CJ360 First Bike, First Build, The First One Almost All Done!

[IanOberholtzer]

There she blows, the day i bought her about one year ago.

Hello Everyone

Been working on this project for about a year now on and off, lacking space at my home in savannah its been sitting dormant in orlando in my parents garage for some time and I've decided that these next 2 weeks are to be dedicated to finishing it, and as part of my promise to myself to stay motivated and to share what I've been up to, with out further introduction, here she is, The First One.

Some friends of mine checking out the new purchase.

Found this sucker not 50 miles away from me in savannah on Ebay for $350, was down in a borrowed pickup to haul her home the next morning. All of a sudden I owned a motorcycle, ha that was easy. Now here comes the trouble.

June 2010

Got it from the original owner with 20k on the clock and a bit of dust on her from sitting for a few years. Owner said it needed a carb rebuild and a new clutch, but other wise was fine.

Brought it up to my porch for further inspection. Took the carbs off, found this rats nest!

Cleaned the things via lemon juice boil ( i would not recommend this to anyone btw ) And put a fresh battery in the thing and tried to start it, immediate short after she started blowing the main fuse... damnit.

So.. i started taking things apart, the saga begins. In hindsight, i wish i would have just left it alone and got it registered, myself licensed and rode the damn thing until it needed more work. But, not ever being able to leave well enough alone, I got carried away

First thing, this awful pin striping on the tank absolutely had to go, whoever did this needs a firm talking to. It came off alright, but i went ahead and striped the tank bare, going for a very raw material minimalism look on this bike ala Wrenchmonkees style builds.

Put a enamel clear on the thing to keep it stationary as far as rust is concerned. bad move, should have opted for a lacquer to get a better bite in the thing, its started to apear all over the thing now but.. dont mind the patina. However, going to get a new clear and some satin black down the center in a few days so it wont be on there much longer.
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Bobbed the fender while i was having a go at the painted bits

Decided at this point with the seat off and tank off, that I wanted to cut the seat down, so lets fast forward a bit because it gets out of hand and i don't have the pictures to fill in all the gaps . Long story short, i caught he cafe bug and wanted to get radical.

September 2010

So, the purchase of a angle grinder spawned a chopped tail section, then welded a new hoop, and took all the bits off of the bike i wasn't quite fond of, and made a few minimal replacements for what i had lost in the process.

The sum total of what i had ended up loosing was the bars, gauges, steering lock, headlight mount, battery tray, filters, covers, rear fender, mid controls, exhaust, turn signals, tail light, ignition, horn, seat, seat lock, rear hoop... everything was to be changed

A battery box, seat pan, turn signal mounts, under the seat electronics pan, new mount system for foot pegs and rear sets, chopped and swingarm mounted rear fender, and rear sets themselves where fabricated.




More to come tomorrow,
a project relocation, seat woes, motor drama, brushed aluminum and where it is now! Crazy PJ intervenes with his motor magic and I fab a steering damper mount ha
So much to catch up on!

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Re: The First One, Cj360 Project, First Motorcycle, First Chop, First Cafe

ok, here it goes, alot more to catch up on..

so i was able to scavenge this sweet battery out of an abandoned scooter in my area, last thing to come off it before someone took it to the yard

Buddy helped fab up a awesome little battery box for the thing to sit on the swing arm ( low center of gravity )

and i made two leather straps to keep the lid on the thing while i go down the road

Shaped the brake / clutch levers ( admittedly a little too pointy )

The project got put on hold, and i moved the thing down to orlando to my parents garage to get worked on as my lease was up and the new place had no space what soever for this project

Got it all bolted up to continue with my fab

Started taking every last thing apart and cleaning / rebuilding

( no finished shots because im an idiot )

cleaned the tubes and all hardware, painted the springs with black plasti dip, think satin black epoxy would have been more durable but it looks great

striped the fork tubes, gave them a good brushing

Got started on my seat by making a mess of things

that foam got cut down to shape to padding for underneath the cover

Striped sanded and brushed all of the aluminum accessories minus the two main cases, jugs and head

Started putting the bottom end of the motor together, first thing first, swap in the cb 6 speed

Starting to come together, drilled two new oil passages in the head so the cam has a bit more oil on it hopefully

and it was at this point

right about to start painting, one night.. i broke two piston rings in the cylinders putting them together.. like a noob... doh...

big hang up here... but nothing a bit of time, ebay, and a hand from the master of 360s wont solve...

that was fall 2010.. put everything in crates, and packed it up at the parents house

fast forward to may of this year

Find myself droping in at PJ’s house for some chit chat and a swap of some gs850 pistons for boring of my cylinders

might as well port the head, cut the valves and take a bit off the bottom for higher compression while im at it

Few days later, back on track with some fresh holes, and two “new” ligher, and most importantly larger pistons

Bushings out, ready for new bronze replacements

Fork springs cut down 3 inches, schedule 40 spacers made and springs bent back flat with the torch

got the frame striped down and ready for paint, only took hours and hours of the angle grinder with a wire brush. thing damn near tried to kill me too

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/810185/Edited%20Motorcycle/IMG_0750.JPG

the electronics tray i put in to hide everything neatly

Few more hours of work, and everything is painted! ( tank has a lacquer clear, we will see how it works out )

finish on the frame and steel is a bed liner textured black, and the wheels, headlight bucket and front fender get a satin black epoxy

bearings in.. what a pita, should have got tapered

first thing to mount, my tl1000 steering damper from ebay

everything bolted up for assembly

Linkage fabbed for the rear brake

Gauge in place, one of my favorite things about the bike

determined to make a new seat happen, i busted out the old timer so i can sew into thicker foam

Seat finished ( almost, needs a bit of glue on the corners and a bit of trimming still )

New motor is ready to go for assembly, new copper gaskets from Lani @ copper gaskets unlimited http://www.coppergaskets.us/

http://bolted up, timed, striped, cleaned and ready for paint ( at 5 in the morning.. what a night )

[img width=770 height=513]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/810185/Edited%20Motorcycle/IMG_0799.JPG

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Re: The First One, Cj360 Project, First Motorcycle, First Chop, First Cafe

ready to go in, holding on filing the fins down until the motor gets heat into the paint and adhesion is a bit better


so all told the motor work done is:


2mm over for 378
69mm pistons from gs850
.030 off head
Slimmer head and base gaskets
3 angle valve job
Ported intake
Ported and polished exhaust
Modified journals for oiling
Enlarged oil feeds from cases
6 speed swap from cb360 with CJ sprockets
EBC clutch springs


Carbs


airjets drilled by pj
70 primary
118 secondary
Float height at 19.5mm

and fast forward past wiring.. what a nightmare!


kickstarter needed a bit of help clearing my rear sets, so we though angling it out would be a good idea, turns out its not, makes the bike want to fall over when you kick it and with compression like this motor has, it takes two people, one to hold it if you want to have any chance of starting it

Got the motor running, but with fuel pouring out of the carb when the thing was turned off... bad shut off valves or float height... had to pull them, rebuild them, and turns out need new valves again..


All together now.

more pics soon! waiting on a cf card reader for my last shots


but..


having just completed but due to a clutch adjustment issue ( couldn't get the thing to not snap out of place when the lever was depressed.. ugh, Ive had to depart for few months to job hunt and travel so under the blankets she goes un ridden! ughh, the wait is killing me

unfortunately until we meet again in a few months, ( and it has a license plate ) it will be just hanging out, as I go mad with anticipation.

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Re: The First One, Cj360 Project, First Motorcycle, First Chop, First Cafe

Oh and I owe a big thanks, and about 3 kegs of beer to CrazyPJ for all his help with this build.. This build would have gone no where if was not for his help and knowledge.


The dude bored my cylinders and did the head milling and valves just before having surgery and i picked the things up when he was fresh out of the OR, what a guy.


Thanks a ton man!

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Re: The First One, Cj360 Project, First Motorcycle, First Chop, First Cafe

Got a few pictures edited today,


The filters are off in these because I was about to take the carbs apart to fix the shutoff valves, the fins are not all filed and cut just yet yet, just started ( letting paint cure fully so it wont flake at the edges ) and it needs a few more parts and work still, and it needs some longer ( higher quality ) shocks for the rear to clear my license plate mount. But im pretty happy with how she looks, cant wait to ride when i get back to orlando.

GP linkage Arrangement

the only shot that really shows the steering damper, should take a detail of it when i can

 

[smeyer]

AWESOME!!!

 

[shotgun]

Thats a beautiful bike man, you have really put together a real beauty!

 

[dean owens]

very nice looking bike.

 

[Erskine]

Great read! Considering how clean the bike was when you started, you really improved on it.
Would love to hear it running

 

[kMoto]

I really dig it. Great work!

 

[ProSimex]

nice

 

[cafePete]

Great job, very clean!

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Thanks for all the compliments guys! I cant wait to have a video of the thing to post for you of it going down the road making cool noises! Its nice to share my work after getting such valuable information and inspiration from all of your own builds.


It was a freaking blast ( well at sometimes for sure it was hell, but... ) and I cant wait to start collecting parts for another build. Learned so much on this one I am hungry to employ it on future projects. Next build is likley a budget b5 audi a4 1.8t rally car but... after that gets started, 350f or 400f race bike.. got some learning to do in the corners before that becomes a reality though, but ones gotta have some goals

Still to go on this bike to get it running right,


- fix the damn clutch cable pull, cant get it to not pop out, going to try shimming the shaft so there is little to no play so i can get a good adjustment, and then go from there
- replace the leaking / faulty shutoff valve in the left carb
- re bend kick starter arm to a better angle for operation and put the rubber back on
- Shorten front brake and tach cable
- replace flasher relay ( leds dont have enough pull on em for the stock one )
- fab an exhaust hanger tab to bolt to the old foot peg bolts
- Fab a Exhaust baffle
- Tune the carbs and timing
- Adjust valve clearances
- Replace the brake light sensors, both are busted
- fix some play in my shift lever, a little sloppy, seems to work fine but ill find out for sure when its on the road.




Fun things for the future


- Clutch cover to head oil mod
- Oil catch can for the breather and fuel over flows on the carbs
- Fab 2-1 exhaust that has better clearance than the cj pipes do, might just make a new collector for these and re route them but they are kind of heavy.. ( pj and others have me worried about lowsiding because of the thing hanging too low )
- Billet turn signals from posh factory
- h4 35w bulb conversion
- avon roadrunners on aluminum rims with a 450 drum
- fiberglass rear fender
- aluminum clipons that have better tank clearance with my tank, these are a bit tight and touch, could have welded the stops...




After a few miles of breaking in after the rebuild im going to swap to shell rotella diesel synthetic oil, good stuff?

and Im looking and a better compound for the brake shoes, vintage brake overkill? is ebc adequate? kind of wishing i would have made vents on the front drum but i guess if i have the wheel apart i can do it then and touch up the cut edges.

Also, anyone ever heard of double springing the points to reduce high rpm float? any takes on that concept?

 

[cleoncleon]

This bike looks really good sir, real good.


How is that Clear Lacquer holding up?
I plan on keeping mine raw aswell.

 

[cleoncleon]

Okay, moments later, an experienced fellow points me in the correct direction..


Typical of DTT 8)


Check this stuff out. "Gibbs Brand Penetrant"


http://www.roadsters.com/gibbs/


Looks to be the golden answer. In your case future reference..

 

[IanOberholtzer]

Looks like good stuff! that gibbs brand looks like a handy solution for a lot of things


I went to a metal fab shop that does outdoor structures like iron fences and the like, asked about clear coating steel on the cheap and they recommend i use rustoleum clear rust inhibitor similar to what you use on ice skates or a shovel,


Not really happy with the lacquer, didn't really shine up like i wanted it to, has a dusty appearance ( humid day ) so it needs to get recoated at some point, but im probably just going to let a patina form and a bit of surface rust wont bother me as long as its not to agressive.

 

[IanOberholtzer]

thinking about it though, that gibbs finish is supposed to be eternally kept at a slightly oily state, that would get all over your clothes...

 

[cleoncleon]

I just thought about that...
My 100% cotton wouldn't dig that.


You can paint over it, it seems.
Could you possibly Gibbs treat it, then rattle can clear over?