I have looked for years to do a vintage project...sort of. What it really is is that I suffer from the genetic disorder known as 'modifiers syndrome'. I found an unloved '74 cb 350f in a friends barn and picked it up for a hundred bucks to use as a daily rider and the result were predictable. What I had wanted was a cafe inspired bike and this was prime fodder. Sorry that I don't have any 'before' pictures to show you but I can give you the general picture. The bike suffered from a really bad backyard paint job, it was blue, orange peel everywhere and the paint had washed off around the fuel filler to reveal the original silver. It had a windscreen and one of those crash bars that resemble cow catchers on old trains. It had a homemade luggage racks on the back that was actually so well made that I initially mistook it for a Hondaline product BUT the previous owner had mounted a plywood box to it to function as a trunk. The poor thing had never seen any love and fewer washes. 35 years of accumulated grease, oil, road grime and basic dirt.
The first order of business were the carbs. Thing had not been run in the better part of a decade and I drained out enough varnish in the rebuild to refinish a table. Then I went on to the clubman bars to get that cafe inspired look and a bit later decided to do something about the paint. This was my first non-aerosol paint project and I had a bit of filling to do as well, a few small dents couple of them were from the reflectors hitting the tank. Don't think that it turned out too bad for a first timer despite that I had to fix my mistakes, like blowing a piece of hardened primer out of my gun onto the base coat because I had'nt cleaned the gun properly (ouch). Redo the base coat. Tires, obviously,I went a bit oversize with the rear and I was lucky enough to find a Cheng Shin front (with the old Metzeler tread pattern that has such a cool period look to it) most of the cables have needed work in one way or another. A whole bunch of niggly little stuff including a load of rewiring.
Now the only thing that I have left is to replace those oversize reflectors on the fork so they don't hit the tank and ruin all my hard work, replace the seat cover and the right side switch gear (headlight and kill switch and starter).It's the switch gear that is giving me all the trouble, I can't find one for love or money. A friend asked my this morning why I did'nt just sell the thing and get rid of the headache. I could'nt give him a good response except that after all this if I did'nt ride it for a bit it would just have been a waste of time.But hey it's fun if you are making progress so if anyone can help me out with that switchgear...
