CB360 Cafe Seat (from seat pan and tank)

krukster86

krukster86

Been Around the Block
Ok y'all,

I recently purchased an old CB360 seat from Noel (Loco Leon) for pretty cheap and after a lot of prodding around and elbow grease, I managed to get the seat cover and metal trim removed YAY! What I discovered underneath was something strange entirely! The top surface of the seat pan was caked in rust, close to 90% of it. I will have at it with a wire wheel tomorrow to see what damage I can do to the rust. If I am unsuccessful I will look for someone in the Chicago NW Suburbs area to sandblast it on the spot. On the bright side, the seat cover is in good shape to be reused for the cushion, the metal seat trim is intact, and the foam is reusable as well! Pics below:

Creature from the black lagoon/seat pan after removal of cover and foam:
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Seat cover and trim hanging around:
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Seat foam ready to be trimmed down:
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I am currently waiting for a CB175 tank to come in so I can start shaping the "cowling", but this seat pan deserved a lot of attention right now.
 
Ok I received the CB175 tank from my hookup at the Honda Twins forum. Its in pretty decent shape but I won't touch this stuff till after Christmas.
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OK I had a little time yesterday and today to work on this side project. I got a new wire wheel for the old electric drill, some 100 grit sandpaper, and went to town on the seat pan. The wire wheel got rid of the top layer of rust from the pan, but to get to the shiny metal the sandpaper was king. I was burning through a 1/4 sheet of sandpaper per square inch (to get to the bare metal) so I think sandblasting should be ok.
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Once I gave up, I decided to work on the tank. The paint that was on there was slapped on pretty darn good, even though I let the tank sit in some paint stripper. I might have to get it sandblasted as well. I used the low-tech way of cutting the tank using a hacksaw, scroller saw, and bending and fatiguing the metal till the two halves separated. I will ask my dad for some help getting rid of the bottom of the tank half sometime soon.
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Today has been a mixed blessing. We have mid 50 degree weather in the Chicago suburbs, but it is raining non stop, epoxy painting will have to wait some more...
 
I am trying my hand at electrolysis, which seems like a great way to get all the rust off that seat pan. I tried it out on the chopped tank first to see if it works.
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krukster86 said:
I am trying my hand at electrolysis, which seems like a great way to get all the rust off that seat pan. I tried it out on the chopped tank first to see if it works.
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Click to expand...

Ohhh, that interesting...
How did it work?
 
I used electrolysis on my headers and will be using it on my rims, works great! It's slow (2-3 days), but the parts can be in the electro bath while working on other things. My advice, get the biggest electrode you can, I used an industrial sized vegetable can, also, the more amps the faster it works. For example I used the 6amp setting on my charger rather than the 2amp setting. For small CHROMED parts use oxalic acid and water, fast and works a treat!

Tim
 
Oh hell yeah it is slow! I have a 12V 10amp battery tender that I am using for this. Originally it would not work at all when the parts where attached. I had to put a battery in between the parts and the tender so that the reaction could take place, and to trick the tender into charging. I will let it run all night and check on its progress tomorrow night. If all goes well I will dump my crusty rusty seat pan and see what happens! ;)
 
Could some put up a post on a step-by-step "how to" Electrolysis?
I've heard of this and know it works well but Ive never ventured into this before and I dont believe I've ever seen a post on exactly how to do this..

Thanks..
 
locO leoN said:
Could some put up a post on a step-by-step "how to" Electrolysis?
I've heard of this and know it works well but Ive never ventured into this before and I dont believe I've ever seen a post on exactly how to do this..
Thanks..
Click to expand...
Try this ;):
siteContent_electrolysis.jpg
 
OK its been a while, time for some progression pictures!
Here is the seat pan after the electrolysis bath (48 hours). I laid some bondo down to cover up some of the pitting that will still be visible after the cowling and the cushion is secured. My hands start aching every time I walk past my jar of bondo now. It is my first time using it, so I know the results are not professional looking, and I am OK with that.
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Here is the 1st layer of primer:
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Big disappointment: As I was taking the part off the hook, it took a nosedive directly on a section that was restored with Bondo. I cursed in English, Polish and woke the neighbors. A lot more sanding and the part was once again...passable.
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Second layer of primer down. Seat pan is looking much better.
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Seat pan trim I sanded down and sprayed with "chrome" rattlecan paint:
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Seat foam I am in the process of trimming down to a 3/4 inch thickness:
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What I am using for the butt-cushion:
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The 1/2 tank for the cowling.
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I am thinking about plugging up that "hole" with some sheet aluminum and Bondo. What do you guys think?
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That's some nice work. I've a seat pan that looks much worse that I will probably use the electrolysis method on. Have to figure a design for the taillight/brakelight so I can take advantage of the stock hinges.
 
WOW.. looks fantastic so far!!..
Why not try to find a taillight to fill in the space? or mount a tail light so that it looks like its floating?


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You get the general idea...
 
OK so I scrapped the previous posts as to not repeat myself. I drilled some holes with the drill press and mounted the cowling to the seat.
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Color pattern I am thinking of - Red cowling to match the tank and the sidecovers, epoxy black seat pan, and black leather for the cushion.
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What I have to work on now is making this cowling "blend" into the seat pan. The CB360 seat pan has a really funky shape that is not symmetric.
 
Looks great. That photoshop mockup looks good. Like how you have some white on the seat to tie into the detail on the tank. Should look good.
 
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