“There she blows!–there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!”

Herman Melville ~ Moby Dick

The Goldwing is here. This will be ICC’s winter weblog project, we will be posting updates here for you to follow the progress. Hopefully this will really be an ugly duckling-beautiful swan transformation that you can follow during the cold dark winter months. Any of you brave souls that are inclined to venture out in the cold, are invited to stop in person to check on the project in person.

Here’s the story, this poor dear took a slight tumble into a ditch last May, but to add insult to injury it also was subjected to a trailering mishap during transport on a trailer. I Always use at least 4 straps when trailering a bike, because I really, really, really don’t want it to go skidding down the road.

You know the old saying ” Experience is what you get, when you do not get what you wanted.”

This bike was on it’s way to becoming a pile of parts to be sold on E-bay when I stopped the previous owner and talked him into selling it so I could put it back on the road. He conceded and thus begins the saga of this “Project Goldwing”.

In this photo you can see the twist imparted to the front end. You can hope that this isn’t really as bad as it looks, but don’t hold you breath. I think the forks are probably bent. This bike was fully equipped with a Vetter fairing (remember those? ) and Bates saddle bags. They are pretty cracked up from the first accident, hopefully we can salvage something of them. The Vetter fairing protected the gauges in accident #1, but with the fairing removed before the transporting accident you can see they didn’t fair well this time. In fact you could say they are down right crushed. I don’t think they will be of any use.

If you can’t tell from this photo the odometer is showing 43,xxx miles. Surely that’s a low mile example for this era of motorcycle.

In the photo below you can see step #1 to the process, well step #2. Step 1 was remove the fender that was smooshed against the front tire. All seriousness aside, lets see if the wheel is straight and check the runout on the front brake rotors. You can see the dial indicator afixed to the fork tube and I’ll give the wheel a slow spin to watch the side to side movement of the rim. The brake rotors are close to perfect, but the wheel is showing about .075″ ( That’s 75 thousandths of an inch) in side to side movement. That sounds acceptable to me, but I’ll check the service manual spec.s. For those of you that maybe challenged with these small measurements and their nomenclature that is a little more that 1/16th of an inch of wobble side to side as the tire rolls.

Yes, the manual states maximum runout on the rim should be no more than .080, so we are in spec. well put it back in service and see how it works.

Next we’ll pull the wheel off and see what the forks look like. I think they are gonna be slightly tweaked, but time will tell.

Well the forks are bent. You can see here that they are already stripped out of the triple trees and being disassembled in the shop for repairs. One fork showed about .053″ and the other was about .125″ from being sraight. Since these measurements aren’t too extreme these should be easily straightened. While the tubes are out of the sliders being straightened, we’ll use this time to strip any remaing clearcoat off the aluminum sliders polish them and re-clearcoat them for that fresh from Japan look, and of course new seals and oil will be in order.

How naked can a Goldwing get? This one is getting down there. All the bodywork is off and undergoing prep for paint work. Amazingly, there are only three metal body parts on this bike. The two lids that go on top of the false gas tank and the rear fender. All the other parts are plastic and will require different treatment than just chemical stripper and a quick couople coats of primer.

The cambelt covers (see below) and valve covers are both showing their age and are really beyond being reasonably easy to re-polish. The cam covers are relatively hidden and some paint should do there, but the valve covers on this engine are a very visible focal point and I want those to shine. The valve covers are going to be replaced by new ShowChrome brand replacements.

Below: The fork tubes have been stripped, polished and re-clearcoated in this picture. The four grooves at the top had some pits and imperfections in them so some black enamel in the grooves before the clearcoat went on will help hide a multitude of sins there.

Now THIS is the way to change cam belts on a GoldWing! Strip the front wheel, fender, forks, radiator, fan, crashbars and you can get right to them. For anyone out there who’s questioning what’s going on here, these two cogged rubber belts are what drive the engine’s camshafts. These belts do get old, and they do break and when one breaks you have a MAJOR expense. Because the camshaft stops spinning, but the crank and pistons keep going and will most likely make contact with the valves ( never a good thing.) The heads will need to be removed and bent valves will need to be replaced. If you are lucky, this will be all you need. It could get worse…..

We are going to change these and make sure they are fresh and ready to go for many miles to come.

Having thoroughly asessed the bike we are now ready to make some serious forward progress on this project, but alas we are waiting for parts to arrive. In the mean time we can set the valve clearances. With the engine cold the intake spec is .004″ and the exhaust are set at .005″.

Below you can see a .004″ feeler gauge fitting in between the rocker arm and valve stem while the cam is on the base circle according to the procedure in the manual.

HOLY COW! We got dumped on today. Shipments from all our suppliers arrived on the same day. Below is a picture of some of the goodies that arrived today for the project GoldWing.

Anyone care to guess what’s in this picture above? I see a pretty valve cover, new engine guards (crashbars), two new levers, front brake pads, a rear caliper rebuild kit, a few mystery Honda OEM parts, a new master cyclinder cup, timing belts, and what looks like a set of driver’s floorboards. Sahweet.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t compress this picture down and loose the detail of this photo. I know, I know, Chrome won’t get you home, but Dang! These are beautiful parts and reasonably priced too. I don’t think you could get the old covers rechromed for the cost of these new ones. Now that our parts shipment has arrived we can make some forward progress.

This picture shows the engine being buttoned back up. The timing belts have been replaced and the timing belt covers are sporting their new wrinkle black paint giving a nod to The Motor Company. It’s an unusual choice perhaps, but most of it will be hidden behind the radiator, and hey it’s different.

The original front master cylinder cup had some road abasion on it so I order a new one and in the process of replacing the damaged one this is what I found.This is a detailed photo of the reason you should change your brake fluid according to the manufacturer’s recomendations. Brake fluid is Hygroscopic in nature, meaning it reacts with exposure to water, including moisture in the air it’s exposed to. The end result to all that reacting is what you see before your eyes. I personally don’t like the idea of riding around with gunk like this hidden in my master cylinder, so I like to bleed my brakes annually.

This front fender looks like a total waste of time to me, but in a round about way, Harry Dawson and Ed Ahlf issued a challenge in the form of a veiled insult. They suggested this fender was easily repairable, but since I was a snot nosed punk that didn’t know the value of repairing instead of replacing they felt I would probably just buy a new one. Well I informed them that I would show them how a young punk does body work. It is now, a work - in - progress.

Below are some more new pretty additions to our project. These floorboards are available from Parts Unlimited for $124.95 and should nicely compliment the new Chrome Engine Guards also sourced from Parts Unlimited.

All these pieces below are gonna fit into those two tubes on the bench there, I swear. Now that the tubes are straight and the sliders are polished and freshly clearcoated it’s time to reassemble this collection back into a usable front end. It’s really not a very complicated job, it just takes some patience and finesse.

Told ya all them pieces would fit back in there. Two completed fork assemblies, ready to go back on the bike with new seals and fresh fork oil.

I know the picture below isn’t very clear as to what is happening. It’s isn’t unplanned, it just looks unplanned. With this much of the front end disassembled it doesn’t make much sense to start going back together without cleaning and regreasing the steering stem bearings. I feel much better about this job now. The bearings were quite dry and really needed the new grease. I’m sure it hadn’t been done in 27 years. 27 years!? This bike is 27 years old! That’s a long time to go between greasings. Now we are free and clear to start reassembling the front end and hiding it behind fairings and such.

I don’t really have a good spot to talk about this side project, so since I finished it last night I guess I’ll insert it here. The original seat was badly worn and stained, although to be fair, it wasn’t really torn like some that you see. Travelcade makes a nice series of seat covers for refinishing your older seats on Japanese bikes. They can either be tied on with the supplied drawstring ( I don’t like that option ) or they can be installed like a factory OEM cover by first removing the old vinyl covering and then pop riveting on the new one as per the instructions that are included.

So for way less than $100 you can have a seat that looks like new. I think the results are excellent.

I think the Bates saddlebags that came with this bike may be beyond saving, or at least beyond the kind of time I want to invest in them to refurbish them at this time. However a bike of this caliber needs some storage, so here is a photo of the Vetter trunk midway though the refurbishment process. This photo may not show it, but I think it has cleaned up pretty well. I am having a blast playing with all of this era of cycle parts. I remember when Vetter was the King of touring acessories.

I can’t wait to ride this bike while listening to my old copy of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. Yeah, Baby.

This photo below looks like many that were posted before, but here you can see the forks and wheel are back on, and this time the wheel points where the handlebars are aimed. The radiator, cooling fan, and fairing mount are reinstalled. Two shiny new mirrors, a new master cylinder reservoir, crash bars, driver’s and passenger’s floorboards, chrome valve covers, and new seat covering……….wow.

At this point I am at a loss for what to say. What’s coming next? Well The bodywork needs a bit more tweaking and then some paint and we can do a whole lot of reassembling. Maybe then this project will start to look like a motorcycle again. I think I am happy with the structural integrity of the front fender repair. I applied my fledgling plastic welding skills to join the two halfs of the fender back together. I think it was a sound weld, but for some extra insurance I reinforced the back side of the repair with some fiberglass cloth and epoxy. Living with modern day chemicals is a joy.

Ok, here’s a little side project that has been nagging in the back of my mind. These carbs look horrible. I didn’t know whether to paint them or what. The clearcoat is old and peeling. I certainly don’t want to disassemble them, just to spruce them up. That’s to much work and there’s to much that could go wrong in the process. A diaphram could get torn during disassembly, etc., etc. But they just look horrible.

What to do, What to do? Let’s try this. A small nylon toothbrush and some very, very careful application of paint stripper to the tops of these carbs.

This worked exceedingly well! The clearcoat just melted and I was able to wipe the goo away with a shop towel. A few minutes with some aluminum polish, a rag, and a finger…… They look like new!

As Pauly Jr. would say, “The tins are back from the painter.” even though only the rear fender is metal in this picture, they look great. I can’t wait to put them on and get a glimpse of how it’s going to look. This is a pretty spectacular transformation in my mind. It’s amazing how a little color livens up the look of this bike.

Does everybody remember the front fender that was broken practically in two? Well, I hope it stays together, otherwise this will have been a lot of wasted effort. I plastic welded it back together and then epoxied the back side and finished smoothing over the body work on the outside.

This is a good a spot to mention the paint sponsorship provided for this project by Andy at Carquest in Geneseo, IL. I’ve sprayed a lot paint, but this Cool Vanilla color layed down beautifully and covered extremely well. The Second Dimension paint brand Carquest sells is both economical, and yet provides a high gloss, durable finish. It should hold up to years of salt spray.

A lot has been happening rather quickly here and instead of showing a step by step reassembly process, we’re just going to jump ahead a few shots. No point in showing a picture of every part being bolted back on, one by one.

This bike was originally equipped with a Vetter fairing that would of matched the Vetter trunk nicely, but I think this Pacifico fairing looks more at home on such a white whale. There is a plethora of wiring to be completed now inside the fairing. The trunk will also be getting wired up with the latest power outlets from Powerlet to run accessories. The instrument cluster problem still needs to be resolved. Stay tuned……don’t touch that dial!

 

4/17/2007

OK, this has been a while coming, but Spring has Sprung, and I have gotten to bust to keep up with the poston this project. The small task that have been getting done haven’t been very exciting anyway. Certainly nothing worth taking a photo of anyway.

Moby has made his maiden voyage and had some miles added on top of that. Overall it’s running great.

The first tank of gas yielded better than 40mpg, even in the cold weather.

 

  

Moby is roaming the mean streets.