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I had my eye on this bike since I was a freshman in high school. It had been dumped and sat in the shop at school for 4 years before they let me take it home and fix it up. It pained me to see some of the melons they had trying to fix this bike. The first day I had it home I had it running (poorly), but running. I rode it and noticed that it wouldn't stay in 2nd gear, but everything else worked fine (minus the broken turn signal brackets). At first I was only going to take apart the engine and fix the tranny but the more I took apart the more rust I saw. I decided to take the entire thing apart and repaint everything. The only thing I didn't paint myself was the frame which I had powder coated. Personally I think it looks a hundred times better than the stock paint job (though it is very similar) and stickers. Unfortunately, I am going to college in a week and have to put my new toy away for awhile. I am planning on building my own 4-1 exhaust and maybe playing with the jets a little bit. The only question I have is is something like this still only worth bluebook, or is it worth more? Let me know what you think about it.

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Bike looks showroom fresh. Very nice job!

That looks awesome. 1984, 600cc? I see shaft drive.

mgdavis wrote:That looks awesome. 1984, 600cc? I see shaft drive.

I thought the Nighthawks were a variant of the CB line and were all chain drive. Oh well, live and learn.

Yep, the Nighthawks are all CB's, but they came with shaft drive for a few years in the 80's. My landlord actually has one that is almost identical to the one pictured above.

700cc, hydraulic valves, shaft drive. Pretty much everything you could want.

Nice job on the bike - looks good

The front fork sleeves and the engine, did you do those too? If so, what did you go with?

All I did to the engine was refinish the alluminum covers. The Clutch cover was corroded (along with all the other covers) and had had battery acid spilled on it so I sanded it down with an orbital sander 220 first, then 400, then hand sanded with 1500 and finally 2000, then I used an aluminum polish to give it that mirror finish. I believe the polish I used was MetAll. As far as the forks I didn't do anything to them.

pvo22 wrote:All I did to the engine was refinish the alluminum covers. The Clutch cover was corroded (along with all the other covers) and had had battery acid spilled on it so I sanded it down with an orbital sander 220 first, then 400, then hand sanded with 1500 and finally 2000, then I used an aluminum polish to give it that mirror finish. I believe the polish I used was MetAll. As far as the forks I didn't do anything to them.

Oh ok, I thought you may have refinished them in new black.