busy busy but ended up riveting on a new tab for the sake of ease, needs shaped a little, didn't realise the original tab was riveted on. the bottom and top of the rad aren't actually part of the core they're just framing for the fins. you can see the old rivet below the new bit. didn't drill that out for the sake of keeping potential mess limited.



yeah if you look at the bottom part here you see its much thinner and its kinked at the ends, theres no way coolant can channel through that. obviously the thinner horizontal channels are the core. radiator structure isn't something I've paid any attention to before but its quite interesting how it actually works.



theres a bit of fin damage on the go with mine so I'm going to get a wee screwdriver, no thicker than the pointed end of the fin and run it through towards the point. apparently thats the easiest way to straighten them out without causing any damage. then its a matter of stripping and painting it. the fan shroud seems sturdy enough but i may have to replace small sections yet. i'll make a new shroud up if it comes to it. going to take a flap wheel it it to knock all the crap off. take the fan motor apart for a wee service as well even though its spinning smoothly as is.

 

// few weeks back i finished up on the rad, haven't posted it yet so here goes.




yeah so finished cleaning the thing up, straightened out the fins i could and gave it a blast with some matte high temp paint.



can't say i was too fond of the finish.



the same evening i painted and sorted mines i found a local guy selling a radiator so, popped along, ended up picking it up as it wasn't dented and the fan was in better condition than mine, really cheap as well.



so gave it a clean up and went to straighten out the fins damage on the new one to find that the fins just disintegrated when you touched them, so theres not much i could do to tidy it up although granted, it could be hidden by a guard which i will be making at some point.



even the backside had taken a fair bit of fin damage whilst in storage, so i kind of just opted to use the one id already just painted but at least I've got a spare thats not dented.



the quick repair job that i did on my old fan shroud, bit of steel, bent it to shape and riveted it together, still needed to trim it down here.



although i had already repaired mine and it was decent enough, the general health of this new one was much better so i cut the worst of the decay seen here off, rubbed all the rust off and got it painted up.



after not being too happy with the matte finish, may have attacked the rad with gloss.



looks much cleaner i reckon, even helps disguise the dent in the side.

//

went to fit the radiator back on before realising that I've got the brackets off to get sandblasted with a pile of other bits before powder coating them.

should hopefully be sandblasting them this weekend and powder coated wednesday should everything go to plan.

//

received the new connector blocks I'll be using, plastic push rivets for the r1 undertail and the tygon tubing for the rear reservoir delete, apparently deleting the front isn't advisable so at least I've got enough tygon to do both the cbr and ace rears.

on the wire front I've not had much luck at all, spoken to electricians of various ilk and come up dry. completely decided that I'm going to recolour code the wires i can't get a hold of and document it thoroughly haha well at least i know what everything is got some wire sitting that came from a friend, just need to go organise what else need to be ordered up.

using tinned copper for some extra corrosion resistance, going to be sealing up the connector blocks with heat shrink and filling them with dielectric grease as well. main loom is going to be spiral wrapped rather than taped with kevlar over braid for any bits that may be prone to rubbing. generally speaking it should be a much more effective and modular system that the cbr ends up with, a bit of overkill but basically a race loom with lights wired in. need a special tool, for the pins in the icm block apparently but i think I've managed to get my hands on one. using most of the old connector blocks for the sake of cost however i had considered using sealed blocks all round.

just kind of funny how i could have replaced that one goddamn unaltered y/b wire and had the ****er running about problem free, still could do that to be fair but I've committed to something i've always wanted to to do and i kind of need to see through.

other than that I've just been spending my time keeping the ace' roadworthy, tyres, servicing and whatnot.

//

 

Wire.

------------------------------------------
roughly:

Indicators – 0.65mm2 or lower

General wiring 1.0 - 2mm2

Headlight / petrol pump 2.0mm2

Charging system 3.0mm2+


0.50mm2 - 3A
0.75mm2 - 6A
1.00mm2 - 8.75A


--------------------------------------------

initial visual observations based on just colour and size / notes.
had this typed up anyway, thought id post it. just lists what colours the f3 uses, and any wire of larger gauge.

Black //
Black - << have 0.25mm2 / 2.5mm2 / 2mm2
White -
Blue <<?
Brown <<?
Red -

Larger black blue, black, black / red, black / brown

Brown //
Larger Brown - <<have 1.3mm2

Red //
Yellow << br/bl/wh?
Black –
<< have red 1.3mm2 / 0.5mm2
Larger red, red/white


Orange //
Orange - <<have 1.3mm2
Black << ?

Yellow//
Yellow - <<have 1.3mm2
Red -
Green <<?
Blue <<?
Black -

Green //
Green -
Yellow -
White -
Black -
Blue <<?
Red -

Light green //
Light green - << have 0.5mm2
Red <<?
Blue <<?

Blue //
Green -
Yellow -
Red -
White –

Larger blue / orange <<?

Light blue //
Light blue/brown <<? << Have 1.3 & 0.5mm2 LB
Black <<?

Grey //
Grey

White //
White - have 1.3mm2 / 0.5mm2
Yellow <<?
Blue <<?

Pink//
Pink
Green <<?

----------------
key

15 colours that are a dick to get a hold of signified by <<? above.

Yellow//
signifies the main colour

Yellow//
Red
signifies yellow with a red tracer

-
signifies common colour and easy to get ahold of.
------------------

easy enough obscure colours to get a hold of so that its obvious that its not oem coding.

Purple, purple/yellow purple/white <<3

Brown/blue brown/white brown/red brown/yellow <<4

going to struggle to make up 15 out of place colours.

for the record, tinned copper is expensive! and colours are limited. using regular copper wire instead

 

yeah managed to get use of the blaster tonight so i finally got all the little bits an pieces ready for powder coating.



heres all the big bits anyway, all the springs and bolts lucky enough to be present got blasted as well. took about 2 hours, first time using one, quite good fun.



plan for the rearsets is to powdercoat them black so that all the area in behind where they are prone to furring up with corrosion and dirt stays nice and fresh but also to polish the main contact areas so that the coating doesn't fade and scratch off eventually.



//



top yoke looking nice and smooth, same again i think the plan is to mask prior to powdercoating so that i can polish the top surface up leaving the edges black.



picked up some hong kong special pegs as well, pretty tidy looking things, wee bit lighter than the chunky oem ones.



all the dimensions are spot on as well, unusual! haha definitely modified a couple of pegs to fit in the past :P anyway these fit f1-f4i and a dozen other hondas.



size comparison.



pile of molex type blocks in the background, 2/4/6 blocks. got a 5pin sealed connector just for the R/R, sorting a potential weak spot, resistance caused by corrosion and whatnot causes the plugs to melt and R/Rs to get hot and fail as anyone who's ever owned a honda knows haha. already have a k5 gsxr1000 R/R thermal pasted on for overkill.

//

well should be getting those bits powder coated on wednesday coming! & still gathering wire. going to get a new speedo bracket made up during the week as well.

 

Ever thought about hardwiring your R/R?

 

yeah dude, initially that was the plan when i upgraded it to the k5 1000 unit, slapped some crimps on it to get it working but never got round to hardwiring it haha. thing is that I'm prone to pulling things apart for cleaning, servicing and general curiosity but hard wiring inconveniences that. for example i would have had to cut it out when i pulled the loom. kind of think the sealed block is a nice middle ground.

 

//

didn't manage to get bits powdercoated on wedesday, shed was far too busy to get use of the setup so should be doing it this wednesday coming. spent a bit of time polishing at the front hangers and top yoke. due to the porous nature of sandblasting and the media used i had to go as far back as 80grit emery to smoothen it right out and remove any hidden pits or scratches before working from 240 grit wet and dry up to 1500 in preparation for the polishing wheel.

havent photographed the polishing progress yet but i shall do,



got some bits through recently. agm sealed motobatt so i can mount it as creatively as i wish (its got 4 main points if you look and theres a some adapters that came with it for obscure mounting), allball headset bearings, finally got all of the brake seals (what a pain in the ***), got a lockless fuel cap (hong kong special but it seems to be of decent quality) and some paracetamol for when the wire turns up haha



inside of fuel cap



and the bottom.



fork seals / dust seals, 10weight fork oil (the 929 used a 7.5 or 8 stock oil if memory serves but 10 is the closest readily available match) also 9/10 aftermarket fork seals are just as good as oem contrary to what a lot of people will tell you. yet to have a bad experience with the multitude of brands I've used over multiple bikes anyway.

also picked up a second tank from a 'cbr 600 f1, f2, f3, f4' group member on facebook, the plan is to sell my fairings/tank as a complete set when its all together. the bikes looking a tad dusty from sitting up in the shed for so many months haha and well i think thats about it for today.

 

//

just a wee polishing progress update.



hanger on the left has had its face stripped back and polished from 80grit emery, through to 1500 wet and dry. the idea is to polish up any contact areas that are prone to getting scratched up so that the finish is easy maintain. had i just powder coated the whole hanger the heel plate would have eventually just scratched up back to bare metal. I'm still using the powder coating to protect all the other areas from getting all funked up from all year long riding. the hanger and top yoke to the right are still in a blasted finish.



side by side just for direct comparison, sanded 1500 against blasted.



final polish of select areas against blasted. its still covered in residue from the polish. the finish is clean and consistent and not too far from perfect which is what i was aiming for. more of a clean up than a polish if you get me.



80grit emery papered top yoke, the apexes in the curves were unbelievably difficult to get into. need to smooth it out a little more before i can start on the 240.



smoothed out a little bit but still a long way to go.



my sketchy *** polishing set-up at a friends shed haha polishing mop on a drill locked into a vice. certainly works. some would argue the polish i use is aggressive but its fine for the finish I'm aiming for I'm not a fan of high shine stuff, usually its autosol polish i use, more than enough of a mirror finish for me. this time round I've been using a t-cut metal polish, its much the same although i do prefer autosols product, just seems a bit more workable.

hopefully find some time to get all the polished items ready to hit the oven with all the other bits this wednesday.

 

There are only 2 things to consider.

1) Quality of finished product
2) Safety


Judging by the outcome that you pictured, great job

 

cheers man, definitely got a few mouthfuls and eyefuls of polish mind haha lets just hope i can get this pile of stuff powder coated tomorrow. still need to finish polishing the left hanger and top yoke, its brutal work sanding out the initial pores from blasting using emery and then having to sand out any of the deeper scratches left from the harsh emery, so those two bits will have to be put on the back burner till next wednesday when i can next access the oven.

its funny how this started as a 'winter' project and its now the middle of summer haha would've had her 'finished' (if you can ever call a project finished) and on the road again by now.

I've got access to a vfr 750 single sider swingarm, so theres a possibility of that further down the line, or maybe 600rr or 929 rear end like i'd suggested before. the biggest problem with the vfr swinger is trying to get a hold of a wheel without paying out the *** . another consideration is that theres a great deal of weight in the hubs for the single siders.

//