What: 1991 VFR750F
Where: Tempe, Arizona
Why: Beautiful bargain
Price: $1950 BIN or make offer

Offered in the Phoenix area is this very presentable '91 VFR in original Italian Red with a gorgeous set of one-year-only platinum-colored wheels.

The bike shows 54K miles but appears to be very well kept. Some nice extras include a Vance & Hines slip-on (original included), OEM seat cowl, Throttlemeister throttle lock and center stand. There's a bit of "patina" but overall this one looks great. And those unobtanium side fairings are all in one piece, always a bonus on the third-gen models. After years of messing with old VFRs I've developed an eye for the telling details — things like sun fading, seat and switchgear condition, mirrors, windscreen, stuff like that. This one checks all the boxes and surely has many more miles and smiles in store for its new owner.

Project Magna, an '82 VF750C, is progressing as I work my way through the front end. With the forks on the bench, disassembly went smoothly and all the components are straight and serviceable with the exception of the oil seals, of course. The photo on the left shows what leaking fork seals produce — imagine that gunk on your brake components. After a thorough cleaning I set to refinishing the aluminum lower fork legs. Like many of the bike's polished aluminum pieces these were clear-coated at the factory, but decades of stone chips and neglect have them looking like a bad case of acne.

This won't do, so my solution is to first strip the clear-coat with chemical stripper followed by a wet-sanding with 320-grit, then 800-grit. The 320 will remove the pockmarks of corrosion and the 800 eliminates sanding marks.

For some parts I'll go with even finer sanding, up to 3000, but I liked the dull sheen that the 800-grit provided on these legs — very factory-like. Here's the sanded part ready for polish.

It's easy to get carried away with aluminum polishing but for the fork legs I wanted just a bit of shine, so a single pass with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish did the trick.

To try and preserve the finish we could have these parts clear coated with powder coat, but I've chosen to leave them bare and encourage the owner to give them a buffing once a year. They live in a harsh environment where stone chipping is a fact of life, and they're very easy to access for a quick cleaning/polishing.

Project 14 came to us about a year ago. It was a local find in dire need of rescuing. It's a 1987 VFR700 F2 with 22,000 miles and was the victim of a well-intentioned but ill-equipped previous owner. He committed both cosmetic and mechanical sins against this motorcycle, beginning with emptying untold number of grey Rustoleum spray bombs all over the abused plastic panels. Then there's the hacked-off rear fender and some inexplicable electrical experiments. At some point a 17-inch front wheel was fitted from an early Hurricane (CBR600). No, it wasn't running when we found it. Of course not.

I've been working on the bike off & on for some time. Once all the mechanical checks were made, carbs rebuilt/jetted and all the electrons herded in their respective directions, the start-up went well. We now have a nice running Interceptor. The plan is to fit "driver-grade" complete and original-condition red/white/blue bodywork with black wheels and bronze colored, powder-coated engine covers. I'm also using a set of shortened OEM mufflers in black which should provide a great soundtrack. I've installed fresh steering head bearings, a rear fender eliminator, blacked out the radiator and added a white pinstripe to the freshly painted wheels. Yet to be completed is the brake system rebuild along with Galfer stainless brake lines.

I expect this mild custom to turn a few heads when it hits the road come Spring. Stay tuned.
(click on a photo to enlarge)

Project 14 is an '87 F2, and as such has the "square" instrument package with a kind of dark, smoky blue color. This build is a mild custom and the blue (which I personally dislike) isn't going to work.

The instrument panel disassembles easily and the individual parts can then be dealt with. Shown here is a complete assembly and one in pieces. 

The color change is easy; after a thorough cleaning I scuff the surfaces of the three nacelle pieces with a scotchbrite pad and spray them with a product from SEM called Trim Black, which is used for the black plastic trim pieces on cars, like fender surrounds and bumpers. This is a very durable matte finish and looks factory applied.

Next up is the instrument "glass," as Honda calls it, which is actually plastic, of course. Time and sun exposure tend to cloud its clarity — much like myself, come to think of it. I attack it with a few machine buffings with Novus plastic polishes and a final polish with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. I suspect a headlight polishing kit would work well also. Here, the left section has been massaged.

While it won't come crystal clear, the finished lens looks very good. Screw everything back together and mount it up.

Tim at Pashnit Moto has spent 20 years building a great business supplying accessories and California backroad tours. His is a family business and he's a bike guy. I've ordered lots of stuff over the years, especially Galfer brake line kits when the free rear line sale is in effect...like now.

There's also another opportunity to save with this unique weekend sale (through Monday). The idea is that you email him with your item (or list) and he emails back a sale price. If you accept, you're billed, you pay, and he ships. Give it a try. Best to visit the link for details:
https://app.robly.com/archive?id=0417072f112feb54f2b03bb5ad757951

I'm midway through Project 14, an '87 VFR700 F2 in need of a thorough TLC treatment.

This bike came to me with a 17-inch CBR front wheel conversion with both wheels painted black, and I've decided to keep that look. After chemically removing the badly-applied Rustoleum finish, I began with a coating of Dupli-Color Self-Etching Primer followed by top coats of Dupli-Color's black and then clear wheel paints.

I left the old tire in place during painting.

With the paint cured and new Avon mounted, I went about adding a trim line. This bike will be finished in red/white/blue bodywork with black accents, so to tie the black wheels to the predominately white body, I decided on a single white accent stripe.

I'm no freehand striping artist, so I cheated with a like-new Beugler mechanical striper device which I found for half price on eBay. The YouTube videos show some fantastic work with this baby, but I thought it best to stick with simple stripes; a wider one for the rear and narrow for the front.

After a little practice on a sheet of paper, I managed to get the stripe in place with only a couple of "character" flaws.

I'm not really a fan of murdered-out wheels, so with this little bit of flash I hope that the dark wheels will compliment the overall look — some other parts of this build will also be black, including the muffler, radiator and instrument nacelle.

What: 1997 VFR750F
Where: Edgewater, New Jersey
Why: Fully farkled, low miles
Price: BIN $3100 or Make Offer

Here's a great-looking final-year example of the 750cc VFR. The bike shows 17,500 miles and the seller does his best to describe and show the minor flaws. This one has a laundry list of desirable upgrades including a Staintune slip-on muffler, jet kit, RaceTech fork springs, Corbin seat, recent tires, plus upgraded brake lines, charging system and clutch.

The original seat, seat cowl and muffler are included along with two service manuals. This is a nice package for a reasonable asking price — a perfect example of how a well-kept Interceptor offers the best used bike value around.

Update: The seller has had second thoughts and decided to keep the bike. Wise man.

Creative tool ideas always get my attention. This one finds many uses around the shop — it's called the Form-A-Funnel.

Bend it, mold it, use it to drain hard-to-reach areas...like those pesky carb drains on a V4 engine, for example. Here I'm draining the carbs for winter storage on The Blues Project. No muss, no fuss.

I also use this to catch excess spray when lubing a chain or funneling dripping gas when disconnecting fuel lines. Form it into a dish and set it under your leaky British twin. Make it into a funnel when adding oil or gas. It wipes clean and doesn't seem to be affected by any solvents. It's even easy to store.

For more information:
http://www.formafunnel.com

Our summer continues into the winter months here in the hinterlands of the upper midwest. Yesterday was showing 70 degrees and the sun was bright. With colder temps on the horizon, the time has come to prep the ST1300 for hibernation. That will require an oil change, which will require warming the oil, which will require a ride. Perfect. Sounds like an excuse to hit some Wisconsin Rustic Roads and a favorite coffee stop in East Troy (former home of the defunct Buell Motorcycle Company).

Along the way I found myself leisurely gazing over a highway bridge and when I looked up a jagged remnant of an alloy car wheel was lying in the right-side track of my lane. A gentle swerve took me clear and by the time I was able to stop, turn around, and get back to clear the lane, four other vehicles (including a motorcycle) had passed by the chunk of death and continued on their carefree way. This is a little disturbing, 'cause this thing would certainly take down a motorcycle or do some serious damage to a car. C'mon people, let's help each other out.

For more on the Rustic Roads program, visit:
http://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/travel/road/rustic-roads/default.aspx

Project Magna is progressing and we're turning our attention to the front end. With the wheel, forks and brakes on the work bench each component can be dealt with.

First up, the wheel. After a new Dunlop 404 was mounted I wanted to address the tired-looking wheel. These cast rims are a combination of black painted and polished alloy, and both the metal and paint were looking pretty tired after 34 years on the road.

< Here's a before shot.

Working with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish, I hit the polished areas by hand. If your polishing cloth turns black, as in this picture, then you know you're working with aluminum as opposed to clear-coat paint or some other metal. That's aluminum oxide being removed, aluminum's version of rust.

This brings back memories of my first restoration, a 1972 Norton. Many, many hours of hand polishing (what seemed like) acres of shiny aluminum brought out the bling in all those gorgeous castings.

Aluminum has a soft, luxurious shine that even chrome can't compete with. Taking the time to go over your polished bits once per year keeps them free of corrosion and nice to look at.

Next up is the black painted portions. I really don't want to paint anything on my projects that doesn't absolutely require it. There's nothing wrong with some age spots on an old vehicle — I think it provides a genuine touch.

Some time ago I came across this product on the shelf at my local home improvement big box store. It's from Rustoleum and is called ReCOLOR or Wipe New, depending on where you look on the box. Well, anything with "As Seen On TV" on the package gets my attention so I had to give it a try.

I'm here to report...it works. This little bottle of magic is a watery potion that smells of sickeningly sweet cherry which is okay at first but after awhile has Patti "asking" that the item be removed from the premises. 

I don't know what kind of chemistry is at work here, but this is no glorified Armor-All. The product requires 24 hours to cure and it can't come in contact with water for that time or it will permanently spot.

I've tried it on smooth plastic, like a chain guard, with good results, but the rough satin finish of these Magna wheels is where it really, ah, shines. I can't speak to how long the effect lasts, but the spec sheet warns that if you screw up the application it's extremely difficult to remove. The color really pops and the dingy, faded corners and crevices come back to life. The 3-ounce bottle and the stuff with it cost me $20. A little goes a long way.

With those jobs done, I set to cleaning and prepping the brake discs for a facelift. They just weren't quite up to par with the refurbished wheels so a quick application of silver wheel paint ties it all together.

Job done. On to the forks.