Reclaimed S90

red69

Well-Known Member
Forty-two years ago I had this 1966 Honda S90 registered and I used to ride it to work in NYC. Yeah, I know, I'm nuts. Anyway, I obtained it from a friend in trade for some body and paint work on one of his cars. This past week I retrieved it from my nephew's shed in upstate New York and disassembled it. It's in my car now and by Wednesday it will be in Florida for a planned restoration. I had to flush out a family of mice when it was disassembled.

Although not pictured, I have the gas tank.
 

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I've seen sketchier "Before & After" pics, LOL... you know, the kind where the person losing weight or having surgery went from white to black, or vice versa. :13: Damn, Bulletproof Red69, you must know that cycles are the ONLY way to get around NYC, I got that straight from some hardcore rice-rocket-ridin' locals in Manhattan (Harleys & Indians too HEAVY to dodge the odd oncoming truck or bus, same as GoldWings, LOL). :43: One dude to whom I spoke had a primo high-speed rice rocket with a nice gal airbrushed on the tank, she looked good atop that rig. He was telling me that theft and parking are MAJOR ISSUES for Manhattan residents, AYE??? :red70:
 
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red69

Well-Known Member
Just came back from there. Parking is a major issue for everyone. NYC has made parking tickets a growth industry. I got one three years ago and my son had his rental booted and towed. Cost him about $350. Mostly it's electric scooter delivery demons that have total disregard for any traffic or courtesy rules, but I did see a few die-hard cycle jockeys weaving their way around city streets.

Can't say I miss much of NYC except for the bagels and one local diner. I'm glad to be in Florida, away from the idiot masses.
 
When I last visited NYC, I thought the bicycle messengers were the most reckless of all, those guys are plumb crazy, weaving through traffic and risking death at every turn, LOL. Meh, SOMEBODY has to do it... I heard those guys have an unofficial race every year, where contestants pool their funds and the winner takes the jackpot. :red70: Unofficial because no gubmint tards or corporate fooliots would dare sponsor such lunacy, LOL.
 

red69

Well-Known Member
Since I don't have a vat big enough along with a 55 gallon drum of Evaporust, I made this tub out of wood and lined it with 3.5 mil plastic sheet. I took a five gallon pail of Evaporust and poured it in the tub. I do one side of the frame at a time and it keeps the amount of Evaporust used to a minimum.

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I immersed part of the frame previously in the stuff and you can see the difference between the treated portion and the rusty part.


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red69

Well-Known Member
I have some rust through issues due to nesting mice and their urine soak. I've removed the offending sheet metal and plan to replace it.

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Another piece to take a hit from the mice was the battery box cover. I've made fiberglass parts for RC aircraft for years and replicating the cover was no problem. I started with extruded foam that is used on buildings for architectural elements because you can sand it to shape, unlike open cell foam. I made the male mold and covered it with Glad Press and Seal to create a barrier between the foam and epoxy. I waxed the Glad product with mold release wax.

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I covered the mold with about a 10 oz. fiberglass cloth (two layers) and let that cure. I used multi-directional cloth so that it would conform to the compound curves.

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I removed the cured fiberglass cover from the mold, pulled off the Press and Seal and trimmed it to shape.

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With the mold removed, I made the fittings that hold the cover to the frame and fiberglassed them to the inside.

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I put one more layer of glass cloth on the outside.

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This is the finished product before painting and final trimming. Finally, the last pic shows a primed cover after filling pin holes with Nitro-Stan putty.

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b52bombardier1

Well-Known Member
Very nice. That's excellent. I recently used fiberglass to repair cracks and reinforce the old plastic side covers on my CB500 that I'm bringing back from the dead.

That old plastic is very brittle but the fiberglass as a backing makes it as strong as new. And nobody but me knows the repair has been done.

Rick
 
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red69

Well-Known Member
Metric Thread Size

I've been jumping around on this bike, since I don't really have a timetable or deadline. I'm replacing the handlebars with a Thailand piece; originals were tweaked by my dad. In removing the lever perches, I found one JIS screw missing. Easy fix. Just go over to Ace Hardware and get a new 5M-.80. Not so fast. It does not fit. It's 5mm alright, but seems to have a different thread pitch. I'm not very familiar with metric sizes so I looked it up online. Only one pitch available, 5M-.80.

Luckily I have a cheapo Harbor Freight tap and die set and for some unexplained reason they have a 5M-.90 tap and die. I took an .80 pitch screw and cut a .90 pitch thread with the die. Works like a charm.

Just curious, does anyone know how long ago the powers-that-be abandoned the 5M-.90 thread?

Also found that my wheels aren't as bad as they looked when I picked up the bike. They cleaned up fairly well with only a small amount of pitting, and the sprocket is in good shape.


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Rizingson

Member
Thanks for posting the bulletin, I remember seeing it a few years ago as well.
The important part about that bulletin, is just how vague Honda is about it. They don't specify a beginning serial number for the many models that were in production at the beginning of '67 (such as the S90). So when you combine that with the fact that bikes were titled in the year they were sold, it pretty much means that you could have bikes sold as '69's, such as my CM91 which was made in '66, still having the JIS threads. Best advice is, don't force any bolts, but verify first.
 

red69

Well-Known Member
I'm aware of discrepancies with registering old Honda bikes. My '69 CT70 silver tag was originally registered from a dealer as a 1970 model when it was, in fact, built in the third week of production in 1969.
 

red69

Well-Known Member
Some more progress. I chemically stripped some parts, sanded and primed them. I used my H.F. crappy airbrush because I didn't feel like loading up and cleaning the touch-up gun. Funny thing is, the foot peg perch came out looking like glass. Sometimes you just get lucky.

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The fenders are next for Cloud Silver. I'm toying with the idea of using some flattening agent in the clear to lessen the gloss.

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I cleaned the carb and made sure all the drilled passages are open. Here's a before and after.

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red69

Well-Known Member
The S90 speedo has two trim rings. One is the usual crimped on piece covering the face and the other is located adjacent to it with a rubber gasket. Mine looks kind of crappy, with surface corrosion.

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This ring is chrome plated. I placed it in Evaporust for a period of time and then sanded the pitting down with 320 grit paper. I have some vinyl trim sheet chrome that is used on model aircraft and I wanted to see how this would work on the trim ring. It has adhesive on the back side.

See:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHX87&P=7

I cut two strips and applied them one at a time over the ring, with an overlap, trimmed with a new Xacto knife.

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My purpose was to make the ring presentable without having to have it re-chromed. I think I did that.
 

red69

Well-Known Member
I hung out the wash today. Yesterday afternoon I shot the base coat and this morning I finished up with clear coat on some parts. Color is Scarlet.

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red69

Well-Known Member
Those mice sure make life miserable. I had to cut out some swiss cheese metal and weld in some 18 gauge sheet metal on the frame and battery box. I wasn't sure if this frame was worth saving. Epoxy primer was applied to the blasted and sanded frame in preparation for the base coat/clear coat Scarlet paint.


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