Guest deanc1963 Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Came across a crashed & badly-neglected 1993 viffer for $1000. Parts were substantially complete but the bike looked like it had been painted with an old brush and black tar. Always wanted a viffer since I got the chance to ride one a few years back. Yeah I probably should've walked away form this one - bad vibration in the handlebars, valve ticking sounds, fiberglassed & zip-tied plastic body panels, missing ears from the top front pieces, badly adjusted steering head, rusted chain, way wrong-sized tires making it handle poorly, siezed rear brake, dubious Chinese body panels and lots more besides - but underneath that nasty paint and mis-matched body panels was the heart of a champion and I couldn't leave her to rot. Here's what she looked like when I picked her up on literally the coldest day of the year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Came across a crashed & badly-neglected 1993 viffer for $1000. Parts were substantially complete but the bike looked like it had been painted with an old brush and black tar. Always wanted a viffer since I got the chance to ride one a few years back. Yeah I probably should've walked away form this one - bad vibration in the handlebars, valve ticking sounds, fiberglassed & zip-tied plastic body panels, missing ears from the top front pieces, badly adjusted steering head, rusted chain, way wrong-sized tires making it handle poorly, siezed rear brake, dubious Chinese body panels and lots more besides - but underneath that nasty paint and mis-matched body panels was the heart of a champion and I couldn't leave her to rot. Here's what she looked like when I picked her up on literally the coldest day of the year... As soon as I got her home, everything that could come off did. And if you want to turn that into a dirty joke then go right ahead. The frame and all body panels were stripped down, years of some interesting paint jobs showed up. Yummy repair goo was mixed up... and carefully slathered everywhere it hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Not a single body panel was un-damaged. This one was re-made from three pieces and a little body repair mesh. It was about average of all the body panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Home-made paint booth for the initial primer & pearl white on a windless day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted May 27, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted May 27, 2011 Keep the pics and story coming! After seeing this bodywork, I decided to worry less over the odd scrape/crack on mine.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VIFFER93 Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Great work! I have a lot of appreciation for the work your putting in. Keep the pics coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer RollinAgain Posted May 27, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted May 27, 2011 Great work! Look forward to seeing the final results! Rollin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer RollinAgain Posted May 27, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted May 27, 2011 Great work! Look forward to seeing the final results! Rollin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayJay Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Really looking forward to seeing the results....believe i have only seen the 5th GEN in RWB....I had an 2nd Gen and miss those colours! I like your assorted stands. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Really looking forward to seeing the results....believe i have only seen the 5th GEN in RWB....I had an 2nd Gen and miss those colours! I like your assorted stands. J Thanks. Here are a few more - cheap bastich wheel stands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 OK - Decided Pearl Crystal White is right outta here. Beautiful to behold, I grow ever more attached to it. But some frakking dumbass ran me off the road twice three times in two weeks. "Geez you came out of nowhere!" "Hey, watch that cranial-rectal inversion, f--kwad!" <accompanied by one-finger salute> Even the deer stood and watched me go by in white. (This was actually pretty cool, rode through a couple of parks in white, the deer were fascinated by it and really would stop beside the road and stare. I stopped and stared right back. Most excellent.) ## NH193P just wasn't visible enough to keep my tender carcass in one piece.Showed up great at night, but disappeared at dusk or in the mist / rain / fog / haze and not very much of a standout on sunny days either. Loved the color but felt too much like a target. The 1992 color was my second choice - Great for avoiding John Law. but even worse for avoiding Johny Medic. Since most of my riding is in the daytime under pretty good light conditions, I needed some paint scheme that would stand out in bright daylight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 These are some of the fixes I had to make after getting ran off the road in NH193P livery. I made a metal backing piece from the auto body repair mesh & then layered acetone-melted fairing plastic into the mesh until built up to match the rest of the piece. The mesh is available at PepBoys (dunno about other auto stores) and makes a way stronger repair than fiberglass backing cloth. This was the right side upper front piece. Also pulled & repaired the right rear plastic piece, and the left-side handlebar. Removed, cleaned, straightened, repainted, the seat bracket while everything was apart. Figured this was also a good time to get rid of the polished frame, ran fine Scothbrite pads all over the frame.Just went long-ways on the un-painted parts and circular on the painted parts; then re-painted the latter areas to match factory finish. Never been a big fan of polished frames. While the bike was apart, I also got a new wiring harness & soldered-in the VFRness. Picked up new left & right switch gear to match. # In case anyone's wondering, the 3rd & 4th gen wiring harnesses and handlebar switch pods are identical (even though Honda uses different part #s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 These are some of the fixes I had to make after getting ran off the road in NH193P livery. I made a metal backing piece from the auto body repair mesh & then layered acetone-melted fairing plastic into the mesh until built up to match the rest of the piece. The mesh is available at PepBoys (dunno about other auto stores) and makes a way stronger repair than fiberglass backing cloth. This was the right side upper front piece. Also pulled & repaired the right rear plastic piece, and the left-side handlebar. Removed, cleaned, straightened, repainted, the seat bracket while everything was apart. Figured this was also a good time to get rid of the polished frame, ran fine Scothbrite pads all over the frame.Just went long-ways on the un-painted parts and circular on the painted parts; then re-painted the latter areas to match factory finish. Never been a big fan of polished frames. While the bike was apart, I also got a new wiring harness & soldered-in the VFRness. Picked up new left & right switch gear to match. # In case anyone's wondering, the 3rd & 4th gen wiring harnesses and handlebar switch pods are identical (even though Honda uses different part #s). So I decided on duplicolor Cherry Metallic Pearl Red. THe color turned out OK, and was a real conversation starter everywhere. Painted white primer, white primer-sealer, highly metallic sliver, color coat, (lots of) clear coat. Waited 3-4 weeks, since the bike was down for other fixes at the same time as painting, then finished with 2K urethane clear coat. This time around, I also painted all the "good" spares I had in the same color as doofus cager insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 These are some of the fixes I had to make after getting ran off the road in NH193P livery. I made a metal backing piece from the auto body repair mesh & then layered acetone-melted fairing plastic into the mesh until built up to match the rest of the piece. The mesh is available at PepBoys (dunno about other auto stores) and makes a way stronger repair than fiberglass backing cloth. This was the right side upper front piece. Also pulled & repaired the right rear plastic piece, and the left-side handlebar. Removed, cleaned, straightened, repainted, the seat bracket while everything was apart. Figured this was also a good time to get rid of the polished frame, ran fine Scothbrite pads all over the frame.Just went long-ways on the un-painted parts and circular on the painted parts; then re-painted the latter areas to match factory finish. Never been a big fan of polished frames. While the bike was apart, I also got a new wiring harness & soldered-in the VFRness. Picked up new left & right switch gear to match. # In case anyone's wondering, the 3rd & 4th gen wiring harnesses and handlebar switch pods are identical (even though Honda uses different part #s). So I decided on duplicolor Cherry Metallic Pearl Red. THe color turned out OK, and was a real conversation starter everywhere. Painted white primer, white primer-sealer, highly metallic sliver, color coat, (lots of) clear coat. Waited 3-4 weeks, since the bike was down for other fixes at the same time as painting, then finished with 2K urethane clear coat. This time around, I also painted all the "good" spares I had in the same color as doofus cager insurance. Luck of the Irish - picked up a screw in the front tire and low-speed crashed on only my third ride in the mountains. Bent everything all to hell - front fairing frame, entire right front side, both right-side footpegs, cracked fairing nose piece and the front fender. Also tore the heck out of the right side of my eBay Corbin saddle. But I did pull the bike out of the ditch with help from a couple of guys I was riding with. More embarrassing and upsetting than anything else. Rode it the rest of the day in the mountains and then home that evening. Always get back on the horse right away. Mechanically it was OK but I resolved to improve the brakes immediately, the stockers were no great shakes even compared to other early-90's bikes. If I'd been able to stop three feet shorter all would have been well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Repaired all the damaged bits, straightened the frame, rebuilt the front & rear brakes and clutch (again) with braided steel lines and new seals & pads.New chain and stock-sized sprockets. Since I had to repaint fairings anyway, and winter was coming on, decided on another project. Wife says I'm a glutton for punishment. First I went with the color scheme in these pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Repaired all the damaged bits, straightened the frame, rebuilt the front & rear brakes and clutch (again) with braided steel lines and new seals & pads.New chain and stock-sized sprockets. Since I had to repaint fairings anyway, and winter was coming on, decided on another project. Wife says I'm a glutton for punishment. First I went with the color scheme in these pics. After a couple of weeks riding this, I felt like something was missing. So I changed things up slightly to look more like the 1986-87 RWB 2nd gens. Those are my favorite VFR paint schemes. I figured this was a good combination of being eye-catching in the daytime and visible at night without looking like a cartoon character threw up on it. Another forum member mentioned they'd used a laser level to get straight lines. I used a cheapie Radio Shack laser level for the upper fairings and seat pieces. Worked pretty good, just laid the laser on a ladder so it would be at the same height and parallel to the upright bike, then taped right on top of the laser line and got a perfectly straight edge that way. Much better than trying to eyeball it. Also cut these side vents & backed them with heavy-gauge wire mesh. That made the bike run cooler while reinforcing the side panels. I kept a set of side panels un-molested for future resale, not sure that it will make that much difference since the 3rd gens don't seem to be as collectible as the 4th gen but you never know. Pulled the condoms off the mirrors and painted the stalks black. Ebay'ed a stock windshield instead of the Chinese-made one that was busted in the mountain wreck. Stock windshiled had some light haze on it but I was able to take that out with clearcoat polish and a lot of elbow grease. Retouched the flat black paint on the inside of the stock windshield to clean up some old scratches in that and sourced an original Honda warning sticker from discounthondaparts.com.... the windshield came out looking almost new. ## Think I'll stick with this scheme for a while. May have to touch this up in the winter since it doesn't have a urethane hard coat on it. Back wheel is pretty cruddy in some of these pictures. I'm thinking about Krylon Flat Gold for the wheels, the white wheels look really pretty but they're darn hard to keep clean.I also have to get the Corbin saddle recovered, it still sits well but the leather looks kind of ratty up close. Pretty much any good auto upholstery shop can do that, no hurry as long as the sit sits well and is still in one piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest vfrrider Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Nice save. May I suggest a white helmet. Makes them think you're the law and gives you a little better visibility. Overall, Larry VFRrider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Nice save. May I suggest a white helmet. Makes them think you're the law and gives you a little better visibility. Overall, Larry VFRrider Thanks Larry. I went with a white helmet with red & blue designs on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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