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Freshening up a fresh 95 VFR


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I had been looking locally for a very nice 94 - 97 VFR for a couple years with no luck.  There were some examples, but none were as nice as I wanted or cheap enough to change my mind to a project.  This is the day my 95 rolled out of the transport van from across the country.

 

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11K miles.  Two seats, this modified one and a stock one that was still to arrive in a box, along with another seat cowl and the original mirrors.  Damn near perfect.

 

Well, it arrived last Summer and I had some great rides on it in between painting my house.  The Staintune sounds just lovely and the bike runs perfect.  I did a couple small things, one of which buying another set of passenger pegs and doing a delete.

 

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If the muffler didn't have that lower mount I wouldn't have bothered on the right side.  But I didn't want an empty bracket hanging there and I sure as shit was not gonna start cutting and grinding on the Staintune.  Took HOURS to get it right.  I had to fill and shape the voids after removing that much bracket.  I could have always went with a welded up or custom alloy bracket, but I wanted to at least try and mod the Honda piece for a somewhat stock-ish look.  It actually looks way better in person, that is as small as I could make it and have something left to work with.

 

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Left side was "easy".  Still had a pretty good amount of time shaping and blending.  Wanted to retain seat latch and handle.

 

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Then this Summer I was balls deep again finishing painting my house.  I had taken the bodywork off in prep for going thru a few things and life got in the way.  So when I (finally!!) finished the house this Summer, wrapped up the outdoor projects and winterized all the other bikes, she rolled back on the lift.

 

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It keeps getting smaller!

 

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Plans are:

 

Steel braided front brake lines

Race Tech springs

Tapered steering bearings (future proofing while I'm here)

Pulling carbs and documenting (not sure if somebody's been in there)

Replacing all coolant orings

Remove PAIR (creating block-off plates with the original fitting ends)

Repainting headers

YSS shock (decided to do it while I had the whole rear apart)

Replacing Comp Werkes fender eliminator with a re-worked stock unit

 

I think that's it.  Getting even smaller...

 

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Here's the shock

 

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Glad I went thru the cooling system.  I was pretty surprised the two on the heads were this bad.  They were almost goo...

 

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You were not bull shitting when you said it is dam near perfect. What a nice piece

The 94-97 was always one of those bikes in my bucket list. In the 90's we had Honda make the NR750 and I figured a 94-97

was as close as I was ever getting the holy grail

I am surprised at such a perfect bike having the o rings in the cooling system that bad, I was thinking of leaving mine in the 1999 alone

due to what is involved but I may have to rethink that.

It will be interesting to hear your feed back on how it handles once you get the suspension completed

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15 minutes ago, Hingley said:

You were not bull shitting when you said it is dam near perfect. What a nice piece

The 94-97 was always one of those bikes in my bucket list. In the 90's we had Honda make the NR750 and I figured a 94-97

was as close as I was ever getting the holy grail

I am surprised at such a perfect bike having the o rings in the cooling system that bad, I was thinking of leaving mine in the 1999 alone

due to what is involved but I may have to rethink that.

It will be interesting to hear your feed back on how it handles once you get the suspension completed

 

The looks are polarizing for VFRs, but I've always liked these years.  The 94 VFR lost over 20 pounds from the previous generation, WITH the addition of a factory delivered center stand.  You can see it in almost component when comparing to the 1992 in my shop (next on the lift likely).

 

If I don't know for sure it has been done recently (properly), all of my (new to me) bikes get the cooling system completely gone thru.  Did it to my 1998 ST1100 last year too when I had the carbs out and removed pair.   When I am going thru all of my V4 carbs for the fuel tube o-rings now too, the coolant system gets gone thru.  Almost every bike has had at least a couple o-rings at imminent failure.

 

I am very anxious to ride it too with some suspension improvements.  Gonna add a little ride height to the rear.  Standard cartridges for now, I need keep this round of mods under control somewhat.  A few parts I got for free when I flipped a 1990 VFR last Fall, like the fork springs, brake lines and paid for the shock with other parts I sold off of it.  

 

For the next set of tires, I have a 8 spoke rear (off the 90) and an extra front wheel that will get a nice Honda Metallic Black paint job and the perfect originals can go into boxes.

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Cooling system components all cleaned up and re-finished.  Ready for the new o-rings that just showed up.

 

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Very nice looking finish, is it from glassbeading or cleaning and painting?

If it is from cleaning and painting you must spend a lot of time masking off the seals etc, or you just replace them

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1 minute ago, Hingley said:

Very nice looking finish, is it from glassbeading or cleaning and painting?

 

Cleaning and painting.  Duplicolor Wheel Coating, Metallic Silver.  Sprays out nice and is very durable.  Been using it for years on applications like this (and wheels) with zero issues.

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Center stand, side stand and bracket, bar ends and lower triple clamp (and some associated brackets) all done in Honda Nighthawk Black Metallic with 3 coats of clear.

 

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The Metallic isn't as pronounced as a factory applied finish unfortunately, but it looks great.  I did a spray out test on a small piece of plastic and it is VERY close to Granite Blue Metallic, which is good cuz I have a couple lower cowl pieces on the 92 VFR that will need some love.  

 

Since the passenger peg delete brackets were painted after modding, I decided to spray the front brackets but masked off the heel guards.  3 coats of clear too.

 

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Pedals got some love too.

 

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I radiused the back edge of the knurled post too for a more finished look.  Same on the back end of the shifter.

 

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On 12/6/2022 at 8:27 AM, Hingley said:

Very nice looking finish, is it from glassbeading or cleaning and painting?

If it is from cleaning and painting you must spend a lot of time masking off the seals etc, or you just replace them

 

Masking.  A lot of times if I am rebuilding something I will do all the prep work, install the new bearings and seals and clean and mask for paint.  That way I'm not handling and banging around fresh paint and it gets all the time it needs to cure.  I almost always do forks like that, and wheels.  I keep old dust seals as masking "plugs" and barely install them for the perfect masking line.  After paint, pop them out and press in the fresh seals.

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  I keep old dust seals as masking "plugs" and barely install them for the perfect masking line.  After paint, pop them out and press in the fresh seals.

 

Now this sounds like someone who has spent years learning little tricks to save time and do a great job

Keep posting your progress and tips, it is great for some one about to jump on the restore wagon after a long absentee 

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On 12/7/2022 at 10:28 AM, Captain 80s said:

 

 

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ok ......i got to work with grinder and files, sandpaper and polish to make that cheap-lookin stamped metal part look like a cast alloy part from italy.  just a matter of rounding the edges and blending.  (can't find my pix) takes hours but looks alot better than stock. 

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15 hours ago, squirrelman said:

ok ......i got to work with grinder and files, sandpaper and polish to make that cheap-lookin stamped metal part look like a cast alloy part from italy.  just a matter of rounding the edges and blending.  (can't find my pix) takes hours but looks alot better than stock. 

 

I get it. The front edges got a little love too.  But it's a fucking brake pedal on 95 VFR.  Jesus Christ.  I spend plenty of time on shit (hours actually) blending and shaping, like the passenger peg deletes..  You know...  the ones that are more than 10 inches off the ground.  I got a bunch more to do, and a shit load of other bikes to work on.  I really don't think this is gonna be a distraction to the rest of the bike.

 

I've seen the pic of that pedal.  It's one of 7 pictures you seem to have, I'm surprised you couldn't find it.  It looked great.

 

The time I spent on the pedals was partly cosmetic and partly in case of a tip over.  Go look at your 97 and notice the sharp crescent shaped indentations in the frame right behind the pedals.  It was probably the reason you had the pedal off in the first place to straighten it and file out the rash.

 

Thanks for your kind words, as always.

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Cleaned, polished and waxed the front wheel while it was off

 

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Front end (mostly) back together

 

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RT .09 Springs
Fork oil level set with new fluid
New tapered steering bearings installed with painted lower triple clamp
(factory paint can be light on them and it showed signs of a little exposure)

Cooling system back together with all new o-rings
 

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Re-finished the exhaust

 

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New shock installed.

 

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Refinished stands and controls installed.

 

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Subframe re-populated.  Staintune polished up.

 

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I bought another inner / rear fender to trim down a little smaller than stock and use a plain license bracket.  It was perfect and even had the correct year stickers.  I just couldn't bring myself to cut on it.  So I cleaned up previous trim work that was done for the Comp Werkes fender eliminator and will run this for a while still.  I don't mind it, but wanted to switch over while I had it all apart.  I'll look for yet another fender to mod.

 

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16 minutes ago, fabio222 said:

This is unreal, well done. Might be a good opportunity to upgrade your reg/rec and ensure the charging system is in good order while you're doing this work.

 

Thank you!  That is in the plan, but it will have to be a little later after the $ting of this round wears off a little.  I didn't spend a lot of money, but the shock and fork springs weren't free.  As well as the jets and all the o-rings.  This reg/rect unit will be donated to my 1992 VFR project to get thru the initial build stages, as that unit is looking a little melty.

 

This 95 is almost done.  Finishing up installing a USB port, relocating the horn so the individual stainless brake lines can route where I want them, installing a parallel Fuel Cut Relay switch and a fan override switch.  

 

Pictures soon.

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How did you manage to make everything look so clean? I'm talking engine, waterpump casing etc? 

 

Mine has over 90,000 miles on it at this point in time so it'll probably never be quite as clean as yours but I could try 🙂 .

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3 minutes ago, fabio222 said:

How did you manage to make everything look so clean? I'm talking engine, waterpump casing etc? 

 

Mine has over 90,000 miles on it at this point in time so it'll probably never be quite as clean as yours but I could try 🙂 .

 

Well, it did start out pretty damn nice, but it did have some road grime.  Elbow grease pretty much.  And a tooth brush.  Wheel cleaner made for painted / clear coated wheels makes an excellent engine and chassis cleaner too.  Spray down with cold water, liberally apply wheel cleaner all over and let it sit for a few minutes.  Then start scrubbing.  Rinse and repeat as needed.

 

My current favorite is made by Turtle Wax

 

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