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Blue Dream CA78

ballbearian

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Total Posts
5,606
Total likes
1,395
Location
Hagerstown MD USA
In the beginning...

Here is a shot off an adventure that began my current build of the blue Dream. 3 derelicts on the trailer, a push-rod 90 (C200/CT200), black parts Dream and the blue dream. My incredulous friend guarding this haul of rusty gold while I took a break. 2 flats on the trailer and 3 hours drive back from 'the land of old barns full of rusty motorcycles', we drug (yes, they didn't even roll) my treasure into the garage.
Pgr0mpWh.jpg


This is a 64. I'm giving it redemption. It is apart now for bodywork, cracked fenders, dents, touch up paint with VHT caliper paint. As much original paint as possible will be blended in with rubbing compound. More practice tack welding patches in fenders and banging out dents. Nice patina to me means light scratches and hazing but bare rust and metal or acid damage gets fixed. 20K(miles) on the clock so suspension needs help, also a few broke spokes in the rear. Plan is to get it back to a roller before the engine work which runs but not sure how well. I'll look for more photos as I go. Cool horns huh, made in England "Clear Hooters". Might keep the Honda mystery seat. Right now on my Bud's black Dream cause he has a pain in his ass due to an old pelvic injury and I get to test it out , he loves it over his original, but it's getting redone so we'll see. I'm not going to spend a king's ransom on carb covers so again, we'll see. Right now, using Rustoleum primer with filler in it. I like it. No bondo filler but have filled larger gaps , etc with jbweld. Never be a show bike but a good looking hillbilly Honda .

dream.jpg IMG_0116.jpg
 
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I'm not dead, just sick for a week. Found some more pics of body/paint. We should get a kickback from this paint company; VHT. Can't wait to grind rust and get medieval on the rims/wheels and drums. Looks like fab time for a battery hold down/tray, unless some kind soul has an ugly early type long tray one (even a pic for example/pattern). The rear shocks function... don't want to side trip too much now to install more damper juice, maybe later. Trying to stay focused on the make it a roller phase.View attachment 11173View attachment 11174View attachment 11179View attachment 11180View attachment 11181View attachment 11182View attachment 11175View attachment 11178View attachment 11177View attachment 11176 Sorry for the pic order confusion. As I used to tell my bosses, " I am trainable".
To hammer out the fender flare I used a thick wall 8' diam. hunk of PVC for a buck. I thought I'd try a thick gusset of JBweld instead of blowing holes with my HF 90amp MIG.
As to the front Earls/ bottom link suspension; I had a bushing inner sleeve separation that still had intact rubber so I coated it in Shoe Goo and in she went. Also, you can see the remnants of the felt seals from the pivots laying on the paper towel. Scraped and blew out the grooves and zerks, finger packed with new grease and done, no felt seals, oh well if the grease runs out then I'll use the zerks(grease nipples). I really love the heavy duty post war engineering Honda did. I hope they were proud of their work.View attachment 11183There is the VHT caliper paint. I already had it and it was a close enough match. I will try to blend the transitions from the original to new paint with some rubbing compound and buffing probably in spring. The goal is a pleasantly interesting look, not perfect. Operational integrity might be a good term. Next, off to the big vise and long pipes to cold set the bent foot pegs. I've already anted up to make it legal; title, tags, insurance so there is my motivation to march on with this. Paid $1250 for it with a parts bike roller included, bought new tyres Tire 3.50 - 16 Motorcycle Scooter Moped Street Front/Rear Performance Tire | eBay, air filter and tube, front sprocket(15tooth from Popshonda ebay) and a chain (Niche amazon). I need to measure circumference difference of the fairly unworn old K70 Dunlop still on the front and the new 3.50 width new tyres, when I get em mounted and take into account the one tooth short from stock front sprocket for overall gearing changes. The bracket on the bottom of the swing arm brace must be like a belly button, just an artifact of birth, no present function. FYI, I will not be hanging a heathen talisman bell on it. Please chime in :) if you've a mind to on all of this.
 
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I'm not dead, just sick for a week. Found some more pics of body/paint. We should get a kickback from this paint company; VHT. Can't wait to grind rust and get medieval on the rims/wheels and drums. Looks like fab time for a battery hold down/tray, unless some kind soul has an ugly early type long tray one (even a pic for example/pattern). The rear shocks function... don't want to side trip too much now to install more damper juice, maybe later. Trying to stay focused on the make it a roller phase.View attachment 11173View attachment 11174View attachment 11179View attachment 11180View attachment 11181View attachment 11182View attachment 11175View attachment 11178View attachment 11177View attachment 11176 Sorry for the pic order confusion. As I used to tell my bosses, " I am trainable".
To hammer out the fender flare I used a thick wall 8' diam. hunk of PVC for a buck. I thought I'd try a thick gusset of JBweld instead of blowing holes with my HF 90amp MIG.
As to the front Earls/ bottom link suspension; I had a bushing inner sleeve separation that still had intact rubber so I coated it in Shoe Goo and in she went. Also, you can see the remnants of the felt seals from the pivots laying on the paper towel. Scraped and blew out the grooves and zerks, finger packed with new grease and done, no felt seals, oh well if the grease runs out then I'll use the zerks(grease nipples). I really love the heavy duty post war engineering Honda did. I hope they were proud of their work.View attachment 11183There is the VHT caliper paint. I already had it and it was a close enough match. I will try to blend the transitions from the original to new paint with some rubbing compound and buffing probably in spring. The goal is a pleasantly interesting look, not perfect. Operational integrity might be a good term. Next, off to the big vise and long pipes to cold set the bent foot pegs. I've already anted up to make it legal; title, tags, insurance so there is my motivation to march on with this. Paid $1250 for it with a parts bike roller included, bought new tyres Tire 3.50 - 16 Motorcycle Scooter Moped Street Front/Rear Performance Tire | eBay, air filter and tube, front sprocket(15tooth from Popshonda ebay) and a chain (Niche amazon). I need to measure circumference difference of the fairly unworn old K70 Dunlop still on the front and the new 3.50 width new tyres, when I get em mounted and take into account the one tooth short from stock front sprocket for overall gearing changes. The bracket on the bottom of the swing arm brace must be like a belly button, just an artifact of birth, no present function. FYI, I will not be hanging a heathen talisman bell on it. Please chime in :) if you've a mind to on all of this.

Lots going on there. Typically when pictures don't show up as they haven't for you ("invalid attachment" when you click on one), it means they did not upload to our server properly. Also, there's a 10 picture limit per post in our forum software and you attempted to include 11 pics. Did you get a message about exceeding the number of allowable pics?
 
No message/warning received. Guess I should just re-upload pics. Will be mindful of 10 pic limit.

Typically it tells you when you attempt to post with more than 10 pictures. This time you likely did not get the warning because the pictures did not upload successfully. You might consider opening an Imgur account, the pictures display better here anyway as well as it saves our server space (which ultimately helps us avoid server package upgrades longer, saving the forum money)
 
Typically it tells you when you attempt to post with more than 10 pictures. This time you likely did not get the warning because the pictures did not upload successfully. You might consider opening an Imgur account, the pictures display better here anyway as well as it saves our server space (which ultimately helps us avoid server package upgrades longer, saving the forum money)

I will get to work on that. Thanks and sorry.
 
Well done, nice big colorful pictures for us all to enjoy. (y)

(next hurdle will be how to rotate some of them to correct orientation using Imgur's available adjustments :dizzy: )
 
Yep, and it makes editing easier than the more complicated method you'd use on your computer. Look in the red rectangle at the bottom of the picture, when you pull up the picture and mouse-over the edit function becomes available

edit imgur.jpg
 
Thanks for all the help. I got a lot to learn.

Here is the mystery seat on my buddy's Dream that I disassembled and re-glued all the foam blocks that had collapsed. He may not let me have it back.
8ZnH49D.jpg
 
Before complete disassembly and the harvest from the parts roller.

This fun but I want to go beat on metal and take more pics
 
Glad I had spares from the parts bike. Lost one of the fiber friction washers for the steering damper which I wanted done to get it to roller stage.
 
Next up was to cold set the bent foot pegs with the big vice and a 4 foot pipe

Done, painted and temporary mounted.

you can see, at the bottom, the welded up plate mount from the mystery seat that the PO fabbed out of 1/4 and 5/16 steel. must have weighed at least 5 lbs. The side cover only got the SOS soap pad treatment, ready to start polishing it and the fender/ shock brackets.

Badge repaint with a craft syringe and testor's model paint
 
I think the fresh VHT blue paint looks good (y) I always liked the blue compared to red or black 305 Dreams.
 
I'm not dead, just sick for a week. Found some more pics of body/paint. We should get a kickback from this paint company; VHT. Can't wait to grind rust and get medieval on the rims/wheels and drums. Looks like fab time for a battery hold down/tray, unless some kind soul has an ugly early type long tray one (even a pic for example/pattern). The rear shocks function... don't want to side trip too much now to install more damper juice, maybe later. Trying to stay focused on the make it a roller phase.View attachment 11173View attachment 11174View attachment 11179View attachment 11180View attachment 11181View attachment 11182View attachment 11175View attachment 11178View attachment 11177View attachment 11176 Sorry for the pic order confusion. As I used to tell my bosses, " I am trainable".
To hammer out the fender flare I used a thick wall 8' diam. hunk of PVC for a buck. I thought I'd try a thick gusset of JBweld instead of blowing holes with my HF 90amp MIG.
As to the front Earls/ bottom link suspension; I had a bushing inner sleeve separation that still had intact rubber so I coated it in Shoe Goo and in she went. Also, you can see the remnants of the felt seals from the pivots laying on the paper towel. Scraped and blew out the grooves and zerks, finger packed with new grease and done, no felt seals, oh well if the grease runs out then I'll use the zerks(grease nipples). I really love the heavy duty post war engineering Honda did. I hope they were proud of their work.View attachment 11183There is the VHT caliper paint. I already had it and it was a close enough match. I will try to blend the transitions from the original to new paint with some rubbing compound and buffing probably in spring. The goal is a pleasantly interesting look, not perfect. Operational integrity might be a good term. Next, off to the big vise and long pipes to cold set the bent foot pegs. I've already anted up to make it legal; title, tags, insurance so there is my motivation to march on with this. Paid $1250 for it with a parts bike roller included, bought new tyres Tire 3.50 - 16 Motorcycle Scooter Moped Street Front/Rear Performance Tire | eBay, air filter and tube, front sprocket(15tooth from Popshonda ebay) and a chain (Niche amazon). I need to measure circumference difference of the fairly unworn old K70 Dunlop still on the front and the new 3.50 width new tyres, when I get em mounted and take into account the one tooth short from stock front sprocket for overall gearing changes. The bracket on the bottom of the swing arm brace must be like a belly button, just an artifact of birth, no present function. FYI, I will not be hanging a heathen talisman bell on it. Please chime in :) if you've a mind to on all of this.


These are terrible pictures but they’re the best I have off hand. This is a battery tray, and I think it might be early. I can’t sell it, but if it’s helpful to have better pictures, I can send some. It’s obviously in rough shape and if you figure out how to properly install yours, let me know. I’m finding it doesn’t want to work well with the battery cables and the surrounding box doesn’t want to screw in when it’s installed.
8F1B47E2-7477-45F9-8F0F-DD2C3AF0AF0E.jpgCD1BAD0D-C81E-4876-A48C-CE3C6995261D.jpg
 
Loving this thread. Such a huge undertaking for a bike that many wouldn't even attempt. The metalwork repairs are super-impressive! Kudos to you.(y)
 
Thanks for the pictures. It does seem a bit longer than my friends late type but other wise the same. I will post pics of his that may help you and pics of my mock up for an early. Do you mean your side cover won't close?
 
Loving this thread. Such a huge undertaking for a bike that many wouldn't even attempt. The metalwork repairs are super-impressive! Kudos to you.(y)

Thanks a bunch. Stay tuned for more episodes of PO (previous owner) sabotage. Since it was a lot of work, I thought I'd share my amateur attempt. These old CA's are not easy in the rear fender department. Twisty, sprung and cracked requires mucho kinetic love.
 
Thanks for the pictures. It does seem a bit longer than my friends late type but other wise the same. I will post pics of his that may help you and pics of my mock up for an early. Do you mean your side cover won't close?

That'd be very helpful, thank you. Yes, with the battery tray installed, I'v been unable to get the get the latch screwed in. It'll line up with the hole it screws into, but not be able to catch. It feels like the tray makes a hair difference . Might just be something a rubber mallet might fix, but I'm not sure.
 
Make sure you have the battery that fits. A late one takes a Mottobat MB9U but it won't fit in an early one, too thick. That is why I went with the Mighty Max (and it was a lot cheaper but I really like gel battery's.
V0QQ2iT.jpg

Youcan see the cable routing as intended
jGej2aO.jpg

The terminals are reversed on the Mighty Max but I'm cool with that. Whatever you do, don't short out your battery terminals by hammering it. Try to figure out what is obstructing. Disconnect your negative while you are fooling around first. Try tray with no batt, try batt with no tray, It has to fit, it's just not right yet.
 
Wheel of Misfortune

Let the games begin
FoL0Pt3.jpg

Only three patches....Must his good tube...it did hold air
g1TV4UZ.jpg

After about an hour
g0MVWwY.jpg

2 broken/missing, 2 more had been replaced on same side, just outside the 2 MIA (1 more had been replaced on other side but across the wheel), all heads in (B spokes, I think). Will this tale of torture end with a trued up wheel?
snLrW0G.jpg

At least I can shine it up easier.
 
Oh that even feels like a lot of work from here, ouch my 'everything'!

Looks nice & clean though. Any trouble sourcing spokes?
 
Oh that even feels like a lot of work from here, ouch my 'everything'!

Looks nice & clean though. Any trouble sourcing spokes?

I have to use both thumbs on the spoke wrench these days or ouch for sure.

I found 10 (only need 9) Honda spokes on ebay to replace the 1/2 on one side that were the worst. There are whole sets available for reasonable from Asia.
 
Yes, great pics and similar (though a fair amount worse rust) to what I went through while changing tires on the 450 recently. I wire brushed the rust away and sprayed the inner area of the rim with (get ready to laugh) FlexSeal because it was the only thing I had on the shelf that would dry and offer a soft surface to the tube and rim strip. I figured if the tubes lasted as long as they did while in that far worse, continually-worsening environment of previous rust they should do just fine with rust removed and covered with a rubbery spray sealant.
 
That's actually a pretty good idea, plus with another layer or two you can run tubeless.

LOL, not sure I'd take it THAT far... though they do show a screen door sprayed with FlexSeal on the bottom of a boat in a lake with the commercial schmuck rowing it around... of course, it could well have sunk off camera.
 
Make sure you have the battery that fits. A late one takes a Mottobat MB9U but it won't fit in an early one, too thick. That is why I went with the Mighty Max (and it was a lot cheaper but I really like gel battery's.
V0QQ2iT.jpg

Youcan see the cable routing as intended
jGej2aO.jpg

The terminals are reversed on the Mighty Max but I'm cool with that. Whatever you do, don't short out your battery terminals by hammering it. Try to figure out what is obstructing. Disconnect your negative while you are fooling around first. Try tray with no batt, try batt with no tray, It has to fit, it's just not right yet.


Thank you for the pictures! I'm going to compare to my setup and see what looks different. If I can't figure it out, I can just zip tie the battery in so it's not moving around until I come up with a better solution. Much appreciated.
 
Not laughing at all! Hmmm... the possibilities. It's a good thing I actually have the knee pads for the tank. I hope the new tyres fit, or I might put the old K70's on without the shoe polish. Someday I'll be a PO too!
 
I'm quite sure, bikes that old could tell so many stories if only they could talk. And probably some we wouldn't want to hear...

I'm thinking that with my 160, foot pegs are bent upward, tail light bracket has paint worn off where he used to hang his helmet....
 
I'm thinking that with my 160, foot pegs are bent upward, tail light bracket has paint worn off where he used to hang his helmet....

Oh yeah, plenty of history and anecdotes there, especially the bent footpegs. They don't fold on the 160, do they? I remember the early to mid '60s bikes, many had solid footpegs that would hurt you if you had to push-start the bike and when you jumped on after getting it running you made the mistake of letting your foot come down in front of the right side peg. Partially sprained an ankle like that once.
 
I'm quite sure, bikes that old could tell so many stories if only they could talk. And probably some we wouldn't want to hear...

That reminds me, I was thinking of making up a footpeg setup that bolts on like stock but has folding pegs...and save my bent stock setup as is.

I wonder what the odds are of finding such a piece from a later bike that'll bolt up? CB175?
 
That reminds me, I was thinking of making up a footpeg setup that bolts on like stock but has folding pegs...and save my bent stock setup as is.

I wonder what the odds are of finding such a piece from a later bike that'll bolt up? CB175?

It does make sense especially for trail bikes. I have straightened CB 350 pegs that did fold and still were bent from the bike getting laid down.
 
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