1990 Honda VFR 750F resurrection

Nice choice of rubber hoses for the cooling system upgrade, Capt
And you are right about the intake rubber clamp spacers stopping you from getting an air tight seal, had this exact problem with the 1990, everything looked tight but had such a bad air leak once things warmed up the bike was no fun to ride, if you blurped the throttle it would hang at 3-4000 rpm for a long time

 

Not my bike.

I've seen it too many times, but the worst one was my ST1100 for some reason. I even had to switch to VF750F clamps as the stock ones wouldn't even tighten without a spacer at all. It was bizarre.

 

Disassembled the front end today. The forks have rust and will need a good clean and polish. I flushed them with diesel, pumping the rod and slider. That seemed to work well as the diesel came out dirty, so I did a second flush and have them hanging to drain. I don't need a total rebuild, just new fluid and seals.

 

Steering head bearings and races looked good! I was not surprised because this bike has been kept out of the weather. It was a quick job to clean them up, fresh grease and reassemble.
The top clamp needed some help.... much better now. I tried to keep it close to the satin/machined finish of the original. Lots of sanding, then sanding linear to recreate the "grain", followed by red scotchbrite pad linear, then a little polish.
Anyone have tips on how to restore the lettering around the ignition?

 

I do remember that at one point you could buy those badges on CMSL.

Something like this:

https://www.cmsnl.com/products/embl...UJfMSAqL83WHnIwwkOwrpJODH_D7I__AaAsUEEALw_wcB

 

You can still get the the little emblem, I have a couple that I ordered recently.

And I've used some touch up or model paint to restore the lettering that is recessed. Paint em, then wipe off the flush surface with some paint thinner.

 

Thanks, good to know as that confirms my first thought.
I just can't stand looking at it with missing letters!

 

Made a little more progress today.
Polished the fork caps as they were a little corroded. Man, that's why everything is taking so long. Just to put parts back on the bike I need to clean and polish stuff!! I'm going to have to speed up here in order to get this done before too long!
Forks filled with fresh Motul 10w and back on the bike, halfway. I still need to touch up the paint on the ignition switch so I'm keeping the upper triple clamp free for now.

 

Painted the rotors a few weeks ago. Masking was a bit tedious! As suggested I used Duplicolor silver wheel paint and chose the matte clear. I'm happy with how they came out.




Wheels came out looking great from the powdercoater, but he didn't fully mask the mating surface for the rotors. Had to file that $#!t off. Anyone getting these wheels coated I suggest telling your guy to mask where the inner circumference of the rotor mates to the wheel, not just the flats (see bad pic below with my shaky drawn arrow).



Otherwise really pleased with how good they came out.
New Ariete valves look good.
These soft sporty tires are SO much easier to work with than the tires on my Tiger 800. Wheel bearings and rotors back on, and amazingly the front wheel is balanced nearly perfect! I put it on my static balancer, couldn't find a heavy spot. Awesome!

 

Tasty. Everything looks great. Rotors look OEM.

Did they mask the machined area on the back of the rear wheel?

 

Pro tip on rotor masking:

With fairly wide masking tape, apply straight across covering as much of the groove as possible from the upper middle of the tape to the bottom. Repeat around as necessary, it usually only takes 5 to 6 applications per side. Tape off any bare areas on the perimeter of the disc, I usually do this in straights as well, as that is the shape of what is left. Now take your finger nail or something like a plastic knife and press the tape into the outer edge of the groove. Simply take a new blade to the groove and cut out the "center".

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

Yes, the machined flats were masked so hopefully good. Got the new rubber on the rear. I just need to come up with an adapter to fit the rear wheel on my balancing stand.
The cones that center and hold a wheel on the balancer axle are intended for "normal" wheels. The VFR rear has a larger opening on the left where it fits on the hub- so it just flops around on the too small cone.

 

More updates:
Exhaust painted with 2 coats hi temp



Carbs back on the bike and new throttle cables installed. Cleaned and greased the throttle tube assembly also.



Really pleased with the paint touch up on the ignition switch

 

And after checking the front uppers to plan repair of the cracked fairing tabs I also found that the L front turn signal was loose... well shheeeeettttt I guess that's why it was loose
Everything is old and brittle
Anybody know what type of plastic this is? I'll try to repair, otherwise have to replace

 

The T/S housing should be a classic ABS. I have used my favorite 2 part plastic welder epoxy on one with excellent results. Get some thin ABS sheet to double up for strength and re-drill the hole.

Part of the stock Hawk GT rear wheel set up has a cone shaped piece that is the perfect adapter for VFR wheels. I have it used it a handful of times now and twice on a Ducati wheel using two of them.





You can also get the cheapest VFR spindle you can find and use that as an adapter. Here is my VFR wheel for my Hawk mounted on my modified spindle before assembling the swingarm.

 

I use Legos with MEK to plastic weld the busted tabs and cracks. Been doing that for years, just do it in a well ventilated area.

 

For that turn signal, maybe try this plastic stapler. I've used this on a few parts. Amazingly tight and solid af. It's perfect for this tab and handy for other things too.

Here...

 

why, cuz its a serious toxic cancer risk ? [ MEK not legos]

 

While I wouldn't wash my hands with it, the new MEK is nothing like the old Methyl Ethyl Death.