custom caps. Now I just have to make some baffles cause this thing will be loud without them!

 

My tire came in so, since I'm sick and tired of seeing it castrated on the bench, I decided to get her rollin'. She's filthy and needs paint and polish everywhere and even though it's a dreary day, I had to a least sit on her and go "Vroom Vroom! Lot's to do still.

 

Wow!! talk about an A+ project, Very nice, hell yea you best keep us informed on how it goes.. Looking good my man. LOl the bike Honda should be building..

 

Looking good! :thumbsup:

 

Starting to look like a bike Kel.

 

Rolled her out of the barn.



Can you say Ducati GP9?




End caps back in. Look good eh?



Profile. Quite a bit different than stock but still hinting at HRC heritage. The '83 VF tank profile looks so much better with the CBR gas cap.

 

Looks awesome I wish it was my bike.

 

what are you going to do about the wiring system catching heat from the exhaust? and so forth

 

Wow, looks great! Keep us posted!

 

I got a little more body work done today. I trimmed the seat to follow the frame more. Before it hung down on the frame at the bottom and I just didn't like it. I was going to weld on a nut to the side of the frame to secure it but now it will get a small tab with a nut welded on the back. This is really how it should look.



I stuck the headlight in for kicks. It will be a little more recessed than this. I also raised the rear and slid the forks up a little. I thought I was high up front before but after dropping an inch I'm still at 27" from the lower front fairing screw(which is stock height). I may go another .5 inch but that will wait. I'm starting to get a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing her dressed up. I only wish it were last April.

 

good eye

a+ work! i really appreciate the level of design you are putting into this project bike. thanks for also posting some of the behind-the-scenes photos. it's great to see the step by step progress on this sweet looking steed.

 

You may have mentioned this already, but what radiator setup are you going to use Kel? Looks very very cool!

 

That bike is beautiful I want it so bad. Great job.

 

Rebuild

OK, headlight in. Are you going to put another?

Don't forget, the stock upper radiator needs fresh air from the upper somewhere, if you're using them.

Larry

 

There is plenty of air coming into the vent below the wind screen. The small vent that is below the dual headlight wasn't doing much IMO, basically just hitting the very bottom of the rad, and underway, with air pushing down from the fairing/headlight, I doubt much was making it up and through the fins. The problem with Honda's design here was there is no good exit for the hot air. It basically stalls at the rear rad surround(large plastic surround that separates the rear of the rad and the forks). I'm sure they were hoping to keep hot air from passing through the upper and going right into the intake snorkles. No good reason I can think of that took the rad from the 750's location down low. Maybe to avoid damage during endurance racing? Then again, the kF's was in the upper as well. I run a manual fan switch and that has kept things cool for 25 years. If, for some reason, it gets warmer than normal, I'll throw in a 120mm PC fan.

Single headlight only. I'm going for an endurance look ala RS850R...

 

Thanks! It's been a trip.

 

Lookin' real sweet! Keep up the great work, it's very impressive! :thumbsup:

 

Time to get back to it. I came to a point in the build where I started thinking about a way to mount a license plate. I'm not a big fan of the sideways plate attached to the swingarm. Hell, I don't even know if it's legal. It had to be sturdy because it will hold a tail light, signals and the plate. I kicked around some aluminum brackets but didn't like what I was seeing. I decided to go with my trusty Carbon Fiber. I formed a plastic shape that I liked and tacked it to the tail with some resin mixed with some shredded fiberglass cloth. When that was mostly cured but still tacky, I wrapped the whole thing in CF. I ran it out on to the flat area on the outside and tucked up underneath. A couple of coats of resin and sanding in between and it's all done. Rock hard and super strong. I think I could stand on it and not break it off.


This is it after the first coat of resin on the CF has dried and been sanded. This is when you say OH SH**, I ruined it. But it will look better with more coats. The key to the first sanding is not to chase after every bump because you don't want to break in to the fibers at all or it will look crappy.




Side view. It's shorter than the plate which I wanted. It has a slight curve to it and looks like it could be a stock fender which is cool.



Here it is at a distance. Looks like it's always been there.



I also needed to reinforce the duct on the top of the tail. I could have used fiberglass underneath but I had a small piece of CF left over so it went on top. It will get masked off and painted around it to let it show. It will also help to break up blue that will go there.

Can't really see the weave but it looks nice. Stinkin' camera! This tail was REALLY rashed and wavy when I got it. 20 hours into this probably isn't far off.

After...


Before...

 

Excellent work! Have you been kicking around any ideas for how you are going to paint this build? Classic red, white and blue?

 

That's a sick little vent there Kal. Is it cooling the cans? Or just cool factor. I'm assuming you put that there correct?