'88 600F1 Basket Case, what to do...

Phadreus · 08-11-2007, 6:25 PM

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some opinions, you all have 'em.

I have an 88 600F1 that's sitting in my garage in pieces. It was dropped a couple of times by the previous owner before I picked it up for my Step Son four years ago. It had sat for two years without running and ran rough when we got it. I pulled the carbs, cleaned them up and it was beginning to run better. All the body work was there, although most had some damage. After having it about three weeks, my Step Son laid it down while practicing in a high school parking lot. Helped finish off the body.

Since, I've done all the bodywork, repairing all the fiberglass work, all the tank dents and have begun repainting the body in black lacquer. I'm 20% done with the paint. I took the hand rubbed approach and what I've done so far looks pretty good, just not much done yet.

I'm missing just a few cheep things like a LS Foot Peg, a good number of Fasteners I'm sure, it needs tires a battery, new grips and will need a general tune up once running. I have a new clutch for it, but haven't installed it yet (don't have the "special Honda" tool to pull the old clutch yet). I've picked up lots of new parts that weren't exactly easy to come by; new seat, new upper fairing, new windshield, I completely restored the instrument cluster and detailed out the suspension bits.

There’s still lots of work to do. My dilemma is this: I travel 70% of the time for my work and haven't the time on the weekends to devote to finishing the project. If I keep going, I'll keep spending money on it and may never get any reasonable return on my investment (not that I was planning on cashing out big on this thing anyway). My Step Son (who was supposed to pay me back for all this, has completely lost interest in it and is now only interested in girls, leaving me with the bike) doesn't want it any more and says just sell it.

It was a cool bike in its day and the restoration process is fun, I just can't seem to find the time to work on it and when I do find time, I would rather ride my own bikes. If I sell it as a basket case, I have no idea how to price it or what to expect. Any thoughts?

loadedthorn · 08-23-2007, 1:23 PM

Apparently your stepson missed the part where motorcycles are a chick magnet. If I were in your situation I'd find another kid looking for a bike, who maybe couldn't afford to buy it outright, but could pay in installments. He could pay for the parts as they come in, help put it back together and you may be able to come out close to even. That's what I was looking for when I was 17.

slickwill · 08-23-2007, 5:45 PM

For me, how it runs is key. When I was young I willing to do all that cosmetic work and stuff like that on a fixer upper as long as it was in solid running condition so that I could enjoy it even if it looked like crap. I think that if you put in enough work to get it to where it will fire up and run then you shouldn't have any problem working out a decent deal with someone who can't afford a nicer ride.

Phadreus · 08-23-2007, 10:20 PM

My big issue is having the time to devote to it. I'm pretty meticulous in how I approach mechanics so I can't just throw the thing back together and get it running just for the sake of getting rid of it. It's rubs my hair the wrong way. I would almost rather sell it as is to someone who wants a project bike to finish. Will be tough finding the right buyer I'm sure.