CM185 cafe racer, polishing a turd..

[Rastas]

Ok, here is the 1978 cm185 i found in my girlfriends shed a few months back. This was not the best thing made in 1978, I'd even go as far as to say it probably ranks just below "shadow dancing" by andy gibb. worse yet, its a honda, and yes it has about 0.003hp, but she doesnt need any more power than that and when i saw it i though cafe racer because stock it looks like rusted homosexual.
Ill let the masses be the judge whether or not its worth the effort but i figure its harder to make a shite bike look good than a good bike look great..

How i got it...

[ranmar850]

..mmm, dunno if it will worth the effort...

[Rastas]

Stripping it back took about and hour an a half interspersed with beers and dip..

[g0zer]

i suggest that any money you pour into that, you will regret

[Rastas]

Everything on the bike was scaled or rusted to all buggery, so the frame went to the sand blasters while i fucked around pulling the motor to bits cleaning stuff as i went.
Im shit at cleaning things and got really impatient with wire brushing/sanding aluminium that has been corroding for the best part of a million years so built a really dodgy bead blasting booth in the garage. I have 2 workshops where i could have done this but i was in a hurry and my ute is broked so home blaster it is!

[Rastas]

i suggest that any money you pour into that, you will regret

Hasnt cost me a cent so far, not even the sandblasting..

[Rastas]

Not entirely shit for a quick job, what i missed while blasting i cleaned up with wire brushes and degreaser..

[resist]

dude, look at this thread Restoring the 1982 Honda CM250 Custom

rooster and i (well, i watched really ) did up this little jobby.

[Rastas]

Mocked it up quicly post sanblasting to work out where to cut the frame in relation to the new tank and cowl.

[Rastas]

I wanted a shaper line than the original fat rusty tank and wanted it to flow better with the rear cowl so started like this..

[Rastas]

Doh! like this perhaps..

[Bulbous]

nice work mate, i used to have a CM250 ages ago, and it looked pretty much the same as yours, but without all the rust! They come up nicely though, and if you can do the work yourself, go for it......

[Rastas]

Chopped the rear of the frame off and made this to support the rear cowl..

[Rastas]

Mocked up again post frame hacking to check the tank and cowl position. The shocks are waaaay forward but will be replaced with slightly heavier ones soon.

[Rastas]

The tank had to be chopped and changed a coupla times but looks better for it..

[Rastas]

Tank and cowl..

[Rastas]

The motor was pretty badly corroded but ive managed to get it back to bare metal almost completely. The plan being to paint the body and barrel black and polish the bergeezus outta the side covers and top cover..

[Rastas]

This is it as it stands. Got a shitload to do but its a start..

[Satan1]

Very nice work so far dude, Are you a metal worker by profession? nice job on the tank, whats the plan for the tank, I always liked the look of clear coated metal

[Rastas]

dude, look at this thread Restoring the 1982 Honda CM250 Custom

rooster and i (well, i watched really ) did up this little jobby.

Thats a great restore. I was tempted to restore this one but its for the missus and we both agreed it looked shithouse factory so cafe racer it was..