Honda CBX 250 Restoration

I mentioned in Kerz' CBX 250 thread that I'd start one of my own so here it is.

About 3 weeks ago I picked up this little 1985 CBX 250. It has 50k km on the clock and seemed to be fairly clean. I was also after a cheap little commuter after selling my Triumph Street Triple.


I wasn't planning on doing anything to it, just riding until it died but that obviously didn't last very long. So the restoration begins...

Today I started stripping it down and will drop it off on Monday to get the frame sand blasted and powder coated. Surprisingly the disassembly went fairly smoothly considering it's a 30 year old bike. I didn't have any stripped screws or bolts and didn't need to use any penetrating spray at all.

Clothes off:


You can start to see there was a fair bit of surface corrosion on the frame especially underneath the tank.


I was expecting to find a few surprises after stripping it all down but only found one problem. It has been dropped on it's right side at some point in its life and has broken off a thread that holds a piece of the rear plastic down. Not a big deal.


Almost there. After a lot of stuffing around with the air box, I figured out it only comes out one way. That is backwards after the swingarm has been removed or dropped down.


The only other challenging part was removing the helmet holder. For security reasons I guess there is no head on the bolts holding it to the frame. I had to cut a few slots in the head and use a flat bladed screwdriver to get them out.


All done:


So that's it for today. It took me most of the day as I was taking a lot of photos and making sure I labelled everything as I went along with constant interruptions from my 4 year old wanting to help. This is my first bike restoration so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Still not sure what to do with my front shocks. The chrome up the top is quite pitted with corrosion. Can these be rechromed and restored? Not sure if I can buy new replacements.

I'll keep updating as I clean up the other parts and when I get the frame back from the powder coaters.

 

Started cleaning up a few parts today but didn't make much progress.

Forgot to mention in my previous post that the bike included the original owners manual!
I have scanned this in and added to the resources section for everyones enjoyment. It includes a wiring diagram as well.
http://2fiftycc.com/index.php?resources/1985-honda-cbx-250-owners-manual-w-wiring-diagram.171/

 

First off, thanks very much for the premium membership kiffsta! I'll keeps adding stuff if I come across anything else.

I dropped the frame, swing arm and a couple of other bits off to Robertos in Morningside this morning. http://www.robertoscustompowder.com.au/
Bit more expensive than the other guys but his work is top notch. Plus he plugs up all the threads and does all the other time consuming prep work. Everything is going to be done in satin black.

Playing around with colours while waiting for everything to come back. Any suggestions?

 

Due to the show holiday in Brisvegas I managed to get quite a few parts cleaned up yesterday. It's quite a long process wire brushing and spraying every single bracket and metal part in black but hopefully will be worth the effort.

The paint doesn't look too bad in the photos I've posted but there are cracks and corrosion showing on the tank which is the main reason I want to get it resprayed. I could just get it redone in white but I've decided to go with Taxi Yellow mainly because I work in the taxi industry and can get it done for very cheap.

Just in the process of recreating the decals so I can print them off on the decal printer at work. This gives me the ability to change the colour of them as well but the red decals over the taxi yellow doesn't look too bad. I could also do a custom Repsol livery as taxi yellow seems to be pretty close to the Repsol orange.

 

So glad it was a fine, sunny day. I've sanded all the fairings back and coated them in the first coat of primer. Planning on sanding back and doing another coat tomorrow.




I used paint stripper on the tank and while it got most of the paint off it was probably the most labour intensive piece to strip back. That stuff is nasty. There was only a small amount of corrosion on it and inside looks brand new. There is a small ball bearing rolling around in the tank though... need to get a telescopic magnet and get it out.




Unfortunately I couldn't peel the decals off as they were under a clear coat and just broke off in pieces. I'll have to recreate them from photos.

 

Really bad photo warning, but everything is now Taxi Yellow (orange).



It's a lot more 'orange' than the photo makes it look. Was getting reflections off a white car next to me.

In hindsight I should have spent a few more hours doing another layer of primer and sanding but overall it's not bad for my first paint job. I'm not too disappointed as the paint was free and when I redo the decals they should cover up the minor imperfections.

Just waiting for the frame to be finished (hopefully by the end of the week) then I can start the fun process of putting everything back together!

 

Here's a slightly better photo that shows the colour.



Also managed to track down whatever was rattling around in the fuel tank. I thought it was a ball bearing but after I fished it out with a magnet I'm not sure. Some small tab that has broken off something. It's flat and has a criss-cross texture on the back.

 

Thanks guys. I'm really looking forward to getting the frame back but kind of dreading it at the same time.

Hopefully I've labelled everything and taken enough photos to get it back together again.

Definitely going to be on the next Brisbane ride!