72' CB350 - First build.

Danish_Cafe

Active Member
Hi all,

think it's about time i make a build thread for my CB350. Since it's the first bike i've ever owned and worked on, and also I'm away alot for work, it'll be a slow build, but i will update when ever new stuff happens.

Here's what it looked like when i picked it up:

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During teardown:

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First try at making knee dents:

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Cafe racer seat making:

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First mockup, lower part of frame is cut because of extensive rust. Hopefully I can make a new lower part or repair it. If not i'll get a new frame or possible a donor bike.

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Engine before rebuild:

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Top end apart:

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Lower part:

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Engine work included:

All new gaskets
All new oil seals
New pistonrings
New valveguides
New camchain and roller.
Lapped valves
Starter plugg off
All old screws is now stainless steel allen heads.
Polished intake and exhaust ports
Camshaft, rockerarms, rockerguides, camhousing, oilpump from donor engine with low miles.
All parts painted and put back together.

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Polished hubs and brake plates:

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My try at speedo background redo:

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Still a lot of work to do, but it's comming along nice and slowly.

Last picture is of the engines i normally work on:

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Thank you for a great site with lots of usefull info and beatifull bikes.
 
Excellent start to the thread. I also really like that engine stand. I need to build something like that before I take my head apart in the next couple months.
 
Wow! Really great work on the engine! Did not expect those to be the next pictures immediately following the "before" pics. This should be a treat to follow.

bob.
 
Shit man, was the frame really rusty enough to justify chopping it in half?

Hope you have some skills....looks like you do.
 
That looks good . Question what is the color of the engine paint called ( silver , gray or ? )
 
Thanks for the comments on the engine guys, appriciate it.

The engine paint is silver and black from MOTIP:

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As far as the frame goes, yes it was pretty bad. Had several cracks, and the tubing was nearly impossible to weld on, due to lack of thickness. The bikes has been used by p.o. all year round and snow, rain salt etc, has left its marks. If everything failes I'll get another frame.

Little fab. work done, bushings for rear swing arm:

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Working on carbs right now. Cleaning, new screws and a little paint, pictures will follow.

Waiting on new fork seal and gaitors, so i can rebuild the front end. Pictures will follow.
 
Small update today. A few things went out for blasting today. Hopefully i'll get it back in a few days and get i painted.

Swingarm, wheels, engine mounts, headers, head light bucket etc.

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cheers.
 
Ill be following this one for sure. Any color scheme ideas?
 
JoeTee said:
Ill be following this one for sure. Any color scheme ideas?

Not sure about color yet. I'm thinking of doing a red frame with silver tank and seat and black whels with the polished hubs....

Something like this bike, not sure who did it, but I really like the colors:

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I like that ( I would have not painted the forks).
I really want to do a red frame and black tank / seat on my cb360 but some bikes look great while others look not so great.
the problem is - I can't figure out why it doesn't work on some bikes.

got any other pics of red framed cafe bikes?
 
Thank for the info DrJ.

Little update. Got the stuff back from blasting, and painting is going on right now. Will post pictures when done.

Btw. I need some info on how to lace wheels (pattern), i will have a shop true them, but i wanna save some money and put them together myself before i go to the shop.

Any info, thanks?
 
Re: 72' CB350 - First build - Small delay arrived yesterday!

Got this little thing yesterday morning, so work on my cafe might be delayed a bit, but when I need a time out, i'll go to the workshop and do a bit:

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On the bike, there's a update aswell, got parts primed. Next they will be painted black:

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/Thanks
 
Congratulations on the little one. Small word of advice... work now while you can, once the little one stops sleeping so much you won't want to work on it. Excellent work on the guage face. I am confused though. How does four bricks and a pice of plywood make a cafe seat??? ::)
 
you know what your doing... ill sit back and watch :D

how did you do the valve guides? freeze and hammer in?
 
Weezy: Thanks for your advise, i'll remember that. As far as the seat goes, the four "bricks" or foam, the kind that a florist uses for decorations and such. I glued them to a piece of plywood that i had made to a shape that fit the frame. Then i formed the foam to a nice round shape. Next it'll be covered in fiberglass, bondo'ed, sanded and painted. Hope that makes sense.

Rocan: The valve guides was actually pretty easy to do. I heated the area on the head around the valveguides, used a plastic hammer to knock them out. Measured them with a digital tool, machined them on a lathe, heated the head to about 100 degress celcius and, put the valveguides in the freezer, after that they slipped right in with some high temperature Loctite glue (Just because i had some handy, not really nessasary). The head is now as good as new. I Think i took some pictures, i'll post them if i can find them.

pheller: Thanks for your compliment, i know about my work area, it's small and not really suitable for paintwork at all, but for this build i'm using cheap rattle can paint, it's my first build and i'm still learning, so im trying to keep costs low and just build this bike and then on the next bike i'll pay more attention to cosmetic details.
 
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