New lease on life for an old Honda

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JSBail
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#16

Post by JSBail »

Well my wife's first ride on the 350 on Friday was to say the least down right scary and its all my fault, I should've never ever let her take the bike on the road until she was comfortable with the very basics like starting and stopping. We've got blue tooth intercoms for our helmets so I was able to coach her and keep her calm while I followed her on my bike but those first 2 laps down the road were just plain scary which put her in a sweat and heart racing (me too) so I had her park it. An experience like that would've probably scared the daylights out of any other beginner rider but my wife wanted to get back on and try it again a 1/2 hour later ...... but I said no and decided to wait till Saturday. Our boys had no problems with their first motorcycle rides and I assumed the same would be for my wife however it never dawned on me that our boys went from mini bikes to mopeds some dirt bikes to motorcycles so it was a natural progression for them. My wife on the other hand had zero previous experience on any motorized 2 wheeled vehicle, the only thing she had going for her was that she knew how to operate a manual trans. On Saturday though I found a big parking lot nearby where she could practice all she wanted, our youngest son even stopped by to help out and my wife made HUGE improvements and getting confident just not enough to let her on the road just yet. I could kick myself for not taking her to the parking lot first because Friday could've ended really bad. My wife says we can't afford the motorcycle safety training course but I say BS and am insisting on it now.

The only good thing about it all is that the 350 fits her perfect and ran flawlessly so my wife was able to focus on her riding.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#17

Post by Track T 2411 »

Whew! Glad it turned out OK. The safety course is money well spent, IMHO. Some things you just can't skimp on...
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#18

Post by HOTT »

Nice Job tumb2
Growing up on the east coast,
That was such a great bike in its day.

HOTT
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#19

Post by avg_joe »

I found this site when I was getting ready to teach my wife to ride...
https://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/
Lots of really good information, explained in a way that is easy to understand. Also has some very good exercises to practice on in that parking lot. I went to a sporting goods store, and picked up a dozen small cones, and went to a new street in town, that didn't have any houses on it yet. We had the street to ourselves, and marked out exercises and practiced.
I have to make it a point to set up practice areas, and devote some time for my wife to brush up on the '2 wheel feel'. I find opportunities in my running around to practice my slow maneuvering, but when her and I ride, we generally pick a destination, and go. And she doesn't usually just grab a bike to go bomb around for a while, so she doesn't find those opportunities.

Having her read through that site I mentioned helped her gain a better understanding than she would have with just my explanations. She also went through the safety course, and got licensed through the course. She said the course was worth the experience.
It's nice to have a riding partner....do everything possible to keep her alive, and riding with confidence.
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#20

Post by JSBail »

avg_joe wrote:I found this site when I was getting ready to teach my wife to ride...
https://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/
Thanks for the link, I'll bookmark it for to read later. I took her out to a parking lot again yesterday with even more improvements, her confidence is building and she's becoming more relaxed and enjoying it. One of her biggest problems at first was starting and turning at the same time as in turning right at a stop sign and being able to stay in her lane the whole time she's doing it, she's made definite improvements on that. She was also initially using only the front brake but yesterday I had her using the rear brake in conjunction with the front, I had made the mistake of telling her how easy it is to lock up the rear brake under heavy braking so she was spooked at using the rear brake at all. I'm so glad we nixed the idea of purchasing our sons 73 cb750 and using it as her first bike because it would've been miserable for her. As cool as the old 750's are (at least they're cool to me :) ) the sheer weight of the 750 plus its top heaviness would've been a really poor choice for an absolute beginner rider of my wife's size.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#21

Post by JSBail »

Aw rats, the 350 is parked for now. It started to run a bit ragged yesterday and I took a look inside the gas tank and it's got all kinds of crud inside. I initially thought the tank was in decent shape but a PO had coated the inside with Kreem and now that it's being used again that Kreem coating is falling to pieces with a lot of rust underneath where the Kreem was. I can save it but I sure wish I'd known about it before I painted the tank. Bummer.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#22

Post by Track T 2411 »

Yeah, that sucks! What do you use to remove the Kreem?
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
New2U Bike? Read Me.
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robin1731
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#23

Post by robin1731 »

Track T 2411 wrote:Yeah, that sucks! What do you use to remove the Kreem?
Acetone should work.

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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#24

Post by JSBail »

Acetone seemed to be the #1 pick of solvents to use and I also read where some will throw in a handful of BB's/pellets or short drywall screws too, I had both some pellets and short drywall screws so I threw a handful of both inside along with about a half gallon of acetone. Bit of advice, if you're going to toss in pellets or drywall screws then do it before you put the acetone to avoid splashing on your paint. I had already removed the petcock and had everything capped then before I closed the gas cap I placed a piece of plastic from a ziplock freezer bag between the cap and tank to prevent any acetone from coming out the caps breather and started to shake shake shake while slowly turning tank around so acetone and screws could contact as much surface area inside, wait about 15/20 mins and shake some more and did this over and over every 15/20 mins. Yeah I was apprehensive the first time I flipped tank upside down hoping nothing would come out of the gas cap. :shock: I let it set overnight then this morning shook it some more then drained it.

The end result? Well I still have to rinse it out with some fresh acetone but the acetone did do a very effective job of dissolving the Kreem. Once I'm done rinsing with fresh acetone and get all the screws/pellets out and let tank dry out then next step will be filling tank up with white vinegar to do something about the rust. In the meantime I've ordered a POR 15 gas tank sealer kit to hopefully prevent any more rust in the future.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#25

Post by eades473 »

Check out the electrolysis method of cleaning the tank, its somewhere on this site. I did it with my gold wing tank over about a week. Had to change the bolt used as the electrode every day but that was cheap compared to other options.
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#26

Post by Track T 2411 »

Sounds like it turned out pretty well. IIRC, one of the POR 15 kits includes a de-rusting agent, but I could be wrong. I've done both the vinegar and muriatic acid treatment. I liked the acid better, but the tank was unpainted at the time. I think the vinegar takes longer, as well.
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
New2U Bike? Read Me.
JSBail
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#27

Post by JSBail »

I've tried the electrolysis method on a cb550 tank years ago and it worked pretty good and just for kicks tried vinegar in a 750 tank later on and it too worked pretty good and I tend to prefer the vinegar because it's so easy. Yeah I know it takes it bit longer but the POR 15 wont be here till sometime next week anyhow. Having the pellets and drywall screws agitating around inside the tank did a decent job at loosening all the loose rust and doesn't look all that bad now that everything is drained out so it shouldn't take too long for the vinegar to take care of what rust remains.

Another tip to consider, if you have a choice between BB's or pellets choose the BB's because you can easily retrieve them with a magnet. I had no problem fishing out all the drywall screws with a magnet but I'm going to need to flip the tank upside down and shake out the lead pellets.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#28

Post by JSBail »

Oh and as far as the POR 15 kit is concerned as far as I know they have 2 available. 1 kit gives you a degreaser solvent, then a metal prep solvent which also helps get rid of any rust and then of course the sealer itself. The 2nd kit gives the same as the 1st but also has a can of stripper as well to get rid of any previous sealer in the tank. I ordered the 1st kit being I've already taken care of the Kreem and I might be over doing it using vinegar being the kit has its own metal prep but this is the first time I've tried the POR 15 kit so I don't know how well the kits metal prep will deal with the rust so I'm just making sure I get rid as much of it as I can.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#29

Post by JSBail »

I finally got around to using the POR 15 in the tank yesterday, I had let it set with vinegar all week but oddly enough the vinegar didn't do a thing. I've had success with vinegar before but that was on tanks that hadn't been previously coated so my only guess is that the tank still had some residual Kreem on its surface so before I started with the POR 15 kit I rinsed it out again with acetone. Once I was done using the degreaser and then finally the metal prep that comes with the kit the tank was pretty much rust free inside, the majority of my time was spent rinsing the tank out between steps and then the fun part of getting the tank absolutely dry inside before pouring in the POR 15. Preparation is key to any tank liner and making sure the inside of the tank was dry is essential because the instructions made it clear that in order for the POR 15 to adhere properly the inside had to be bone dry, no skimping allowed and that was a bit of a problem because the gas cap on this tank is off center a bit so I only had a clear view of the right side of the tank so all I could do was aim the hair blow dryer I was using in all directions and hope the left side was dry. The good news is that I was able to accomplish all this without ruining the paint on the tank, the bad news is that it's going to take a minimum of 96 hrs (4 days) for the POR 15 to dry enough before putting gas back in the tank and that has my wife bummed because she was hoping to rife the bike again this weekend.
Scott
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Re: New lease on life for an old Honda

#30

Post by JSBail »

After giving the POR 15 sufficient time to dry I got the bike back together on Wednesday and took it for a test ride and it ran horrible, it felt like it was starving for fuel and a quick look at the spark plugs confirmed it. I assumed the carbs had sucked up some junk prior to me cleaning the tank out but the carbs actually looked pretty clean so I decided to take a closer look at the petcock even though I cleaned it out before mounting it back on the tank and that's when the problem revealed itself. As I was draining the tank it was hardly draining at all so I opened the gas cap and viola, the problem was a plugged gas cap vent. While coating the tank with the POR 15 I also took the gas cap apart, cleaned it up and brushed some POR 15 on it as well but didn't clear out the vent hole after it dried, I took care of that and the bike runs great now. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here today so I imagine my wife and I will be doing plenty of riding today.
Scott
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