1971 HONDA CL450 cafe build

Quick update:

I cut down the front fender instead of eliminating it to keep a good fork brace. I also moved the cable loops up a little further to a spot that appeared like it would not hinder or bind the cables when using them. I removed as much rust as I could from the bottom of the fender, primed it and painted it with a decent quality auto paint just in black.
I had a good friend of mine make me some spacers. I don't have a lathe or access to one to make some quality metal parts like this so a HUGE thanks goes out to my friend Dave W. You will see the wheel spacers on both sides and the fork top spacers. Since I used the cl450 front end and only changed the triple tree to a cb450 one to be able to lower the front end the spacing was different for the axle (I used a cb450 axle too). Then also the cl450 forks had the area at the top where it was reduced in size to fit into the old triple tree and those aluminum spacers for the top make it look amazing!!.. This is all the progress I've had recently. Should have the electrical done this week and paint is still out like 2-3 weeks. I will keep updating.
Thanks for watching!!!

I did a similar trim to my front fender and the first time I had to ride home in the rain I regretted it.

Worked fine at low or high speed, but between 25 and 40, the water would fly off the tire out in front of the bike but the wind blew it right back into my face. Imagine riding 35 mph with a steady stream of water flying in your face. Not fun.

I may trim my new fender back a bit, but not nearly as much.

However, if you live somewhere where the roads don't get wet, no problem.

Yeah, I can only imagine the horrible ride with a fender like yours and mine but the "plan" is to ride one of the other three bikes when there is even a 1% chance of rain. While I don't live in Seattle or where its always wet, I do live in Indiana where the weather can change drastically within 5 minutes : So the "plan" is that the cafe wont even know what water is and hopefully she never has to find out or it will be a long slow ride for both of us. ;D

Yeah, that is my only bike and I occasionally take it on long trips so I will eventually get caught in the rain again.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks!! 8) that's awesome you like the bike... I'm super excited right now, I'm on my way home with the parts from paint. I'm going to slap it together and try to get a pic in the daylight. If not, I'll post one tomorrow. ;D

Update!! A friend came over and helped me with the wiring and we got all the mechanicals done and just have to finish the lighting wiring.. I also installed and/or temporarily installed the coils, wires, rear tail light/turn signals, reg/rec combo, inline fuse, led turn signal resistors, and some other things.
My brother just finished the paint ;D and I'm dropping it off to be pinstriped tomorrow, then a couple more coats of clear over the pinstriping and it will be done there. In between that I'm going to try to get the other things done. I ended up getting the pamco ignition and that is what will be going on it instead of the dyna. So I have a brand new, never installed, dyna electronic ignition up for grabs if anyone knows someone that would be interested.
Anyways, here are a lot of pictures. Please comment!!

Finally just got her fired up... First breath of fire in 40 years.. Still have work but she RUNS!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU59G85yxtM&feature=youtu.be

CONGRATS! Feels good don't it!
Bike is looking stellar, the metalics really "pop" in the sun, good choice.

Yes it is, very good feeling... thanks for the compliments. ;D

Got some work done on the bike last night since I skipped work

Thanks to Crazypj for the starter block off cap. It turned out great and I think it will function well. Only thing I can say to anyone is be careful on over tightening the screws. I almost stripped one of mine..
I was having bad luck with over tightening bolts last night too. I snapped one of the clutch spring bolts and where it broke was inside the threading of the clutch hub and was a bitch to get back out but using the old dremel I made it happen.
I replaced all the clutch parts and polished some of the engine side covers and some other misc work. Here are all the pics I have for tonight: The starter cap and snapped clutch bolt :-[

Been awhile but I have been VERY busy... I finally got the body back from the pin striper and mocked it up. It's going back in to the painter for a couple coats of clear over the stripping and then final assembly. Thought I'd share the photos and keep updates coming. Enjoy!!

Shortly after my last update my body/tins went back to my brother for the final clear coats over the pin striping and he had them done except for the final sand, buff, polish. and I was supposed to go pick them up last week. He text me and said that his garage caught fire and it was pretty bad... The fire had burnt through the finished ceiling, attic, and out the roof. My parts still there among a ton of his stuff. Most of which is damaged beyond repair... The tail and tank are fiberglass and the headlight bucket is the OEM Honda one and they look to be in decent shape considering what they went through. Still unsure of the overall condition of my parts but he has some pics and he said he may be able to make them work but will need to start the whole paint/pinstripe process over again. :'( sooooo bummed, it was so close and the bike is practically finished other than that. I have other bikes to ride and other projects to work on so this one will just sit it out on the bench for a little bit... Thinking about all that my brother lost is so saddening but the whole family is perfect and that is the most important part and money can't buy life back... Here is a couple pics and I will post again once I get them finished AGAIN.

Working in the garage over the last couple weekends I managed to get a little bit done on the cl450... Thanks to Sonreir I had some really sweet new faces laying around for my gauges and decided to put them to good use finally... I disassembled the gauges, painted them, installed some NOS rubbers, cleaned up some parts to be reused and reassembled. The gauge faces are very high quality and installed very easily. Getting the needles off were actually easier than I thought. The hardest part was cutting out the turn/neutral lenses without removing them and resetting the odometer to 0. That was a pain... I painted the insides of the housings white like Sonreir recommended and installed much brighter LED bulbs for all the lights. (I'm keeping the neutral/turn lights).

Overall: Definitely a upgrade I recommend for a very inexpensive upgrade versus buying a brand new Drag Spec or Acewell unit... Install level: 9/10. The trim ring is a pain to get off and damage is almost unavoidable. Very small imperfections still noticeable up close... I may do another set just to do it and I may post a how to. Enjoy the pics!

Oh, and I repainted the needle tips with "bubble gum" colored phosphorus paint with a clear nail polish top coat.. They are pink in color but glow a very bright green with little light needed and glow for a pretty long time... The brand used was "Glow-on".

Cut the frame to move the rear sets up and forward as much as I could while not interfering with the scrambler pipes and being even on both sides.


Here's pictures of both sides mounted. The brake side went up pretty much flawlessly with the welding already done. The shifter side went up nicely as well but the kickstand just kisses the toe shifter so I'm going to have to figure something else out there.



Here is a picture of both sides with the whole bike in frame.



I have to make some mounts for the gauges to sit a little lower and away from the clip ons because they wont even fit where they are supposed to go now. I shaved down the triple tree, lowered the bike about 1 more inch and put the clip ons on the top side of the triple tree. I had to shave down the top triple tree to get the clip ons to be turned in more because the were hitting the small rise for the bar clamps.




Overall the stance and riding position I'm fairly happy with. I think it will be a very nice bike to keep in my collection and ride as my weekend bike. I have to make the clutch and front brake cables, a few small tweaks, and about 2 electrical issues and it will be ready for the street. Hopefully before we get snow.

Hopefully before we get snow.

Click to expand...

Good luck to you Mark, feels like it's right around the corner. This spring we'll have to hook up for a ride!
Bike is looking great, hard to tell from the pics but did you get the clear coat straightened out since the fire? Every time I think about it makes me cringe.

No perfection with the paint. I haven't even attempted wet sanding it yet but a small part about 2"x5" has the actual paint coat peeling a little.. I think I'll be able to finish the clear coat decently though. I'm going to have some time on it this weekend though so I'll post updates buy Sunday night.

Thanks on the compliments and we definitely have to go for a ride in a couple months. Ready for some ride time on my custom builds. ;D

Here she is... Alive and well.. I'm going to ride it and make small mods as I go.

I think I'll keep all the body work as it is, it's a good story with my brothers fire and all.

Not sure on how I want to finish the tail/frame gap section, need to paint the tail light bracket black or get a new one altogether... A couple other things I'm unsure of but I'll figure them out in time.

Here's a video. Sorry for the messy shop and poor video quality.

1971 honda cl450 scrambler cafe racer (she's a li…: http://youtu.be/Pb7io_fDJNY