Topic: 1975 Honda CB400 Four Project - Rookie

[HedNut]

Hey Man!! You're bike is sooooo clean and becoming one beautiful work of art.  That paint scheme is going to be amazing!  Excellent attention to detail!!   

As for the springs....they are buggers to get on... I managed to get my kickstand spring on by using a large screwdriver...putting the tip on the "spring boss"...hooking the spring on the screwdriver shaft and then prying up... it stretched and then slid down the shaft into it's home.    OR another Superfantastic trick somebody mentioned on here before is this:

Get a stack of pennies...or coins and push them in between each coil on the spring....effectively stretching it out for you without pulling.... make it long enough to set into place...then remove the pennies one by one! Voila!!  SHEBANG!

Good luck with them!!  AND keep up the marvellous work!!
Cheers!

[Retro Rocket]

Hi Rick, might be a bit late for this but when painting items that you wish to bake the paint on {engine cases, discs and calipers etc etc} i found i got the best results if i heated up what i was going to paint first. By getting the parts to be painted warm first i found that i got a very glossy and hard finish, bake in the oven later to "set" the high temp paint..

Mick

[RickB]

Thanks guys.

HedNut, the coin in the spring idea is genius. That should totally work, I'll give it a shot and document it. I knew there had to be a trick.

@ Retro Rocket: I actually never tried heating before painting, I will do it from now on. Although to be honest, I'm happy to leave the painting to the pros, it's a #$%* of a job to get right.

[Hush]

Here's something you should always do from time to time Rick.

[jessezm]

Looking great, rick!  did you get my message about mounting the gauges?  Let me know if it didn't make sense...  I wonder which of us will finish first!

[RickB]

@ Hush: Thanks for that. I can't even tell you how excited I am to be getting close to the end of this. That is going to be one hell of a first ride.

@ Jesse: Yep, thanks mate much appreciated. I wrote you back.

Thanks again for the support guys.

I'll be working on the bike again over the weekend so should hopefully get the wheels and handle bars done.

Rick.

P.S. Got my leather jacket in the mail. I had it custom made and it's superb. A replica of the Belstaff Panther jacket that will actually fit my lurpy arms and my budget. I'll post photos soon.

[RickB]

Well that was quick!

Got the tank back from the pinstripers already. Had a last minute drastic change of heart and went with a more factory pinstripe. Deep down it's what I wanted and Scott at AIM Auto Graphics was great at getting me to decide that on my own. He taped up the tank with this sticky masking paper, gave me a pencil and let me draw on it. He was very helpful. I know he would have done it differently or I could have gone for something more complex or flashy, but in the end I knew I wanted something conservative and classic in respect of the original and the vintage.

Britsh Racing Green with a single off-white/ivory pinstripe. In my mind I had the stripe thinner and the tank darker, but I'm happy with this. It'll look even better on the bike!















I bought some NOS tank emblems off eBay for $20 thinking the old ones were stuffed. The white doesn't match the off-white/ivory of the pinstripe, so I may use the old ones now and paint them to match. I haven't got anything in mind for the side covers. I never liked the stock '400' decal, I always felt it was a little too 'eighties'. I can't wait to get this on the bike I can tell you that!

















The leather jacket I got. Custom made Belstaff Panther replica. Was worried it was a little short but looking at it here I think it's ok. It won't stop me from breaking any bones but it should hold my skin on.

I also got a chance to file off my coil holders so the 5ohm Dyna coils now fit.

Rick.

[fastbroshi]

  Is that the same tank your bike came with?  Looks like a 350 tank.  I like that shade of green regardless.

[RickB]

Nope, you're right, that's 350F tank. I know it's odd to put a 350F tank on a 400F, considering the commonalty between those bikes already. I just liked the 350F tank better than the 400F. I like the shape and the knee dents. Because it fits the same frame, I figured it a cheaper alternative than having a custom tank built. Sure, someone on the street might see it and think, 'why put a 350F tank on a 400F?', but I don't think it's done in poor taste or anything. However if this is motorcycle faux par then please tell me before I offend anyone!

[HedNut]

Hey Hey! Excellent PAINT! Your bike is gonna look SMASHINGLY excellent!  And props on the jacket too...really dig the period look! And functionality.   Also, while I'm here.... I'm all in with the 350 tank...great choic I think...the shape is right!
Cheers!

[RickB]

Hi all,
  
Had a big night last night and didn't get to work on the bike as much as I'd liked but still had some progress.





Bought some new handle bar bolts over eBay. Shiny!



I knocked out the bearing from the rear hub to install the back wheel. I don't have the right tool and ended up chipping the casing. Is this ruined? It still spun freely.



Mounting the Dyna coils required me to cut down the stock brackets. This metal is super soft so it was very easy to do with a small wheel on the grinder. My mate Rhys did it for me. I had to drill out the hole a bit as it's off center.



The bolt actually created it's own thread in the soft metal. A nice little win there.



New 5ohm coils as Dyna said this of the 3ohm coils "The Dyna-S was designed to work well with either 3.0 to 5.0 ohm primary coils. The only real issue is the charging and electrical systems. If in good working order, the wiring free of resistance and poor connections, the battery of properly amp capacity and cables good, there should be no issues using the 3.0ohm coils. The only way to find out is to install and run the motor. If the battery voltage decreases, or the charging system cannot keep the battery charged, the 5.0 ohm coils (DC8-1) should them be installed."





I have no idea how to mount the wires to the coils. Do I just cut the above yellow and black/white wires and mount them into the screws on the side of the new coils? The instructions that came with them aren't very thorough.



Nice and snug fit.





I bought a CB350F left hand control switch. It's much more streamlined than the CB400F switch and as far I could tell, does the same thing. Mounted it with my grip and compression lever. Love it!





Couldn't resist putting the tank, sidecovers and seat-pan on. I think the tank maybe sits a little low compared to the seat. This will be exacerbated when I have the rubbers under the seat and the padding in. I'll just have to play around with how the tank sits and try to slim down the seat as much as possible. The seat is from a 750 but compared to the stock 400F seat, it's similar so I think it'll work.

Rick.

[RickB]

Hi,

So fellow bike gang/team member Rhys helped me out a tonne today. Got a lot done.

Oh and I got the center and side stands on using the screw driver technique that HedNut described. The coins were just too hard to get in. The screwdriver method worked prefect if a little scary with all the tension and unshielded eyeballs.



Started with the rear wheel. Decided I was happy with the damaged bearing casing (easy enough to change if it proves a problem).



Rolling frame! Hell yeah! Such an important milestone for me.







Started hooking up the rear drum brake rods and connectors. Not an easy job and not explained at all in my manual. Does anyone have a photo of this area from a bike setup correctly? Also not sure if rearsets will change this sock setup any?



Finally dropped in and started cutting wires for the coils. In the end it was easy. just cut the wires off the old coils, attached supplied Dyna mounting hardware and screw in. Easy.



Looks stock and I'll happy with that.



This issue is still annoying. I think I'm going to have to drill the bar on this side to fit the switch wires in.



The master cylinder is too long, so I may have to machine some of this down depending on the banjo bolt length. Are there any issues with shorting the banjo bolt thread by say 50%?



As you can see above, I'll tall and this bike is small. I can feel an upgrade coming one day!





I wish the tank was a little bigger but hey, it's never going to be a CB750!





You can really see the imperfections in the tank with the emblems on and the light against it.



Got to sort the mounting of the seat out which will be a lot of measuring and decisive drilling. Then that'll go to the upholster. Then I'll sort out the wiring, get that right hand brake/switch situation sorted and then I should be ready for the motor. Not much longer now!

Rick.

[motobuilder]

It's really coming along nicely man. I've been keeping up with this post for a while and it's astonishing to see the progress. Cheers.

[RickB]

Thanks mate. I've just ordered a set of MC-Again rearsets, a new muffler, heavy duty cam chain and performance valve springs. I think the only major part I now need is a brake line, which I will order later this week. Then it's the air filter and various bits and pieces for that whole system (rebuild breather, panching plates etc), rebuild the carbs (should do that over the weekend) and receive the engine from the mechanic, dyno the whole thing, have the carbs balanced, registration, ride the sucker!

[RickB]

Hi,

Have been waiting for my brake line, front fender and brake light so not a much I can be doing right now. So Rhys and I worked on the seat.



My biggest concern with this seat is the size of it. It's built for the 750, which has a much bigger tank than my 350F tank on a 400F bike. So either the seat hump needs to be %25 smaller or the tank %25 larger. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could reduce the size/height of the hump?



Here it is again on the bike so you see what I'm talking about. Seat hump is higher than the tank.



Back to the seat. I measured and drilled holes for the rubber bushings. Wouldn't you know, the holes needed to be right in the fabricated frame grooves. So to hold the bushings in correctly, we used the ruler. A perfect fit!



Drilled the holes and fought the rubber nipples in. It wasn't easy.



Measured and mounted the pivot hinge. It sits a little high, so I may have to pack out the bushings on the far side. You can see here I had to shave down the bushing so it would fit around the airbox breather outlet vent.

More updates when more parts arrive.

Rick.

[jessezm]

Hey Rick--
  Just my opinion....After putting so much of your soul into this bike, you want to be 100% satisfied with the outcome.  If the seat doesn't match the way you want it, I think it will always bother you a bit, and you deserve better!  I'd be on the lookout for a different seat that fits the size and lines of the bike a bit better, and just ride with this one until you find it.  Or better yet, try your hand at fiberglass and make your own!

[Flying J]

I agree. That bike is looking so good but the seat seems a little big. Finish strong.

[Retro Rocket]

If you have any fibre glassing skills that seat pan would be quite easy to modify..

Mick

[Hush]

Coming along nicely Rick, in regard to the throttle control problem, can you machine the other end not the threaded end where the fluid hose goes in?
Just a thought but with some tricky shaping work it would solve that problem without upsetting the all important brake fluid supply.

[RickB]

Hush,

Yeah, I probably could do that. It might be easier because then I don't have to shorten the banjo bolt too. I'll have a play with it some more once the brake line and banjo bolt arrive later next week.

Thanks,
Rick.

[RickB]

Hi,

So I took your advice guys (thanks for the honest opinions) and decided to try making it vertically shorter. I know very little about fiberglass outside of the odd surfboard repair. So I followed that line and went down to my local surf shop. The guys at Trigger Brothers have been family friends for years and Phil was more than helpful. I thought he'd just give me some advice and some offcuts and send me on my way. He literally dropped everything to help me (he had 4 surfboards curing). What a legend.



John Jolly glassing a board in the shaping shed.



So the plan was to chop down the hump, use the cut-off to maintain the shape and then sand it all back.





Scary.



Fiberglass and sun-cure resin to hold the cut-off piece in place.



Then using something Phil called 'micro-balloon' to fill it in.



Rasp it down.





You can see where the fill came in. This allowed us to sand off more of the original fiberglass.



You can see it was high on the left where my finger is.





More sanding. We used the rasp file, regular sand paper and then a large sanding wheel to take off the fiberglass.





So you can see, it's certainly a 'shallower' hump, but I think it looks better. Maybe it's a little 'heavy' on the left side, but remember, there is upholstery going over the top of this, so that should hide some of the minor flaws I think.





You can see how much I took off it. This foam sat flush with the edge originally.







Better or still more needed to be removed?

What do you reckon?

Rick.

[fastbroshi]

Much better, I'd run with it.

[HedNut]

Awesome work man!!! Customized custom cafe seat!  Looks Excellent!!

[Aladinsane07]

That looks awesome.  Run it.

[traveler]

I agree......looks great!

Paint matching green and continue forward.

Oh....I am like a giant on my 550 racer, so don't feel bad.

~Joe