My Own Custom.

[lotuseater]

Well it arrived this morning. I have been thinking for a long time about doing a custom bike. In high school I always wanted to do a custom car but never had the funds to do it properly. Now I could not care less about cars, preferring motorcycles. So I am about to embark on a journey of doing a complete custom bike. I thought I would start small and with a number of old CB 125 junkers around, and cheap parts in plentiful abundance, I thought I would start on something of a cafe racer town bike, just for fun.

I found a shop that could get a CB 125 for me and ordered one last week. Unfortunately it arrived and was not a CB 125 like I had ordered but a Wing 100. Pretty much the same bike, just not quite as nice. From what I can tell, it shares pretty much the same frame so I should be able to do most of the work and if I like the result, swap out engines later without too much hassle.

I hope to post some photos and progress reports as I go. But what I am really looking for is advice from anyone who has ever undertaken a project like this. What I hope to end up with is a small displacement cafe racer for under 30,000 baht (hopefully a lot under).

I have some ideas in my head already about what I want the bike to look like when I am done. This one is pretty close to what I had in mind. Though I would like a custom tank and a little more sporty colour scheme.

Total spent to date:

5000 Base bike, gl 100 with licence bit of a junker but thats the point really.

 

[lotuseater]

Does anyone know a good way to strip a frame. I have been reading around and a lot of people seem to have the opinion that a wire wheel will do a good job of getting rust and paint off the frame.

The 30,000 baht budget I have unfortunately has to include tools that I don't already have and labour costs. And I don't currently have a grinder so if I could accomplish both of these tasks with one tool I could save myself a bit of money.

Also I want to do as much of the work as I can on my own. It takes the fun out of it if I just outsource everything. (though stripping and painting the frame may be one thing I would be willing to hand over to someone else).

 

[gobs]

Wow, nice project lotus!
And nice bike too the Honda on the pics, as you are expecting to get: a teenager's dream in that time!

Sorry, can't help you for "cleaning" the frame with a wheel... Back home in Europe I owned a small "sanding machine" (don't know in English) to do this job... A lot of time and dust all around, but very efficient...

Let's keep informed...

You know, you make me considering doing one! :roll:

Cheers,
Gobs

 

[Pikey]

You don't say where you are but if you are in Thailand, an angle grinder can be had for about 1500 baht then score yourself a cutting wheel (although it will probably come with one) and a wire wheel. I bought on in Homepro a year or so ago for I think, 1300B brand name "Naza" with a power rating of 540w. Seems to do the trick.

You can probably also source a heavy enamel paint to coat the frame. In the UK there is a product called "Hammerite" which comes in tins and is brush-on or there is "Smoothrite" by the same company that comes in a spray. I have successfully used the later a couple of times.

For metal fabrication, unless you are very adept with all the tools necessary to create a tank and tail-unit, then they're the pieces I'd outsource to a pro as they are also the focal points of the bike. Same for the exhaust muffler. If you in Chiang Mai, then k. Daeng is the master metal fabricator and his contact details will be here somewhere or another.

Good luck and I hope it comes together for you. Looking forward to seeing the finished article....

Cheers,

Pikey.

 

[daewoo]

lotuseater wrote: Does anyone know a good way to strip a frame. I have been reading around and a lot of people seem to have the opinion that a wire wheel will do a good job of getting rust and paint off the frame.

Lotuseater - don't know if I am helping here, or sending you on a wild goose chase... Here in Australia, when I wanted to redo the frame on my XR250, it was $Au100 (about 2500 baht) to have the frame bead blasted to remove all paint, and then another $Au40 (about 1000 THB) to have it powdercoated in the colour of my choice... since that is almost entirely labour costs, and minimum wage here is about $Au20/hour (about 4700THB/Day) I think you should be able to get it done pretty cheaply... for a few hundred baht... I know from stripping cars to do it with power tools is many many hours of work...

Have a look at a mates bike that he picked up when someone was dumping it, and restored/customised it here...

simillar style of bike to yours, but 25 years old... might be good for ideas...

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[Marco]

daewoo wrote: [quote quote=lotuseater]Does anyone know a good way to strip a frame. I have been reading around and a lot of people seem to have the opinion that a wire wheel will do a good job of getting rust and paint off the frame.

Lotuseater - don't know if I am helping here, or sending you on a wild goose chase... Here in Australia, when I wanted to redo the frame on my XR250, it was $Au100 (about 2500 baht) to have the frame bead blasted to remove all paint, and then another $Au40 (about 1000 THB) to have it powdercoated in the colour of my choice... since that is almost entirely labour costs, and minimum wage here is about $Au20/hour (about 4700THB/Day) I think you should be able to get it done pretty cheaply... for a few hundred baht... I know from stripping cars to do it with power tools is many many hours of work...

Have a look at a mates bike that he picked up when someone was dumping it, and restored/customised it here...

simillar style of bike to yours, but 25 years old... might be good for ideas...

Cheers,
Daewoo
Daewoo

When i tryed to view your attachement got this=
You are not authorised to download this attachment.

need to log in to that forum before can view the picturesposts :cry:

 

[daewoo]

Marco wrote:
When i tryed to view your attachement got this= You are not authorised to download this attachment.

That must be why you it comes up as an address rather than an image in the post...

I uploaded it to PhotoBucket just for you Marco...

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[Marco]

daewoo wrote: [quote quote=Marco]
When i tryed to view your attachement got this= You are not authorised to download this attachment.

That must be why you it comes up as an address rather than an image in the post...

I uploaded it to PhotoBucket just for you Marco...

Cheers,
Daewoo
Daewoo

That is real beauty, thanx, for going for extra mile just for me
nice retoration and im sure eye catcher as well, thanx mate

 

[Muzz]

A couple of great looking bikes there Gents....

 

[lotuseater]

pikey wrote: If you in Chiang Mai, then k. Daeng is the master metal fabricator and his contact details will be here somewhere or another.

Pikey, I don't suppose you have any idea where I can find K. Daeng's number or the man himself. I have been looking for someone to make a tail unit. That was the one thing that I have been having real trouble finding someone to do. I would love to make it out of fiberglass to save some weight but I am certainly not opposed to doing it out of sheet metal. I would also love to embed the rear brake light in the tail piece so having someone that really knows what they are doing would be a great help. I will have a look around the forum but if you do happen to know you could save me some time.

And yes. I am in Chiang Mai.

Daewoo, thats a nice bike thanks for sharing some ideas. I really like the look of the bike, what model was it originally?
I am going to look around and see if I can't find someone that can do bead/sand blasting, it might just be cheaper than getting a grinder, and getting someone to do a powder coat would probably give a nicer finish than paint in a can.

Thanks guys, its great to have some encouragement this is a first project for me so it is going to be a heck of a learning curve.

 

[DavidFL]

lotuseater wrote: [quote quote=pikey] If you in Chiang Mai, then k. Daeng is the master metal fabricator and his contact details will be here somewhere or another.

Pikey, I don't suppose you have any idea where I can find K. Daeng's number or the man himself.
Look here

https://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... -t633.html

10. SOMCHIT: Aluminum welding & engineering. New exhausts.
Daeng Glon Pra Tu
105 Rakaeng Rd
Chiang Mai
Tel: 053820784-6. Mobile: 0189508622

 

[daewoo]

lotuseater wrote:
Daewoo, thats a nice bike thanks for sharing some ideas. I really like the look of the bike, what model was it originally?

It is a 1982 Kawasaki Z 250...

This is what it looked like when he found it. It had been put out on the side of the street for the council to take to the dump...

Pretty good improvement for almost no money if you ask me...

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[lotuseater]

Well after a couple of mornings of wrenching away some progress has been made on the bike. Some little things are starting to show up that are going to cause problems later on if they don't get fixed now. Many of the screws and bolts have been badly striped and are going to need to be replaced. I am not going to be doing any engine work myself this time around, I don't have the tools needed and I don't want to be mucking around inside the engine too much. It runs pretty well so it won't need much but some polish and paint. The tank, seat and most of the other parts are going to be tossed. The frame is in really good shape and won't need much work but a cleaning and paint. I am still debating whether or not I should grind off the airbox and battery tabs, I am going to grind off the rear sets though.

The bike before I got my greasy little hands on it. It was running, though badly in need of some tlc. The brakes barely worked and it had a tendency to stall when idling which almost caused an accident on my way home with it.

A couple of hours of work and the engine is out and the frame is mostly ready to start sanding and grinding in preparation for paint. The fork is still on the bike because I don't have a socket big enough to get the mounting bolt out but I hope to have the frame completely ready for sanding by the weekend.

One thing that has me very worried is a weld that runs down the side of the cooling fins. I didn't notice this when I picked up the bike because it was partly hidden but I have been assured that to get a new case would be less than 1000 baht.

I have been throwing some ideas around for a paint scheme but one of the ideas I have comes from an old helmet that I have lying about. I like the blue with silver details but I have been thinking about yellow and black, or a dark cherry red and black. I think the frame is going to be black but even that is still up in the air. I have seen some really nice red frames around that have looked very classy.

 

[Pikey]

David kindly replied with khun Daeng/Somchit's details so I'll just comment on powdercoat. It is nowhere near as cheap here as the Oz prices Daewoo quoted. To give you an idea, a handlebar cost me 700B and I'd imagine a frame would be around 3.5 - 5K. Richie of Richco on Wualai Rd is the man - top quality job. There is another shop just over Narawat Bridge heading out of town on the right that advertises bead blasting/powdercoat but I have no idea of price or quality from him.

Cheers,

Pikey.

 

[daewoo]

pikey wrote: David kindly replied with khun Daeng/Somchit's details so I'll just comment on powdercoat. It is nowhere near as cheap here as the Oz prices Daewoo quoted. To give you an idea, a handlebar cost me 700B and I'd imagine a frame would be around 3.5 - 5K. Richie of Richco on Wualai Rd is the man - top quality job. There is another shop just over Narawat Bridge heading out of town on the right that advertises bead blasting/powdercoat but I have no idea of price or quality from him.

Cheers,

Pikey.

The place I had mine done, in Sydney, is almost completely staffed by Vietnamese workers... not sure of their work permit or immigration status... they might have been being paid in Dong... ... maybe he needs to take the frame straight to Vietnam...

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[DavidFL]

Our engineering mate
Daeng Glon Pra Tu, owned by Somchit / Daeng has two shops.

1. Rakaeng
Daeng Glon Pra Tu
105 Rakaeng Rd
Chiang Mai
Tel: 053820784-6.
This shop is managed by Somchit's daughter.

and the other on the superhighway near airport Plaza.
2. Daeng Glon Pratu
250 Mahidon Road
Pa Daet
Tel: 053202269 & 053202270. Mobile 0896356908
Most if not all bike work is done at the "airport"location nowadays.

Here is the card for the airport shop

Somchit seems to hang out at this shop more often now, probably because the bike work is done here & he is into bikes, classic bikes.
Somchit also speaks fluent English & knows his stuff. He's a good guy to talk to.

The only realistic way to get to the airport shop is from the river, as the shop is on the south side of the highway & with the divided dual carriageway you have to come from way down by the river.
The shop is almost the last place on the left before the intersection. Turn into the drive way between the shop houses.

Good luck, & tell Somchit that Lung David from GT Rider sent you. He will have a chuckle over that.

 

[lotuseater]

David, thanks a ton for the directions to the shop. I will definitely be checking out K Daeng's shop for the seat, that is likely going to be the hardest part to source. For the tank I have heard rumours of a tank shop out somewhere by the train station. I am going to have a head over there to have a look this weekend and see what I can find. I would like a custom tank but the tank off a cb 125 would do the trick for now.

What I would really like to have is an old manx style tank but I can only imagine that they would be incredibly hard to make and probably out of my budget for this particular bike.

I think as far as powder coating goes, it might be a spray in a can kind of job. If a good powder coat for the frame will cost 5000 baht, that is going to be a quick push toward my intended budget, and I still have a lot of parts that are going to need to be purchased.

 

[Pikey]

Lotus,

3.5 - 5K for the powdercoat was my "guesstimate". I'd check it out at both places before you start shaking the paint can!

Somchit/k.Daeng can make pretty much anything, including a tank. He'll need the bike and works best if you give him pics from the internet.

Also, call him first to see which shop he's in and to arrange a meet.

Cheers,

Pikey.

 

[ianyonok]

Ryan,

Powder-coating here is a bit like chrome work. You might get a good job, if they have all the right equipment and follow the correct procedures.
When I restored my old Triumph, to strip the frame, I used an electric drill with scotchbrite wheels. Gives a nice finish ready for primer, the scotchbrite wheels are cheap and I got tired of being hit in the face by bits of wire that will sooner or later start falling off the wire wheel brush. When the wheels wear down, you can use them in the tighter corners. You'll need to source the arbor or nuts, bolts & washers to fit the wheels on to. The brown flap discs are ok for larger flatter items.

Ian

 

[HIKO]

HI LOTUS

If You need some more inspiration for your CAFE racer project these pictures of factory built small cc retro bikes will help you.

The first one is the Honda Dream 50 which came on the market early 2000. The bike was a copy of the Honda CR110 50 cc racing bike but had a restricted engine so that it can be sold to Japanese school boys. Anyhow the bike was “foundâ€

 

[lotuseater]

Sitting down and going through some of the parts I am going to need for this bike was a bit of a wake up call. It is going to need many new parts and that is going to bring me closer and closer to the budget that I had set for myself. It is not that big of a deal if I go over but I don't want to be too much over because of the type of the bike that this is and it is the idea behind this bike that it is cheap and fun.

So far as I can tell, I will most likely need a new fork. I wasn't to put disc brakes on the front of the bike and the current fork has no mounting tabs. I will also need a new hub to accommodate the disc break. The whole wheel is not in very good shape so depending on price I may just scrap the whole thing and get a decent new front wheel. The back wheel is not in much better shape, I will have to see what it will cost to chrome the wheel but I imagine by the time that all is said and done it is going to be cheaper to just buy a new one. The rubber is also in pretty bad shape and I am going to need some new tires for the bike. The bike will need a custom seat and gas tank and that is going to be a bit pricey. I also want to put a custom set of clubman bars on the bike. There are not a lot of original parts on this bike that I am going to keep. Thankfully parts for this type of bike tend to be very plentiful and cheap.

With this in mind, I decided to forgo the professional powder coat. I started stripping the frame this week and it should be ready for a coat of paint by the weekend. I have been using a drill and wire wheels and have found out that this is not a job for the faint of heart. It is hard, hot, dirty work and it is taking a long time.

I have found that it is also very hard to get the frame down to bare metal. There is a lot of surface rust and pitting on the frame that was hidden under the original powder coat. I am starting to wish I had just taken the frame to a place with a pressure washer and gotten the dirt and grime blasted off instead of dealing with the rust under the paint. It is slowly coming along though.

For anyone that has done this kind of project before, I have a question, how much rust under the new coat of paint will be acceptable. I have found that not only am I have a heck of a time getting all of the rust off the frame, within a day there are new rust spots in the places that I have already stripped.

Ian, thanks for the advice. I couldn't find the scotchbright pads but I will keep my eyes open. They look like they really work wonders.

Hiko. The dream 50 is a beautiful bike. In the early stages of thinking about this bike, I came across a bike that obviously took it's styling from the dream. It was actually this bike that got me thinking about doing a small displacement project like this in the first place.

Feel free to post more cafe racer photos if you have them.

Costs so far.

Base Bike 6000
drill 1800
Wire Wheel 150
Crescent wrench 300

Total To Date: 8250

 

[lotuseater]

Had a productive weekend this weekend. I got over to K. Daeng's shop and talked to him about getting a custom tank and seat. He said they should cost about 1000 baht each and he should have no problem doing what I was looking for.

I have also got the frame completely stripped and now have a couple of coats of primer on. Big thanks to my wife who bought me a angle grinder for my birthday. Seems the angle grinder is a much better tool for stripping paint than the drill was. I guess that is because it spins at a much higher speed. Also because it was a birthday present I don't have to include it in the cost of the bike.

Having the angle grinder also allowed me to grind the rear sets off as well as the mounting points for the air filter covers. I have decided to go with a pod filter and an open air box look. No turning back on that decision now I guess.

Base Bike 6000
drill 1800
Wire Wheel 150
Crecent wrench 300
Primer 2 cans 120

Total To Date: 8370

 

[lotuseater]

Some more work done.

The frame is now painted, the engine cleaned up and back in the bike. Now it is just a matter of cleaning up the parts that came with the bike and deciding what stays (likely not much) and what goes (likely everything but the engine and frame). Some of the parts are in pretty junk shape so I will have to see if they can be cleaned up or if it would just be more cost effective to start finding new parts for the bike.

The front and rear suspension are pretty much shot, don't know if I will even bother trying.

The wheels are in pretty bad shape but I am going to give a clean up a try with them.

Tank and seat are both going to a custom shop to get re-built into new custom parts.

New handle bars and grips are going to be a must.

 

[lotuseater]

Some more work done.

The frame is now painted, the engine cleaned up and back in the bike. Now it is just a matter of cleaning up the parts that came with the bike and deciding what stays (likely not much) and what goes (likely everything but the engine and frame). Some of the parts are in pretty junk shape so I will have to see if they can be cleaned up or if it would just be more cost effective to start finding new parts for the bike.

The front and rear suspension are pretty much shot, don't know if I will even bother trying.

The wheels are in pretty bad shape but I am going to give a clean up a try with them.

Tank and seat are both going to a custom shop to get re-built into new custom parts.

New handle bars and grips are going to be a must.

 

[penetrator]

Aluminum rims are very cheap in Thailand but not sure if you can get 18", seen plenty of 17" around for about 500-800 baht a pair. I've got an old Honda Cub I bought for £50 that has badly rusted and pitted rims, thinking about bringing the wheels or hubs over in my luggage and getting them rebuilt.