Topic: 76 CB400F - Young First Timer (Copper)

[bwilo777]

A bit of info on me, i am a student studying mech eng and science and i love old vehicles. Cars i'm into mustangs and one day i'll begin a 66 fastback restoration. But at the moment i have a beautiful 76 Cb400F which i picked up quite recently and will occupy most of my spare time for the time being. I am going to build a cafe racer because the bike wasn't in good enough condition for me to restore to original conditional (maybe that can be the next one  ).

I figure i may as well give back to this wonderful community by posting my progress when i get time. Also some of you experienced guys will hopefully be able to give me a hand along the way .

First point of call was to remove all the electrics from the bike, then i decided to begin on the carbs. As you can see from the pics they are quite filthy, i'll post pics of the insides soon (they were worse than outside). I got straight into them with carb cleaner, make sure to all you guys who are starting this to remove the felt washer, they are quite hard to source i believe.

I think they will come up quite nicely, i'll post a pic of a reassembled soon.

I ordered new gasket sets as the ones on the carbs were completely gone, cracked and hard as rocks. I've also ordered K&N filters which i am aware will take a bit of tuning to get the old girl running nice, but i figure i like a challenge (i will most likely regret that later). I love an empty rear triangle so the original airbox and electrical mount will be going and i will have to try and figure a new way to mount the electrics but i'll worry about that when i get to it.

Anyway here is the beginnings of what i perceive to be a long and mostly enjoyable process. Feel free to offer any advice you are willing to give and give me a yell if you want more pics or if by some chance you think i can help you with something.

Back to the shed, Cheers Wilo

[bwilo777]

Still new to posting haha

[Steve_K]

Welcome to the forum.  Looks like the major project, but those can be most rewarding. 
Have some fun building!
Steve

[Powderman]

Welcome.
 My CB400f build started much the way yours did. I could restore it and sell for some nice money as these restored are few and far between. Or I could build me a nice little cafe racer. When it arrived to me I had forgotten how rough of shape it was in and immediately knew that a full restoration would run about $10k and then I could sell it for $5k, maybe. So cafe racer it will be. Lets see if your carbs are as bad as mine were:

[bwilo777]

Well on seeing your carbs i don't think mine are quite that bad, i didn't actually take any pics when i first removed the bowls but you can see there was still a fair bit of corrosion going on.

[bwilo777]

I know it's been ages since i last posted, but anyway i'll add a bit more.

Since last time i have completed
    -Carbs
    -Wheels (relaced bearings and relaced wheel, copper plated, incl clear coat, and tyres)
    -Frame (stripped and painted)
    -Engine (rebuilt myself, replaced all seals and honed cylinders, coated pistons, new rings, painted black)
    -Brakes (rebuilt master cylinder, new pads)

I have also stripped the tank and filled, primered etc ready for some nice paint to go on

My apologies for the lack of pictures, they are all jumbled together on various devices.
If there are questions i can seek to help (not that i claim to know much) and i'm sure i can find some more pictures if that helps.

Cheers

[bwilo777]

More pictures

[bwilo777]

Engine shots

[thirsty 1]

nice wheels i like the copper that looks awesome!!
I have some trans parts if you need them.

[bwilo777]

The wheels are copper plated followed by a clear coat. So hopefully they won't tarnish, but time will tell as always haha

I've also plated the kickstarter, headlight rim and brackets and fuel cap

[NobleHops]

The wheels are copper plated followed by a clear coat. So hopefully they won't tarnish, but time will tell as always haha

I've also plated the kickstarter, headlight rim and brackets and fuel cap

What he said, that copper looks cool as hell. Neat idea.

[scunny]

+ 3 on the copper wheels. nice.