84 VF1000RE - The "gods do I have to fix this too" partial restoration thread

Money is always in short supply, but when you are restoring 25-30 year old bikes you just have to grab stuff as it comes up.
About 20 years ago a local honda dealer offered me all his cb parts from 5 years of racing. In the pile were 2 complete rsc engines with dry clutch and dry sump, special heads, gear boxes and barrels. He wanted a grand for all of it. I had bought a house a year before and was being very careful with money so I passed it up - I have never forgiven myself. So now when stuff comes up I just say "duck it" and buy the parts.

 

No work done other than a bit of wire harness clean up and re-wrapping but the gods of motorcycle restoration did find me a NOS windscreen to go on the 85 model.

 

The NOS windscreen;



My collection of seat covers grows (not including the NOS one).



VF1000R porn session complete.

Now back to the tedious process of cleaning and rewrapping the wiring harness.

 

An NOS windscreen? Can't imagine what that must cost. Let's see the wiring harness done. You're slowly getting there. Keep it up.

 

The NOS windscreen was a few hundred Aussie pesos landed here. I picked up a couple of near perfect used ones from Japan a while back so one of those may be sacrificed to the gods of ebay to underwrite the NOS one.

 

That's actually not bad. I thought it would be more. My trouble is, once I get parts, it's hard to sell them off because I'm sure I'll need them someday...whether that's true or not.

 

I sometimes find it hard to get NOS parts out of the box and actually put them on a bike. I keep thinking once I use it I won't have a new one anymore.

 

Man, I'm so sure. It would be pretty cool to pull out some NOS R parts in 20 years.

 

Sorry I missed this question. I think tools are the only way to go. With mine there was no flow so an acid would not even get into the jacket. Anything aggressive enough to dissolve the blockage I had would probably eat the cases as well.
I used a variety of tools as well as heavy wire cut and bent to shape to clear out the crud.

 

Thanks for reply.
My original VF1000F was slowly running warmer & warmer.
I swapped over to another motor that had been sitting around.
That motor ran hot right away, despite having low mileage?
Eventually I found the Upper Rad was plugged with Rust Flakes.

The rust came from inside the 2nd motor.
I'll guess the other 2 motors I have are also crudding up.
So, I got an Aquarium Pump off ebay for cheap.
I'll be making a Pump Loop so I can Flush the motors only, using CLR.
I need to get the Calcium and Rust outa there.
I want it clean even if I'm going to take the motors apart.
I don't want to cycle the Acid through the Water Pump or Thermostat.
And it wouldn't take much acid to do the motor only.
I don't think I have a fully blocked port on any of my 4 motors.
I can also make a pump cycle to run backwards through the plugged rad, flush out those jammed Rust Flakes.
I don't think I'll harm anything in the motor, the gasket being my only concern.
I've used CLR (and the cheaper, but better ZEP equivalent) on many issues before.
Most of yous' out there don't have motors this old, but you might someday.
I'll always be changing Rad Fluid every 3 years now, no matter what.
Cleaning a motor and not using it would just rust up again.
So can now do a Acid Flush right before I use it.
I'll start a Thread with Photos,,.. whenever Summer shows up here.

Also wondering where you got your Head Gaskets,,.. I might need a bunch,,..

 

That rad is certainly full of crap. I power flushed my engine with the hose, not much muck came out. Looked inside with flexi torch and could not see any heavy rust or accumulations.
Head gaskets just found on ebay and a local dealer had a genuine top end kit.

 

I finally got around to uploading the comparison photos of the VFR750F mirrors vs the euro VF1000R. The longer mirror is from the VFR750 (stem is about an inch longer than the VF1000R mirror stem) and may be long enough for me to see past my elbows.

 

Two years and very little has happened.
I have done a bit of cleaning on the frame and wheels.
Collected a few more parts like a great find in a NOS main radiator and NOS metal backed original mirrors. Also found a set of NOS left and right handlebar switches and amazingly a NOS Aussie/euro toolbox (84 box is almost twice as tall as the 85/86 tool box).
Now I just have to find some time to get the bike ride able.

 

I've just bought this 87 VF1000RG to go with my little VF500F2F.
Just awaiting summer to arrive..............

 

Jealous. The RG is on my buy list too. Sometimes think it's like a grown up VF500. Heavy bugger though,

 

Very nice bike. I hope you get lots of fun out of it.