VF500 Rest0-mod

Welcome!

This will be a thread where I show off the finished product(s) of my VF500 Resto-mod. I will only be featuring work I have done or modified myself. I will not be including specifics on how I did things here, but I will answer smaller questions. If you too are working on a VF500 you may want to see my other thread where I've been back and forth asking questions to the forum on how to solve problems with my build.

My motorcycle is a 1984 VF500F. I picked it up with 56,000km on it. I have been restoring it inside and out. I am replacing parts that I think are outdated, for the purpose of either making it look better or preform better. Besides bolstering the performance I am changing the look of the bike from it's boxy-retro look, and into a bit of a streetfighter or cafe-racer. One thing you will notice about this build is that it is not going to be a perfect show-bike finish. The simple answer to this is the fact that I can not afford the tools or materials, nor do I have the expertise to do it anyways. This bike is ultra-low budget.

Wheels

I sanded down the old paint and metal. I fitted modern radial tires that give it a lower profile (and in my opinion a cleaner look). Then I painted the red and white using Duplicolor wheel spray paint.

Seat

Being vertically challenged, I reshaped the foam of the seat while I was recovering it with new vinyl.

Handlebars/Mirrors

I pulled the cores out of the stock handlebars so that I can fit bar-end mirrors. Used a drill, tap and a slide hammer. Mirrors are in the mail.

Carburetors 

After cleaning the carbs I put bigger jets in to accommodate a straight pipe and K&N air filter. I also did a mod that Dutchy taught me about where you drill an additional fuel line, to prevent a lean mixture on the fourth and third carb.

Fourth carb with jets and extra fuel-in^
 

Nice, but not credit for the carbs for me/Dutchy that was "The Dutchy" :-)

Keep the pictures and stories coming!

Well done so far, that's the awesome thing with an older bike, you can play around a bit. Would never have thought of doing to my first VF750 in '88 what I'm doing to one now.

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Forks

Fork tubes were stripped down and modified to lower them 1.5 inches. While apart I gave the sliders to my dad to paint in his paint shop at work. Luckily that day they had heavy-duty white loaded and the guy did a nice job.

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pictures no showy....    :-(

As long as youre not lowering the rear and straight pipe means a proper straight through muffler and not an actual straight pipe, I am liking it lol.

Dutchy pictures no showy....    :-(
 

Forks

Fork tubes were stripped down and modified to lower them 1.5 inches. While apart I gave the sliders to my dad to paint in his paint shop at work. Luckily that day they had heavy-duty white loaded and the guy did a nice job.

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Exhaust

The bike came with an aftermarket 4-1 system, but the can that was on the end is busted. The whole pipe is pitting with rust. I have restored and modified the end pipe that comes after the 8'in collector. It is now shorter, bends away from the bike, ends in a slanted cut, and I tried tinting it.

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As you can see there was some sort of mishap with my process. I think the pipe was coated in some sort of chrome that corroded in some spots(the blue) and stayed behind in others(the silver). Overall I think its neat and so I wont be "fixing" it. I am going to sand the rest of the pipe to the likes of the silver here, but I wont be making blue, unless you guys think it would work?

Engine Covers

I took the engine covers off to resurface and paint them. Somebody previously tried to fix the surface of them, but made it worse. They used either a paint pen or black paint and brush. The colour black doesnt match the OEM and their method left visible streaks. I wet-sanded down the covers and painted them red with the same colour on the wheels.

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As you can see a similar fate fell upon these parts. It started raining before the paint was dry. It thinned out the red and left spots where the black shows through. Having done these after the pipe. I decided the pattern on them sort of matches ,and so instead of fixing them I embraced this look by further wet-sanding to make a smooth finish over the part. I also let the black show through more around the edges and I touched some bare metal here and there for added flavour.

I think show room finish is out of reach for me. Semi-rustic dystopian bike?

It will either look awesome or awful..

If you are one of the ones lucky enough to have a true 4-1 performance header, I would restore it by Having it professionally sand blasted and ceramic coated. Then I would fit a proper full length slip-on/muffler. Straight pipes are pretty awful, especially on a 50hp bike.

17 hours ago, CandyRedRC46

If you are one of the ones lucky enough to have a true 4-1 performance header, I would restore it by Having it professionally sand blasted and ceramic coated. Then I would fit a proper full length slip-on/muffler. Straight pipes are pretty awful, especially on a 50hp bike.

I understand the purpose of doing that to the pipe, but I cant afford that right now. I have been researching how to make this pipe work and I've cut the pipe to an appropriate length to maintain the right pressure. I also enlarged the jets to accommodate the airflow. A professionally done system is on my radar for the future though.

TMHO Honda did a good job on the original exhaust system with the collector box on it.. You can go with a 4 into 1 system, but all you do is giving it a nice sound but loose on the wide band you have with the original collector.. And with the original box, it doesn't matter if you put a good silencer on it, or put an open pipe on it.. The collector to me just does the job... well... 

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Just a sneaky peak. How am I doing so far? Awesome or awful?

I will be detailing the recent work I've made in a few posts when I have the time to write it out. Stay tuned

Additional Fuel In

I have routed fuel line to my new inlet which is located on the fourth carb

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New 14t Sprocket and Chain

I chose to go down a tooth for my replacement sprocket on the front. I bought a new O-Ring chain from china to go with it.

New Alternator Cover Gasket

The alternator cover was dripping oil, I figured out that the bottom of the gasket was demolished. I traced the cover and cut a new gasket out of gasket paper.

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p.s.- not rust, chain wax

New Paint Scheme

The covers were fairly scratched up. I could have bought black paint to repair them, but I had leftover red paint from the wheels, so that is what I used. I was unsure about how the rustic finish would go with the bike, but I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope others agree.

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DUN DUNN DUNNNN

I did not know how this forum would receive this design choice, so I kept it a secret until I could show it in action and ready to go. I have not seen any other VFs here that have gone this direction, so I hope some of you can appreciate this "different" look. 

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I just love how the lines go together. I could not have imagined a better fit. This is a headlight assembly from a scooter made in India. Those are projector headlights in the middle. I attached it using some stainless steel brackets I made. I am suiting the whole bike in LED blinkers too.

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New Instrumentation

I chose to go digital with an LCD speedometer. This particular one is made by a guy in Asia. He builds different electronic gadgets himself and sells them cheap. The only catch is they are not designed for particular bikes in mind, so it takes some fiddling around to get it to work for your bike.

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On the left is the OEM plug off of the analog speedo, and on the right is the new one. After deciphering the badly translated wiring instructions and the stock wiring map, I soldered the old wires into the new unit. I put a little extra wire in the middle. Some of the features are improvised. The temperature gauge is now full fuel and empty on the new thing. Oil warning light is a low beam indicator. Everything else is normal though. This thing does a neat little dance with the numbers and needle when you turn it on too.

Misc

This is just an overview of the bike's state right now. I got the wheels back on, rebuilt forks are in, exhaust pipe is on an looks sweet( I might be building a baffle for it, we'll see). All the bolts are torqued in. All the hard to reach maintenance is done. I just need to pop the mirrors in the handlebars, wire some new plugs in, put the gas tank and fuel lines together, finish some more maintenance, give the surface rust a clean with bleach, and then I'll be firing it up.

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Y'know what I've just realized this is reminding me of? The Borg from Star Trek TNG. RESISTANCE is FUTILE. YOUR motorcycle WILL be ACCLIMATED to the collective.

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Oh wow thats pretty cool. Reminds me of a V-Rod.