Welcome to day 4 and 5 of me working on my CB700SC. I took a break from the bike on Friday and did other more relaxing things. But Saturday morning, I was right back at it.

My goal this weekend was to do everything. To get the bike running. The gas tank needed to be Kreem'ed and to do that right, you need at least a day and a half. I didn't want to risk anything, so I took it nice and slow.

On saturday morning, I headed out to get some parts. Rick hooked me up with a salvage shop over in North Hollywood (called Johnson Wood) and those guys were great. They had all sorts of great stuff. I picked up a new set of handlebars, a used seat (that was in perfect condition) and some new front brake pads. The guys there are really cool and if you live in LA and need moto parts, I would totally go see them. Email me if you need more info. They are on Lankershim in North Hollywood.

Anyway, after that I stopped by North Hollywood Honda to pick up a new battery for the bike. They charged it for me for free so I detoured to Target to do some shopping. (Since there are NO friggin Targets anywhere near me, I figured that since I was in the area...)

Anyway, once I got home I found the new handlebars didn't fit on my bike. They looked identical except they were too tall!! They defenitly came off a nighthawk of some kind since they looked exactly the same and even had a sticker about front shock airpressure that my bike has on the gas tank.... Anyway, there were too tall and none of the hoses/cables/wires reached when I mouted it with my controls. So, I had to figrue something out.

Eric's dad's van has a big vice mouted on the outside of it. It decided I was going to have to bend the handlebars that came with my bike into something a little more managable...... I mouted it and started wailing on them. Believe it or not, I did a pretty good job. When looking at the bars mounted on the bike, the left one is just a little too low. Other than that, they are great. I still want to replace them, though, since I don't like having bent metal on the bike... They are pretty damn important!!

One cool thing about the Nighthawk is the bars are totally adjustable. You can actually move the back and forth to give them more ..... what's the word ..... rake? In other words, you can make the angle between the two ends greater or less. Nice thinking Honda. Helped me make them even again!

After that, I put the new battery in and hooked up the cables. I did a quick check of the bike's electrical systems and everything looks good. Turn signals worked ... gear shift indicator worked ... tail light works ... indicator lights ... Anyway, the only thing not working was the horn. I'll have to check that out. I'm sure it's something simple.

Also, I hit the start button and the engine turned over, sounding totally fine. Woohoo! Now it just needs some gas.

So, I started working on the gas tank. I began by prepping the tank by washing it out with soapy water and throwing in some nuts and bolts for "fun" to help chip away any bike chunks of rust. Once I was done with that, I set the tank aside to dry. Eric and I went over to Home Depot to find some items to stop up the holes on the tank. What I ended up buying and using was a big rubber stopped for the top filler hole and a cork stopper for the fuel level hole. The small petcock hols was filled using a little rubber cap that I pushed into the hold using a screw driver. (But not enough so I could pull it back out!)

In went the step-A of the Kreem which dissolved and etches the rust and metal. It really works. Take one rusty tank, add this stuff and out comes a nice dull metal finish inside. My tank is big so it was only covering about half the tank. So I let that sit for about 12 hours and then Eric flipped it over before he went to bed.

Sorry, no pictures of all of this.

On Sunday, I went to Eric's house and checked on the tank. It looked pretty good. Unfortunately, some of the Prep-A has gotton on the already fading top of the tank and made it a little worse. Not to mention some new minor scratches on the top from us handling it. Oh well.... It's not that bad.

I emptied out the tank of Prep-A, washed it out with water, added Prep-B in there, drained it, then put in the Kreem coating. Please not, getting liquid out of the tank is VERY hard since the top opening has a big ridge inside. Each time, I used an electric pump. Yeah yeah .. I know you should use an electric pump with flammable stuff like this, but OH well. Unfortunately, the Prep-B seemed to kill the pump... it didn't turn any more. Luckily, I was done.

While the tank was doing it's thing, I just fiddled with the bike, cleaning it and putting some of the parts back on it. Basically getting it ready to ride once the tank goes back on and gas goes in. Hopefully, the machanical condition of the carbs and engine are good so I won't have any problems.