Shiftless Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 I introduced myself and my wrecked bike in the new member forum and have decided to move over here and start a thread to chronicle the path forward. I’m afraid that progress will be slow with work/family commitments, so this might a bit boring, but it could have some value to anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation. This will be kind of an experiment to see what a regular, somewhat mechanically minded guy with basic caveman tools can do. I don’t have a particular style or theme in mind…streetfighter, buttnekkid bike, but it’s going to be as budget minded/diy as possible. OK, so over the last few days I’ve started tearing into this thing to determine the extent of damage and see if it’s even salvageable. The front end, as expected, is pretty well ruined along with all plastics. The left rider peg assembly is broken, the clutch lever is broken, the #4 head pipe is crunched pretty good, and the front valve cover is cracked. The good news is that, initially, the frame looks good. The tank and seat survived without a scratch and the subframe looks good. The rear wheel/swingarm look OK and the wheel runs true. The engine survived without a scratch and cases/accessories look unharmed. The gauges and wiring all look intact and this is what I’ll be starting with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted July 28, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted July 28, 2011 Doesn't matter how long it takes. So long as there's progress. Heck, just took me over a week to solder 8 pairs of wires and some other work. But when you only have 10 minutes a day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Welcome to VFRD and good luck with the rebuild! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
93 VFR750 RC36 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I rebuilt mine after a drop and it was a great experience. Camel RC36 now tearing up the tracks again. Keep us up to date, I love seeing a damaged bike come back to life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Epi Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Good luck with this "adventure". No matter how long it takes.......with common sense, determination and a little help from your forum-friends: You can do it !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 Common sense huh? I might be in trouble then. Thanks for the encouragement everybody. Well, I've gotten a little done over the last few days. The broken valve cover deposited some debris in the head, so the oil pan has to come off for a thorough clean and inspection. I got as much of the material as possible from the top side and intend to rinse down through the drain holes to ensure there isn't anything remaining to cause problems in the future. In order to do that, the exhaust and center stand have to come off and I hate working on the ground, so I raided the lumber rack and built a work bench. As with any fixed height stand, it's a compromise, but it's better than the alternative and essentially free. I also made a set of temporary "forks" out of chain link fence line post to get the bike off of the straps hanging from the garage loft. Now I'll be able to get the stand and exhaust off to finish cleaning the engine to get it started and see if there was any internal damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baileyrock Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Find a set of F4i forks(fully adjustable) which are 43mm tubes and a set of Vtec triples and your good to go for the most part. You can run either a VFR800 front wheel or F4 front wheel with stock VFR800/F4 rotors or a F4i wheel and rotors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 That is exactly the route I'm thinking of going eventually BailyRock. Thanks for the details on what's involved with the swap...sounds pretty straight forward. So, after what seems like an eternity, I got the pan off and, as expected, found all kinds of goodies in there. So on to the rinse project. We finally got a break in the weather and took the bike outside in anticipation of a great big mess (which is what I do best!) and did the deed. It was decided to use solvent, siphon-fed with a spray nozzle on the compressor, to rinse the oil film away that was holding onto all the chunkies. This was followed with jet fuel introduced via funnel and rubber hose to get some volume through the thing. All this was done from the front head where the damage occured and the material had been concentraded prior to initial cleaning. When all was said and done, the drain pan was strained through some shop towels to see what was to see. I'm glad I took the time to this, as there was still a considerable amount of stuff in there. On the good side, it's aluminum and it appears it travelled to the pan and pretty much stayed there. Inside the pick-up and up towards the pump looks clean. Next, the head and cams were drizzled with oil to coat everything prior to reassembly. Hopefully, fire up will happen this weekend and, after a few oil changes, all will be OK to begin the reassembly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Rice Posted August 22, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted August 22, 2011 Love your rear stand! Nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 Thanks. Already had some of the stuff, so only ended up costing about $20. If I had to use it more than every once in a while, I'd put together the scratch to get a real stand. It works okay though. It's better than most of my other attempts to save $$$. I usually end up spending 90% of what the real deal would cost and having something that works 1/2 as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Rice Posted August 22, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted August 22, 2011 Thanks. Already had some of the stuff, so only ended up costing about $20. If I had to use it more than every once in a while, I'd put together the scratch to get a real stand. It works okay though. It's better than most of my other attempts to save $$$. I usually end up spending 90% of what the real deal would cost and having something that works 1/2 as well. HA! I am the same way. Promised myself a while ago to stop "saving" this way. But slip up every onceinawhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest vfrrider Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 One word. Frankenviffer. All done. Larry VFRrider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 As much as I'd like to go nuts with this thing with USD forks and the like, I just can't justify it. The sad truth is that I probably can't even ride to the potential of the temporary rigid forks that are on it now. So, if I ever do see any kind of compensation, it's probably going to the single best performance upgrade this bike will ever see...riding school of some kind. I made a little progress over the last few days. Engine is all buttoned up with new (used) cam cover and hopefully all cleaned out and happy. I removed the oil cooler and flushed it and the lines just to be on the safe side. It appears, from the manual, that unfiltered oil goes to the cooler. Maybe somebody a little more familiar with the oiling system can confirm that this is actually the case, but it's done anyway. De-PAIR is complete (and those rear lines sucked a little), subframe, exhaust and center stand are back on. Looks like cooling system and lacing up some remaining wiring and I'll be thumbing the starter switch this weekend. On a side note, I took the carbs off for a thorough clean as they've been sitting for a few months, and found a large chunk of crap on one of the vacuum diaphrams. It was from the little, secondary air filter that bolts to the side of the air box, that apparantly got gas soaked and came apart when the bike was on its side. Has anyone ever eliminated this thing in favor of a small push on breather or filter element? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btl68 Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 I simply used a new piece of UNI brand foam to put into that breather. It won't disintegrate now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Good luck on your build! I saw your post that you have a crunched header. I have one in excellent condition if you are interested. I'm still in the process of parting out my 96 VFR750F, so let me know if you need anything. Link to E-BayI tems for Sale ---> http://www.ebay.com/sch/live4riding/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 It lives!! After some final hurricane prep on Saturday morning, I got some time to tinker and got the bike running with no drama. Warmed it up and loaded the engine with the rear brake and no noises or carrying on, so I'm extremely happy. Now I can move on with the rebuild. The front end and mechanicals are pretty well sorted, but now I have to figure out what to do about body etc. When I picked the bike up from the recovery service, there was a cardboard box on the tank with bits and pieces that they picked up from the road. I was happy to see this and suprisingly, after going through everything and putting pieces together, everything is there. So now the choices are to try and piece it together or go with CBR aftermarket panels. @ Revs - thanks, but I picked up a header and valve cover from ebay to get the bike running. Now that I'm confident that I'm not throwing good money after bad though, there are some other things you have that I need. I'll put together a list and PM you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 It's been slow going over the past month or so. I've been accumulating parts, which is the hardest part ($$$) of the whole process. It's amazing how fast costs add up. To keep myself honest, I've been keeping a very detailed account of cost, down to every trip to the auto parts store for chemicals etc. I'll probably post it when the project is finished and people can get an idea of what it's realistically going to cost if faced with the decision to part out or rebuild. She stands on her own two feet once again with new forks, wheel, upper and lower triples, bearings, etc. The left caliper bracket is bent, but a replacement is on the way. The left rider peg assembly, clutch lever and coolant reservoir have also been replaced. I had to hang the plastics to figure out where all of the pieces went like a big, oily, speedy dry encrusted jigsaw puzzle. After considering CBR fairings and aftermarket replacements, I've decided to try and fix what I've got. All of the panels have cracks etc, but most of them are workable. The left upper fairing and the left mid fairing are pretty bad. I have some PlastiFix I'm curious to try and my brother has an airless plastic welding rig that I'll be putting through it's paces to see what can be done. More updates to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted September 22, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted September 22, 2011 I believe there is a report or two on the Plastifix. I'm 98% positive there is a How-To article on repairing plastics here as well. That does look like a good saturday afternoon. Hope it pays off. Looks like you have some missing chunks you'll have to fill in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiftless Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Well, it's been a long time coming, but I took the old girl out for a few short shakedown runs and rode to work this week. It's in need of quite a bit more attention, but here's where we stand. I was able to use the plastifix to repair the tail, even with some of the missing chunks. It works pretty well and I used fiberglass joint tape on the back side to add some support to the repairs. The front was too far gone and I ended up going with the Airtech upper and one-piece mids/lower. They are a far cry from OEM, but that goes for cost/availability too. The lower had to be bisected to be more easily installed/removed, so I rivited a tab on one side and used dzus fasteners on the other to hold it together under the bike. The worst area is the headlight. The replacement fairing doesn't have the returns where the plastic meets the glass nicely, so there's a little bit of a gap that will need some attention. Some cheapo epay led turn signal mirrors finish off the front. The fork seals need replacing, which will give me the opportunity to see the gold valves that are supposed to be in there and change the oil. New tires to be installed at the same time and some rattle can paint and we're off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Looking great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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