Paint Pt. 2

Orange is a cool colour.

Orange is also a colour which can make anything look god awful if you use too much of it, use it in the wrong place, or with the wrong colour etc... I was seriously worried before I started painting that the my choice of orange on black was going to turn out kind of Hallo-weenish, but I went ahead anyways and this is where my disregard for my own instincts have gotten me

What has been painted:
Frame - orange
swingarm - black
front caliper - orange/black
back brake stay - orange
etc...

So, after one coat a week ago (FYI: it really is best to wait the recommended time periond on the spray can), and another today here is how the frame looks


Not bad eh?

I also decided it was time to finish up the exhaust pipes and ready them for wrapping. Here is how they look before (above) and after (below) being sprayed with a can of Mastercraft High Temp Manifold paint.


As you can see below, when I got the CL360 exhaust pipes one of the pipes had a flange spot welded onto the end of it which I presume held the muffler on. To remove this, I got the hacksaw out and cut it off as neatly as I could.

Before (sorry, this is the only picture I could find of it)



After


Before I sign off, I just want to explain my reason for painting the frame orange. When I saw how well the orange came out on the first few pieces (see previous post) I really wanted to incorperate more of it into the bike. I went to the KTM website where I found my inspiration, the KTM superduke 990 Rebel. I'm just hoping mine will turn out looking half as good.

CL360 exhaust, Primer, and Finally some Colors!!

Alright so after having a prolonged hiatus I have returned to my dutys as blog master with much to talk about. First, I finally got the cl360 exhaust pipes in and for 50 bucks and what its gonna cost to paint and wrap them, it was a steal!

Before:

After:

I also managed to do a final clean up of the frame and I got the wheels to more or less shine. Now yesterday I took some time and prepped a whackload of parts for painting, it was raining out so I figured there was nothing else to do. Today, I went out and bought a can of Dupli-color Engine enamel. One low gloss black and the other Chevy orange. The result has so far been fantastic! I am really happy with the way the orange came out, especially since it was almost neon when I was painting the parts. The only problem I had was that the spray can says to bake the parts at 300 F. So after talking with my folks they allowed me to use the oven in the kitchen (dont ask WHY they let me use it, I know I wouldnt let my kid do that). With these pieces out of the way, I am now left with the frame and gas tank and engine side covers to paint, the exhaust needs fixing up, the front brakes need rebuilding and new tires and its more or less ready to ride. I make it sound so easy, but in reality I spent 8 or so hours outside today just painting! In the end it will be worth it (I think).

cafe seat fabrication part 2

Right, so school has been sort of slowed the project down a bit this past week so all I have managed to do was continue to mock up the seat cowl. I decided I wanted to keep the frame the way it is and work around any problems that may come up. This is so that, In the event I want to change the bike back to stock I can.

Instead of fabricating a mounting bracket from scratch I wanted to re use some of the junk that came off the bike that was probably going to be chucked. What I found was that the mounting bracket for the brake light and license plate. I began hacking away at it until it looked like this. All that is left to be done now is to drill two holes in the bottom of the cowl and drill two holes in the fender bracket on the bike (circled above in red) so that they match up with the original mounting holes on the cowl and hope a CJ360 seat pan will fit on the stock seat hinges and thats it for fabrication. By the way, If anyone would be able to donate a CJ360 seat pan I would really appreciate it. If it needed to be shipped I would cover the cost.

So just to re-cap. Here is what I needed to make the cafe seat:

• CJ360 seat cowl
• CJ360 seat pan (still haven't found one)
• CB360 tail light bracket
• LED lights
• Tin snips
• Hack saw
• Pliers
• A few nuts and blots

And stuff to be done to the cowl:

• Drill holes (2 frame, 2 cowl)
• Fabricate back plate cover for cowl
• Shorten CJ360 seat
• Clean
• Paint

Anywho, Once that is done I can clean up the frame, take it over to my grand parents and prep and paint the frame!

Got questions? E-mail me at nhshrub@gmail.com and I will help you out as best I can!

Cafe seat fabrication part 1

Today I decided to take a stab at mocking up the seat cowl. I started by re mounting the seat pan, marking off where I would need to cut and bend the seat up, and fixing the handlebars so I could get a better idea of my riding position. At this point, I have decided to take the somewhat easier way out and make the seat without cutting up the back end of the frame. I did a terrible job of cutting up the seat pan and I have decided to buy a CJ360 seat pan, and cut the middle out to shorten it. It should look good once I've gotten the new seat pan on there.

Oh, and by the way, NEVER buy ANY powertool accessory from princess auto. THIS is what happened when I tried to cut through the seat pan. lousy thing could have killed me! When it happened I ended up tossing it in the garden bed, and while it was knawing away at the daffodils I ran for the extension cord plug! Good times!

cleaning, cleaning, sand and more cleaning

Today was an unusual day because for the first time I actually felt like I was making major progress! I am at the point now where I have more parts ready for paint than I have waiting to be cleaned. During the week I managed to sneak in some time with the wheels and gave them a good scrubbing. They almost look as if they would be fine to go back on the bike, but since there is rust on the rims still I figured that It would be best to sand them down and paint the black, saving me the hassle of having to repaint them next season. It will also make them look bad ass too! Today I got the front forks, swingarm, sprocket cover and handlebar controls all sanded and taped up for paint, and after looking inside my dirty parts bucket, I found NOTHING left to clean! I also was able to measure out the wiring harness as I plan on keeping the wires but scrapping the black insulation keeping them all bundled together. I will be replacing the insulation with braided PET wire sleeves, and I may even use orange sleeving just to spice things up. The handlebars and rear shocks were delivered yesterday, and for what I paid for them I am happy with what I got. Here is a pic of one of the shocks

I know that this update isn't too exciting so to spice things up, here is a crummy photoshop attempt at what I want the bike to look like once finished (keeping in mind the handlebars and exhaust will be different by the time I am finished).

The bike will be painted in low gloss black spray paint (duplicolor) and will have a harley orange racing stripe down the middle of the tank and seat cowl.

Since I cannot continue with the painting until I actually know what modifications I need to do to the back end of the bike, I hope to, sometime during the week, get the bike partially back together again so I can figure out what needs to be cut, where to weld and so on. And I assure you, I will have many pictures to support the mock up post!

New feature! Honda CB360 Documentation archive

So, I have decided to add a list of useful documents and links concerning the CB360. First to be added was a direct downlod for the Honda CB CL CJ 250 and 360 Shop Manual. I found this very useful and I hope you can get some use out of it too!

LED tail lights and turn signals

I just recieved my turn signals and tail light in the mail, and as you can see, some assembly will be required! I decided to go with the LED strips commonly found on ebay because I wanted to be able to place the lights underneath the lip of the seat cowl (the picture below explains it better). Apparently it will not take much to convert normal bulb lights to LED, all you need is a LED flasher relay to replace your stock one, this can also be found on ebay.

Advantages:

• Compact
• Flexible
• Bright
• Look cool and give the bike a custom appearance

Disadvantages:

• May or may not pass safety inspection AKA not DOT approved
• Need to buy a new flasher relay
• Pointless if your current lights work fine

Heres a quick Video of the lights hooked up to a 9 volt battery (rated for 12V use)

And here are some pictures of what they look like in daylight.

I plan to put the brake light underneath the lip of the cowl and the turn signals positioned vertically on either side.

Clean, Paint, Purchase

Alright, So Three big things have happened recently in the build. The first is about my attempt at making my own soda blaster. Next I have an update from the paint department, and finally, I managed to find some more junk on the web to put on the bike.

Last weekend I decided I was fed up with washing parts, then rinsing then drying them only to find the stuff was still dirty, so I went in a different direction and searched the web for a better way to clean parts that involved less work. What I found was a how-to on building your own soda blaster. You can click here to find out more about what it is and how to build one.

Here is my home made soda blaster: Overall, It worked alright. I would not recommend doing this on anything other than carbs and petcocks, It simply is not powerful enough and from what I have heard for some reason paint does NOT adhere to surfaces that have been soda blasted. Anyways, here is the before and after of the petcock I cleaned.

Today I was able to get a few coats of primer and paint down onto some parts. The engine brackets, swing arm seals, the brake rod, and gauges all got a good few coats of black, while the rear brake stay, and the seat cowl were primed. The cowl needs a number of cracks filled that I hadn't noticed before, and the brake stay needs to be cleaned. To me, the paint process is a BIG sign that the project is finally moving toward completion.Since the day I got the bike I knew the whole exhaust needed replacing. Finally, after a number of weeks of searching I managed to get my hands on a pair of CL360 exhaust pipes. They are "Scrambler" style meaning that they run along the side of the bike, above the crankcase. More about the pipes later once they are delivered. I also managed to get a set of rearset levers which will allow me to move the footpegs backwards, making for a more comfortable, sporty riding position.

As far as my time schedule goes, I really do not have any clue how much longer it will take to get this bike back on the road. For the time being though, I'll keep myself busy cleaning, painting and purchasing stuff for the bike.

Next week should see the arrival of the exhaust, and the beginning steps of mocking up the bike (something I should have done BEFORE I had torn it to pieces). Stay tuned!

Long overdue update: Bondo, cleaning and more cleaning!!!

Well it has been a while now since I last posted. There has not been too much progress lately so I decided to wait until I had enough to talk about before I did an update.

For starters, The gas tank has had the crap bondoed out of it. There is still some touching up to do but Overall the tank is ready more or less ready to have the rust on the inside of the tank removed. It was surprising how much bondo and effort it took to get this tank back in shape. I now realize that "Just a few dents" translates into a hell of a lot of work. Next we have the frame. Although nothing has yet been cut, stripped or repainted, I have managed to clean it which was a big task in itself. At the same time, I took a stab at cleaning the engine. The results were not as spectacular and it will need another cleaning. In order to clean the engine off using a pressure washer, I had to seal the exhaust ports somehow. My solution was to pack the ports with a rag, then sandwich a plastic bag between the cylinder block and the exhaust flange. I did something similar with the intake ports, simply packing and wrapping with a plastic bag. Its not a perfect solution but it works.

Engine befere cleaning: and After: Finally, here is a picture of what the PO did to seal the tachometer cable port on the rocker cover. He probably thought he was being a genious, I think otherwise. A replacement rocker cover has already be purchased and is awaiting cleaning and intstallation. In the next few days I will have pictures of the seat cowl I have been working on, and I must say I am quite proud of it. I will also try my hand at a bit of soda blasting. Don't worry if you've never heard about it before, I will cover it in the next post.

Will it ever end?? Probably not.

Parts tally

As the restoration of the bike progresses I find myself stuck in front of my computer scouring the web for parts. Asking for discounts, receiving shipping quotes and placing bids on eBay seem to be occupying more of my time than the rest of the project. This process, however, is necessary to adhere to my budgeting plan.

I personally believe in the saying "There's always a better deal out there." and I do my very best to stick to that motto. Combine this thrifty mentality with a shoe string budget and you get a very wary spender. But I figure if I were to spend my money poorly but very quickly, I would end up waiting for the next pay day to make more purchases.

The list of parts I need to replace seems endless, so to say on the positive side of things, here is a list of all the things I have managed to replace and why.

Clutch perch - (cracked)
Triple tree clamp - (cracked)
Camshaft rocker cover - (tachometer cable port broken)
Pod air filters - (old ones were old, ugly and heavy)
Seat parts - (to go with the cafe racer look (pics will be posted soon)
side panels - (were missing when bike was bought)
Wheel bearings kit - (just for good measure) - Probably my best purchase too
Front brake caliper seal kit - (rubber rotted)
Petcock gasket - (rubber rotted)
turn signal flasher relay - (dead)
fuses - (don't trust the current ones)
Key ignition bracket - (because I want it on the dash instead of under the tank)
Paint, bondo, etc...

As for the larger purchases like the handlebars, fork rebuild, shocks and tires are not a necessity at this point in the build and as such will (thankfully) not be bought until the bike is going back together.

Finally, for anyone in need of parts for their vintage rebuilds here are my top 5 websites I recommend purchasing from.

1. TASclassicmotorsports
2. Cycle Recycle
3. Cyclexchange
4. Partsnmore.com
5. eBay of course!!

If you need any help finding deals on specific parts, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to help guide you in the right direction!

Next update should see pictures of the tank bondoed, primered, and ready for paint!

Progress report: Tank & carbs

Its been a while since I last updated this, mainly because I haven't felt there has been any progress lately. I have come to a point in the project where I need money to put into the project in order to proceed. Money which I do not have right now. Nevertheless, I have managed to order a few replacement parts. I managed to find a replacment triple tree on ebay, along with air filters and the left handlebar control assembly. I have also managed to strip the paint off of the tank and plan to begin patching the dents soon. The carburateurs have been cleaned and reassembled. I also managed to take apart the petcock which (surprise surprise!) needs new gaskets and a good cleaning. On the plus side of things, I have a good lead on someone who is selling a cb360 as a parts donor bike. If I can gather the funds together I am hoping to buy it and see what I can use off of it, then resell the rest. One way or another, I will try to find a way to keep making progess.

DIsassembly Pt.4

TEAR DOWN IS FINISHED!

Yes, that's right, the bike is completely apart. Since the last post, the stubborn swing arm was removed (with the help of a hammer), the engine was then removed from the frame followed by the front wheel and forks. All the random nuts and bolts have been organised according to their location (forks, frame and engine) and been brought inside for cleaning. Here is a picture of the bike as of today: Not much of it is left. The carburetors Have been disassembled and are awaiting a good cleaning once the weather warms up (carb cleaner is VERY hazardous and should be used somewhere well ventilated, such as outside). Overall, the jets were rather gummed up, certainly enough to make the bike run rough. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the carburetors off before I began the disassembly, it would have given me a better idea of how strong the engine is really running. Now I have to wait until reassembly! I also noticed when I disassembled the front end of the bike that the forks are leaking from their screws at the bottom, which means a fork rebuild is now unavoidable (big $$$). On the positive side of things, I have managed to order a number of replacement parts which will be featured in the next update. And, now that the bike is completely apart, I can begin cleaning and stripping the paint off the frame, tank etc... and get ready for painting!

Stay tuned as I anticipate a large amount of progress in the next two weeks!

Disassembly Pt. 3

Alright, so after a full week of tinkering with the bike, this is what is left on the bike. As you can see, I've been quite busy in the past few days. Let me fill you in on my progress. On Thursday, I decided to take a stab at draining the fuel out of the tank. To do this, I first needed to take the fuel tubes going from the tank to the carbs off. After spending 10 minutes trying to pry the tubes off the tank, I decided to simply syphon the fuel using a piece of plastic conduit piping. Long story short, I ended up with more gas in my mouth than in the bottle. I eventually managed to get the gas lines off and filled up about 4, 2 litre pop bottles with rusty old gas. Hurrah, the tank can be removed! Next, I decided to remove the wiring harness, along with the headlamp which has still yet to be opened. Overall, the electrical wasn't much of a problem. Just clipped the zip ties holding the wires to the frame, took of the ignition coils off, and gave it a firm pull. This is what it looked like:After a few days of struggling with the headlamp screws, I just decided pull out as many wires out from the hole in the back that I could. They all ended up removed safe and sound which means I didn't need to open the headlamp after all! This is what the electrical looks like when spread out on my patio:Next, I turned my attention towards the carburetors. My first attempt at getting them detached from the engine had me giggling and wiggling the damn things expecting them to simply slide off the rubber gaskets that connect the carbs to the engine. After that failed, I went for broke and grabbed the CROWBAR. The carbs didn't put up much of a fight after that I just had to disconnect the throttle cables and I was done. I then opened up the clutch cover, removed the front sprocket, chain and shift lever, and disassembled the rear brake assembly. A note to anyone who ever decides to restore a motorcycle, make sure you replace the stock engine bolts with hex bolts for the simple reason that Philips head bolts strip easily compared to hex or even Allen head bolts.

Although the picture above appears to be horribly dirty and thus poorly maintained, this is not the case. The grease off of the chain has actually coated the bare metal, and protected it from the elements. But I still have to clean it...

I also have a new set of triple trees to add to my parts list. This is what I discovered yesterday:

Ya, that crack shouldn't be there. It seems as if this project just won't stop burning holes in my wallet!

This is what is left to remove:

1. Rear Swing arm
2. Engine
3. Front forks
4. Front wheel

After those things are done, I can begin focusing on the repairing stage of this project, including fixing the dents in the tank, getting the engine and front forks rebuilt, and paint. Hmm... it all seems so easy on paper...