1972 CL350 -- Mattel Bratz (how much can I mess up this bike?)

[ceggertcrowe]

Re: 1972 CL350 -- Update #3

I went out to the country this weekend to do some work. It's been a crazy couple weeks with school and I haven't been able to do much, but I think I'm making some slow progress and working through it nice and deliberately. This weekend I was kind of all over the place and didn't have too much direction, but got some stuff done.

I started to pull off the engine covers and polish them. I wasn't going for a super high polish, I just wanted to clean them up and make them look good. I want this bike to look like it's been through a lot, so it will have some shines and some flats and some patina. The covers came out exactly like I wanted them to. First I cleaned up all the gunk and junk with the wire wheel. Once the part was clean, I started wet sanding. 220,320,400,600. I didn't spend a whole lot of time here, just enough to make it pretty smooth. Then I used 2 polishing wheels/compounds and 2 buffing wheels/compounds.

Next I decided that I didn't want to lower the bike at all, I like the stance that it has now. So I mocked up the rear loop so I could determine where to cut the frame and what upsweep angle I needed to stay clear of the wheel. Once I finished that, I disassembled the fork from the tree and removed the rear wheel.

Next time I work on detabbing the frame, fabbing up my rear hoop, cutting the frame to accept the hoop and whatever else I can think of.

 

[ceggertcrowe]

Re: 1972 CL350 -- Introduction and First Time Build

Been a while. Between finishing school, working, and traveling I haven't had much time to do any wrenching. I got out to the shop this past weekend and did a bit of work on the bike. I got the rest of my engine covers off and polished up. I plan on painting the rest of the engine (not sure of color yet, probably black though). I am going to soda blast the engine and then paint while it's assembled. My plan for masking the polished covers is to cover the openings with an oversized plastic bag or sheet, bolt the cover on, then wrap the plastic around the cover and tape. Then I'll blast and paint, giving me nice clean breaks between the paint and polish. Once the paint has cured, I'll replace my gaskets which I'm planning to do anyway. Does this sound like a good plan, or does anyone else have other suggestions?

Parts are starting to come in. I'm going to try to fit an ebay seat that I like the look of. We'll see how that goes; low expectations. I'm coming up with my electronics parts list and I'll order soon. Once the seat is figured out, I'll make an electronics tray and send the frame out for blasting/powder coat.

I'll update with some pictures next time I'm out.

 

[ceggertcrowe]

Re: 1972 CL350 -- Introduction and First Time Build

Clearly I have not put enough work into this thing. I've seen some guys start and finish in the time I've been working on weekend this. Anyway, I got it to work in it this weekend and made a touch of progress. I decided to try to use one of those cheapy eBay seats. It wasn't super cooperative, but after some cutting and coaxing, I'm pretty pleased. This weekend I got the fender cut, the seat fitted, the start and fender mounting plates cut, and worked out ask the rear wheel clearance issues. I'm going to try to keep up the momentum and finish this sucker sooner than later.

The first photo is riding height and the second photo is the shock bottomed out. I'm going to clean up that pocket on the seat so it conforms to the fender a bit better. That was one of my modifications to the seat. I also cut the front of the seat so that tab on the gas tank can slide into it.