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A friend had been asking me a lot about my little cafe project recently (http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=41875.0). About a week ago he stopped by to see it in person. It is still only about 3/4 complete, but he loved it. After talking some he asked if I could build a bike for him on the cheap. Next thing I knew the deal was set. I was building him a brat style bike for $1500 including the bike purchase. I took the challenge and within a few days I picked him up a decent running '72 CL350 I had been eyeing up on CL.
We chatted a little about style. In a nutshell, he wants a stripped down rugged looking bike that he can cruise around town with his girl on the back. He doesn't want perfect paint or polishing. Just some cool style.
I told him my goal was 4-6 weeks. My bike will never be done...
I immediately began teardown to get a better look at the ugly stamped steel frame.
A lot of the frame is going to be seen, and I want a nice clean look. So I began de-tabbing the rear frame. Spot welds were drilled then the holes welded shut.
As you can see in the above pictures, after de-tabbing I was basically left with hollow "c" shaped stamped frame rails. To add some strength I boxed the rails with some 1x1/8" steel.
To take a break from welding and grinding I decided to prep the tank for some paint. As I mentioned above this bike is not going to be fancy. That being said, I still want the bike to last. So after removing the stripes the tank was properly scuffed and degreased.
Next the forks and swing arm were removed so I could properly finish welding the rear hoop and gussets. Everything was fully welded, ground, and a think coat of Evercoat Z-Grip to smooth everything out.
The tank was a rustoleum flat black enamel sprayed with an hvlp gun. The frame was sprayed with weld through primer as I was working on it. When finished the frame will be a semi gloss enamel.
Some progress has been made. The frame and swing arm are finished up and sprayed semi-gloss black. I'm happy with it, and i thing its going to contrast nicely with the flat black tank. The engine has been all cleaned up and sprayed GM Satin Black. I really hate cleaning and painting engines assembled, but my friend wants to get out riding so the plan is to pull it apart over next winter for media blasting and a coating. I also made a template and cut a seat pan out of 16ga steel. The pan will have studs welded to it for mounting and then head off for upholstery.
Lookin good so far. I'm interested to see if you have any more pictures and details about the battery box and how you're setting that up. And how you're mounting the seat. I saw you said studs but what will the studs go into? The frame? Custom mounts? Thanks
Lookin good so far. I'm interested to see if you have any more pictures and details about the battery box and how you're setting that up. And how you're mounting the seat. I saw you said studs but what will the studs go into? The frame? Custom mounts? Thanks
I will post up some pics of the battery box once I start wiring it up. It will probably be similar to my cafe, i think there is a link to that build in the first post. As far as mounting the seat, I welded in some 1x1/8" brackets beneath the seat pan before spraying the frame. I will drill some holes I'm the brackets and basically weld bolts going thru the seat pan. Then the seat will just lower into place and secure with a few small nuts. I will post up some pics of that too.
A few progress pics. The owner originally wanted the wheels blacked out as well, but I think they're in too good of shape to spray and I think they add a nice contrast. I'm going to try and talk him out of it.
Here is a pic that shows the future mounting points/supports for the seat
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