The rebirth of a C78 305 Honda Dream

4shorts · Post by **4shorts** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:49 am

Bon to be honest with you I have no time at all but I work early in the mornings before I open my business and I've seen at least eight midnight shifts at this bike in the last two weeks. I actually took yesterday off to do some work on the best but that's not bad considering I haven't had a work day off since last Christmas.

As for your tank. I sealer I used in my tank is really good stuff. If it's only pin holes your dealing with it will seal them no problem at all. If there a little larger than that I would go over them with lead to plug them and let the sealer do it's job after that. Just cap over the opening of the petcock and other holes. JB weld is also good stuff but to me it just seems as a temporary fix but that's only my opinion and I am wrong some times, Just ask my wife!

The high build primer I use is fantastic stuff. I've always used it on all my restoration jobs. With my paint work you'll never see any sand paper scratches in the paint or imperfections because partly of that high build primer and spot putty.

As for clear coats. Well clear coats are used widely in the automotive world and fuel has never removed the clear on them. actually my goldWing is clear coated and I've used gasoline to remove tar from the paint at times so it's a good product to use.

I always use two HVLP guns because if I use one gun for the paint I never have to worry if I get one little spot of paint left in the gun It won't come out into the clear so that's why I use a separate gun just for clear. If it's only used for clear that's all that's in there to come out. I also use a different nozzle for my clear but it's the same gun but you can get by with just one gun and the nozzle that came with it as long as you clean it well after each use.

I also use an old gravity feed gun for my high build primer. Never use your good gun for primer.

I have detailer instructions for the sealer if you need them. let me know and I'll post them for you. Hope this helps you out. Keep asking questions, that's how we all learn this stuff. Paul

Inside of tank!

Bon · Post by **Bon** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:45 am

Paul you're as good with your camera as you are your restorations. Your pictures speak volumes. Technically, I love the pic of the inside of your tank - that ain't easy! Time off? What's that? LOL. I'm fortunate/unfortunate to own two businesses and also have a full time job. I didn't plan it this way but I guess I like being busy. I can identify with your workload.

I've never leaded but I've sure soldered a lot. I'm thinking I'll pick up some lead and give it a try. I'm squeamish about anything less and since the pinholes are on the bottom of the tank I can't go too far wrong. Having no experience with the sealer I really don't know how big a hole is too big so I'll fill them. I'm using KBS Coatings sealer and I got the JB weld idea from them. I think they were thinking the same as you though, as the sealer will fill the pinhole from the inside so the JB Weld only has to keep the sealer from leaking during application.

Great to know the clear coat is gas resistant. Years ago I did a color base and then a two-part epoxy like clear wet-look finish. I was very pleased as I was able to wet sand the base to remove dust and specks before the clear. The two gun approach makes sense and I only have a gravity feed gun so I sense a "tool buying opportunity" that I rarely pass up. I've wanted a HVLP gun for a long time!

4shorts · Post by **4shorts** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:04 am

Bon I appreciate the comment on the photo's. I'm still learning but it's hard to get a full camera down through that fuel hole in the tank Ha! Ha!

If the holes are only pin holes the sealing kit will take care of them but if there larger than pin holes you want to lead them of even fiberglass them. I use a common soldering iron to repair small holes in tanks and it works well. As for buying tools well I spend way to much on them. I even like to make them at times when needed. Just completed a tubing notcher that works great. I may post it on the Off topic section of the board just in case someone out there would like to build one. As for the dream. Well the motor is done and ready to go in. I'm still waiting for items to get back from the replaters and I'm still waiting on my outer rims. Don't work to hard! Paul

Dogsbd · Post by **Dogsbd** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:23 am

Wow, where did you find a new in the crate 305 Dream engine??? ;)

No kidding, that engine looks great. Can't wait to see your completed bike.

EDIT:

4shorts, did you rebuild that engine? If so, do you have pictures of the process? I hate to ask, but that would be another good photo series that you do so well.

4shorts · Post by **4shorts** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:10 pm

Dogsbd wrote:Wow, where did you find a new in the crate 305 Dream engine??? ;)

No kidding, that engine looks great. Can't wait to see your completed bike.

EDIT:

4shorts, did you rebuild that engine? If so, do you have pictures of the process? I hate to ask, but that would be another good photo series that you do so well.

Dogsbd I was fortunate that after I got the bike I spent about an hour on it and it ran perfectly so other than doing the usual tune up stuff and cleaning it all up then refinishing it I had a clean looking engine. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I still have a few grommets I need to install along with the clutch cable but that's no big deal. I'm still looking for a petcock bowl and rear brake shoes and that will be it for the parts I need so the hunt continues! As for the photo's. I take pictures of everything. I've worked at my collection for the last five years and got pictures of each and every project since job one. Down loaded them on my Ipod the other day and there were over 12.000 of them. Glad you liked the pic of the motor. Thanks, Paul

Rookie305 · Post by **Rookie305** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:33 am

Paul,
I would be interested in knowing what you did to make you engine look so good. What chemicals or metal cleaning agents did you use? Did you beadblast or sandblast the engine? Did you end up painting the cover cases, and what color and type of paint did you use? I hate to ask so many questions, but having an engine that looks like that will make the whole bike look a million times better. Also, the upper part of the engine on mine (the part of the engine with the fins?) is so rough looking. Did you sand that part of the engine to smooth it out or anything like that? And what abrasives did you use, such as sandpaper?
-Ryan

4shorts · Post by **4shorts** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:03 pm

Ryan you ask all the questions you want. If I can't answer them someone on here will I'm sure. With regards to the motor when I started to do it I wasn't sure how I was going to do it but decided to do it this way.
Considering all the tiny hard to get at places in and around the motor I decided to bead blast the thing but didn't want to risk getting any sand inside the motor it's self so I put rubber plugs in the intake port and both exhaust ports. On top of that I used RTV sealant around these rubbers to insure there was no possible way to let sand inside. I plugged the upper vent line and anywhere there were seals and shafts I rapped them with rubber and taped them over.

I placed the engine in the cabinet blaster and blasted the complete engine. After removing the engine I inspected it for any flaws such as bad castings and the like. some of which I used a common file or 80 grit sandpaper to take care of. the main body was sprayed with a high temp aluminum colored flat paint that's rated at 1500 degrees and it states that if the produce was sand blasted or bead blasted primer would not be needed. One can did the complete engine with some left over.
If you look at the picture of the engine you'll see there are some parts like small parts of the side cover that look different. well that's because once the engine was painted I again removed those parts and beadblasted them again. I then used etching primer to coat them followed by high build primer and hand sanded again. I then painted those parts with base coat/clear coat to give the engine more detail and it worked. Everyone that came in our shop the last two days thought for sure it was a brand new motor.

If you have any more question feel free to ask. I myself don't know if this is how the pro's do it but it looks good and works good so It's good enough for me. With all the items I have out for replating now and with a cost of almost $700. on the replating alone I didn't want to go to any big expense. Here's a picture of the paint I used. Paul