Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450 DONE AND RUNNING!!!!!

Well here it is my official build thread, things have been quiet as its rather cold so i thought i would get on here and share what im doing, and done thus far.

Here is my blank canvas, bought it as my birthday present, its a 1971 CB 450 ss, i got it in semi running condition. Started by draining a bunch of gasy oil out of it.





after that i screwed with it and got it started and running, wanted to make sure it wasn't a hopeless cause... Besides a strange carb issue, were the carbs were unsyncable, she was a solid runner.

Next stop was the rusty gas tank will i find pin holes upon cleaning?





Yuk, after only hours....



Initial tear down



Here i mounted a old set of dirt bike bars upside down to get the cafe feel going, and the creative juices flowing

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Next the rear seat bracket and frame section disappeared, and a new extended frame was added



Now whats a cafe without a rear pod thingee, heres my initial efforts,





after a while working on this, i didn't like the direction it was going not to mention it was just way to freakin big, so enter a $9.99 beat to S*&T ebay special





BTW the theme of this project is broke college student, so money isn't going to be thrown around on expensive stuff, my main sponsor is Team Ebay Racing, LOL, plus doing it on the cheap gives me more of a challenge forces me to learn new and interesting things like "the rear set dilema"

heres the problem, the passenger pegs are a little to far back and up for my liking and i couldn't find anything universal i liked, I toyed with the thought of building rear sets but thought that maybe there was a better way, I dont have any machine tools, either so. After like a month of hunting around and scouring the internet i found a solution in the form of 98 CBR 600 F3 rear sets they have an aluminum mount plate folding pegs and STEEL shift and brake levers suitable for modification with my welder... Also a nice little bonus after i got the rear sets i discovered that the lever that goes on the engine meant for the 98 was a perfect fit on my 71 so that solved one dilema,

I got brave and cut the stock passenger peg brackets clean off!









Im a bit anal and like things welded up straight and true and accurate so heres my overkill jiging for the welding....



The lever was a perfect fit on the shift shaft but... it was gonna majorly interfere with the exhaust... so new issue, which i anticipated buying the rear sets i did.....



so out came the welder....

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Oh i just realized i forgot a pic this is how she sits at the moment, its been a little chilly to be out in the garage so not much has been happening i have been ebaying aquireing all the needed parts to finish her come warmer weather

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

So far, so good... More rear pod thingee!

-Tom

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Very cool man. Keep it up!

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

A nice start indeed! Twisted Wheelz is using the same rearsets. He hasn't mounted them up yet so I'm going to send him over here to check those out. This bike is going to be the tits! Keep it up dude!
Alex

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Do you have any more pics of your jig setup for welding the rearset mounting plates? I'm just about to cut mine out and get them ready to weld up and that looks like the perfect setup for what I want to do.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

I don't have anymore pics of the jigging it was basically a 'U" of metal that went from one side to the other to stabilize the brackets as i welded them, thats the goal so stuff doesn't warp when the welds cool. I have learned this the hard way too many times and wrecked too much stuff this bike wasn't getting on that list!

Anyways i spent the whole long weekend in the garage and got a whole pile done.....

I got to thinking that the handle bars might be a tad low so....





After that little adjustment I started on my rear pod again i thought a nice 3" exhaust was in order...should be interesting right?



ok not really an exhaust, it was for frenching in the 1937 ford LED tail light i scored on Ebay a few weeks ago



Although it looks sorta done its not theres still mad work to go into this pod first....





Hey you guys like my last little sub-project i was getting sick of pounding sheet metal over the edge of a work bench....



Bent the .065" sheet metal fairly easy, i think its limit is about .080" ????



Part of laying out the mounting for the pod to my newly constructed rear section



Lastly the retainer for the tail light



Ok so last thing was getting the headlight back on there, really wanted to get an overall look at what i have going on....





And finally here are the overall's from 3 days worth of work.....



If you noticed the hole going into the rear pod i decided it would be an awful waste of space to leave it empty, so im gonna utilize it as storage, and to carry some spare parts and tools should i ever break down....





Here I am, i wish it was running and going somewhere....

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

love the sheet metal brake, do you build bridges for a living? ;D

I like the way things with this are headed

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Excellent work. Everything you've done looks great and its obvious you are a first rate craftsman. Keep it up and keep sharing!

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Alright, no pics of the welding jig but I HAVE to have more pics of that sheet metal brake. We've been long thinking of building something like that.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

You know your way around your tools, that's for sure.

You can never "over" jig anything. There is a point to where your kind of wasting time but its going to be straight.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

How about using the "pod" for battery storage?
Good work btw

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

the battery and electronics are gonna be under the seat in a tray about 4" - 5" deep. Thats the plan anyone familiar with the 450's knows those air filters and carb placement aren't nice to work with i got something in mind im just waiting on some NOS K&N pod filters and i need to make a fake battery plug to mess around with placement and arrangements to tell if it will work

As for my little sheet metal brake i do have some photo's and here they are:

here is the hinge detail there 3/8" thick flat bar the bolts are there to jig the assembly for welding they were later drilled to 1/2" and replaced with drill rod. they are also upside down,



here are the hinges situated on the base which is a hunk of 6" x 2" channel about 2" long.







now I added the folding bar thing this is cold rolled flat bar i think its 1/2" thick the cold rolled was used because the edge is nice and square and dimensionally accurate, while hot rolled is rounded and scalely.

the top clamp is a piece of 2 1/2" x 1 1/4 angle with a piece of 1 1/4x 1 1/4 angle welded on it for strength



heres a close up of the end detail:



this is it finished there are 2 NFF 1/2" bolts for the clamp. Now if you look above the coke can you can sorta see the back check which is there to keep the clamp from pushing back with heavier sheet metal in it.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

No shit garage guy chris. You do amazing work sir. I like the brake. The plate for the rearsets is great. I'm sure its straight too. Everything looks good. Keep it up.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Ok so now that i have a sexy rear section i need a place for the battery and electrical stuff, anyone who knows the 450 will know the stock air filters and the battery placement are majorly problematic for aftermarket filters and the cage is ugly....., and the selenium rectifier is ghetto, and my stock wiring is a cats breakfast....

heres the next journey.....cut and paste time card board is great!





Magic turns cardboard to 18g sheet metal



Now the front plate..







Next I used a pipe for the radius's on the inside.





when i place them i tack weld on the inside then sand the edge down smooth with the other facet,



then CAREFULLY stitch weld the perimeter.





Next i worked out the mounting points



Heres the battery placement,



And.................... the finished product....

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Top notch work. That weld on the perimeter of the electro box is hard to do. Nice job, good looking welds. The frenched tail light is tits. Real nice. And thanks for the detailed journal. I'll be following for sure!

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Nice work man. How much time do you have in the the battery box? looks good keep it up.

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

Garage_guy_chris said:

heres the next journey.....cut and paste time card board is great!

then CAREFULLY stitch weld the perimeter.

Click to expand...

holy shit. that's just awesome dude

ian

Re: Garage Guy Chris's First Cafe 71' CB 450

WOW! Great stuff man! Very cool!