I have always loved old motorcycles but could never afford a true antique but classic bikes fall into the range I could afford. My first bikes where a Honda 50 and then a Superhawk CB77. I already have a 1962 Honda 50 in the garage awaiting restoration but CB77s seem to be quite rare. While looking for a CB77, I ran into a pair of 1967 Honda Dream CA77 at a reasonable price so I picked them up.
One bike is reasonably complete and the other is a "parts bike".
The immediate objective is to get the red bike running so work started with the fuel tank. The tank is quite rusty inside so it will be cleaned and sealed. It appears to have been leaking and someone did a repair by brazing. It was then over-coated with contact cement so cleaning up the repaired area was a pain. Using a fuel tank sealer will take care of any leaks!
The pet cock was dismantled, cleaned, and repaired. It was quite gummed up and the reserve pickup tube was missing so a replacement part was ordered.
I picked up a KBS tank cleaning and coating kit but when I started preparing the tank I found that it had been previously coated. The coating was either inferior or the preparation insufficient as rust had gotten behind the coating in many places. An application of paint stripper softened the coating but it still required 2 hours of scraping to loosen the old coating (which was like elastic!) Scraping through the filler hole is a P.I.T.A.! With a 12v light bulb inside for light and brass and steel rods bent to creative shapes, progress was slow but noticeable. I also found the spot where the tank had been leaking - a pin hole through the brone repair on the cross-over fitting. We will try to fix that before re-coating the tank.
