After 4 hours of scrubbing with harsh degreaser and AlumiBrite, the engine is now sitting at a pleasantly dull raw aluminum state. I've changed my plans for engine color from "black case/polished side covers" to "dull raw case/textured black sidecovers". I'm trying to keep the polished components to a bare minimum. Fork lowers will be very lightly polished, almost a brushed finish, as well as the upper triple clamp. I'm getting excited as I get close to reassembly! I just got my gasket set today, and now I'm just waiting on my allen bolt kit (the cb/cl/sl350 came with phillips bolts on the sidecovers ), then I can start painting the engine components and get an idea of what it'll look like. Also waiting on my new fork seals so I can rebuild my forks.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

So I got alot of painting done today, and also polished and rebuilt my forks. Well, one of my forks, I fucked up a seal so I had to order another pair, the other one is in though. I don't want to talk about it. Sorry I don't have any pics of the painted pieces, I'll take some next time I work on the bike (probably sunday). The VHT krinkle paint works really really well, the parts look awesome. Just painted a few tidbits today, sunday I'll paint the rest up. Still have to paint sidecovers, skidplate, and the kickstart arm, oh yeah, and the frame. The kid who was going to sandblast my frame for me seems to have changed his mind, so I'm prolly going to have to pony up and take it to a shop.

Anyway, here's some pics of the fork lowers.







Didn't want a mirror finish, I was pleasantly surprised when I cleaned the compound off that they were pretty much exactly how I wanted them! More pics to come.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

really enjoy seeing all the work you are doing to the bike keep it up!!

pete

I ended up helping my brother paint his house on sunday, so I'm a bit behind, but here's and update.

Finished up all the welding on my frame, unfortunately. I am not a good welder, I wouldn't even say I'm a decent welder, so don't laugh!! I should have it atleast primered by tomorrow night, but hopefully I'll get as far as throwing a coat of paint on there. Here's some pics, more soon.

My wife took some pics while I was welding/grinding.




I really really like this paint. Tough as nails! The pictures really don't do it justice, this shit is great!!

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

The frame looks awesome! I'll take some pics on Sunday after it treats a little more. It'll need to sit for atleast a week to get a tight wrinkle finish like my triple tree, but it's going to look great when it's done! If its treated, I should have a roller together by Wednesday, Sunday at the latest if it's still gummy on Wednesday. I'm stoked to see what it looks like!

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Got some work done today. Put the front end all together with my new conical bearings, much nicer and less headache than the ball bearings! Also threw the swinger on and painted up the rest of the parts, including the engine sidecovers. Should be putting the rest of it together soon, I just need to wait for the paint to cure now, again, lol. Frame isn't quite cured yet, but I managed to put it together without fucking it up too bad . More pics when more is done!







Goes on like this, but starts to wrinkle after about an hour. Wrinkles get tighter and tighter over about a 2 week period. Looooooong wait.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Been bored waiting for paint to dry, so I went out and polished my headlight bucket, and put the clipons in place. Then I sat on it and made vroom vrooms for about an hour. Here's a pic!

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Admittedly I haven't touched this thing in a few days, but I have an excuse, albeit a half assed excuse. I was throwing it together and noticed the upper triple clamp (the 2nd one I've bought) has a small crack in it. I can't for the life of me find an upper triple that is not fucking cracked, so I got all depressed over it and there the bike sits. I finally nutted up and bought a billet triple from bullitcustomcycle.com. $150, but i've spend nearly that buying broken triple trees, so I'd rather pay the extra $ for a triple that I know is not broken, and is likely not to break either. Oh well, here's a picture of my shame...

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Got my engine in today finally. I decided to throw my sidecovers on after I install the motor to avoid scratching them to shit. Should be happening tomorrow. Here's some pics for now.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Got my new upper triple clamp in the mail today finally! Looks good, I kinda wish it didn't have the Bullit logo engraved into it, but that's ok. It fits really well and and looks good on the bike. It kind of sucks that it increases the distance between the upper fork clamps and the lower clamps by about an inch, so it kinda spaced all my stuff out up there. I'm prolly the only person anal enough to be bothered by it, so I'll just have to live with it, lol. Other than those little irks, it's a well built part for not a ridiculous amount of money (but still a bit pricey), and it looks much much sturdier than the stock unit. Plus, it's not cracked, so that's a plus. My old speedo bracket for the OEM upper did not work with this, but luckily there are two pairs of tapped holes in these things for brackets, so I made a new one really quick and it actually looks alot better than the other one I made, lol.

I had been planning on putting my sidecovers on this week, but in true anal/OCD fashion, I had to touch up the paint on them. Needless to say, I fucked them up, and had to strip them down to bare metal and reshoot them. Hopefully they'll go on this weekend and I can start wiring. Not excited.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

Got alot of it thrown together today. Still need to do little things like run vacuum and fuel lines, install the coils, etc. Then I need to wire it up and ride it. More pics when it get's there!

Sorry for the watermark, using my wife's work computer and I don't know how to stop Lightroom from adding it, lol.

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

nice build up really enjoy this thread.

almost makes me wanna dig out my cb500t.

Thanks man!

Well, I got my bracket for my coils finished, and got decided to throw this thing the rest of the way together when I noticed there were 2 small cracks along some welds on my gas tank. Long story short, it leaks, alot. It is getting welded up by a friend of mine since I don't trust myself to weld on my gas tank, but in the meantime, I should start wiring. Anyway, there's my weekly update

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

is this bike on the road now?

Pete

I wish. I'm having problems with my points ignition. I was in the middle of troubleshooting when it started getting very cold and wet up here in the beutiful coastal pacific northwest, lol. That coupled with this being the busy season at work has twindled my motivation down to nothing. But Don't worry!! I'm going to start back up on it next month and start riding it. I'll take some finished pics when I do and update

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

this is helping me with my motivation to work on my 1971 r5. i liked your build very much.
im also curious what forums you go to for some info for the cafe style biks?