Honda CM 400C 'Creeping Death' - bobber

[sreddet]

I picked up my first ever Honda about one month back. I thought a bike would be a pretty good winter project. It's a 81' CM 400C. I bought it for a pretty good deal from a hippy/mtn dude that was leaving Boise to go live in Alaska. Needless to say, he didn't need a bike where he was going.

It ran and rode fair when I bought it. As soon as I got it home I started mocking up ideas on how I wanted to change it and tearing all the extra BS off the bike.

Creeping Death? Well its only a CM400 so we all know its it's not too fast, it looks like death right now, and that Metallica song is pretty badass. Thus it's name.

Here is the bike when I brought it home.

I started to strip all the extra crap off the bike.

Took the seat off.

Cutting the rear seat latch off.

Messing around with different style ideas.

Pulling more parts off.

Mr. Morgan is not to impressed

I am going to make a new speedo/choke mount. Not going to use this original piece, just getting ideas on how it will all fit.

Pre and post clean of my forks. They seem to clean up pretty nice. I need to buy new seals and install.

Tank off.

Tons of extra wiring and a lot of dirt. I plan on cleaning and simplifying everything.

No bike work today... time to ride sleds...

More dismantling.

Carbs off.

Pretty death looking.

Wheel/tire

I'm not sure if I will paint or polish the rear brake.

The Carbs are Nasty!!

Cleaning and Rebuilding the Carbs.

Dirty Jets

Polishing

You may have seen my cousins build. The Suzuki 450. His forum name is Poopwink. Here is are few photos of the late (and cold) night we brought it home.

Thats all for now!! I hope to get the motor out and the frame cleaned this weekend!!
Cheers.

Ok so it's Monday, back at work... Here is some of the progress I made this weekend.


I got the motor out and heaved it up on my work bench.

Took the valve cover off to have a look.

Needs polishing.

 

[Shittybill]

Nice! lookin forward to seeing the finished product! likin the moto-x goggles while grindin! hahaha

 

[leggers]

Mr Morgan is definitely a skeptic. LOL

Looking good so far. Hey what solution are you using to soak your carbs? Simple Green?

 

[sreddet]

Mr Morgan is definitely a skeptic. LOL

Looking good so far. Hey what solution are you using to soak your carbs? Simple Green?

Thanks, It's getting there! I just used some gasoline and carb cleaner.

 

[sreddet]

I got the frame and motor painted this weekend. I'm pleased with how it turned out. Take note of my metallic gold painted oil filler cap. That's just a taste of what's to come. ;D ;D

I'll snap some pictures of the frame tonight.

 

[sreddet]

So today I decided to bite off a bit more of this Creeping Death project then I had originally intended....

At first I planned on just bobbing the rear of the bike, cutting off the rear section of the stamped CM frame (As most people do when bobbing these CM frames). My idea was to cut it off and cap the rear, making it a little cleaner bob jobs out there (imo).

Thennnnn the plasma cutter came out...

When it really came down to it, I hated that whole rear stamped steel section of the frame. Sooo.... screw it, Now I'm going to build a new rear section.

I have figured a somewhat easy way to do it (theoretically). It's hard to explain, so I'm going to do a mockup via Photoshop.

Here are some pictures of the plasma cutter fun. Oh boy, now I've done it.

I also cut off the rear peg mounts...

Hacked! Gone! Dunzo!

 

[Poopwink]

biiiiiiig project buddy

 

[treitz]

Cool to see another Idaho guy on there. Sun Valley huh? Love it up there.

 

[sreddet]

I had a bit more time to tinker on the bike. Should I call it a bike or just a heap of parts??

I cleaned the tank, remounted the tripple clamp, and ghetto painted my wheels. I also painted a section of my tank. I dont have pics of that yet, it's still drying.

makeshift painting stand our of a clothes hanger and my MX ramp.

 

[sreddet]

Here is the tank. I think the new black section looks pretty cool. I'm not sure if I will paint any more color besides the lettering and some pin striping.

Cleaning a few bolts.

Pegs for today.

If you dont have the right wheel on your bench grinder, just improvise!

I mocked up the bike. Just loosely put a few things together, trying to get an idea of the stance, seat and fender.
I cut the old bars up. Dont worry I wont be using those old bent things.

You can see here Mr. Morgan is getting impatient and sleepy. "Time to go upstairs Dad!"

 

[jos01]

hello, nice work, your bike has a very good look
you go to the rigid or with suspension ?
I have the same bike and I'm doing this on

 

[sreddet]

hello, nice work, your bike has a very good look
you go to the rigid or with suspension ?
I have the same bike and I'm doing this on

Thanks, I am actually have changed my mind and I am going to change the shock mounts like you have done. I wasn't planning on making a flat seat mount like you have, but I like your idea there. I just bought some shorter Honda Rebel rear shocks that will lower the bike also.

Here is the bike I am modeling my build after:

 

[callmesb]

Do you have photos showing the taping and process of painting the engine block? I'd love to do the same, but have limited clean space and limited knowledge. Thanks!

 

[sreddet]

Do you have photos showing the taping and process of painting the engine block? I'd love to do the same, but have limited clean space and limited knowledge. Thanks!

Sorry I didnt snap any pictures of the taping process on the motor. But here's basically what I did:
1. stick paper towels in the carb and exhaust holes
2. clean the crap out of the motor, using brake cleaner scotch brite pads and scrapers (for the caked on sludge). The motor needs to be clean and oil free so the paint will stick, very important.
3. Remove both case covers and the valve cover.
4. Using blue painters tape and news paper, tape and cover everything up carefully.
5. polish case covers and valve cover separately.
6. paint 3 coats on. I used high temp high gloss paint out of a spray can. Make sure you dont re-coat to fast to avoid the orange peal effect or runs in the paint.
7. but the covers back on and.... waaala! fresh lookin' motor.

 

[sreddet]

After some travel for business and some travel for pleasure (http://dirtyduckracing.net/) I finally got back to the garage.

So a design change...again. I'm NOT going to make the bike a hardtail. I have found one or two CM's that have remounted the rear shock location. The stance and look of the bike is greatly improved. It just takes some custom fabrication.

Yesterday I spent a good amount of time cutting and grinding shaping my new rear shock mount tabs. I'm pleased with how they came out. It was a bit of a mind bender, and they still need holes drilled in them but we're looking good.

I taped them on the bike to give you an idea.

Here is the left side mocked up. I bought these Honda Rebel shocks off ebay. They are shorter (10") and stiffer then the stock CM shocks.

 

[sreddet]

So I have made some solid progress in the past week or so. I got the suspension welded up with the new shock mounts relocated. I took the bike down to my buddy Matt's house to have him help me weld it up. Great guy, great welding instructor, cool shop/ranch too!

Here is the bike pre-spring mount welding..

The suspension mount tabs I made:

Welding er up:

I'm happy with the results. I linked the two tabs together with a plate of steel to ad some rigidity to the rear of the frame and also to create a rear mounting point for the seat.

I manhandled the motor back in the frame! I still need to get correct motor mount bolts, the previous owner had incorrect bolts, it was a junk show.
Note the subtle touches of gold.

I started to tackle the rats nest of wiring that came off Creeping Death. Oh boy what a mess that is! It's a bit of a mind bender.

Lastly, I worked on fabricating a new battery/wiring box that will fit up underneath the seat.

I'll post more pix of the box after I weld it up.

 

[Yamatech]

did you get that motor in alone? haha they are heavy as hell. Im actually going to be painting my cb400 motor here soon, polished cases and what not but using a hi temp semi flat on the block. I have so much sludge on my motor I dred it. Any tips on polishing my cases because I've seem to have hit a road block in that I cant get them to shine up that great. It more or less looks like i just cleaned all the loose debris and it still has those dark smudge
and corrosion spots on it.

 

[sreddet]

did you get that motor in alone? haha they are heavy as hell. Im actually going to be painting my cb400 motor here soon, polished cases and what not but using a hi temp semi flat on the block. I have so much sludge on my motor I dred it. Any tips on polishing my cases because I've seem to have hit a road block in that I cant get them to shine up that great. It more or less looks like i just cleaned all the loose debris and it still has those dark smudge
and corrosion spots on it.

I put the motor on a car floor jack and rolled it into place. Even with the jack, it was work getting it to fit.

I had a bunch of sludge on my motor block as well. Using a paint scraper, gasoline, scotch brite pads, and a few scotch brite wheels on a air tool I was finally able to get it all clean. To finish it off I used brake cleaner as this will remove any greasy residue and prep it for paint. You could use mineral spirits or some other de-greaser but I found that using old gas I had in the shop cheaper to get the majority of the sludge off was nice n' cheap. Finish it off with the good stuff. The whole task is stinky, dirty and rough on the hands, but I'm pleased with how my motor looks. So I think it's worth the effort.

For the cases I used various fine grit wheeled pads to get them to clean and shine up. If you have deep corrosion, you may have to use something with a but more grit to it to get that out. I left the cases bare in the end so I can touch them up if need be.

 

[Dymass]

Great looking bobb ;] I like the "jewish-racing color" engine brackets :]
(im not racist, thats joke)

 

[Baffle]

This thread is awesome. Great looking bike so far.