Jump to content

More a refurb than a restore


kentguy55

Recommended Posts

I have a 2000 Tahitan Candy Blue 5th Generation VFR800 I purchased this about 2 years ago when it had done 32,000 and was in pretty good nick. It did have some marks on the right hand fairing though which then got worse by me dropping it twice, while stationary might I add and no, please don't ask!!! It had also been my only form of transport to work for 9 months come wind or rain and lived outside. I had some quotes for re-spraying but most of them I either was not impressed at the persons work or they wanted a lot more than I was prepared to pay.

Some other issues I had lately included over revving when cold and my oil cooler pipes were really rotten with virtually no chrome left on them. I had also on the last drop scratched the clutch cover even more than it was already.

I did loads of research on Chinese fairings and will document this later in this post but decided while the fairing were off I would do some other bits and pieces.

 

I probably need to make it clear at this point that I am by no  means a mechanic and I have only had a bike for about 4 years, a Honda Varadero 125 whilst waiting for my test and a 600 Bandit for a couple of months after my test that got written off.

 

I find the Haynes manual invaluable and managed to get one off of eBay for £10

I also found the Ron Ayers site great for getting part numbers as he actually lists the actual Honda Part Numbers. http://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/c/honda_motorcycle/parts

 

Over-revving:

When the bike was cold it would rev normally up to about 65-68 degrees at just over 2,000 R.P.M. Then it would just to 3,500 until the temp settled to around 79 degrees

After a number of posts on various forums I considered the problem probably lay with the fast idle wax unit. Rather than replacing I thought I would try draining and flushing the cooling system first and the suspicion was it may just be an air bubble.

So drained the system took off the coolant bottle and washed it and then used Wynn's coolant flush as directed on the tin.

Topped back up with pink anti-freeze as directed. Problem now gone. Well that was an early success!!

 

Oil Cooler:

Drain the oil and get a new sum plug washer just in case!!

In situ I could not remove the pipes from the cooler at all and I was replacing them anyway it is probably best to remove the front wheel off to  remove the cooler with pipes attached but I could not be assed so just hack sawed each  side to  remove them. On getting to cooler out I took it to work (I work in a garage) and various people tried removing the bolts that connect the pipes to  the cooler itself. Although they eventually succeeded they knackered the oil cooler in the process, Grrrr. I had already ordered some second hand pips for Ebay France which appeared to  be in very good condition. EBay France seems to have loads more stuff for VFR's than the UK site does. The pipes cost me

£16 and a tenner postage and when they arrived I was well chuffed they were in really good condition compared to my old ones. Then ordered an oil cooler from a breakers here for £20. After ordering all new bolts and O-rings from the Honda dealer at silly prices this all bolted back into place and so far no leaks. At the same time changed the oil filter and replaced the oil.

 

Spark Plugs:

Oh this will be easy, yes the back two are a piece of piss the front two however are a nightmare to get to. I used two 10 inch extension bars and a plug socket with the rubber bit in to grip the plugs.

 

Cleaning:

As the fairings were now off I decided to clean all those bits you do not normally see. Mostly this just took a warm soapy clothe making sure I dried with kitchen towel after. However as someone with two young children I have now found yet another use for baby wipes, they really do clean anything!!! The other shocker was I have a full stainless steel exhaust but most of it appears never to have been cleaned so was in fact slightly rusty and very very dirty. you read so  many suggestions of what  to  clean things with and I am always a little dubious but had seen one item repeated a number of times. Harpic toilet cleaner. All I can say is OMFG!! Just use a kitchen scourer you know sponge one side green stuff the other. You need hardly any effort, I was totally gobsmacked. Word of warning though wear gloves and long sleeves ‘cos shit it burns!!!

 

Clutch cover:

This was just generally scratched and dinged form the two vistis the bike had to the floor. i taped all round it with masking tape (see picture1) then used a high build primer from Halfords. The I bought some Peugot engine Matallic Grey from the Range, mailny as it was half price and I did not need the huge tim Halfords was selling. It was £3.75. 3 coats of this then 3 coats of Halfords Satin Lacquer.

 

 

Others:

At the same time I fitted new Puig bar ends, this turned into a nightmare as the left hand screw was stuck in the inner handlebar and just kept twisting. In the end if was just cheaper and easier to buy a new handlebar, cost me £15. Also fitted new grips I always slide them on with hairspray has always worked so far. I also fitted a blue round LED voltmeter so I could keep an eye on the notorious R/R and Stator problems. This was about a tenner from a company called Istoz on Amazon. Have wired it straight to the battery with an inline fuse.

I also took the opportunity to tidy up some things while the fairings were off. Much of the wiring is wrapped in normal electrical insulating tape. Understandably after 15 years some of this was not fairing well. Mostly the ends and joining pieces. This is where I discovered something called amalgamation tape. Great stiff it is like a rubber you pull off the amount you need peel off the backing tape and just pull it and stretch it and it sticks to itself, much better than ordinary adhesive tap

 

Chinese Fairings:

You can find them on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba or DHGate or you can find supposed suppliers in other countries. My suspicion is that they all in fact come from the same place. I researched for nearly 6 months. I knew pretty much straight away it was a choice between two colour schemes. Either white and black or the same colour blue I have but with the Movistar decals.

Some facts along the way. No matter where you read it if you interrogate the seller no-one and I repeat no-one sells injection moulded fairings for 5th  generation VFR's. If you see them listed as Injection moulded when you question further they will say there is a mistake on the website.

If you are looking for perfection these fairings are not going to be it. However if you are trying to give your bike a different look for a reasonable amount of cash then they are good value for money.

Finally decided to go for the Movistar blue, the reason, again no matter how many adverts you see it on no-one does the tank covers anymore, they were just to prone to breaking apparently. Therefore it seemed pointless to have new fairing and then try to get someone here to match the paint for the tank.

From ordering to delivery was 4 weeks. They arrived very well packed with lots of foam in a large box. I did however have to pay customs and vat on top of what  I had already paid. So I paid £290 plus 46 customs and vat.

They all seemed to be in good condition. I also seemed to have more bits than I had bargained for. This is because they have included the inner fairing that goes round the dials the side fairings that connect to the outer fairings and the bits you remove to take the mirrors off. However I did not use any of these as they are all in just really cheap shiny gloss black plastic.

It was then I noticed there was no rear seat cowl which was clearly advertised on the picture. I emailed the seller and asked about this and was told actually they do not do the rear cowl for the 5th generation. Now not a huge worry to me as I always have the top box fitted but maybe to others.

First thing to note

None of the holes are big enough (I expected this), the paint is in places if you look closely a bit what I would call orange peely, but as you can see from  the pictures it is barely distinguishable from the tank original. They were also  very very shiny!!

The front headlight fairing is the worst, on this it seemed everything was in the wrong place and the hole on the left is not quite wide enough for the headlight to slip into. The four stanchions that you connect the headlight to were also badly positioned. If i did it again I would probably attach open brackets to those stanchions so that I did not have to force it so. In doing so I have opened a hairline crack which I have had to  plastic weld.

The tail fairing fitted pretty much straight off apart from making the holes bigger for the bolts. You may have to as well use slightly smaller head bolts than  those big flat ones that are on the original  fairing as the spaces are just not there to take them. This is easily rectified by sourcing from eBay.

I also ordered blue anodised fairing bolts and well nuts and a pack of 30 well nuts on thier own. I also ordered some of those plastic screw connectors where you push the plastic bit through the holes and then screw in the plastic screw. I actually had two of these missing on the upper inner fairings and had not even realised.

Then the main fairings, this is of course done in conjunction with that funny v shaped thing behind the front wheel. The nice thing about this part over the original is that it is sprayed the same colour as the panels as opposed to matt black. Personally I think it looks miles better. this and the bottom of the fairing was in fact a better fit than my originals going together really easy  and for the first time ever my fairing line up underneath  the bike and have two fixings in them which are now removable.

Lastly was the front fender which fits perfectly.

 

Polishing:

The bike is 15 years old as is the tank and quite frankly the new fairings were putting that tank to shame, it was covered in small surface scratches and swirls. Eventually found a product called G3 scratch remover this was applied with a dual action electric buffer and god the results are amazing. I have come to love the Meguiar's produnts so  after the G3 i applied polish and then caranuba wax. I have to  say  I am stunned by the appearance compared to how it was. 

 

So there you have it, overall fitting the fairings was nowhere ther the nightmare I imagined and I personally am very happy with the way they look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polishing:

20160827_084730.jpg

20160918_182432.jpg

20160918_182937.jpg

20160918_182443.jpg

20160918_182419.jpg

20160918_182530.jpg

20160918_182415.jpg

20160918_182425.jpg

20160918_182950.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Looking good! I'm always glad to see folks freshening up a 5th Gen rather than going after the "Latest and Greatest". I love my '99 and just bought a 2000 to do some mods I thought would be too much on my already highly modified VFR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Good work - nice looking bike.  Is there a story on the headers?  They look look like they might have been coated or are possibly after-market. 

 

At my work we have a smaller, palm sized version of your yard gnome - we've dubbed it "The Traveling Gnome".  People take turns taking on vacation and photoing it in various locations.  It's made a few trips on my 6th gen with me - like a good luck charm! 

 

20150714_142916_zpsz6ncwenm.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not bad at all for under, what? £500 plus sundry and a bit of elbow grease!!

I'm seriously thinking of getting a set of Chinese dark metallic grey ABS plastic fairings (mine's a 6th gen), looking for an OEM fuel tank and having the wheels painted, or powder coated... as my RC30 replica fairings have been repaired so much they're starting to split and line up poorly.


This colour scheme is alluring. I always did like metallic for bikes, like the "sonic gold" of my first real road bike, a Kawasaki GT750.

efee731d56f53c96d3e5d5bf4b3c3ad4.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 4:54 AM, Auspanglish said:

Guys... Girls... Gods...

Anyone able to give me a colour code or name for the gold on the rims of this darker grey model 6th genner?

efee731d56f53c96d3e5d5bf4b3c3ad4.jpg

I wanted/still want this color combo really badly.  If we got this set up in the USA I wouldn't have a gen 5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer
9 hours ago, Epyon007 said:

I wanted/still want this color combo really badly.  If we got this set up in the USA I wouldn't have a gen 5.

Seem to me you lucked out. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also refurbishing a 5th Gen VFR.  I bought it in mid December and I'm determined to get it into good shape by the beginning of Springtime.  It's a '99 with low miles, in good overall condition but very dirty and lots of deferred maintenance items...

 

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/52488-Refurbishing-my-99-5th-Gen

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, GreginDenver said:

I'm also refurbishing a 5th Gen VFR.  I bought it in mid December and I'm determined to get it into good shape by the beginning of Springtime.  It's a '99 with low miles, in good overall condition but very dirty and lots of deferred maintenance items...

 

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/52488-Refurbishing-my-99-5th-Gen

 

 

 

That looks awesome, especially the brakes - they look top notch now - well done!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.