1972 Honda CB350 - Little Boy

[AppleDappleMan]

First of all let me explain that I'm a 3rd year college student that is 20 years old. The only experience I've had with motorcycles was riding a pocket dirtbike once in middle school for 10 seconds (fell on my leg and was embarrassed to get back on haha). For the past 2 years I have been reading countless of threads on dotheton, hondatwins of rusted antiques left in barns that were turned into cafe racers. Now my older brother purchased a CB750 last year and it was always exciting to think what he would do on his bike. So while my parents are on vacation I decided to take my M1 license and after taking the class riding a motorcycle was more fun that I thought it would be so I was sold that I will purchase an old Honda CB.

After countless searching, I finally settled on a Honda CB350 for $700 dollars on January 1st, 2014 as a New Years project to myself. It seems like all bikes in California are around 2k so it was a cheap deal for me. I'll be using this thread as a step-by-step log of my build which will hopefully convince me to work on the bike. I really have no idea what I'm doing but the internet is full of information on how to restore this bike. I do have a lot of questions though so any advice is welcome and hopefully this thread helps others too!


DSC00100 by kikkohero, on Flickr

First time sitting on the CB350


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My brother's CB750 next to my CB350


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Our little work garage.


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Work bench.


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First things first was to get rid of the rust out of my gas tank. I decided to use electrolysis. All it consists of is sticking a steel rod to use as a sacrificial anode (not stainless or anodized steel) and connect the positive lead to the steel and negative lead to the tank. You have to make sure that the steel does not come into contact with tank. I used electrical tape at the end and where the metal touched the tanked. For the solution inside the tank, I bought washing soda and used a spoonful for every gallon of water. Now I'm not sure if this is correct but when starting my electrolysis, I had a bunch of green fuzz come off steel rebar so I stopped and got plain steel from B&B Hardware and still green fuzz occurred.



DSC00016 by kikkohero, on Flickr

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Black Oxide in the tank left over


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Steel pulled out, all the gross looking stuff just fell right off and ate a bit of the steel.


DSC00091 by kikkohero, on Flickr

I've already done some work to the carbs and oil filter which I'll post pics of later.

Couple questions:

After electrolysis the rust is gone and it left behind black oxide inside my tank. How do I get rid of it?

Regarding the oil pump pickup, how do I take it out? After taking off the side crank cover, i unscrewed the piece where the net filter is but it seems stuck behind the huge gears next to oil filter.

 

[churlburt]

1972 Honda CB350 - Little Boy

looking forward to see how this turns out! I too am a college student working on my second 350 build... They're a really fun bike and easy to learn the ropes on. As for your gas tank, I would try filling it with distilled vinegar and letting it sit for a day or so, shaking it around occasionally. I've used that method to clean a few rusty tanks and they always come out really nice. just buy a couple of the cheapest gallons you can find. I'm not positive but I bet it will take that black oxide off.


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[AppleDappleMan]

Re: 1972 Honda CB350 - Little Boy

looking forward to see how this turns out! I too am a college student working on my second 350 build... They're a really fun bike and easy to learn the ropes on. As for your gas tank, I would try filling it with distilled vinegar and letting it sit for a day or so, shaking it around occasionally. I've used that method to clean a few rusty tanks and they always come out really nice. just buy a couple of the cheapest gallons you can find. I'm not positive but I bet it will take that black oxide off.


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I've heard of using Coke but I was kind of skeptical. I'll definitely try your distilled vinegar tip though. I find working on this bike a lot easier and more fun than working on a car. I just can't wait to finally start it for the first time!

Got any advice on the oil pump pickup? I've been trying to figure it out and I'm kind of at a standstill because of it.

 

[mrlvlagic]

that electrolysis is some cool stuff. Were you able to source the washing soda locally? I havent been able to find any

 

[AppleDappleMan]

that electrolysis is some cool stuff. Were you able to source the washing soda locally? I havent been able to find any

It was a major pain for me to find too actually. If my memory serves me right, I believe I bought it from Kmart. I don't see it online but I remember buying it from there. If I remember I'll edit my post and send you a pm!

 

[Jay Ace]

48 hour soak in apple cider vinegar will make the inside look like new. Eats rust like fat kid eats cake.
You have to neutralize the acid afterward with soda though so it doesn't rust again.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

I will be following this build as well as following it in person when I walk out to the garage to work on my bike. lol

 

[AppleDappleMan]

I've already done some work to the carbs, all I did was some soaking in some dawn soap and water overnight (Left out pieces with rubber gaskets out). Used WD-40 for the dirt that was harder to take off. I scrubbed away with wire brushes from Harbor Freight way longer than I should have since I wanted them to look a lot cleaner.

Before:

DSC00029 by kikkohero, on Flickr

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After:

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I moved on to changing the oil, I poured all the oil out from under the engine and moved the side of the engine. I took the three screws out and the filter was pretty clean inside, I just used paper towels to soak up leftover oil.

Next I took off the side crank cover (let me know if I'm naming the parts correctly!) It was a major pain since I was only able to take out a couple pieces and the rest got stripped. I didn't have rubber bands on hand so I used latex gloves for grip and it worked a bit! But the rest were stripped too much. I decided to go home since it was so frustrating, the next day I decided to buy an impact driver and WOW! Its officially my favorite tool!

Before removing the case I found out I had to take foot pegs off first which only consisted of 4 bolts underneath. Once I removed the case, the gasket stuck to the pieces of metal.


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Latex gloves worked on a few.

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Impact driver saved my day on the stripped screws


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Glad to see everything was pretty clean inside!

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I bent back the pins so I could use the socket on the bolts. I thought that would free up the oil pump but it seems I have to remove the whole clutch if I want to access it. I ended up just wrestling the filter out to clean it.


DSC00105 by kikkohero, on Flickr

Gasket stuck in some areas of the engine


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Now just waiting for a couple parts to come in the mail to continue progress on the bike.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

how are you gonna get that old gasket stuff off