SMKennedy94
New Member
While im not new to these boards, I will say that I haven't posted much. I'll try to change that starting with this thread.
It's another CB360 build ... :
I know, I know ... here we go, another CB360 build. Bear with me, i'll try to make it painless
Almost a year ago I picked a 1975 CB360, which was all original for the grand sum of $550. Yes, it ran; yes it had a title; and yes it had problems. Most notably that the clutch would not disengage. The lever went limp, and there was slack in the line. But I did manage to take it around the block at the previous owners place. Which was in Vermont ... in the mountains ... hours from where I live ... And in my infinite wisdom, I decided why not tow it back using my VW cabrio? You can probably see that some of my choices are not the best by now.
I'm turning it into a bike of my own - no real inspiration from others - no guidance from friends - just me, in my garage with some vision of what i'd like the end result to be.
Hopefully i'll continue to chronicle my misadventures with the bike all the way to its completion within this thread. More importantly, I need a name for this thing. If I continue to work on it every night like i'm doing now, my wife is going to make the name "mistress" stick.
The day I picked up the roach ...
those blinker stalks doe ...
And for the past year the bike has basically sat, like the below picture, in my garage ... occasionally I brought it out and went trail riding with it. Like serious mud throwing, oh s&$% I got stuck on a downed tree, kind of riding.
So I guess this is my bag of smashed a@#holes now isn't it?
In the last 3 weeks, I've ordered parts, waited patiently for them to arrive, ripped open packages, turned on the buffing wheel, made sparks fly - and all that dramatic BS. I did work. Blood, sweat, and no tears. Actually, no blood either.
First things first, controls off, tank off, and lets get these goofy bars off the bike. Note the upper triple clamp and bar clamp color.
Stripping the tank ... with a shameless plug of my '72 CB350 café in the background ;D
Sidecovers, polished. Next up ... the triple clamp. This is the stripped aluminum look with the new bars.
And finally all polished
Getting down to the bones
A lot heavier than I thought it would be
No turning back now!
Grateful for my garage ... my sanctuary. Especially when its raining. Oh, and another shameless shot of the VW ;D
If I had the time to polish this, I would. But I've got personal deadlines set.
Primed in flat black. Gloss black was the end color. I was debating doing a crazy bright neon frame - decided to keep her classy.
The paint I was using for the tank was Dupli-Color Metalcast. It's typically made for chrome, and polished metals, but I decided to improvise and use "chrome" paint as a base for my Metalcast color. It didn't turn out as nice as I would've hoped, but the end result was good enough for me.
Now, the bike is far from complete. And heres where my personal deadline comes into play. I want to ride this thing, before the end of the season. As a matter of fact, I want to ride it through Manhattan during the fall. I'm planning on meeting up with an old friend in Manhattan to go and ride in the mid fall, and i'd like to wrap this up by then. I'd also like to make sure I do things right (to the best of my abilities). Having said that - I painted the tank with color, sanded, painted, sanded, painted again, didn't like it, and painted another coat. In total I think theres 5 or 6 good coats on the tank. Along with a couple clear coats.
I wanted to change up the speedometer too. The 72 CB350's speedo bounces like crazy. Originally I was leaning towards the typical 2.5" small, black faced gauges you can find on DCC. Then I got to thinking a little more. I want to use my phone for GPS when I ride, I also sometimes like listening to music - I wonder if they have a speedometer app ... damn right they do!!
At the moment, that's how she sits.
Still on the list of mods:
Install the hand controls
reinstall the engine
polish some misc parts
paint some misc parts
new tail light
paint the wheels
redo some of the wiring
replace fork seals
license plate bracket
new seat
and probably much more as I reassemble.
Its the first bike I've really ripped apart down to the frame to "restore". This board has been a wealth of knowledge for me, and I hope it continues to show me better ways of restoring and modifying these old bikes. Seeing some of the builds others do makes me realize the talent and hard work that DTT members have.
It's another CB360 build ... :
I know, I know ... here we go, another CB360 build. Bear with me, i'll try to make it painless Almost a year ago I picked a 1975 CB360, which was all original for the grand sum of $550. Yes, it ran; yes it had a title; and yes it had problems. Most notably that the clutch would not disengage. The lever went limp, and there was slack in the line. But I did manage to take it around the block at the previous owners place. Which was in Vermont ... in the mountains ... hours from where I live ... And in my infinite wisdom, I decided why not tow it back using my VW cabrio? You can probably see that some of my choices are not the best by now.
I'm turning it into a bike of my own - no real inspiration from others - no guidance from friends - just me, in my garage with some vision of what i'd like the end result to be.
Hopefully i'll continue to chronicle my misadventures with the bike all the way to its completion within this thread. More importantly, I need a name for this thing. If I continue to work on it every night like i'm doing now, my wife is going to make the name "mistress" stick.
The day I picked up the roach ...
those blinker stalks doe ...
And for the past year the bike has basically sat, like the below picture, in my garage ... occasionally I brought it out and went trail riding with it. Like serious mud throwing, oh s&$% I got stuck on a downed tree, kind of riding.
So I guess this is my bag of smashed a@#holes now isn't it?
In the last 3 weeks, I've ordered parts, waited patiently for them to arrive, ripped open packages, turned on the buffing wheel, made sparks fly - and all that dramatic BS. I did work. Blood, sweat, and no tears. Actually, no blood either.
First things first, controls off, tank off, and lets get these goofy bars off the bike. Note the upper triple clamp and bar clamp color.
Stripping the tank ... with a shameless plug of my '72 CB350 café in the background ;D
Sidecovers, polished. Next up ... the triple clamp. This is the stripped aluminum look with the new bars.
And finally all polished
Getting down to the bones
A lot heavier than I thought it would be
No turning back now!
Grateful for my garage ... my sanctuary. Especially when its raining. Oh, and another shameless shot of the VW ;D
If I had the time to polish this, I would. But I've got personal deadlines set.
Primed in flat black. Gloss black was the end color. I was debating doing a crazy bright neon frame - decided to keep her classy.
The paint I was using for the tank was Dupli-Color Metalcast. It's typically made for chrome, and polished metals, but I decided to improvise and use "chrome" paint as a base for my Metalcast color. It didn't turn out as nice as I would've hoped, but the end result was good enough for me.
Now, the bike is far from complete. And heres where my personal deadline comes into play. I want to ride this thing, before the end of the season. As a matter of fact, I want to ride it through Manhattan during the fall. I'm planning on meeting up with an old friend in Manhattan to go and ride in the mid fall, and i'd like to wrap this up by then. I'd also like to make sure I do things right (to the best of my abilities). Having said that - I painted the tank with color, sanded, painted, sanded, painted again, didn't like it, and painted another coat. In total I think theres 5 or 6 good coats on the tank. Along with a couple clear coats.
I wanted to change up the speedometer too. The 72 CB350's speedo bounces like crazy. Originally I was leaning towards the typical 2.5" small, black faced gauges you can find on DCC. Then I got to thinking a little more. I want to use my phone for GPS when I ride, I also sometimes like listening to music - I wonder if they have a speedometer app ... damn right they do!!
At the moment, that's how she sits.
Still on the list of mods:
Install the hand controls
reinstall the engine
polish some misc parts
paint some misc parts
new tail light
paint the wheels
redo some of the wiring
replace fork seals
license plate bracket
new seat
and probably much more as I reassemble.
Its the first bike I've really ripped apart down to the frame to "restore". This board has been a wealth of knowledge for me, and I hope it continues to show me better ways of restoring and modifying these old bikes. Seeing some of the builds others do makes me realize the talent and hard work that DTT members have.
