KBS Coatings

I am painting the frame with primer and topcoat made by KBS Coatings. I learned about these products from craigslist ads placed by a guy named Jason who works at Mr. Sandman in Honolulu. KBS coatings stop rust and are very durable. The coatings are flexible, like a thin coat of plastic which should be durable. Jason's number is (808) 636-8995.

I am pretty happy with the KBS coatings results. Take a look at their website and the results look really nice. My first mistake was that I bought the primer and topcoat about six months ago and only this week I got around to using them. Opening the cans for the first time was very difficult. I pried the lids with a screwdriver and then used vice grips to pull the lids all the way off. The topcoat splashed onto the tool bench, the floor and on me. This stuff does not come off easy either.

Okay, with the front half of the frame sanded down I went to work with a brush applying the primer. The following day I put another coat and noticed the coats were not coming out smooth. Get out the sandpaper, smooth it down and apply the topcoat. It looked pretty nice but not super smooth. More sanding and applying topcoat and the results were... good enough! I figure most of the frame will not be visible with the bike back together. So I mainly want the downtubes, tubes on the sides and the swingarm looking good.

Then I noticed the primer and topcoat were getting hard in their cans. I called Jason and asked if I could add thinner to the paint. He said no, come down and get some new paint. He actually gave me a can of the topcoat. He said the primer should have been okay and I should not paint from the can. Yeah it says it on the can but I did it anyways.

So I went and got my free replacement can of topcoat and bought another can of primer for about $15. With the front part of the frame pretty much done, I removed the rear fender, wiring harness etc. and got to work on the back side. I noticed that the fresh can of primer still did not go on super smooth, it was better though. Then I sanded it down and applied the new topcoat. The fresh topcoat went on better than the original can. I think the first can of topcoat had aged and thickened, making it hard to paint the frame nicely and have the topcoat "level" - smooth out.

Tomorrow I'll do a little more finish sanding and put another layer of topcoat on the back of the bike. Next - put the front forks back on, then remove the rear wheel and get to work painting the swingarm.

I tried this paint on some other parts such as the top triple crown. It just doesn't come out smooth enough so I'm sanding it down and then I'll spray paint it with regular paint.

The Rebuild Has Begun

It's been close to a year since my last post and I finally found the time to start working on the CB550. The oil leak (probably from O-rings in the head) had worsened to the point where the fins were saturated with lubricant.

The wiring harness has lots of connectors which I carefully unplugged and checked to make sure they all matched up color-wise.

So far I've removed the top end of the motor and painted it with KG (formerly Kal-Kard) silver coating. The coating is darker than stock, I think it looks good though as long as the color is consistent. After the coating dried I noticed there are still thin spots that need another coating or two. I might run out of the coating and do not want to order another bottle from KG (it's expensive!). If it looks like I won't have enough of the KG coating, maybe I'll switch to VHT silver engine paint.

The valves removed and lapped, then new valve seals were installed by Al at Cycle Tech in Moiliili. While he was at it, Al decarbonized the combustion chambers and valves.

Yesterday I removed the pistons, then removed the rings and cleaned them up. Pistons 1 and 4 were pretty clean. Pistons 2 and 3 had some carbon on the rings as well as in the ring grooves. I scraped the carbon off the rings and used a scotchbrite pad to clean out the ring grooves.

Piston ring gaps were also measured and found within spec. Okay, I admit that I only measured the top rings for each piston.

Next step - removing of the crankcase from the frame!