New member is South Carolina

Hi all,

as my profile states I have almost no experience with motorcycles. I just found a 1981 Honda CB900C, which has been sitting since 1996. $250 bucks (what a steal) and I am going to get this thing running and then I am going to make it a café racer. Here is my initial thought process on the logical steps to take:

1. take it apart. I am almost done with this; I only have the swing arm to remove and then get the engine on the jack.

2. clean up the frame. Only question here is figuring out which tabs to remove and also buying a grinder.

3. clean up engine. I will need help figuring out what needs replacing, or what can just be cleaned. need to decide if I want to polish or paint the engine

4. repair the carbs. Based on the state of all the rubber parts these will need to be taken care of. I think I can figure this part out just fine.

5. try to start it. This I will need help with, specifically figuring out what I actually need to check and see if it runs. i.e. with a rotted out gas tank, can I just plug the fuel line into a plastic bottle, attach battery somewhere and fire her up?

6. if it starts, re-assemble and replace all the hoses.

7. figure out how I want the bike to look.

Step seven is where we start getting into the fuzzy area. I want to stay true to the café racer mentality of as little on the bike and re-using parts, but I want the battery box hidden on the swing arm, I want a straight-ish seat so I can have two people and I need to replace the tank so the lines don't look so funny and because it has rust holes in it. I would like to re-position the pegs and shifters too but I digress. I am not concerned with taking a running bike to a shop somewhere for the fabrication parts of everything since I am only into the bike for $500 bucks, including my new jack.

OK that is what I got to say. I have been absorbing any other threads I can find like a sponge. I am also going to complete this thread so future searchers can have a good step-by-step to follow.