ready to take my hazing

[milwaukeephil]

Hey everyone, my name is Phil and I'm from Milwaukee, WI. I've been lurking a little (and met a few cool people via PM), and I figured I'd post a couple pics of a restore I've been doing this summer. It's a '72 CL350.

Everything's been ground down to the bare metal, all rust removed, powdercoated, and put back together. The only new parts I've bought is new shocks and mufflers. Everything else has been nursed back to health with a wire wheel, sandblaster, and buffing wheel. All the nuts and bolts are now stainless. I got rid of the side covers and lined the battery box with stainless so you don't see the battery.

Still to be done are the tank, which is fully painted and clearcoated -- waiting for the clear to dry before high grit sandpapering and then the magic rubbing compound. My father-in-law is an upholsterer and is working on a bump seat for me. I'll post some more pics as I finish the bike off...

Here are a couple before and after photos...

The top of the battery box, before and after. This bike was just covered in rust -- every piece.



And a side view of the back end before and after:



And one more view of the back end. Sorry, don't have pics of the front here...


Okay, go ahead and get your hazing over with...
-phil

[Fear My Twin]

Hazing? It looks like a very clean restoration. Good job. Might want to go ahead and buy some new cables though. Yours will break soon just as mine did

Know what would set that bike off? A set of CL350 Sausage pipes. I have a set

[CanadaDan]

If you insist 

[youtube=425,350]gKpKSZGSkuo[/youtube]

[kevineleven]

Nice avatar.

[Tim]

Hey Phil - welcome.  I just sent some XS650 airfilters and sidecovers to Milwaukee.  Used to fly in all the time on my way to a consulting gig in Gurnee IL.  A year and a half of commuting in every week from Toronto.  Don't miss that much.

Still get a chuckle everytime I think of the 'Bong Recreation Area' on the right side of the highway driving south from the Milwaukee airport to Gurnee.

[locO leoN]

Welcome Phil!!.. Very nice job so far!!
Just out of curiosity, how did you find us?

Cheers
N

[Tim]

I like the looks of that Yamaha whateveritis in the background.  Looks like fun.

[milwaukeephil]

Hazing? It looks like a very clean restoration. Good job. Might want to go ahead and buy some new cables though. Yours will break soon just as mine did

Know what would set that bike off? A set of CL350 Sausage pipes. I have a set

Funny, I just put the obligatory dropped bars on and it's clear that I'm going to need new cables all around. My local shop hinted around that he makes clutch and throttle cables but when I asked about brake cables he was very careful to say "we make throttle cables -- if you use them for brakes, that's your own deal..."

As for exhaust, unfortunately the previous owner went to a boneyard and bought the exhaust off of a 450, so the shock wanted to hit it in the wrong spot. So this weekend I gave up and went with a stock exhaust. Ho hum.

Nice avatar.

Thanks, I do graphics for a small skateboard company here in Milwaukee -- we give the profits away to fund skateparks.

Still get a chuckle everytime I think of the 'Bong Recreation Area' on the right side of the highway driving south from the Milwaukee airport to Gurnee.

Must have been some big-time out-of-touch squares in public office when they came up with that name...

Welcome Phil!!.. Very nice job so far!!
Just out of curiosity, how did you find us?

Cheers
N

Thanks -- like I said, I've been lurking for a little while but I think I found this place via a google search a while back.

I like the looks of that Yamaha whateveritis in the background.  Looks like fun.

That's a Yamaha TW200 -- it's a street-legal crawler. It's like a two-wheeled ATV, except it can get in tighter spaces. And the way it's geared you could drive straight up a tree.
Mine is pretty stock...

...but the Japanese kids are using it as a base for some really sweet customizing:

[DrJ]

What did you do with the top shock mounts? Did you make that rectifier yourself?

[milwaukeephil]

What did you do with the top shock mounts? Did you make that rectifier yourself?

Actually, those black brackets are going away. When I was putting the bike back together, i hadn't bought washers to compensate for their absence, and I just haven't got around to popping them off and replacing with washers.

And the rectifier was added by the previous owner. It seems crazy that people drove around with their headlights off back then. Reminds me of my '69 Plymouth Fury -- the seatbelt had a female clip on the ceiling that kept the pesky shoulder belt strapped to the ceiling.

[Fear My Twin]

So wait, CL450 pipes fit on your 350?

I didnt think they were interchangable?

Clean bike either way

[milwaukeephil]

So wait, CL450 pipes fit on your 350?

I didnt think they were interchangable?

Clean bike either way

Sorry to confuse you -- the PIPES are off a CL350. The previous owner went out to a salvage yard and took the mufflers off a CL450. They're about 2" longer and a little bigger overall. On the back of the scrambler mufflers, there is a dip where it curves around the rear shock. That dip was a couple inches in back of the shock, so the mufflers fit all wonky.

Kind of sucks, because the heat shields cleaned up really nice and I blasted and stripped all the rust off the mufflers and repainted them with high-temp Duplicolor. You should have seen the smoke that came from my gas grill when I hardened the paint!

Here is a pic of the bike the day I rode it home with the CL450 mufflers:



So no, the pipes are probably not interchangable, but the mufflers can be made to fit pretty closely if you aren't picky.

By the way, Milwaukee Salvage (http://www.milwaukeecycle.com/salvage_yard.htm) has a bunch of CL exhausts hanging in their warehouse, but they all need TLC in one way or another. They also have a HUGE basement filled with aisle upon aisle of stripped parts -- a whole aisle of rearsets, aisles of shocks, clutches, brake levers, seats, you name it. It's insane. I could build 5 new CL350s out of that basement.

-phil