Honda Nighthawk Motorcycle Project

FInal Thought

2012-06-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

Well folks, I'm sad to report I sold the Nigh-Thawk. It was time. In a very business decision I decided that the price I was offered was about all I would get no matter how much more I put into the project. For all of my followers, here is my new website where I will surely continue my quest to ride, play with, customize and learn about all types of machines. Thank you for your loyalty and KEEP THE RUBBER SIDE DOWN!

Motorcycle Repair by Chris
http://mcrbychris.webs.com/

Nigh-thawk Day 28

2012-01-26T21:31:00.001-08:00

I am a restless soul. I just spent the last 5 hours toiling away in my shop on ONE SIDE COVER. I couldn't stop. I had to see the new colors. Well, here they are. I had it sanded in the last update, but I filled a crack and smoothed a rough side with some Bondo. More sanding ensued. I layed down 3 coats of primer and wet sanded 400, 600, and 1500. Then, it was decision time. I had an idea for two tone that I wasn't a 100% sold on. I went for it! I had to see both colors together. I do not regret it one bit. Here it is, in all it's glory.

Nigh-thawk Day 27

2012-01-25T20:34:00.001-08:00

Uh-oh! Look what I did! I accidentally started sanding my side cover for the new paint! I wasn't planning on repainting my bike till next winter, but I bought the new colors and now I just have to see it laid down. I knew I would have to redo the paint from the beginning because of the shotty, quick job I did last year. So, I couldn't just redo the same color and scheme. I started taping off some ideas and landed on one I'm pleased with. The new colors will be a Dark Forest Green and Cream with the possibility of a Gold pinstripe. Here are some pictures of the colors sprayed on some cardboard. Keep checking for new updates throughout!

Nigh-Thawk Day 26

2012-01-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest eye sores the Nigh-Thawk had was the left engine side cover. One of the previous owners must have laid it down at some point and it had a nice scrape. Slowly, but surely I'm trying to take care of the details and this one was due. I found a side cover on EBay and ordered it up. After a light cleaning and a little Sharpie over some missing paint I installed the new one. I think its a huge improvement, but I doubt most people would've picked it out right away. Enjoy!

Nigh-Thawk Day 22 Part 2

2012-01-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

I have been having so much fun with my bike at my new shop that I actually forgot to post the second half of the SEAT PROJECT! I know all of you loyal readers (Kate) have noticed this atrocity. Well, briefly after removing the old seat cover my girlfriend (Kate) proved to me that she listens when I drone on about my motorcycle. She got me a new cover for my birthday. It was a direct replacement and I went straight to the shop to install it. This was of course my first experience (as with most of the fun custom projects on the Nigh-Thawk) with reupholstering a seat. I pulled out my fairly recently bought hand stapler and did the best I could. After about half an hour I resorted to the dreaded instructions. "You must use an Electric Stapler!". Thankfully, 20 days later Christmas came and so did an Electric Stapler. After some stapling and stretching and stapling and aligning, here's what I got. Enjoy!

Day 25

2012-01-15T05:34:00.001-08:00

Just a couple of pictures my girl took of me on my bike.

Day 24

2012-01-10T20:19:00.001-08:00

Tonight, my friend offered up the idea that cafe racers (what I have been catagorizing the Nigh-Thawk as) have lower stance handlebars. Well, I couldn't deny the logic so I flipped them over and reinstalled the controls! I liked it, but the handbar clamp's paint was worn from my keys and it was much more visible with the bars down. I've been planning on powder coating this and several other pieces for some time now, but haven't found the right time or venue. I decided they may look nice painted the same blue as the rest of the bike. Here they are! I'm happy with them!

Day 23

2011-12-17T00:35:00.001-08:00

I decided to start toying with the Nighthawk tonight and got ahead of myself before I took some before pictures. I spray painted the handlebar controls matte black. It is the beginning of my new accent to the bike. I have a few parts that are metal and take a little bit more abuse. To avoid the fading, chipping and wearing away of paint I'll be doing the metal parts with my powder coating machine which I will cover in another blog. Tonight, though was just some leftover spray paint I had laying around the shop. I taped off the parts I didn't want covered or hit with overspray and went to town. To avoid removing all of the wiring I just hung some rags to protect the other parts and let the controls hang. It was a nice, easy touch to add to the bike's overall look.

Nigh-thawk Day 22

2011-11-26T20:36:00.001-08:00

My latest winter project! I removed the seat cover so that I would have to re-cover it this winter.

Nigh-Thawk Day 21

2011-04-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

So, not much has been going on since paint. I'm not really sure where else to go with this bike. I added some new grips and I have plans to try to clean up the engine a bit. I have found an exhaust I'm interested in adding but it isn't really within my thin price range at the moment and I'm not sure if I'm going to make the investment. The seat is in the fore front of my brain at the moment. I found a seat cover on EBay which is plain and somewhat on the pricey side. I know I can get something cool if I use the upholsterer my shop uses, as he just made a pretty nice seat out of very little for the current project at the shop. Then there is what most people are in my ear about. DIY. I am certainly considering Doing It Myself since the bike has been so far customized at my hands, but I want the seat to stand the test of time and I'm no seamstress... Updates soon. Here are some pretty pictures to occupy your time.

Nigh-Thawk Day 20

2011-03-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

The big day is finally here! I snuck a preview of the color into the last post I made. It is a metallic Blue. I gave each piece three coats and then three coats of clear. I didn't sand between any coats. I know, I'm lazy. I did manage to put a pretty cool little accent on the fender struts, though. Not to bad for a home garage paint job. It came out a lot lighter than I had thought it would be, but I'll live with it. After having removed my tail section so many times I finally got plugs for my turn signal wires and my license plate light. Much easier to assemble and disassemble. I've going to give it an oil change today, as well, because my oil filter bolt was stripped out for the first one that I did. Now that I found a new bolt its time for a new (much over-do) filter. Well, that's all for now! Time for a ride!

Nigh-Thawk Day 19

2011-03-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

So, after procrastinating through the winter I finally began my body work and paint prep! I started with the front fender because I know there are a few of them still laying around the shop. Now, because I waited so long and I started on a whim one day, I decided to spray bomb the bike to the best of my abilities. I sanded the front fender with 80 grit to remove some deep scratches. I gave it 3 coats of primer and sanded it with 120 then 600. Since that seemed to come out pretty well I pulled the side covers and started on them. They had factory stickers on them that just did not want to come off. So, I sanded them off with 80 grit paper and scuffed the rest with 120. 3 coats of primer for them as well and then did the whole cover with 120 and 600.
Now feeling determined with all of the work I had done I decided to get started on the big job. My tank... Of course, the tank had the same factory stickers the side covers did (cheap ass 80's paint jobs...). Now the tank also had a lot of spots of rust on the top that I had spray bombed over before I started riding it last year. So, I sanded the stickers off and all the rust spots with 80 grit. The side of the tank orignally had Honda emblems which had brackets built into the tank. My solution for this was to sand all around the brackets down to bare metal and Bondo over it. More to come!

Nigh-thawk Day 18

2011-02-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well, my winter project got put off until the end of winter (of course, I'm a procrastinator). So, here we are in the middle of February and I finally started my body work. I removed the tail section and laid it out for fiber glass. I filled some of the voids with a thick fiberglass mesh and cut out pieces to cover the area I wanted to smooth out. After mixing up my resin I dabbed some down where my pre-cut sheets were to go and moving as quickly as I could laid out the sheet and coated it. I laid a second sheet on top of that and coated it as well.I used a few smaller pieces to take care of some problem areas as well. Now, one side of the lower tail section was a little off so I had to clamp it into place while the fiber glass cured (my boss actually did this, its my first time with fiber glass). After letting in sit for an hour or so I touched up a few areas and now its curing overnight. Sanding tomorrow! (or the next day)

Nigh-Thawk Day 17

2010-11-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

Fixed that fork seal and she is back in good running order. I've been riding the shit out of it since I fixed it about a week and a half ago. Its getting pretty cold and she's been spending a lot of time in the garage on the Battery Tender. I've been fighting through the cold with a full faced mask that's been weirding people out as I ride past or pull up behind them. I've been enjoying that quite a bit. I also found a side cover! On a random ride to Quakertown I stopped in at Larry's motorcycle salvage and dug through their 5 bins of side covers for over and hour. I really felt like I accomplished something in the end. I talked to the painter at my shop and he is going to walk me through paint prep and paint and I'll be getting started on the cosmetic end of the project very soon! I guess I should name drop him for those of you in the SE Pa area. WWW.VisualImpact2.COM I'd be using him if I didn't want to do everything myself so bad. He does awesome work.

Nigh-Thawk Day 16

2010-11-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

blew a fork seal. Time to get her back to the shop. By the way, got laid off for the season. Not un-expected. Been riding a little anyway but its been rainy.No long rides really since the shop ride, just noticed I haven't posted in a while.Thanks for reeeeaaaaaading

Nigh-Thawk Day 15

2010-10-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Well I've been enjoying my bike on the road a little too much. Its been a few days since I've posted. I know, I've neglected my duties to all of my many, many followers (currently 0). So, Sunday was the big shop ride. A ride that everyone that works at the shop and a few customers ride together. It usually ends up happening in the Fall because we're too damn busy WORKING during the nicer seasons.
Sunday morning my girl and I woke up, suited up, and hopped on the Nigh-thawk for her first real ride. We headed up towards the shop, bundled up pretty damn good because it was quite brisk out. We go to the shop a little early so we hit 7-11 for some coffee. My girl made me proud by carrying them both back to the shop and not falling off even once! On our previous short jaunts out together I've taken notice to a good bit of rubbing of the rear tire (no my girlfriend isn't fat). Apparently with the new shocks in back it just isn't quite enough and there was a bolt sticking out under the fender. So, when we did get back to the shop I got rid of the bolt sticking out and it made it rub a lot less.
The sun was out and it started to warm up as everyone pulled into the shop's parking lot. We all said our hellos and the bosses started discussing where we were headed. When that was decided we all fired up our bikes and those of us with ladies in tow had them mount up the rears. Mine of course was the quietest seeing how just about everyone else had a Harley. We rolled out of the parking lot two by two. About 8 of us all together.
We all followed one of our customers through Bucks County and through some great twisty roads. The scenery was great, lots of green but the leaves were definitely changing. Our first decent sized town was New Hope, a bustling yuppy shopping town with lots of people out walking. From there we crossed the bridge from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and followed the Delaware river North. A car started to hop out in front where my boss was riding and he locked up his new front PM caliper (not quite used to there stopping power yet) and very nearly went down. He recovered nicely with a bit of pain in his foot and a bit less rubber on his front tire. The road was wide and straight and we got to open up the throttles a bit. It was still a bit chilly and I could feel my girl rub her face in the hood of my sweatshirt every once in a while. The next town was very similar to New Hope, but I had never been there. We pulled are bikes into a spot down a side street. We talked it out and one of my co-workers suggested a place she knew a little ways away with some good riding to get there and we were back off to the races with a new leader.
This particular co worker has more miles under her belt then anyone I know (I think) and she can ride like hell. We went through all kinds of twists and turns and she made them look effortless. I was personally struggling through most of them and trying to catch up after everyone. We'll blame that on my center stand cutting my lean angle down and having a passenger, but I won't even pretend to be able to hold my own following her. It was a great ride ending up at a Stewart's Rootbeer hot dog joint.
The ride back was rather uneventful except I did get to see what the old Nigh-Thawk is made of. We hit a stretch of highway and got on them a good bit. my speedo read 90 but its off and my boss said it was only 70. I think it was 80 though.
Well thanks for reading. If you got this far I am impressed. Don't forget to leave me some comments and click on these wonderful Google ads. LATERRRRR

Nigh-Thawk Day 14.5

2010-10-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

I did finally end up getting out of work a little early. 4:30 instead of 6. The sun was gone, blocked by overcast. It wasn't about to stop me any though. I rode straight home to grab some warmer clothes and called my dad to see if he wanted to go for a ride. He wanted to wait for rush hour to be over so I headed out solo.
I had no direction, just kind of went however I wanted to go. I ended up on a highway type road and wanted to see what I could get out of the old girl. I know my speedometer isn't accurate but it was reading 80 mph when I let off and she had room to go. Not bad for an old 450 that just got life breathed back into it. I only went up a few exits, not wanting to push it too much my first time out. I decided it was time to get lost. I just turned to the most unfamiliar direction and went. I was out in a fairly rural area, lots of browning fields and colorful trees. The more I got lost the twistier the roads got. Since no one else was around I started testing the limits of my bike. Leaning more and more and powering through. I started working my way full circle because it was getting close to the time I had to meet my dad. Not really knowing how to get back, just feeling how to get back.
The traffic by my dad's house was still horrendous and I got there a little after our agreed upon time. This was the first he saw of the Nigh-Thawk since he helped me pick it up when I bought it. We went over some of the details and decided to head out. We stayed in pretty urban areas and went through some nice roads, but it was getting colder and my wrist was hurting from my clutch being so stiff. We were out for an hour or two and got some dinner. Nice little ride. Its always fun to ride with Pop. I headed home and parked her up. Its a whole new day tomorrow and I can't wait....

Nigh-Thawk Day 14

2010-10-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today my bike became 100% legal. I trimmed back the steering stops today because I had a very bad turning radius, painted the headlight mount that I made a few weeks ago and never really painted and put on a new chain. With all that done my boss was willing to inspect it. After I got it badged up it was looking like a slow day so my boss said I could leave early.
As I was cleaning up (in one hell of a hurry) a customer came in for an oil change and my boss asked me to do it. No problem. One little oil change? Naturally it was the hardest oil change ever and the exhaust had to be removed.
Just as I finished the oil change I heard the woman from the storefront say someone called about a 5,000 mile service and my hopes of getting out while it was still sunny were squashed. Before the customer showed up I took my lunch and I nice casual ride.
I rolled out of the shop and through the small town. I never really spent much time there seeing how I live about a half hour from the shop. I cruised through some back streets crossing over the main drag that I had actually seen plenty of times before. I found a nice wide road and decided that would be mine. It had a few small curves in the beginning but ended up being fairly straight, which I enjoyed because I wasn't really used to the bike just yet and a cruise was all I needed to clear my head.
The road had lots of ups and downs and was covered by tree branches for a good bit of it. It was a very cool day, but the sun was out. I gave it a good 10 miles or so and turned around in a convenience store. On the way back I stopped in a small deli that looked closed except for the cars in the lot. I knew it had to be good and it was. I grabbed a sandwich and headed back to the shop.

Nigh-Thawk Day 13

2010-10-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

So this past Wednesday I finally got my paper work in order and got my insurance and tags!!! Wednesday night I finally got to pull her out into the street. I had to go to the tag place after work so I left my bike outside of the shop and got a ride back up when I got my tags. It was already dark out when my girl and I got up there and it was the first time I really got to see it in the real darkness. She wasn't running very strong, but I got her home. My girl promptly hopped on the back and we did a little riding around town. It cut out on us at one point and we pulled off to the side. The right carb was pouring gas. I assumed the float had stuck and a good punch the the side freed it up and stopped the leaking. I decided it would need another looking over so I took it home and back to work the next day. It turned out that one of the jets had actually fallen out. I replaced that and my boss suggested we raise the needles. After slapping them back in I suited up and took it for another spin. It was night and day! She was running really strong then! It rained for the rest of the day so I parked her.

Nigh-Thawk Day 12

2010-10-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

I painted a few rust spots on the tank today and bead blasted the heat shields from the exhaust and hit them with a little High Heat Ceramic black paint. I also took it for a little spin in the shop's parking lot. I'm getting really excited to get it on the road before the Pennsylvania Fall season turns bitter on me. My co workers have a ride planned for this Sunday. I'm hoping I can get everything legal by then. Just waiting on the money.

Nigh-Thawk Day 11

2010-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

So, most of my blogs up until about the 8th day were posted as catch ups. I was several weeks into my project when I decided to start the blog. There were just a few things that I managed to leave out in my haste to post and that I just forgot to write. I've been working on this bike between jobs at work and after work. Anytime I can find I utilize. I actually went through two different Honda Interceptor front ends. The first I tried and used for a while to move the bike around. One or both of the forks was bent. One of the gas tank bolt holes was stripped and needed to be re tapped. I removed the Honda emblems from the tank.

Nigh-Thawk Day 10

2010-10-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

So, all I really did today was rebuild the carburetors. The last time I had them apart I forgot to put a rubber stopper into one of them. It was only running on one cylinder half of the time. I pulled the spark plugs and bead blasted them. I upped the jets because day one my bosses drilled out my baffles and they needed a little jump. From what my boss says they run lean anyway. Main jets 115 to 128 and mid-range likewise.
I started this blog several weeks after the actual project and have been trying to catch up. some thing have happened and may have been left out.I will repost about that later

Nigh-Thawk Day 9

2010-10-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

So, not much done today. I got set up with some nice low profile black mirrors from a customer and I painted the front fender black with a spray bomb. I made up a license plate bracket and added a license plate light. It is actually ready for the road now. I just have to work out some money for title, tags registration and tax. I got the insurance all set up today too. As long as all goes well I will be taking her out for some casual around town riding by next Thursday. Then, her first real ride with the folks at my shop the following Sunday. I'm getting excited.

Nigh-Thawk Day 8

2010-10-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

All of the wiring for the front end was originally done in the headlight. With the new Harley headlight I had to find a new place for my wiring harness. I cut a few tie wraps down the spine and (with a few alterations to the length of some wires) pulled the harness back and tucked most of it under the left side cover. Most of my connectors for the front end were now under the front of the frame's spine in front of the cylinders. I removed the old rusted battery box and electrical panel from either side of the bike for a good bead blasting and nice coat of flat black paint. In my spare time between my ACTUAL job I managed to polish the visible parts of the heads and the tops of the carburetors. Got to love a little shine in your life.

Nigh-Thawk Day 7

2010-10-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

So, because my Nighthawk didn't come with a key and the gas tank has a locking lid, I had to get the tank re keyed. Upon opening it (not surprisingly) the tank was pretty rusted inside. I filled the tank with Muriatic Acid and let it dissolve the rust. After draining the acid and a good deal of rust I finished cleaning it with Methyl Ethyl Keytone. I lined the tank with Kreem tank liner.