1984 VF750F Streetfighter build (IMAGE HEAVY)

It has taken me a bit since I first bought the bike and joined the forum to post this. I am new to Hondas and this site; I have purchased a 1984(ish, more on that later) VF750F and due to the nature of the paint job and overall poor cosmetic condition of the bike, it will be transformed into a streetfighter. A street fighter with taste, mind you. I welcome all opinions both approving and dissenting of this choice, unfortunately for you, you not will likely deter me so I would advise that rather than going on about why I should restore it instead of fighter-ing it, I would rather you tell me something I can actually learn from and share with me your VF expertise so I don't screw anything up. This will be my most involved project to date on a motorcycle, I have only been riding for two years and I was looking to get into something that I can work on.

The goal of this bike project is simple: To teach myself. I do not care about "original" this and that, I do not care about if it is "super clean" even. I do care about learning how to work on the bike and creating a bike that suits me and my purposes. This will be a low-budget, gradual project because I will be using the bike to commute to work as well and work on things on my time off. This bike will be rough and ready, an everyday bike. I will do my best to make it look good, to keep it clean, to avoid all forms of duct tape solutions, and to keep the overall look of the bike tasteful, perhaps even classical if the Muses are with me. Please keep in mind that because I am relatively new to this stuff, I will likely ask a stupid question or two (but not until I have thoroughly exhausted other means of answering my questions) BUT I will certainly not waste your time and not listen to sound advice when it is given. You really can't hurt my feelings so the truth is welcome here.

Lastly, my work will be limited by the weather because I have no garage, only a car port. This build is also intended to be a rolling rebuild...unless absolutely necessary. I really don't want to have to drop the engine but I realize it may come to that.

Enough talk, onto the bike:

THE GOOD:
-It runs. Well. I could ride it right now if I wanted.
-Turn Signals, horn, everything works.
-New front fire
-Came with a box of original parts, including extra brake calipers, turn signal switches, starter for the handlerbars, some even in their original packaging.
-New Battery, and lots of new electrical bits (lights, turn signals, solenoids, etc.)
-Kept in sound running condition, previous owner was riding it up until November '11 before I took it off his hands
-Chain looks good
-Brakes were recently restored and have new pads, both front and rear.
-No problems starting, it's like clockwork
-No weeping oil from anywhere.

THE BAD:
-Rust. Everywhere. On the pipes. On the frame. It mostly appears to be surface rust but I won't know until the weather breaks and I can begin operation super clean.
-(Potentially bad) Engine was swapped but the new engine has only 23,000 miles on it and is from 1985 (which I understand to be a good thing, correct if wrong)
-As a result of the engine swap, all the wires were redone. I have never seen so much electrical tape in my life (on the flip side, the connection points all look clean)
-Needs a new rear tire to pass safety inspection
-The paint is in awful condition, lots of chips and scratches, same for the frame.
-Some of the plugs for the side panels are missing and without the seat on, they flop around.
-Leaks coolant, seems to be right at the joint from the radiator cap and the radiator itself (better explained in the photos), only leaks when running.
-Holy **** it is impossibly hard to get it up on the center stand
-No starter switch, he rigged some lawn mower button to function in its place, never got around to installing the original factory one he had ordered (came in the box of stuff)
-Has trouble idling sometimes...not sure what that is about yet because it starts fine and on the whole, the engine is not making unusual sound. I haven't tried to adjust the idle yet. It seems to just bog down and stall at idle even after the bike was properly warmed up, but this happens maybe 50% of the time at most.
-No user manual, no service records, no tool kit
-No lower fairing.
-Some of the hoses have seen better days

Here she is...


My current work order is this so far:
-New rear tire for safety and plate transfer
-Fix coolant leak, flush system, new coolant
-Fix idle problem

Feel free to tell me your thoughts and ideas. My first order is just to get her legal and moving and then begin buying parts and transforming the look of the bike gradually. I will try to get a vid up of the bike running sometime soon. Thank you all and a pleasure to meet you!

 

Isn't a street fighter just a bike that uses MX bars and missing the front fairing?? :tongue:

 

Haha, yes technically. I'm sure there will be some effort involved in the hiding all the wires when the front fairing is gone and I would like to find some things to chop off to cut down on the weight or at least give the illusion of less weight.

 

I like it. Not all dogs are pure breeds and not all bikes are ready for the Barber museum. If you have fun riding it around and working on it occasionally, good on ya. There's no right or wrong way to enjoy motorcycles. Some times it's just nice to go outside, wipe the pollen off the seat and go for a ride. So what if it has some rust, there are some who would love that pipe in the condition it is now. To some, the fun is in picking away at it, getting it running good and worrying about the cosmetics later. It's your bike, do to it as you see fit.

Try some Seafoam in the tank, it may surprise you. Some might list a 100 things to do but it seems right now, you have your own list of things to do and in what order...and being excited about it seems close to the top. Keep us posted.

 

Reading your description, I was expecting a real horror show by the time I got to the pictures - but ya know, it's really not that bad! And hang onto that Hindle exhaust - it's probably worth whatever you paid for the bike. Sure there are gonna be some folks on here that give you some flak about "destroying a classic", but I like your plan and am looking forward to your build thread! By the way, mine looked worse than yours when I dragged it home. I'm doing a down-to-the-frame "reanimation" (I refuse to call it a restoration) and am still in the deconstruction phase. There are plenty of good folks on here that are willing to share their wisdom, so don't be afraid to ask! Most importantly - keep the pictures coming as you progress!

 

For reference sake, this is a video of the bike that is inspiring my build. Clean, simple paint job, and relatively low on cost to construct. I will likely end up changing the seat of my shape a lit bit but other than that, this bike is representative of my end goal.

honda vf1000f streetfighter sound - YouTube

 

Good luck with the bike, its bullet proof so make your own. That VF1000 is a great sample of what you can achieve --- I want that bike-great job

 

Any updates?

 

What happened to you? Did a VFR purist take him out? Did he forget to install the brakes before a high speed test run?

Don't be a tease! You started something and even had picks to go with it! Don't leave me hang'n!

 

My guess is his old lady caught wind of what he was up to and put the brakes on.

 

My guess is he froze to death doing an all nighter in his carport up in the frozen North.