Topic: 1973 CL450 Cafe Project.

[Brown Bomber]

Well, I've been off for some minor surgery since sandblasting
the frame, but I've been able to do a few things lately.

I finally got the swing arm and the front motor mounts painted
with the Rust-oleum appliance paint and it turned out great.


Also ordered some replacement gauges from eBay because the ones on
the bike were a little rough and the speedo was not a CL speedo.
The set on the right in the picture were what was on the bike, obviously
the wrong speedo, but the tach looks correct and in good shape.
The replacement set on the left has a rough looking tach, (which I don't need)
and the speedo looks correct and in good shape. I should be able to
put together a nice set from the lot after I paint the housings.

[Brown Bomber]

With the help of a friend, I was able to get some more done without tearing out stitches and get the garage back in order. This guy is a fairly new owner of a '71 CB350 that needed a little attention and it worked out great. After we sorted out my stuff, we fixed a few things on his bike.

So much better than the monetary system. 

The last of the hardware bits painted., (I'm really liking the Rust-Oleum appliance paint for stuff like this.)



I also played around with customizing the headlight. Since the original sealed beam was toast, I modified the shell of the blown sealed beam to accommodate a lamp that JC Whitney sent me by mistake some years ago.

[thrutheframe]

Love the headlight Allen!

[Brown Bomber]

Thanks, not sure if it will go with the rest of the bike, but it was there and could be swapped for a more standard look if I don't like it. Might be fun though.

[Brown Bomber]

Using a 500T tank for this posed a bit of a challenge because I didn't have the petcock to go with the tank and the stock fuel valves are NLA. Since it uses a sock filter instead of a sediment bowl and angles rearward to clear the carbs, also the threaded bung on the tank  is larger than most other models, so using the petcock from the CL tank us impossible and finding a substitute was tricky.

Here's the 450 petcock...no-go


     Terry at Western Hills Honda glanced at the part number I had written down and knew immediately what I wanted was made of unobtanium. He said the petcock from the 400F had a similar body, just one outlet. He could have ordered the body only for about $89.00 and would still have to source the other parts.

I checked with a friend who has a 400F to make sure that petcock had the right shape and same size nut., It was!
I headed to eBay and found an entire assembly used for considerably less than the new body alone.

Dirty, but it fits!


After an 8 hour soak in Pine-Sol it cleaned up just like the carbs.


One hurdle down

[Dave K]

Will you use Pine-Sol to brighten the engine also? Looking real good.

[Brown Bomber]

Thanks Dave, I think I'm done with the Pine-Sol, but I'm not saying I won't find something else that needs dipped. The side covers and few other bits will be polished and the top half of the engine, jugs and head will get painted, it's already been degreased and stripped. I'm about ready to mask it off.

[Dave K]

BB, one of the reasons I asked, is for my own project as well. I will be polishing the engine cases as well, but the cylinder and head on this XL 350 I doing looks stained with mud. I have Gunked it several times and it is clean, but still stained. If you know what I mean. Do you think Pine-Sol will clean this to as new look?

[Brown Bomber]

      Dave,  I've only used Pine-Sol on smaller parts that can be soaked in it for about 8 hours, but not something like a cylinder and head. If it's apart and you can soak it, it may work, but I don't think spraying or brushing it on would do as good.

      I would try aerosol oven cleaner, it's basically the same as the more expensive engine cleaner and smells better. (still burns the skin and eyes, etc. be careful with it.)

      After I Gunked my engine, I used an aerosol Paint stripper to remove what was left of the factory paint on my cylinders and head. The paint stripper was better at removing baked on grime than the degreaser.

Did Honda paint the head and cylinder on the XL like they did on most everything else?

[Dave K]

Thanks for replying. The engine on the XL 350 us painted on the side covers and block. The cylinder and head are bare aluminum. The engine is together and it does run well. It is out of the frame now, but not disassembled. I really don't intend to to that, but I will have the side covers off to polish them. They are magnesium and the rest of the engine is aluminum.

[Brown Bomber]

The last three weeks haven't been as productive as planned, but I did get a few things done.

     I've managed to get the rear sets done and I'm pretty happy with the way they came out.
I have Tarozzi rear sets on my 750 and really like them, but they don't have a set specifically
for the CL450 and I thought if I where to go with universals, I'd still have to work out the
linkage.
   
     I didn't want to go all the way back to the passenger peg location, so I used my 500T
to figure out where I wanted the pegs, (a little more than half way back) and drilled through
the forward part of the passenger peg bracket just behind the frame. Happened to have
some steel tubing to reinforce the hollow bracket. I welded it in place. Sorry, no picture
of the weld, but it's there.

With Peg;

Yes the brake lever is much shorter now and the jury still out on that, but I think it
will be fine.
 
     I took a few pieces of shift linkage and a piece of brake linkage off of my Kawasaki Concours
parts bike and the original shift lever from my 750. Fabricated an eye bolt for the clevis pin, welded
four nuts together to make a coupling since the hardware store didn't one in metric and it started
coming together;


     The original CL front fender was too scratched to use and I wanted to stay with chrome
fenders on this plus, CL fenders are bigger and bulkier than CB's, so off the shelf came the
original front fender from my 750 that I had replaced because the PO cut it short in the front.
Nice chrome, but the bracket didn't match. Well....I had another dented fender with the right
bracket, so I took the cutoff tool to the inside of the rivets and swapped brackets.
Removing rivets;


Taped the shortened rivets in place, then tack welded them on the inside;


Cleaned the inside of the fender, treated the welds with Ospho and painted the inside of the
fender with hammered silver;


Fender ready;

[maduncle]

I am a bit late to the party but on board now.

Great project, and I am picking up a few tips for my bomber.

[Brown Bomber]

I am a bit late to the party but on board now.

Great project, and I am picking up a few tips for my bomber.

Thanks maduncle,
     I'm not making much progress lately due to futzing with other bikes in the stable, but I'm happy to say Stout, my K2 is out of it's corner of the garage and will be terrorizing the mean streets of Cincinnati for a while.

Your bomber project, is that the '65K0 in your sig? Do you have a build thread?

[maduncle]

I am a bit late to the party but on board now.

Great project, and I am picking up a few tips for my bomber.

Thanks maduncle,
     I'm not making much progress lately due to futzing with other bikes in the stable, but I'm happy to say Stout, my K2 is out of it's corner of the garage and will be terrorizing the mean streets of Cincinnati for a while.

Your bomber project, is that the '65K0 in your sig? Do you have a build thread?

Yep - that's the 65K0 listed in my sig, you can read my nut and bolt philosophy here: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=97590.msg1221002#msg1221002

cheers,