Project Celeste, CB400four....realizing my dream bike.

As you guys all know, I have a CB400f that I bought (traded for) a while back. It was never going to be a full on destruction project, because me always wanting one of these bikes made me reluctant to chop her up too much. I bought her in complete stock trim, running with electrical issues. Beautiful stock bike IMO albeit a little dirty.




She immediately started her construction process, getting the wiring sorted out (took a good 2 weeks of fixing, now has a mostly complete CB360 harness installed. She got a Dyna ignition, new headers and pipes, a Yoshimura 468 big bore kit, a re-worked head, new tires (Kenda) , new brakes (rebuilt front caliper), a gauge drop, new headlight, new tail light and turn signals, Rejetted carbs, new seat cover, Tarozzi clip ons, etc.








Doug came down with the crew for Barber's and she got a new set of race tech springs and gold valve emulators (Thanks Lauren, Doug, Tim, and all the others that worked in the tiny shed!!!)

After everybody left, I decided that after all of this I wanted a different look. I didn't want to screw with the stock tank because it was too perfect and vintage looking. I tooled around for a while and scored a nice 77 tank off of Ebay for cheap. This tank is a one year tank and has the flip up door on the top of the tank instead of the cap only. Looks cool IMO. So lately I've been working all of the dents and stuff out of it because it was kinda rough. I stripped the lacquer out of the tank and lined it with a Por-15 Kit. I bought a set of re-pop side covers from David Silver Spares and have them primed as well. I thought I'd start a little mini-thread up to show off some of the makeover.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Very cool bike! I will be following this thread

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

I'm sure this one will take the board by storm like Gretta did by the time you are finished. I would like to ask one favor though... Dont make Crescent quiver. It's taken me all week to get that vision out of my head. haha

I like the "resto rod" shizzle

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Dude... nice little goose neck stand/mount you got there... pretty neat idea. Looking forward to this one man. Maybe this will get you back in to the feeling??? Just a thought.

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Excited to be around for this build after seeing Gretta.

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There won't be too much hardcore stuff going on with this girl. I love her too much as is, and don't want to take away from the beauty of the stock 400f TOO much! Standby though, there will be a complete one off frame build based off of a $20 CB450 coming up in the next month. That will be the next full on custom. This one however will look very different soon. I'm looking at a freshly primed tank and side covers on my kitchen table as we speak. Tomorrow, the paint flies.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

right on Kiley, can't wait to see the colour.

Cheers,

Maritime

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Show us the color, dude!

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So today I got my set in the mail, and I thought I'd show it off to ya. You can also see the white base coat that I'm going with in these pics. There will be more paint wise, hopefully this weekend. Hope you guys dig it!

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Nice small 4! I have a 350F with plans to tweak... where did you get that seat? It's NICE!!


Can't wait to see this completed!

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

great, another bike to oogle over as we all wonder why we cant build one as cool

xD

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Thanks guys!

The seat is actually for an SR500. Got it from a company called Motolana. Came out of Vietnam. It is perfect though, in size, etc. I plan to build a small subframe that bolts to the bottom (via the SR500 mounts) and utilizes the stock hinge and latch. Should work out perfectly. Thanks for lookin!

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

What kind of paint is that? It looks pretty shiny for base coat. Can't wait to see what you come up with man!

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Awesome bikes. Have always liked them. Headers are iconic.
Great job so far.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Nice Kiley. Lovin the new mad scientist Avatar too.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Dale said:

Headers are iconic.

Click to expand...

Best looking header/exhaust that Honda ever produced.

Kiley, I am a fan of what you do, sir.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

Thanks fellas. The bikes are indeed awesome. I still have the original exhaust here for the old girl. Problem with that exhaust is that from a performance standpoint, it sucks! I will keep it, but for the motor build, I am running an equal length Yosh pipe. Really wakes the motor up. T71, the base coat is PPG, that's mostly what I use for my painting. Looks shiny because I sanded it down several times to get rid of some inconsistencies with 800 grit. I'll have to hit it one final time with 400 before I do the next color overcoat so it will have some tooth to stick to.

Re: Project Celeste, the "simple" one.

How have I not seen this fucking thread till now? How dammit!? You know how I feel about the 400/4. Makes my pants tight.

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It may be a tad late...but I'm loving that seat!

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Wow. I knew this thread was coming. That tail is sick dude. Can't wait to see ya get into the motor and play around. That 400 is going to be a mighty fine addition to the herd.