76 Cafe "Triple 9"

[Norbert R]

I was pretty pleased with the way the switches came out too. Are you referring to the Bolts on the Clip-Ons? I had planned on replacing those bolts along with a bunch of others. It would be nice to get some shcs's in there. I might take your advice and polish those bolts. I hate seeing the gold color.

The crank case breather I bought is Just an aftermarket crank case breather. It runs straight into the crank case. I ran the overflow from the coolant bottle straight to the back of the bike (I think that was the other tube that fed into the stock breather, It's been a while since I made that modification). I'm sure it's not good for the environment, but it works for me.

thanks for the reply - stock breather had an inlet from the crank case, an outlet on top that fed fumes back into the air box, and another outlet at the bottom for condensed oil that was discharged to the ground (that's why I was asking about any need for an outlet, but I like your setup, would like to copy that - you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ! ) Stock coolant overflow also out back onto the round

[Devo26]

I read that you can get some oil coming out of the crank case breather, so I ran the hose long and under the carbs. There is a downward slope from the filter to the crank case so I'm hoping I never have an issue. So far so good. I forgot that the breather vented into the air box. I cut out my air box early on along with all of the other unnecessary weight. I saved all of the bags, fairing, stock rusty muffler, crash bars and other items I stripped off the bike. Before I took it all to the salvage yard, I weighed it all and got a whoppin 130 lbs. No wonder the bike felt so sluggish the first time I rode it.

[Devo26]

Sorry I have been so slow moving on with the write up.

After I received the carb kit from Randakk I got to tearing apart the carbs. I followed the carb rebuild write up from this site and it all went pretty smooth. I broke one of the screws when I was splitting the two halves. I thought it was going to be a pain to get out, but all it took was a set of vice grips.

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Lots of dirt and grime, and one of my float valves was rattling around loose.

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Got it all back together and set the first half next to the other half for comparison.

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[chewy]

nice job!, i will curse you though, cause now i wanna pull my tank and chop it up like yours...lol

[thunderchild]

Thank you all for the kind remarks! I spent a lot of time on this site looking at other builds and finding answers to technical questions. There is a good chance that something you posted either helped me or influenced me in some way so thanks again!

I am going to attempt a write up, there are some things missing because I either lost the pictures or was too filthy to run inside and grab a camera. Anyways here it goes.

I'll start with the photo that inspired me to buy a Gold Wing. I'm not sure if this person is a member of NGW, if so good work!

black and gold goldwing cafe.jpg

I have one word for you. Outstanding!!

Yes I'm a member. Mine has had some upgrades sense then.
http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 1&start=15

[Devo26]

nice job!, i will curse you though, cause now i wanna pull my tank and chop it up like yours...lol

Do it! I think that is one of my favorite modifications. It makes the bike look so much lighter. The Petcock location is slightly less convenient, and I lost about a half a gallon, but I think it was worth it.

Here is the best picture I have of the new fuel pickup setup. The reserve works now, it didn't before (Clogged line).

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[Devo26]

I have one word for you. Outstanding!!

Yes I'm a member. Mine has had some upgrades sense then.
http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 1&start=15

Looking sweet! I like the new wheels!

[81GL1100CRfor2]

Love what you did to the faux tank. Your GL looks super clean nice job! Any chance you'd make and sell those side covers?

[Topwingnut]

Great build ... If you had to guess , how many hours would you say you have in the aluminum polishing ?

[jimmyz3286]

I just reread this thread mainly looking at the details. I am making custom clip-ons, did you make these or purchase these. I am making mine from a wrecked 83 lower tree.

[chewy]

Here is the best picture I have of the new fuel pickup setup. The reserve works now, it didn't before (Clogged line).

so, are the pickup tubes just open in the tank? now i'm interested. any more pics?

[BrainsB4Beauty]

Wow, what a gorgeous piece of artwork you have there! I, like you, love a buffing wheel. I will be using it quite a lot on this build when I start. Can you please give more detail about how you have your bars configured? I see clip ons, but I got a little lost in what you did to the triple tree and what sort of clip ons these are...

[Devo26]

Love what you did to the faux tank. Your GL looks super clean nice job! Any chance you'd make and sell those side covers?

My original plan was to make at least two sets. I planned on making a mold from my plug then creating the covers from that mold. The paint/Primer I used on my plug ended up screwing me over. I prepped my Plug by priming, sanding and buffing the paint/primer. I then waxed it twice with mold wax and wiped off the wax until it was shiny. I then sprayed it with PVA mold release. From what I've read those are the steps necessary to get a clean mold, but when I pulled the fiberglass from my plug, the paint stuck pretty bad. Needless to say my mold wasn't perfect enough to make parts from and I didn't want to start over so I used my molds as the panels.

Here is the picture of my shiny plug. At this point I thought things were going great.

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And here is the plug after I pulled the panels. All of that paint came off and ruined the mold. I was pretty bummed.

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Bottom line is that it took way too long so if I did make and sell these things I'd make around $0.50/hr. I do still have the plug however...

[Devo26]

Great build ... If you had to guess , how many hours would you say you have in the aluminum polishing ?

I learned a lot from trial and error, so I'm a lot quicker now. But if I had to guess I would say around 20hrs? I read all over the internet that you shouldn't bead blast aluminum if you want to polish it, but I got brave when I did my controls and bead blasted the greenish paint off of them with fine glass bead. I then hit them with 600 grit sandpaper, then the red paste on the polishing wheel followed by the white. It took me half the time and they had a better finish than some of my other parts. Some of you might disagree with me, but I think that the glass bead beats using paint stripper and a progression of sandpaper any day.

Paint Stripper is fun to watch however...

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[Devo26]

I just reread this thread mainly looking at the details. I am making custom clip-ons, did you make these or purchase these. I am making mine from a wrecked 83 lower tree.

I bought mine from Partsnmore http://www.partsnmore.com/parts/honda/g ... rs[page]=2
I would like to make some eventually, but these work nicely.

Wow, what a gorgeous piece of artwork you have there! I, like you, love a buffing wheel. I will be using it quite a lot on this build when I start. Can you please give more detail about how you have your bars configured? I see clip ons, but I got a little lost in what you did to the triple tree and what sort of clip ons these are...

I cut the handlebar mounts off my stock triple tree with a hack saw and then ground them down with a flap wheel on my angle grinder until I thought I was close to breaking through (they are cast and are hollow underneath the handlebar mounts). I then sanded them down smooth, then bead blasted and polished them. I opened up the gauge mounting holes to receive the choke and a green light (the green light is a filler, I still haven't decided what to hook it up to, any ideas?) The stock ignition wasn't going to work with the scheme so I found this barrel key at an electronics store. I like it because the key can be removed in the on position so my keychain doesn't scratch up my shiny triple

My stock master cylinder hit the fork tube with the new clip-ons so I found the one I have on ebay and gave the top cover the polish treatment.

Here is a picture that might make it a little more clear.

20130614_105145 Paint.jpg