1992 through 1996 Honda CR 250s Done. The last 5 years of the Honda 250 steel frames.

Blue Line is who I used. This outfit also produced my shock/fork labels. They offer many of the subtle stickers.

https://www.bluelinedecals.com/home

The airbox and rear shock are normally the two easiest ways to define a 95 from a 96 outside graphics. The #3 bike had a 96 airbox mounted. This and the owner advertised it as a 96 caused me to travel for it. I was too invested in it with time that I still purchased.

Thanks Chance for the well wishes my friend. I actually forgot about the tape use. So thank you for reminding me.

I had everything done besides the refinish of the tanks and motors. So now it basically moves pretty quickly. This motor above went very quickly for me. Thankfully I have my first restoration still which is a 95 which helps orientate bits and bobbles.

Like I mentioned once you have all your individual parts restored it really moves quickly on the actual rebuild. Easy to rush that part and start compromising since you are so close. I forget at times I have three more to do and a roller. 
Without any doubt getting to this point is what we all love about doing restorations.
 

Finally able to see it come together.

I did notice screwing in the spark plug there was some resistance to the threads. I immediately believed that some debris may have been moved out of the threads and fell on top of the piston. A light confirmed some light debris. Pointless trying to blow it out. Pulled the nicely torqued head off to clean off the dome. So easy just to let that go.
No way. I wouldn’t want someone to not have that attention to detail if they were working on my bike.

U linkage part was bolted on first. The retaining bolt slid right in due to relieving the mounts of excess powder coat. The Yamaha WR was a nightmare for me in this area. Just no area to get a powered tool weaseled in there. Had to use a wooden dowel with sandpaper attached. It was misery.
All the motor mounts are still loose of course. 

Mount the linkage knuckle to the swingarm first. I tried it later. You cannot install the retaining bolt into the swingarm after. I torqued down all fasteners to Honda specs and even used a white paint pen to mark the position of nuts on bolts. Not all, just ones which get serviced infrequently.

Thanks guys. The yellow/gold zinc will bleach out in direct sun. The only shortcoming of this finish. Honda appears to no longer use that as a dye. Using standard zinc coatings everywhere just makes the bike look like you replaced all the parts with new.

I try to be careful in selecting what parts will be gold.

I added an extension to the power valve. Supposedly this addition increases low end by enlarging this chamber. Since I’m running a stock pipe I knew it would clear. The 1995 will also get one of these. 
It will be so hard not to fire this and just hear it run. With the pipe cleaned out of carbon along with the silencer and repacked it should sound great. 
 

Like I suggested this build will be mostly in the spirit of a 1996. One of several changes is the rear master cylinder. Later manufacture with a larger OD internally. Will it make a difference? I have no idea but went with it since the Nissin is exposed to the outside.

Swingarm stickers applied along with a detail shot of the rear caliper. I spray the calipers with a nickel color Cerakote. I just prefer the different color for some parts. This product line is super impressive for thin coating and excellent resilience. I can readily wipe off anything even with lacquer thinner and no paint removal. Brake line restored stocker. I discovered a product line I can slip over the hose fittings and heat to reseal the plastic sliders. I painted the ends and plastic black Cerakote.

Even I find it hard to believe almost everything on the bike now is all restored. Restoring plastic components is extremely difficult and if I can buy a replacement reasonably I will.

In this shot above the rear brake line keepers, disc protector, and the plastic covers over the linkage access hole are new. Obviously decals are new. I even restore the copper sealing washers for the brake lines.

I bolted on the water pump guard. Works Connection is the brand and I use Yamaha YZ ones. Only because I can usually find these cheap on eBay. Again this is a mod not original to the bike. I do this on almost all my restores since few tend to do it. Just a little distinctive feature of a restore I have done.
 

Radiators on and electrical done.

It took patience not to mount my forks immediately. I have been looking forward to this since I had the upper outers re-anodized. Twin cartridge Showa’s restored. I wanted a yellow/gold similar to what Ohlins has. Just a preference. I shot the lower lugs black and highlighted the Showa logo with polishing.

Triples are off a 2007 CRF 450. Used those on this build since it has the rubber mounted handlebars. These took quite a bit of effort to modify for a much earlier Honda. Had to press out the stem and replace it. 

Casting lines removed on all these triples I will be using. It was daunting being motivated to do all of them at one time. Just so many steps to get them smoothed out.

Airbox in. Kept the color nearly the original dark grey. Did not go black.

19” rim. And yes it’s a Tusk. As much as I hated to go cheap on the rims I was faced with buying 10 of them. Excels were going to be crazy huge dollars. Tusks are actually very nice. I tried to get rid of the branding but no way to do it and match the finish. It is what it is. Next owner can pony up for a new set of hoops…..But….New Bridgestones! Haha…I went with this brand since I just like the appearance of the side walls of these specific tires.

Like everything else on this bike this was a stock well used pipe. Thats powder coat for the finish and it actually holds up very well.

Re-shot the grey on the mag cover and sprocket guard. Shot some H series clear over it. The H series clear actually shoots very glossy. The older version of this clear created yellowing. 

D.I.D. ER chain rolled on.

Thanks brother. It has come together pretty well.

That UFO plastic looks pretty good once on the bike. It doesn’t look so great in the packaging. But for these year Honda’s it’s the best offering out there. 

It is actually inferno. I have already moved on to the next motor. Just sprayed cases/cylinder and some other parts this morning. Have to wait until early morning sun or late afternoon for proper images.

Since this bike will sit I made a heavy paper cut out to cover the opening into the boot. Senseless to mount a filter when the seat will be covering this area anyways.

I will add something about the VMX tanks. I will have to run them on a cotton flapper wheel to polish the plastic. Just not enough gloss for me. I did not have to do this with the Clarke tanks. You will also have to drill a hole for the petcock. No big deal since a relief is there to guide.

Not a huge deal having to polish but could be for those of you unfamiliar with the technique. Super easy to melt the plastic and leave cotton fibers adhered.

You can kind of see a difference. I should have shot the images outdoors for more light reflection. Polished tank on the left.

Huge shout out to Throttle Jockey. Insane quality of decals. Super heavy material being used with incredible depth and finish gloss. Silly to go cheap on items like these. This is the first thing most persons look at immediately. Outstanding business and a pleasure to purchase and run their products.

Well one down… Four more to go.

Im actually already to put the completed rebuilt lower end of the motor on the 1995 in the frame tomorrow. As soon as I garaged this 96 I grabbed another motor the same day. I will be covering the 95 rebuild very soon.

Just to insure transparency on this build-

New parts- Tusk Rims, Bridgestone Tires, tubes and rim locks, fork and shock seals, UFO plastic, Throttle Jockey seat cover and graphics, Honda fender and swingarm decals, Blue Line decals, Honda grips, Honda throttle cable, Motion Pro clutch cable, Honda carb vent lines, upper and lower steering stem bearings, brake pads front and rear, D.I.D chain, Renthal sprockets, UFO top chain roller, Honda lower rear disc guard, packing for silencer, Motion Pro gas line and breather line, Pro-X piston/rings, All gaskets Honda, all linkage bearings, and wheel bearings.

I look at the before and after images and no one would believe it’s the same bike. Especially since I replaced rims, forks, airbox, tank, plastic, seat foam, and a few other items. Hopefully one cannot get the same appearance by just doing those items. I have to believe all the work with removing casting lines and re-shooting/re-zinc stands for something. Unfortunately you almost have to have an untouched one to see exactly all the work I did. 
I do believe most who would see this would believe it looks like a brand new 1996 Honda CR that was left over old stock. I always shoot for this end result. That 1986 looks the closest to it I believe.

I even restored the rubber cover on the rear brake actuating cable. It’s hard to see but it’s there and complete.

So I started another motor. It’s the 3rd 1995 CR250 I have. 

Looked like a 96 to me. I travelled to the Bay Area to buy it. Turned out to indeed be a 95 with a 96 airbox only. I should have caught that before returning home. The seller did say he would refund me but at that point I just kept it.

This one turned out to be a perfect example of the importance in changing out tranny fluid if you are going to flog the clutch. The aluminum left in the case was a nightmare to clean up. Lacquer thinner wouldn’t cut it. Simple Green actually did a slightly better job in removing some of it. The aluminum clutch plates were heavily worn along with the fibers.

I have never had one of these used bikes with this much contamination. If you are hard on clutches you should be changing the oil often. This sediment was everywhere on the inside. It can easily act as a mild lapping compound due to the thickness of it. 

Thanks as always bonseff. The Cerakote on those has just become what I do. I like to pull some black to the middle of the wheels due to the black tires. 
 

So after the initial power wash of the complete bike I still needed to do considerable more cleaning of the exterior cases.

After disassembly the second clean is with lacquer thinner to remove as much hard debris as I can. This limits the contamination of the bead blast media.

Next is cleaning up all mating surfaces along with removing casting seams.

There may be a couple different schools of thought on smoothing exhaust transfer ports and or roughening up areas to aid in better fuel/air mixture. Eric Gorr suggests the polishing aspect tends to just be a means for a builder to make more money. Since the polish look suggests better, faster, or whatever. I read this as a comment from him and I paraphrased. He may no longer think this way. I have no idea when he made the comments to suggest any work done polishing or roughening adds nothing. 
I recently researched this form of work just to see what it can provide. Keep in mind I am not discussing porting.

Anyways….. So I smoothed the head and the exhaust anyways… Oh, and I bead blasted the crank well, just because!…..hahahaha

I didn’t get mirror finish. That takes a whole bunch of time. 

Parts ready for the next phase… Bead blast.

Same approach as the last cylinder. Get rid of as much as I can in the way of casting marks. 
 

I have cleaned up all the cases and related pieces. The next step is bead blast everything and another wash. After this next wash I do not touch these pieces with bare hands. A critical step to insure excellent adhesion of the Cerakote.

This motor will receive new Honda brand crank bearings, and crank seals. Complete new clutch. New gear shaft seal and output shaft seal. All Honda gaskets used.

Detail shot of the mag clean up. This doesn’t even get seen but I address it like any other part.

Re-sealed up the wiring harness leading into this area. The harness had a slight cut in the insulation so I sealed that too.

I actually get inside these connectors and clean up the copper receptacle to insure maximum connectivity. I have been very fortunate with every restore I have done I always get spark. But I’m super careful about insuring my electrical is clean with a good ground.

There shouldn’t be anymore of a rust issue with any of these studs. I clean them all up and make sure I hit them and their bases with bead blast. I always Cerakote them for which will protect from rust.

Old plates and fibers. Replaced with all steel plates. Should make a difference on how it runs with that added weight.

I darkened the color but not enough on the right side outer cover. But it’s cleared and should hold up and be easier to clean.

Next up is throwing this in the frame and building it out. 
 

I recently checked when I took my first images of these bikes before tear down. Early June of last year. So I’m into these over a year now. I can’t believe it’s been that long.

Im about 2 months out from completing all of these.

1995 frame with skid plate attached and water pump guard. I used an anti-seize grease on the screws for the skid plate. Should help remove it if needed. The plate is under tension from being almost fitted to the bottom frame rails.

I prefer throwing the lower end in the frame as this just makes it easier to fit it. I leave the two motor mounts loose and will tighten those after getting all the mounts installed.

The extended cover over the linkage for the exhaust power valve will be taken off. I had misery with the stock pipe and no way would it clear. It should normally but this pipe was damaged and such the header moved inwards. Ridiculous waste of time and energy trying to make it work. Had to practically remove the shock to try and weasel it in. Gave up and installed a FMF I have among other pipes.

So I mark all the bolt to the nuts with white paint. A quick and easy tell if they loosen. I build these with the idea that owners will ride them. So I make an effort to keep this in mind when building them. I actually have no idea how well the clear will hold up on the side case much less some of the painted plastic parts. If an owner uses high pressure to wash one of these it could damage the finishes of the plastic painted parts. I stopped using high pressure to clean bike I ride. Don’t need it. Simple Green and a garden hose gets my bikes I ride as clean as I could want it.

So the UFO brand rollers I have do not clear these frames. If I shimmed it out from the frame it would place the roller further away from the chain on the compression stroke. So I contoured these to clear. Just another item I could have just tightened down and left it. But the roller would have been immobilized. Actual function is just as important as appearance.

Changed up how I’m sealing the air boxes since no filters will be installed. Pointless while these bikes will be displayed at races/events. This lows me to wash the bikes if need be without worrying about water getting inside the airbox.

Cerakoted the pedal portion or toe by adding some black to the shimmering silver. Just to darken it and bring a different shade to what could just be all one color. Kind of a pain in the butt to do since I have to heat treat each color I use.

Take the UFO roller off. Remove the bearings. Use a threaded bolt with 2 large washer on each side. Chuck up this in a drill. Spin the drill against a sanding/abrasive surface. Should give you a pretty uniform relief. I did it today for the 94. The one in the image I did by just holding it and turning it with my fingers against an abrasive wheel.

Those annoying threads that protrude out from within the hoses. I use a lighter to burn the away. It’s the small stuff.

These radiators may not look like I did much with them but I did. A crazy amount of time straightening fins. Silly, silly time. I dislike those GPI radiators immensely. They just look horribly inexpensive. I bought two used ones off eBay that I had to do major work on. 

What I dealt with ……..

I actually straightened this one above pretty well.

Not the pipe I wanted to use. But I may change the FMF out and try that stock pipe again. I just need to do major bending on it to get it closer to original shape. For now the FMF is on the 95. That was nickel plated. Had it powder coated black to appear more in line with stock. I blew out dents a couple years back or more and have had all these pipes done for some time.

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One of the ten rims I laced up. I did greatly improve my process of rebuilding wheels. Restoring spokes is a misery that has no equal. One set of wheels no issue.

Despite having prepped so many parts prior to building out, I find it very slow going putting them together. 
Not everything is a perfect fit. Loads of little things all need to be done….

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I put a set of 2007 Showa’s on this bike. Fully rebuilt of course. As much as I would like to use stock forks the issue becomes the outers. They are generally sun bleached and pitted from roost. If I’m going to go to as much efforts as I am the front end needs to look impressive. When there is pitting it’s near impossible to do anything about that when recoating with anodize. The pits readily show through. The 1994 will have a set of later model twin chamber Showa’s that suffer from the pitting issue through the anodize.

The VMX tanks are taking me an hour to get a polish on them. Way better than trying to restore the originals. Which by now I have like six of them. As I said before I had one sent off for professional restore. It had all the dots staining from a vented tank sticker. No way was I going to restore that. But that guy in Nevada or such did an absolutely incredible job of addressing it. But those came back after having fuel in the tank only maybe three times. Heavy sun exposure could bring them back more possibly.

Below is a VMX tank as you would receive it.

Here is a tank I have buffed out. So hard to capture the difference. 
 

I take it back. This image above does show the difference. Night and day is my opinion. But it takes patience and carefully holding the tank to the wheel to get that. Easily an hour at the wheel.

Next up will be the images of it done. Will incorporate before images above restored shots.

I have been making an effort to note differences in these years with the parts production. There are way more differences than I realized within a span of five years.

At the end of this I will go through and show what those changes are.