Restoration of Sandcast #97

[Riccardo]

Mark: I would not remove the three punch marks as they are part of the history of the bike indicating service bulletins have been complied with on this particular vin. Marty K.   

I agree!

[cb7504]

It was pretty easy to differentiate between the two from the out side view, with the original sandcast one on the right. Marty K. 

[markb]

Most of you have probably seen these pics in another thread but I added it here to keep this thread complete.  After removing the chain guard damage I noticed chain damage on the outside of the four posts.  I was worried I wouldn’t be able to save it.


But I got out the sandpaper and started with the worst one first and fortunately it’s going to clean up just fine.

[Ferenz62]

Dear MarkB,
this is Tom from Gemany. I have been watching your fantastic threads for so long, and finally became member of the sandcast forum.
First there should be some introduction of myself, but what I am going to do... later. If somebody has some interrest in what my bikes are, check
my youtube posts: Ferenz1111 or visit my CB calendar homepage www.cbfour-kalender.de .
As well I am watching eBay and craiglist to get my personal sandcast from there, but the time has not come yet to get the right one for me.
However, some weeks ago, a guy sold a CB K0 at ebay, and one guy asked him questions and mentioned he was as a 16 year old boy owner of
sandcast no. 1000097. I made contact to the seller and he gave me the emailadress of the first owner, which is dkpmoto@gmail.com
Maybe you already know this, but if not I would be glad to reunite your fantastic restoration with the first owner of no.1000097.
Very best regards from Germany,
Four fourever, Tom .

[markb]

Hi Tom,
First off thanks for the compliment and welcome to the board.  I actually did see that auction and contacted the seller to get the email too.  However, it wasn't until I saw your post that I actually got around to emailing him.  So far I haven't heard back from him but I'm hoping.  I'll share any interesting info I get.
Mark 

[Ferenz62]

Hi Mark,

great to hear that. Hope for your next posts, to see the restoration growing.
This week,  hopefully I will get the new and improved gauges covers from Lecram,
Marcel den Butter. soon I got them I will report about it.

Four fourever,
Tom from Germany.   

[markb]

I got a reply.  Turns out the engine number was 1000097.  The frame was 1000106.  Still interesting, it was worth checking out.

[markb]

I'm still working on my aluminum parts and I have a couple of questions.

Has anyone observed that the original polishing on wheel hubs, rear flange and rear brake panel is shinier than the engine covers or are they the same?  Did the original finish still have that brushed look?

Are the surfaces of the later sandcast covers nicer than the early ones?  My alternator cover and transmission covers seem to have a lot of pitting, similar to but not as much as my oil filter cover.  They show up more now that I'm getting a polish on them.

Last one, what have you guys used to remove old clear coat?  I used Aircraft Remover on my rear flange but the areas between the "spokes" is still yellowed and I'm wondering if it's old clear coat or what.  The remover seems to have taken the clear coat off everywhere else.

[Marcello Tha]

I can not wait to see new posts on this restoration.

[markb]

You shouldn't have to wait much longer.  My boating and fishing season is about over and I plan to get back on it soon.   

[markb]

Well I can say that I'm officially back at it.  I had to read my own thread to try to figure out where I am.    I really should be finishing up my covers.  They're about 90% done.  But you know how that goes.  The last 10% will take 50% of the time.  I need to get psyched up for that but I wanted to start doing something.

So I saw where I had plastigaged my mains but I never got around to the rods.  I noted that I had used yellow-green-yellow-green-yellow.  I double-checked that against my notes and the charts and it seems like what I really need is green-yellow-green-yellow-green.  Maybe I just wrote it down wrong and I don't know why but I didn't leave the bearings in the cases so I really don't know where I'm at.  Besides, whatever I did put me at the high limit and was considering going up one size anyway.  So I am going to order some browns and use the greens and order some blacks for the rods and redo everything.

I notice that the newer main bearings have two extra holes in them.  Anyone know the purpose of this?  I'd like to find some early style but I'm not sure it's worth it.  I think I'm softening on my requirements for "correct".  Also does anyone know a good source where I can buy them for less than $10 each?

I had some questions about polishing from a couple of posts ago.  Any thoughts?  By the way, I did find something that removed the yellowing, a mild solution of phosphoric acid.

[markb]

I plastigaged my rods.  I decided to buy 1 pair of browns and check all four rods with them.  Three of them came in around .0018” and the journal that I had reground was .0015”.  The good news was none of them were tapered.  Since .0018” is on the high limit I’m going to order blacks for the three bigger ones and stay with the browns on the last one.  I ordered the browns for the mains but didn’t have time to do them yet.

[markb]

I finished plastigaging my crank.  I ended up with black-black-black-brown on the rods and brown-green-brown-green-brown on the mains.  Everything was less than .0018 and most were close to .0015.  While I was at it I finally put the setscrew plugs in the oil paths before I forget.  They are an M6.0 x 10 cup point.  If anyone needs some let me know.  I have plenty. 


Here’s the rods assembled on the crank.  They felt real good.  And it’s nice to have something put together.

[greggo325]

Looks great Mark!  Are you hoping to be finished by the spring?

[markb]

Yes, that is my goal.  We'll se what other snags I run into and hopefully work won't be as crazy as last winter.