"The Parts Pile" A CL350 Cafe from a heap of junk...

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Titled frame, and Ebay spray paint special gas tank

I had a couple changeups from the original "parts bike". First off, the bike had no title. I sold the frame for 50 bucks, and then found
one with a title for $100.00. Not too shabby! I never liked the CL tanks, they are too stubby for my tastes. On the other hand,
I didn't want to do a bunch of messing around trying to make a tank from a totally different bike fit. I found a CB350 tank on Ebay for
less than $40.00. It was spray painted, so I pretty much rolled the dice and hoped that it wasn't too full of bondo. Anyways, I took the
frame to get sandblasted, and stripped the paint off the tank. The tank has a couple of little dents in it, not too bad. Not sure what path
I'm going to take with it yet, but it's time to get working on the frame.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

You can kind of see the little dents in the top of the tank from this picture. Overall, it's in really nice shape for what I paid, and clean
inside too. I do love the "raw metal" look, but it's getting sort of overdone. Fortunately, I have plenty of time to think about that. I
was originally planning on reworking the seat foam and using the stock seat pan. After a lot of beers and a lot of staring, and some messing
around, I decided not to do that. I will be doing a little bit of fat trimming instead, and building my own seat pan. Also going to incorporate a
battery box into the frame.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

One of the cool things about CB350's is that the engines are really easy to take in and out of the frame. This definitely makes mocking things
up a lot easier than the 4 cylinder bikes! As a bonus, it's always a good morale booster to see the engine sitting in the frame again!

 

[98kellrs]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

That is one clean engine! Interested to see what direction you take with this one, those pressed steel frames can be a bit awkward to work with.

Do you have any end goal that you are working towards or are you just planning on the fly?

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Thanks! Yes, the CB350 frame is an odd one. There is a lot of work to be done if you want it to look really smooth.
I'm not quite sure how far I'm going to go working over the frame, just yet. Long story short, I am going for a minimal, dark &
industrial look. I'm heavily Wrenchmonkees influenced, I'll admit. Every wear item that can refurbished / replaced / upgraded will
be tended to, to make the bike perform better than it did new. A lot of fat trimming, though.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

This was something that disturbed me. I was looking over the frame, and on the bottom of the frame rail,
found what appears to be a gash, from some sort of impact. I welded it shut and sanded it down, and it's not
noticeable now. Still, just one of those things you find on a 40 year old bike that just makes you wonder. ???

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

I think these two photos accurately depict how bent to shit my forks are. I parted out a CB360 and
have a good set of forks from it. I will be using those instead. It also has a disc brake, not that it is
a huge improvement over the drum...but I like disc brakes. So that will be the fix.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

CB360 front end.
Up side: Not bent to shit.
Down side: Like all CB360's, the top tree is cracked and unusable.

Luckily, I have a CB350 top tree that fits the forks. The moral of this story is that sometimes, being a motorcycle parts hoarder really has it's perks.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Tech tip: The tailgate of a pickup truck makes an excellent impromptu outdoor workbench.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

This parts bike sat outside for who knows how many years. The rim and spokes are a little rusty. I ordered a set of
shouldered aluminum rims from MikesXS. 2.15 rear and 1.85 front. I also ordered new spokes. I really wanted the
stainless ones from Buchanans, but I don't feel like spending $115.00 for a set of damned spokes. That's a bit much. I
found a set of nickel plated spokes on Ebay that were about $45.00 for each set. That's more my speed. We'll see how
they work....

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Meanwhile, my hubs, engine side covers, and a couple other items are off being glass-bead blasted. Should have those back by
the middle of the week. My rims are supposed to show up tomorrow. Pretty excited. ;D

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

A "before and after" of removing the steering lock, and smoothing the shit outta' it. Pretty tedious and time consuming.
My kind of fun.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

BIG UPDATE!
I had a battery box welded in, and all of the pressed seams welded up, a couple days ago. The guy I had do the welding did
a.... pretty good job. Not great. Once it's done, it's done, so I couldn't do much about that other than spend my weekend
drinking Woodchuck cider and grinding, and sanding. It's a living. Looks pretty good and smooth now. However, now that I look
at it, I decided I want to have the battery box extend all the way up to the post. I don't like the gap in between them. Think I'll
try a different welding shop this time though...

I also removed all the protrusions from the frame, as you can see, and cut the cowl off of a café seat that I already had. I will be
building a seat pan out of fiberglass that will "swoop up" and cover the tank mount.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

I borrowed this Ballistic battery from my SV1000 to get the right dimensions for the box, so this is the style battery I will
be using for this bike. They are spendy, but in my opinion, totally worth it. Small, light, and very powerful. I still have a lot
of room for the rest of my electronics, and no compromise on battery quality. I don't like spending money, but I don't like
gambling on batteries either.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

It took SO much damned time to smooth out and blend the welds on this box. Just wanted to show it off some more.

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

An exciting shipment arrived at my house today. ;D

 

[98kellrs]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Nothing beats that new rim feeling, are you going to powder them or leave them nice and shiny?

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Hahaha, nope, it's a damn good feeling. I will be leaving them as-is. Although my goal with this bike is low-shine, they aren't really all that glitzy in person. But I do like the wheels to pop, if you're putting all the work and money into them, they might as well get noticed, right?

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Glass bead blasted parts. ;D

 

[madmatt1]

Re: The Parts Pile CL350 Cafe

Tonight I installed sealed wheel bearings in the front and rear hubs, and laced up the rear wheel.
Felt good to see that come together!