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6/20- Got the seat cowl welded
*6/17- Cut the tank for the seat cowl*
*6/18- Rear loop from old recliner ^_^*
This will be my first motorcycle project. I picked up a 1985 Honda CB700 on craigslist for $300, cleaned out the carbs and she fired right up. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do with this bike and I’m still not quite sure, although I do have some ideas that I posted at the end of this post. It started off with me just wanting to clean it up and leave it as is, but then I decided I didn’t like the square headlight. Then I decided the seat had to go. Then I figured that while the engine was out I might as well repaint the frame. You get the picture… anyway Corey (the red wonder) referred me to this site and I instantly got the bug! I’ve finally decided I’d like to do a café/brat type thing using a second CB700 tank that the owner gave me as the seat cowl. Part of me wishes I had found a CB360 or something more appropriate for a “true” café build, but I kind of like the fact that I’m the first CB700 project on this site and that it’s kind of a challenging platform. Enough talking, here are some pictures!
First (not-so) glamour shots. She’s definitely rough around the edges.
Damn that's an ugly bike.
Back in the garage
Stripped down. Used the tip-over method to get the engine out. Took a while until I realized the engine mounting tabs came off
Some engine disassembly pics
Soda blasting the engine at my parent’s house. Started in the open, realized there was waaaaay too much soda blowing around, so pitched my tent and spent a few miserable hours in there. Cleanup was easy though.
Here’s what I want to do for the seat cowl. (thanks Joe for the idea!) I chopped the tank, but it’s way too wide to make a good seat. I like them skinny. So I’m going to find the center and remove some from either side. Used a mirror to demonstrate:
The bare frame and my photochop of some Wrenchmonkees components onto it.
With those fat tires and lumpy tank it really captures the street rod look. Great for blasting from one light to the next. I'd work with what you have to accentuate that look. It might look better with cut down OEM side covers to fill the middle in for that rocket sled look. ie low slung and solid.
It would definitely make a good spray booth for small parts, but I still use it for camping so I didnt want to ruin it.Soda blasting in there was miserable. The entire tent turned into a thick soda cloud just a few moments after blasting started and just got worse. I had to use a flashlight to see what I was blasting. But, it makes cleanup super easy. Oh and the original reason to use the tent was I was planning on reusing the soda. That doesnt work because when you blast the soda it supposedly explodes the particles and turns it into this super fine powder, almost like powdered sugar. Clogs up the soda blaster instantly.
Here's the result of the soda blasting. I only bought one 50 lb bag of soda, and I realized pretty early on that the process consumes soda much faster than I thought. So I wasn't super thorough, and I just removed the majority. I'd say 90-95%. The nice thing is that the remaining paint spots (black) have been hit by so much overspray from the blaster hitting nearby spots that they have most of the paint taken off. I'm hoping that a thorough scotch-briting should take them down even further and give the engine paint a good adhesion surface.
So now I have a dilemma. If I paint over this, will I get peeling over the areas that I missed? I really cant see that happening, especially with a couple passes with the scotch brite pad. Would it help to choose an engine paint that uses a primer layer first? I'd hate to go buy another bag ($35) and have to set up my tent again.
(intentionally skipped the big cover in the first picture since the paint was coming off so easy I'm just going to hit it with aircraft stripper instead of wasting precious soda)
Re: CB700!!! "Jet" *Last update 6/15- soda blasted engine*
Today I cut the second tank to create the seat cowl. I used the laser level to make sure all the lines were straight from a birds-eye view and used a 4.5inch angle grinder to make the cuts with a cut-off wheel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
Still need to do some more practicing with welding sheet metal before I feel comfortable welding this thing. It's 22 gauge and I only have a flux wire welder so it's really hard not to blow through. I got .030 lincoln flux wire which made it better, but you're still limited to 1-2 second bursts before you blow a hole. And butt welding is almost impossible. I think I'm going to put a backing strip along the inside of the tank and do lap welds along the edge on either side. Any advice on how to do that with the equipment I have?
Re: CB700!!! "Jet" *Last update 6/17- cut the old tank for seat cowl*
Built the rear loop today. Got the tubing from an old swivelling ottoman! Worked out great with the angles and everything. Definitely was not easy though. I had some welding magnets but they weren't enough to hold the pieces in place as I welded them. So I took an piece of cardboard, rolled it into the tube, and stuffed it into the frame, then slid the tubing over it. It let me position and rotate it until it was perfect.
Did the welding with my harbor freight 90 amp flux wire welder and some .030 lincoln wire. The welds aren't pretty since I was afraid of blowing through the tube so I just did a bunch of spot welds. Pretty happy with how it turned out for my first try! Still have to grind down the welds and the pieces of tubing left over from the other segments of the recliner.
Picture of the horribly ugly recliner that sacrificed its life for this project!
Re: CB700!!! "Jet" *Last update 6/18- Rear loop from old recliner ^_^*
Haha thanks man. I was sitting on my couch calling metal suppliers and all of a sudden I saw that recliner, grabbed the calipers and found that they were 1"! Worked out great since I had no idea how I was going to bend them.
Re: CB700!!! "Jet" *Last update 6/18- Rear loop from old recliner ^_^*
Got the seat cowl welded today. I finished it yesterday, but looked at it from the back and it was a little crooked. Thought about fiberglassing over it but I ended up just cutting the welds and re-welding it about .5cm higher on the left side. Worked out great and was definitely easier than fiberglassing. Plus now the entire thing is tue. It wasn't noticeable before but it would have bothered me. I found several sheets of 20 gauge sheet metal (shelving that was never used) at work, so I'm going to use that to make the seat pan!
I have that welder, just got a hood for father's day too. I cant wait to put it to use. Are you going to make the seat pan flat? or contour it to the rails? It may not mean chit, but I dont think it visually appealing when there is a gap and you could always have the seat upholstered flat. I also think the cowl would look good if you pie-sectioned the rear to bring it in narrower at the tail, but it does look great like you have it too. Good looking build man!!
I've been lurking on this site for a while now, and it's definitely cool seeing someone doing the first cafe build out of a 700S. I picked up an '84 700S a little over a year ago and I've ridden the hell out of it when I've had the chance. It's a fun bike to flick around with those 16" wheels, and going hard on the throttle after 6000 RPM's lightens up the front end just enough to trigger a grin every time.
I'll be watching this build man, good luck! Definitely throw in every bit of 700S-specific knowledge you come across. I think this bike is a great platform to build a good looking and fun to ride bike out of. I know I've got some big plans for mine...
Today I built the seat pan and back stop. It was my first attempt at fabricating anything out of sheet metal but I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.
Being limited to a flux wire welder definitely makes welding 22 gauge sheet metal a BITCH. You're limited to a window a fraction of a second wide, any shorter and the welds pop right off, any longer and you blow a big hole.
So now that I've ground down the welds i have a few little pinholes where the welds blew through and I patched them up with more welding. Also I have a gap along the top edge about 1/8th in thick at the widest, where I didn't cut the cowling exactly straight. What is the best way of patching this? I was thinking JB weld to fill the holes and gap, and then maybe some Bondo over that to smooth things out.
Seat pan, stil needs some work to make it look decent.
Dude, love the cowl/tank combo on this. I have to say, as stated a few post back, I'd follow the frame rails with the pan. Others have pulled off the flat seat over 'swooped' rails, but usually it is a fail.
I love the overall shape of the cb700sc's I'm glad to see your trying to keep the lines correct for it instead of forcing a design on it that was never meant to be. Its looking good man.
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and that it’s kind of a challenging platform. Enough talking, here are some pictures!
