1960 Honda CA95 Restoration
 

Hi everyone. I wanted to introduce myself and my first restoration project. It's a 1960 CA95 Benly "Tokyo Rose" edition. I bought it pretty complete but completely rough! So far I have torn it down to get it ready for paint, polish and re-chrome.

My intent is to restore it to as original condition as possible. I have started gathering parts but still have some important ones to score:rolleyes:

I will post of few pics that show the condition I bought it and then keep posting through the process. Having spent a fair amount of time searching this forum it is obvious that the restoration expertise is here. I will thank you in advance for keeping me on the right path on this adventure.

ca95 restoration
 

Michael, Welcome, I am also new to this forum. Your bike doesn't look bad. How is the motor? Does it need a complete overhaul? If you need any special parts you can't find I may have or can make it. I fabricate a lot of unavailable parts for my crap I work on. I tried to attach a couple of pict of items but they were too large. I'll try again later. I made a float bowl and petcock including bowl. Good luck, Glenn.

pict of my bike and parts made
 

Michael, Here is a few pict of my bike and some parts I made. Glenn.

Glenn
Thanks. Those are nice parts. I will keep in mind when I get to that point. My original petcock is in tact and I'll have to see what it looks like when I get it cleaned up.
Mike

Hey Newbie Dudes!

Luv the Tokyo Rose :)…… I would just put a clear coat over the top to keep that colour (yes, there is a "u" in colour down under ;) )

Awesome fabrication Glen…..I reckon thats the way of the future, in keeping these old girls with all their bits on :D……though I have to admit I have just replaced the original petcock with a HD replacement :(…..the one bit I would change with the replacement would be to turn up a base plate that utilises an o-ring to seal against the tank instead of goo :o

My bike is not quite 'original', but Hey, I like it :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Kev.

It looks like you have a good start there Michael, good luck with it.

Sam.:)

Thanks Kev and Sam. This is fun. I hope I'm still sayin' that at the end! I just finished de-rusting tank and it looks great. I have a little free time next week and will try to post progress pics.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Hey guys. I'm new to the forum too. I have been waiting to be approved by admin to post. Took a month lol. I bought my modified 63 benly around the first of October for $700 in Atlanta, GA, US. It was a basket case, motor in a box. It's a cafe style build (there's enough of you stockers out there :D, Go Rockers!). I just finished modding the drag bars for the internal throttle and wiring. I'll post more pictures when I get done, probably late spring. Here's a couple pictures of how it looked when I picked it up.

Another

Cant wait to see the progression of your build. Good luck:)

Roberd42, is your bike a C95 or CA95 ?

Sam.:)

CA95 late model SN CA95E-4011917. Matching engine/frame numbers. Apparently some of the dream 305s and earlier models came with mismatch numbers. I guess the engines and frames were built and numbered independently sometimes.

Hello and welcome to the new members of the forum. It's wonderful to get some new projects underway here.

Michael, the rose bike looks great - we've seen much rougher. The exhaust looks quite good in the pictures.

Looking forward to the updates.

Kevin

She's shaping up! Got the motor mounted up today and some bits put on. Waiting on carb jets. Im still hem hawing on what to do with the headlight possibly an LED conversion. The tank had a nice leak on the inside wall. I will be TIG welding that up and putting a new coat of paint on it. I will take the bike by a local touch up shop to get some dings and scratches fixed up once its mechanically sound. How does the starter cable route through to the solenoid? Also, which bolt holds the cable stay on the bottom of the motor?

I looked back through my pics from the teardown but didn't see any shots of how that is routed but I'm sure someone else here can describe that for both of us! Man, I love the way this is looking. The black and white colors look great. I hope to do some similar customization on my next project. Sweet bike. Keep the pics coming.
Mike

The starter cable routes like this:
http://www.fourwheelforum.com/pictur...&pictureid=379

You will note the indent at the back of the engine. The starter wire goes though the indent and ends up in the frame cavity to connect to the starter solenoid.

Perfect spokes! I'm having a hard time shoving the cable through the detent into the cavity. Maybe I should have started in the cavity and went forward.

No, actually the cable fits the indentation when installing the engine. You may have to unbolt the engine at the frame and allow the engine to swing away from the frame just a bit. Loosen the head bolt mount but don't remove it. Then route the cable though and push the engine back into the frame and re install the bolts.

Ok! I will try that, thanks!

Again, I feel like a dummy. Thumbing thru my manual, ta da! There it is...

Here is a question about keys. My ignition switch has an "NA" key. Seems hard to find the original but I did find a generic blank. That will be easy enough to get ground. The steering lock and pump lock are another story. The steering lock has no letter designation, just a 4 digit number stamped on the face of the lock. The pump lock has no letter designation but a 2 digit number on the face of the lock.
Can anyone give me guidance on what blank type the steering and pump locks require?
Thanks,
Mike

originally the ignition key should match the steering lock.

That's what I was afraid of. I would love to find one that accepts the "NA" blank. Gives me an excuse to keep looking:D

I have two spare steering locks. One has an clearly legible NA key number but I don't have the key for it. I have another with a key and no number stamped on the lock or key (possibly a repop). I also have some honda key blanks. If you are interested in any of it let me know and Ill dig in my spares and get some pictures.

I am definitely interested in the "NA" steering lock. I have a key blank for it so that works out good. I'll PM you for the details. Thanks

Michael, I can't figure out how to send photos in the PM but heres what I have. My key blanks are generic repops. Ive never seen a blank like the original NA keys. I bought my original keys from this guy for $10/ea plus $2 shipping:

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-motorcycle-pa...keys/314919148

The key is NA6046 and its in his list of available keys. Shoot me another PM.

Not all NA keys are the same. I messed with Pinky's (my '60 Tokyo Rose) ignition and fork locks for a while until I found a match. I first found the correct NA606 key number, that I initially thought would open the locks; it did not. I've attached a pic of the differences. After significant research, I eventually found a NA626 key that did open the locks. Honda did that with their keys; skip numbers and make minute changes to the cut.

I had the same "key" problem with my '61 Benly (nicknamed Rusty) - a very late 1961, VIN CA951100968. The bike has matching fork and ignition locks, but has a bizarre key number B4603 (see attached pic) that nobody was able to match or had even heard of... and I contacted many Honda key experts. (Another untold Honda mystery, as is the Tokyo Rose color that they've never acknowledged selling.)

A generous eBay seller let me send him one of my locks for Rusty (I chose my fork lock because it was easier to remove) and he took the time to find a match to it in his many keys. I was flabbergasted at the kindness and generosity of this seller. You just don't find that many of these types of folks out there any more. He was able to find key NB603 that fit and opened both locks, but obviously the numbers are not an exact match. (Yet again we see the similarity in Honda's numbering scheme, as with Pinky.) One of the two keys he sent me worked more smoothly in the lock than did the other, but I was okay with that; just happy to have found a key that worked.

http://www.hondakeys.com/ is a good resource for Honda tire pump and ignition keys, not the eBay seller mentioned above, but a great guy nonetheless. He's provided me with ignition keys and was able to get me key 309 for the tire pump on Rusty.

I've also attached a pic of a tire pump key for your reference.

Hope this info proves helpful.

Thanks for the help and I will try your recommended seller for the lock key. My next issue is the horn. How the heck does that thing come apart? I tried a little gentle persuasion but was afraid of damaging it because I must be missing something. Has anyone posted on this topic before?

I have not pulled apart an "early" horn with the screw-on wire connectors like yours. I did pull apart a late horn and gentle persuasion is what it took to get my horn apart. Prising where the outside steel bell and the cast aluminum horn base meet is what I did. As I recall, I worked it right there at the white paint spot where the bell is dimpled to meet its mating surface on the cast horn base (see attached pic).

Also, be very careful of those brittle nylon insulators around the screw lugs where the horn wires attach. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to recreate/replace those if they get broken. Also, there's supposed to be a white rubber gasket or o-ring piece between the nylon insulators and the outside steel bell; yours are missing or rotted away (white rubber does that!). Attached is a horn that has one of its rubber insulator in place. I have not tried to disassemble this horn, because it's in such decent original condition.

I did not successfully restore my "late" CA95 horn (mentioned above) to good original working condition. I raised it from the dead by cleaning its contact points and got it to squak and freep, but not beep well like a proper 6V horn. However, maybe some more tweaking would help...?

I think that I just need be be a tad less gentle. I don't appear to have the indent your picture shows but there is a little gap on that side of the bell that I can get a good bite on. I was just afraid prying too hard since I assumed those insulators were fragile. The white gaskets are toast and I'll try to deal with that if I get the horn working once it's apart. Thanks again.

I have two different part manuals. Neither one shows the black front fender packing that my bike has on it. It is the same rubber that the larger Dreams come with. Is this something that was maybe never documented on the earliest models?

Any input would be appreciated.
Mike

Mine is an early '60 (like yours), but it did not come with a front fender. My late (all original) '61 does not have the packing and I have never seen a CA95 with packing in that area. Do you have a picture of your fender packing before disassembly? Was the packing on yours attached to the fender or headlight shell?
Dane

Dane,
Here is a pic taken before disassembly. I am pretty sure it was attached to the headlight shell. It's weird that it is not in either parts manual but was on mine. I looked at that blue CA 95 I found on the Japanese guy's site and it looks like it has it too. Hmmmm...

Take a close look at a bike I built a couple of years ago.
http://www.fourwheelforum.com/pictur...pictureid=1050

You can see the "packing" between the headlight bucket and the fender.

Looks original? No. I just used black automotive door edging found at any big box auto parts store. The inside of the door edging has adhesive and fits the lip at the bottom of the headlight bucket.

In the shot I attached of the Japanese guy's CA95, it looks like there's no packing. Also, I see no sign of a packing ever being installed on my headlight shell. If there was one on there for very long, the paint would've been less faded/rusted in that area, but it is not. I think someone installed the packing at some point on your bike, just like Spokes did on his bike.

Thanks for the photos guys. Looks like I may not include the packing.

Clutch
 

I ordered replacement clutch discs from Thailand. They said they were were for a CA95. When I received them I noticed they were thinner than the originals. There are also 5 discs instead of the original 4. Anyone had this happen?

I haven't inspected them to compare to those installed but my bike came with a spare set of discs that I would let go of if those don't work.

Thanks. I attached a pic of the two discs. The one on the left is original. The right one is about 1mm thinner. I will take you up on the offer if the set you have checks out. Just PM me and let me know the specific.

I will caliper them tomorrow and photo them to see if you want them. Thanks! Hoppy Easter! -William