CB-450 Cafe

Finished the engine over the weekend. Now on to the frame and seat.

What did you do to it? It looks flawless. Did you get some parts rechromed?

Good golly. Can't wait to see the rest! Inspiration for me - I'm going to be doing the exact same thing to an XS650 engine over the next few months.

What sort of black engine paint did you use? Mind sharing some of the cleaning/prep steps?

Oh MY... WHat a piece of ART....Just looking at it brings a tear to my eyes...

That's a gem!

Great work!

Now what about those carbs? ;D

WOW
I need that motor in my CB450 build...

Thanks all for the kind words!
The engine paint is Dupli-Color 500º High Gloss Black. As for the bright parts, nothing but hours of work with the buffing wheels. First the parts were blasted with walnut shells to remove rough oxidation. Then wet sanded with 800 grit. I used brown tripoli rouge on a spiral sewn wheel first then white rouge on a loose wheel. After all that, I used Flitz polish on a terry cloth to clean and protect the parts. I should have done something with the starter, but it wasn't beat up so I left it alone. As for the carbs CanadaDan, I didn't think it would be a good idea to paint them and I don't have nearly enough patience to polish 'em. I'm not sure they will work well so I might replace them once it's running.
Oh, one other thing, to clean rusty chrome parts I used Milk Stone Remover (phosphoric acid). You can get it at any farm supply store. It will take the rust right off of any chrome part and not touch the plating. Those head pipes were pretty rusty when I started and the finned retainers were black as hell with carbon and rust.

Just to play devil's advocate here, but aren't you worried about the black paint coming off ?
I know it is high heat and all, but just the other day a guy on the SOHC4 board had a fuel spill on his
freshly painted motor and ALL the paint came off (it was the same paint u used)..

Well...I wasn't worried till NOW!!!

lstuckey1 said:

Well...I wasn't worried till NOW!!!

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Didn't mean to freak ya out bud, so relax.
I guess the trick to that rattlecan high heat stuff is to get the motor started and get a nice
"cooking" cycle in a few times to cure the paint. Just keep raw fuel offa it and u will be fine...

Just bake the engine in the oven. I'll do that when I finish mine, and the wife's out of town

Tintin said:

Just bake the engine in the oven. I'll do that when I finish mine, and the wife's out of town

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Now I'm just thinking...I have a tenant in my building who does powdercoating. He has an oven that you can actually walk into (probably 12' x 12'). I have no idea how hot it gets but I could ask him to bake my engine. Would it hurt to leave the cases on? probably not right? The whole thing heats up when it's running.
What do you think the max temp should be?
How long should I let it cook?

Please, I have all the material plus the equipment to put it together. I have a CB350, but it's not a problem.

Forgot to include my e-mail address: ms-collectibles@hotmail.com


Thanks,


Marco